I've seen a rat. Not rats, and not like that. It was their pet. They were very upfront that they had a rat in their pocket, and that it was coming with or they would not be. So the rat came to the hospital.

Wait what King?are you talking about King? I totally missed that she was a resident, fuck me. What the hell?

-Rails! Put the fucking rails up! You don't make it half an inch moving a patient in a bed with the rails down before a nurse is (rightly!) coming for your head!

-The med students and even the intern are too trusted. They wouldn't be given this much trust and solo time in the first hours of their first shift in a rotation.

-There are a lot of major cases coming in, and don't get me wrong; there's a good balance between the major and the mundane. But this is a lot of major cases coming in, and I'm only four episodes/four shift hours in. I get why; it's a show, they need the drama. But this would be an INSANE day in the ED, even for a busy hospital. And I can't imagine that's going anywhere.

-Also, this isn't so little, but in a massively busy ED, you somehow had 4 nurses + the charge nurse, restraining a patient so the sub-intern could jab him with no resident or attending in sight?

For real, I have so many questions about that scene. This is the biggest WTF for me so far.

Don't take the criticisms too seriously. I'm actually really enjoying the PItt so far, which I don't think I've said about any medical show ever in my life. So good job Pitt!

So I'm slowly watching the Pitt. And it's making me break a long-standing rule I've had: to never criticize TV CPR.

I know what real chest compressions can do to a person. I've also been on sets and know that breaking an actor's ribs trying to do real/real looking CPR...yeah, that's uh...well, we'll go with frowned upon.

I understand that they want to show the drama of having a person perform chest compressions on another person. I get all the reasons why those are done on an actor and not faked by other means, it's either going to be too expensive, or not look like a real person and take away from the drama, or a combo of both. (Though when they're showing just the doctor/life saver they can use a cut and put a damn dummy under them. Come on.) But at least get your actors in the right fucking position! Are all medical shows this lazy with CPR now? Jesus!

Come on Pitt, fucking hell the 9-1-1s have done better chest compressions than that shit!

For weeks now. Weeks! You guys have been coming into my askbox with your ‘have you watched the Pitt, Bash’ and ‘You should try the Pitt, Bash.’ And in all that time not one of you little fuckers thought to give me a heads up that fucking degloving happens like 10 minutes in. AND THEY SHOW IT!! Like just full on ‘hey here ya go, have degloved fucking foot!’ You bastards!

It’s insanely high across the board. Hospital staff (not just doctors and nurses either, ALL hospital staff), paramedics, firefighters, and - yes even though a lot of people think they deserve it not matter what which is a whole other can of worms- cops.

It’s been high for years. It’s on the rise, but it’s also historically been massively under reported in all fields, which makes that rise even scarier. Because it’s usually only the really bad shit that gets reported. Which means that’s what’s on the rise.

To put it in perspective, I’ve been a firefighter for over a decade. I have not made it through a single year without some kind of altercation happening. I’ve made it through two years, not consecutively, where it’s only been one altercation. Be it physical or sexual.

Now there is understanding for the non-sexual physical altercations. Actually it’s more than understanding. There is sympathy. There is empathy.

People are going through the worst moments of their lives. They’re emotional, and it’s hitting them in ways they’ve never likely felt before. So they blow. Now this the crux of the issue. This is a reason, the emotion, not an excuse, but it’s treated as such. Dismissed as such. By everyone. By the general public, who of course feel so bad for the husband who lost his wife, the sister who lost a brother, the family who lost a home. By the lawyers and judges who over estimate the types of dangers we signed up for. By ourselves. Who say all the same things.

But it needs to stop.

It needs to be reported each and every time. It needs to not be dismissed. People need to face real consequences for the action. Especially post pandemic, where it’s just as likely to be ignorance fuelling the violence as it is a raw emotional outburst. Maybe it’s time sympathy took a bit of a back seat. And it and understanding stop being so conflated.

Hi Nonny.

Yeah sorry for the long lulls on here, life went from zero to 100. A promotion that wasn’t supposed to go into full effect until fall happened my third shift back from Leave. So it’s been a bit of a learning curve! And I’ve had to put writing on the back burner until it becomes a stress-relief again instead of stressful.

Hopefully I will be back more on here and Ao3 soon.

I have not watched the Pitt, but I’ve heard good things. And I don’t mean that purely it’s a good show perspective, a lot of docs and nurses I know pretty impressed.

First and foremost I’m glad you’re alright and that it wasn’t anything too serious.

Your neighbour, while likely well intentioned, was not right. Now maybe she knew exactly what was going on, but you know that with 100% certainly? Or was it a lucky guess on her part?

It is always better to take a needless trip outside.

Unless directed to do so by a first responder, or you literally cannot get out*, it is always best practice to leave.

IDK if it’s law in NYC like it is in Ontario, but I can’t imagine it isn’t, check your stairwells, the lobby and higher traffic areas for your buildings emergency exit plan. They have to have plans listed in multiple places (at least where I am). Look for it. Study it, snap a photo of it and keep in on your phone. Hell print it and hang it somewhere in your apartment. It will spell out exactly what they want you to do.

*idk if you did this or not, but always check your door first, before opening it. Visually first: is there any blistering/peeling paint? Any dark spots forming, rolling smoke coming from all edges? Yes, don’t open the door. No, move on to touch. With the back of your hand feel it is it hot? Is the handle? Yes, don’t open the door. Call 9-1-1 let them know what’s going on, let them k ow you’re trapped. Dispatch will help direct you to the safest place in your apartment to be until help gets there.

I mean never say never, but I’m going go out on a limb and guess not likely. Not full time at least.

No

California already does cloud seeding.

Not a dumb question. We don’t use salt water for several reasons.

Salt water is corrosive. Wickedly so. Our planes, our copters, our pump trucks, our lines and nozzles will be destroyed. Our turnout gear, our masks and tanks, they get destroyed from the spray.

In theory they could retrofit all the hydrants, all the rigs, all our gear to stand up to salt water, but that would cost millions upon millions of dollars. And it isn’t really worth it because salt water just is not as efficient at putting out fires as fresh water is. There are some super scoopers for when needs absolutely must, but it’s a last resort.

It’s also really not great for the environment. I’m not talking about the tanks scooping up poor Mr dolphin or Mrs sea turtle (well I’m not just talking about that). That salt water that we would be spraying all over will leach into the ground. This is a detriment to plant regrow, and has the real potential to get into the fresh water supply, making it undrinkable for years.

There are so many things at play Nonny. Including a (understandable) lack of knowledge about how aerial drops work. So let’s tackle it.

To the two points you raised. I highly doubt jurisdiction is a factor. These crews from Nor Cal and elsewhere, theyre there to help, chain of command is coming from LA. It’s their turf, they give the orders and tell the visitors where they’re needed.

Distance from water to fire is a factor. No they can’t use salt water from the ocean (I’ve seen this asked elsewhere, so not directed at you at all Nonny, just getting it out there). The planes need the space to be able to pick up the water, so not just any old body of water will do and they can only carry it so far when it does, it’s a lot of weight in a not super big plane (or chopper).

But the biggest factor is strategy. Whether it’s water or retardant (LA is currently using both) we need to be strategic about where we’re dropping it. Both because it’s a limited resource, so we want to be as efficient as possible, and just the strategies we use to fight fires.

Think of it like this: you’ve been tasked to put out the family camp fire. You only have a gallon water bottle and the spigot is 50 yards away. So you dump the bottle right into the middle of the fire and go refill. Well by the time you’re back that fire is going to have dried out whatever water you dumped on it and be fully raging in the middle again.

So what do you do? Saturate along the edges. Build into the middle, where the fire is biggest and hottest. That’s kind of what they’re doing here. Saturating the edges. This helps reduce flare ups, and creates a barrier that hopefully the fire won’t get past.

Also we really, really don’t want to drop it in residential zones, if we don’t have to. If the structures there are still sound (and I know there are areas where they aren’t but there are just as many where they are) they won’t be after having thousands of gallons dropped on them from the sky.

Strategy goes even further too. You want to start with the smaller fires. It’s way more efficient when dealing with multiple fires. Because these smaller fires are more under control and more easily and quickly containable. Then as the retardant and/orwater is spread, saturating those edges, creating that barrier, the fire can suffocate. It doesn’t have the fuel to keep growing. And the less crew is needed to put it out. Those additional crews can be redeployed to the larger fires.

Wind is still a huge factor. It’s been a calmer couple of days, but we need the winds to be right. They’re also, supposed to pick up again over the weekend and into next week. When we say things like the winds are too high to fly, that’s only partly true. Sure the stability of the planes is a part of it, especially with the weight differential they’ll go through. But we also need this stuff, be it water or retardant, to land where we want, where we need it, to land. If the winds are too high, it’s going to take that water and retardant to places it’s not needed, as it falls and disperses.

Leave when you’re told to.

Before even, if you have any awareness of what is going on. These fires in LA caught so fast that there - tragically - was not time to issue orders to certain neighbourhoods before they went up.

But once that Evac order is given, go. Get the fuck out.

Seriously that is the best, safest, most helpful thing to everyone that you can do. Just get the fuck gone. Don’t be the person diverting my attention from my job because you think that you, your hero complex, and garden hose makes you a firefighter. It doesn’t. But it can make you dead.

I, and all first responders, understand the drive you might be feeling to help. We feel that everyday. But the best thing you can do, the only thing you should do, is leave.

Get out of the way. Let us do our jobs. Don’t add to what we already have to do.

Here are things you can do with that drive you might be feeling:

If you’re not in a fire area, smog through your stuff. What can you donate? A lot of people are going to need a lot of things. Can you afford to go out and buy a few things? Yes! Focus on toiletries. Clothes and food often get donated in abundance for a time. But shampoo, shaving cream and razors, toothbrushes, feminine hygiene products? Far less so.

See if there are any ‘feed the…’ campaigns. Go help make sandwiches and snack bags for the first responders or those who’ve lost everything.

Shelters, food banks, it might require some training but Red Cross. These are all great places to give some time to.

Reach out. You got a friend you know was in one of the fire zones? Call them. Don’t text call. What is something, even something small, that you can take off their plate, cause lord know those plates are piled high right now and will be for weeks. Maybe they just need someone to get them a cup of coffee. Do it.

Check the attitude. I’ve been on Twitter twice and my feed was full of people laughing at the plight of this celebrity and that. WTF. This isn’t a few elites who’s political views and whatnot that don’t align with yours getting got. This isn’t some karmic justice raining down on those people you don’t like. This is thousands upon thousands of people. Just keep that in mind before opening your mouth or typing on socials.

Traditionally May-September. Realistically April-October.

Cali used to follow this pattern. But with their winters no longer being as wet thanks to climate change, fire season isn’t really a season anymore, but instead it being an all year happenstance is a fast approaching new norm.

It Doesn't Always Stay (In Vegas)

It's an age-old story. A guy takes a trip to Las Vegas. He meets a beautiful stranger in a bar. And after that, well…what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Doesn't it?

Read on Ao3

It’s a fanciful, very fitting name that the news likes to use. More commonly from a fire fighter you’re gonna hear the term holdover fire.But yeah…they’re a real thing.

They’re a remnant from a previous forest fire. Typical embers trapped in buried deep peat moss. That burns super slow, but it’s plenty of fuel. It can literally burn under ground for months. Then in the spring, if the conditions are right: warm, dry, windy, up she goes again. Back from the dead so to speak.