Very impressive convoy ERD, leaving good space to the lead vehicle and allowing the cars that have pulled over to realise there's a second vehicle coming though.
I have a great admiration for our emergency service providers, they have saved my downs syndromes brothers life a few times, I’m really grateful for everything they do, they are really so professional and I know how hard it is to get through heavy traffic some people are idiots on the road and don’t seem to understand that every second counts and somebodies life may depend on it, one day maybe they will realise when they have an emergency themselves and the emergency services are held up in traffic how much of an idiot they look like to other people.
Instead of the first u turn and had carried on down Park Lane you would of been there. I'm guessing the incident was at the junction of the Reading Road and Park Lane, A notorious accident black spot. I grew up around that area so I do know it like the back of my hand :)
Bleeding hell mate it would have been great help in having the right location information, I don't know about you mate that would just piss me right off about time being wasted.
I have learned in my school times back the 80's that the brits use unique postal locations address so that it only 3 till 4 houses use it. Only the Buckingham Palace or Scotland Yard have one. So the post arrived every house with e.g. E152PJ, SW166HX or, TD99HL. Why suddenly this locations system do not works more in Great Britain?
The ambulance responding is the resource that would provide a more vital first attendance rather than an incident commander.... there would also be other first responders there too.... hope that helps
Great work ,i would love to see more of our silent heroes putting there responses on video ,just so the public can curse those who panic or use no sense when they come across blues and twos ,thanks
Yep that`s the state of things as folk are too busy with their phones & satnavs and dont bother reading signs anymore. Having no clue where they are and wasting time for you guys if the worst happens and a life depends on it. Thanks for your service and time posting the video.
Get out of the foo way ghees love the videos and work you do thanks for keeping people safe well all emergency services for that matter they don't get enough praise for what they do wholy sheet that traffic unit (I think) shot off your car packs a punch for its size but ghees gone in the blink of an eye
Great video some people get in to a panic when they see blue lights that’s why they always stop in the way. Would love to do a blue light run just to see what it is like. Why did the sound keep going off?
Fire service, either a watch manager or station manager. They are in charge of shifts/stations respectively. Each service have incident commanders on big scenes. He would be the fire incident commander
During the few seconds of blackout between clips, it's likely(based on other muted sections of video) that the responders name was mentioned over the radio. Clip was mostly like cut just because of that and during that time they split up to look for this address they didn't have.
Can you get a GoPro and record what you do as a living your content is great but will be better I you have a GoPro any way have a good day and stay Safe
Still got the speed restrictions and traffic lights round Arborfield Cross, I see. Glad I'm not commuting that way any more, as I have been. Shame you got stuck behind the truck just there at 11:35.
Do you only have forward facing lights? I imagine whoever 1st came across the speed trap image for you thought it was a dead cert if you didn't look like an emergency vehicle. I notice your sirens are wired to the horn like on BTP plain cars.
Most of the cars now have the siren connected to the horn. Press once and it operates~changes tone. Twice turns it off. Gone are the days of buttons a knobs to change tone of switch them off or on
I'm going to guess that because they're using an unmarked vehicle they're a station or area manager which means they'll be responsible for a wider area of coverage than the local station would immediately respond to. All the rural roads suggest a fairly rural county, so they could feasibly have to cover many miles to respond as needed
I used to cover the whole county as I had hazmat speciality hence some off the really long drives. With modern technology including gps tracking the operating systems would mobilise the nearest qualified resource, along with financial saving this could mean that the nearest was miles away hence extended travel times.....
Michael Ludlow thanks for confirming that, I’m based in Sussex and we haven’t seen fire officers in Ford’s in a long time, all 4x4’s now for some reason
Not the most direct of routes...Any particular reason why you went left at the Bull and not straight on? You probably added a good couple of miles by doing that.
A few questions from a curious Australian paramedic. 1. What sort of car is that? 2. Is it common to use unmarked cars for emergency response fire vehicles? I ask because all Fire and ambulance units here must be well marked with reflective signage, as part of high visibility/OH&S rules. Using a sedan seems an odd choice for an emergency vehicle. We currently use Hyundai Santa Fe SUVs (2.2L Turbo diesel). Unfortunately they're a little small and underpowered, especially compared to the 5.0L V8 Holden Commodore station wagons we used to have. Unfortunately since Holden and Ford stopped building here, our choice of suitable V8s has dried up. Hardest hit have been Highway Patrols who have traditionally always used V8s.
Not all staff are full time. I know a paramedic who works for an agency. They essentially sign on as available and fit blue lights and sirens to their normal vehicles so they can service an area wherever they are.
He's an officer, I'm ambo so know a little more about that then I do fire (Which he is) So he is a station manager, who has a car which he can use as a day to day run around, to the shops, kids to school etc. However it is fitted with blues to act as a work car, because he can be called at almost any time and must respond from where he is, eg; home. Which is why he has the unmarked car. Not sure what the other comment is on about, as I have never heard of this, unmarked ambo cars are used for the same reason as fire. Hope this helps! :)
@@findthebadger418 it's exactly as I said. Bank paramedic aka works for an agency. Signs on with the agency when they are able to provide cover. I also have a work colleague who's a paramedic technician who's on the same deal. Daily driver, with blues and twos on.
Thank you all for your replies. And I thought UK emergency services were very similar to Australia!! Without wanting to sound offensive, but It seems like a cost cutting measure, using one station officer to cover a 24 hour period. Station Officers here are rostered on set hours and use official vehicles so you wouldn't need to respond in your own car. With ambulance you have a duty officer (like a shift supervisor) who again work a set roster and use official vehicles. Duty officers are also rostered 24/7. When I was working in the outback we'd take an ambulance home and respond after hours from there. But these are in remote areas which you wouldn't have in the UK (with the possible exception of the Scottish islands).
M3ta7h3ad You have watch commanders who run a “shift” of firefighters. They usually go in the fire engines with everyone or have a marked fire vehicle but won’t take them home. Then you have station manager (this guy) who will respond to incidents in his unmarked vehicle because he is allowed to take that one home.
omfgallusersaretaken If it’s anything like the US or what I know of Europe, it will still trigger a ticket, but the issuing department will not actually issue it if the car is responding to an emergency. Many departments have lights set up so one is always on even when flashing or alternating for that reason, so it’s immediately clear their lights were on in the speed camera photo and there’s never a time where no flashing lights are actually on.
@@fadingfirkin1 thank you, I've seen a few emergency vehicles set off cameras and wondered what would happen - obviously your not getting a ticket but the paperwork must be frustrating. Brilliant channel, thank you.
@@omfgallusersaretaken its a little annoying as the ticket still gets issued and i have to justify why i broke the speed limit, not a great issue, but a pain in the arse........
TheGreatAviator 67 Are you talking about the faster and slower ones? If so, that’s mostly because people hear change more clearly, so you’d alternate between the speeds to get someone’s attention (in many countries that use two speeds, the faster is usually also used when going through intersections - at least in the Netherlands and I believe Germany). If you’re just talking about the two different pitches in one siren, it’s again a case of people hear differences more clearly than just a single siren, and depending on the siren and area can help you tell which direction they’re coming from.
Changing tones also grabs the others drivers attention. If you are following another emergency vehicle most drivers will react to the first one but not to the following so I would normally change tones. The same goes when approaching junctions and traffic lights etc. The change of tone normally has a reaction making the other drivers look where the different sound is coming from.
What’s underneath the bonnet of your car? Those BMW’s are giving you the slip. Next car maybe is a Beemer. Nice driving and can you please show us the lights on the car? If not that’s fine just curious what setup you have.
I only have a mondeo 1.8 TDCI 125 hp, its not essential that i get there as quickly as the fire trucks. We have a minimum spec for officer cars and its nowhere near that of a police car
Nelvis okay I’m not familiar with all of the appliances in the Uk. As I’m living in Sweden and Sweden don’t have all of those fire appliances that you have in the UK, we have fire trucks of course and bright coloured officers cars. Very rarely do they have any unmarked cars. They’re having some cars but they have a little mark on it but no emergency lights and sirens what I know off
I’m pretty sure I saw the flash before the rear facing camera went away. And by extra paperwork, do you mean for you (because you automatically get sent a ticket and have to go back and show you were running blues and twos) or for the police (because they need to look at the footage before issuing a ticket)?
If you're gonna have to use your POV for shifts, you could at least get a federal Signal box to switch between siren modes - and put the switch by your clutch foot :)
I think these are wired like our ambulances, where you have a siren master switch then then cycle through wail/yelp/combo with the horn pad. I remember decades ago the old ambulances had like a floor mounted high beam dipper switch to activate the old mechanical siren.
Yeah my POV had a Fed Signal box in the center console with an intermittent foot switch to hold for intersection, but I used the dial to flip from yelp/wail/phaser. Handled my lights too, both code 2 and 3. For the record, I am not old enough to remember the time you mention, and anyone who says differently shall answer to my cats!
@@StyxRiverGynoid Sorry, when I said "I remember decades ago" I meant I remember being told about how decades ago.....OK, I'll confess the truth! The first ambulance I drove was a 1972 F-100 in 1988. Back then each ambulance station was responsible for their own finances (before being taken over by state government). On a couple of occasions two of us drove 400 miles across the border to pick up a retired NSW ambulance, brought it back and added it to the fleet. Now we get a brand new ambulance every few months and the fleet has grown threefold.
heh, I'd ask for your old ones but Australia looks like it is not friendly to vehicles at the best of times, let alone working ones :) One word of advice. Please don't ever let anyone sell you any of the International rigs from the US. Those things are a pile of ████ even new :P
@@StyxRiverGynoid years ago the Fire Service here had a fleet of American LaFrance trucks. Damn things spent more time getting repaired than being used! i.pinimg.com/736x/2f/aa/b2/2faab2cbcfb9a6c809ee14e4f42e4603.jpg
There were quite a few. One of the first was an Astra estate but it didn't stop the 2 times it passed running blues. There was a Vauxhall van and an X5 before they caught up to (then lost :) ) the 5 series which parks up at the end.
Alan Hutchins the Vauxhall was the first police car but by the time he turned around he had lost the Astra and then the bmw police cars passed in the opposite direction
Vauxhall Astra for a police response car? Seriously? If it's similar to the Holden Astra (and I'm sure it is), they're only fitted with a 4 cylinder 1.6L engine. Maybe Australia should've sold the V8 Commodores (used here for Highway Patrol) to Britain. I know Britain got the Vauxhall VXR8 (a rebadged Holden Clubsport). Holden stopped making the V6 and V8 commodores leaving police forces to find an alternative. The V6 Vauxhall Insignia bombed out (poor sales and no V8 option), leaving the Kia Stinger as the only suitable alternative. Seems the Mustang wasn't considered safe enough for police work.
@@coover65 Over here they're a lot more conscious about emissions than having fast response vehicles. I imagine they'll say our tighter roads mean higher powered cars would be used to their potential. The Astra is mainly used around towns with cars like the BMW 3 series, 5 series and X5 and Audi A6 Avant for traffic units. I've also seen a Skoda Superb V6 4X4 estate and a couple of Focus STs being used as an unmarked unit. Others used in towns include the Ford Focus, Mondeo and Kuga, Hyundai i30, Vauxhall Insignia but only 2 litre 4 cylinder versions I think and some others depending on the area. Cities use Toyota Priis, BMW i3s, etc. They'll probably want 4 doors to enable them to transport suspects and so the Mustang would be ruled out through not being practical enough.
@@coover65 The British version of your Highway Patrol mostly use BMW 3 series/X5, with a few Audi's and Volvo's here and there. The Vauxhall Astra's are generally for non traffic-related incidents.
@@interceptor-ss8kb When I did my training, the rule was to try. Sit on their back bumper and take advantage of all that visibility. Mind you, my training was with similar high-performance vehicles, not a stock Mondeo diesel :)
You see far too many Fire officers driving too fast or having poor road craft … no need to drive fast, let the front line staff on scene deal with it and slow down … don't want another incident now do we ? (I await the opinions of all that and more, thank you)
Depends on what his job actually is, probably. It looks like he's a senior fire officer. In the US, any technical rescue or multi-agency run usually ends up with a senior officer as IC - Incident Commander. They run the boards, assign the units to their roles, co-ordinates external resources like medevac, strike a higher box alarm, etc ... so they need to be there as fast as any other responding unit. It looks like he's in that sort of role, or Safety Officer maybe Kind of hard to say for sure from this side of the pond, given the differences in ops.
@@StyxRiverGynoid Interesting how different countries operate. In Australia the station officer is part of the crew, so runs as IC on small jobs (like RTCs and single structure or small fires). On larger jobs, a higher ranking officer will respond (on roster duty officer) in a pick up to take on the IC role at big jobs. Fire don't do any medical involvement in Australia (our state run ambulance services are separate from the state run Fire and rescue), so all medivacs/ambulance chopper retrievals are co-ordinated by the ambulance service. I know it's only TV, but we (Australian paramedics) chuckle when we see a fire truck responding WITH an ambulance to a medical job on US TV shows. Please tell me LAFD don't operate like those on 9-1-1. Now there's a painful show to watch!
I can only speak for the VFD Departments I've been in, but I'm pretty sure Career Departments use the same SOP/SOGs A lot of VFDs will get Firefighter/Paramedics on staff, but for the most part EMS rigs and fire trucks will roll from the same House as they're part of the same Company. All firetrucks have at the very least EMTs on board, and can do reasonable BLS if first-due. It's worth noting that even with Paramed quals, some places require ALS and ACLS to be Career, not volunteers, but that's not the case at my House What rolls on first-alarm is up to Dispatch, but it *is* usually a truck -and- a rig. 7 people on scene gives more options than 2, and removes waiting for assistance if the pt is bariatric, or there's technical issues with packaging. Also the rig crew might not have reached the House to respond before the truck crew has, so the goal is to get bodies on scene the fastest (some VFDs can staff their House 24/7, others with substations like mine are subject to being toned out via Minitor with only the engineers staying in the House) Generally there's Company Officers, right seaters in the trucks. They're in charge of their unit's people usually. The Chief for a Company will go to runs they're needed on as as IC, or if it's a major where multiple alarms have been struck will go with Chiefs from other areas and they take up either IC or sub-command roles like ISO as required. We do a lot of mutual-aid activation, even for a first-alarm. Where I am now, we've got station coverage within 10-15 miles of each other across the entire county, all dispatched from one central dispatch location (includes law enforcement as well). Then there's State Police and their resources, and even Coast Guard. All that with a Level 3 TC at the County Seat that has a helipad, and a L1 TC within 15 mins flight time So that's for my particular rural AO. Urban departments usually run the same as far as I can tell I haven't seen the show you reference, but they're going on runs in urban and probably are more Career than VFD, so their dispatch rules are gonna be different than ours.
@@StyxRiverGynoid Thanks for the insight. "Volunteer paramedics" seems an odd concept for us. It costs too much to be a paramedic (3 years full time university) to not do it as a career based job. Plus you have to maintain competencies to maintain paramedic registration. If you're a volunteer and only do say 8-16 hours a week some may find it hard to keep their skills up. All ambulances here irrespective of whether you're in a city of 2 million or an outback town of 1,000 are staffed by full time professional paramedics. We don't have BLS level EMTs. In the most remote locations, registered nurses usually act as interim level ambulance staff but there's probably 25 in my whole state.
Ahh, by volunteer in context it means "not paid" :) Depending on the Department you could be running 12 hour shifts or 24, with a day off (and you still end up listening to see who's getting toned out in case they need extra bodies like a nasty MVC we had here 4 nights ago - I got stuck in the tailback and ended up heading up to block the road at the nearest safe turn around to start flowing people back ... and all I was doing was getting Burger King! Thankfully spouse loves me. Cats were not so accommodating :) ) Because VFDs are volunteers, it's run primarily on donations, plus state and sometimes county level funding. But most of the operating costs are paid for by fundraising like breakfasts. Quals & requals (fire and EMS) are run by the state, and discounted, but a lot of people get the quals themselves, since most of us have "real" jobs too. Medical professionals are always wanted! It's juggling but it's a great way to serve the community. Heck, some VFDs have Explorer programs, which gets 16-17-18 year olds in (trained and supporting, not on the fireground itself I clarify before anyone gets in arms) - See czcams.com/video/6-VHjdTSYLs/video.html (not my Dept, just like showing people "kids" is a misnomer these days) Your description of the setup your side of the Pacific is what we'd call "Career", but the differences really are organizational more than proficiency, I think. I know we wouldn't be able to provide anywhere near the coverage of our County we do if it was Career, with concomitant wages etc involved, but we have the same quals (I think the areas that require ALS/ACLS be Career do it because of insurance reasons) Thanks for the comparisons. I'm always interested in differences across the world - the job remains the same but it's always good to learn how others go about doing it!
I still think that the "Liver Run" is the most breathtaking blue light run ever.
Very impressive convoy ERD, leaving good space to the lead vehicle and allowing the cars that have pulled over to realise there's a second vehicle coming though.
Hats off to you. That sun was blinding at times especially down narrow country roads. Some skilled driving there 👍
I have a great admiration for our emergency service providers, they have saved my downs syndromes brothers life a few times, I’m really grateful for everything they do, they are really so professional and I know how hard it is to get through heavy traffic some people are idiots on the road and don’t seem to understand that every second counts and somebodies life may depend on it, one day maybe they will realise when they have an emergency themselves and the emergency services are held up in traffic how much of an idiot they look like to other people.
That ambo was not hanging about!
Great vid shame I couldn’t catch this as this is my home town
Instead of the first u turn and had carried on down Park Lane you would of been there. I'm guessing the incident was at the junction of the Reading Road and Park Lane, A notorious accident black spot.
I grew up around that area so I do know it like the back of my hand :)
Holy I live in the town they started at and remember hearing the sirens
What car are you in?, the ambulance seems to have a good pace up those steep hills.
That was shocking address info'! Sending you through Arborfield when you could have gone direct down Barkham road added so much time :-(
I use three words
Bleeding hell mate it would have been great help in having the right location information, I don't know about you mate that would just piss me right off about time being wasted.
I have learned in my school times back the 80's that the brits use unique postal locations address so that it only 3 till 4 houses use it. Only the Buckingham Palace or Scotland Yard have one. So the post arrived every house with e.g. E152PJ, SW166HX or, TD99HL. Why suddenly this locations system do not works more in Great Britain?
All response services tend to use what3words for more accuracy these days as well.
why are the sirens linked to the horn?
So that you can keep both hands on the steering wheel for safety
That’s Wokingham! I live there
I thought I recognised it. I don't live there but I know the area. Only watching on a small screen so couldn't read the road signs.
@@Otacatapetl they go right through Wokingham town centre
they sound like the bill's sirens did
must beTrumpton bringintg up the rear
You can always tell where a fire engine has been, just look for water on the road 😂
BucksBlue LightVids ..... that's how my mate and I used to follow them on our BMXs when we were kids!
Response time now is get yourself to hospital.
What job is it you do
Retired now from the fire service, was a station manager
Siren horn farts are annoying
This is a prime example of where the "What Three Words" app would have been useful....
?
Why is the faster vehicle following the slower vehicle it makes no sense. Can someone explain please. 🇬🇧👍❓
The ambulance responding is the resource that would provide a more vital first attendance rather than an incident commander.... there would also be other first responders there too.... hope that helps
@@EmergencydriveUK yes thanks for the prompt reply. 🇬🇧👍
Great work ,i would love to see more of our silent heroes putting there responses on video ,just so the public can curse those who panic or use no sense when they come across blues and twos ,thanks
Yep that`s the state of things as folk are too busy with their phones & satnavs and dont bother reading signs anymore. Having no clue where they are and wasting time for you guys if the worst happens and a life depends on it. Thanks for your service and time posting the video.
Get out of the foo way ghees love the videos and work you do thanks for keeping people safe well all emergency services for that matter they don't get enough praise for what they do wholy sheet that traffic unit (I think) shot off your car packs a punch for its size but ghees gone in the blink of an eye
Agree 👍
Wow, that cop car was shifting!
Great video some people get in to a panic when they see blue lights that’s why they always stop in the way. Would love to do a blue light run just to see what it is like. Why did the sound keep going off?
They will be discussing the situation, and have muted it for the privacy of the responders and those involved.
Love these videos, im curious to what you are? which service do you work for and whats your role on scene? reminds me of a doctor car maybe!
i think he works for fire.
I believe he is a fire officer (station manager maybe?) so will command the scene of any incidents with a good few engines on scene
Fire service, either a watch manager or station manager. They are in charge of shifts/stations respectively.
Each service have incident commanders on big scenes. He would be the fire incident commander
Civic Touring Car at 0:20 😁
What happened, one minutes you were behind the ambulance & the next you were on your own in a country lane.
During the few seconds of blackout between clips, it's likely(based on other muted sections of video) that the responders name was mentioned over the radio. Clip was mostly like cut just because of that and during that time they split up to look for this address they didn't have.
Was this from Exeter
@@rossbaines2568 no
That is Wokingham a small market town in Berkshire
I live there it’s a nice place
@@sebby324 thanks for replying back officer
Can you get a GoPro and record what you do as a living your content is great but will be better I you have a GoPro any way have a good day and stay Safe
Was Lewis Hamilton driving the ambulance, whoever it was he or she was brilliant
Still got the speed restrictions and traffic lights round Arborfield Cross, I see. Glad I'm not commuting that way any more, as I have been. Shame you got stuck behind the truck just there at 11:35.
Nice Nev, but why no use of the twos whilst going through the tight and blind narrow lanes towards the start?..
Simply...if there is no one there to hear it then why put them on!!!??? its a road with no junctions etc
That must Stu from Whitley, no one else on here has called me nev. How's things going?
Do you only have forward facing lights? I imagine whoever 1st came across the speed trap image for you thought it was a dead cert if you didn't look like an emergency vehicle. I notice your sirens are wired to the horn like on BTP plain cars.
Most of the cars now have the siren connected to the horn. Press once and it operates~changes tone. Twice turns it off. Gone are the days of buttons a knobs to change tone of switch them off or on
Do you mind me asking what station you work out of? You seem to cover an enormous area!!
I'm going to guess that because they're using an unmarked vehicle they're a station or area manager which means they'll be responsible for a wider area of coverage than the local station would immediately respond to. All the rural roads suggest a fairly rural county, so they could feasibly have to cover many miles to respond as needed
I used to cover the whole county as I had hazmat speciality hence some off the really long drives. With modern technology including gps tracking the operating systems would mobilise the nearest qualified resource, along with financial saving this could mean that the nearest was miles away hence extended travel times.....
What is your job been as your in a unmarked car? Great videos by the way
i think he works for fire.
Michael Ludlow thanks for confirming that, I’m based in Sussex and we haven’t seen fire officers in Ford’s in a long time, all 4x4’s now for some reason
Why did the tipper jump the red light? he wasn't in your way.
Looked like he had already made the decision to jump the light... probably cos of the cop car caused him to stop for him to pass.
Not the most direct of routes...Any particular reason why you went left at the Bull and not straight on? You probably added a good couple of miles by doing that.
I followed the sat nav.......as I didn't know where the address actually was.
Nelvis strange decision from your sat nav then 👍🏻
A few questions from a curious Australian paramedic.
1. What sort of car is that?
2. Is it common to use unmarked cars for emergency response fire vehicles?
I ask because all Fire and ambulance units here must be well marked with reflective signage, as part of high visibility/OH&S rules.
Using a sedan seems an odd choice for an emergency vehicle. We currently use Hyundai Santa Fe SUVs (2.2L Turbo diesel). Unfortunately they're a little small and underpowered, especially compared to the 5.0L V8 Holden Commodore station wagons we used to have. Unfortunately since Holden and Ford stopped building here, our choice of suitable V8s has dried up. Hardest hit have been Highway Patrols who have traditionally always used V8s.
Not all staff are full time. I know a paramedic who works for an agency. They essentially sign on as available and fit blue lights and sirens to their normal vehicles so they can service an area wherever they are.
He's an officer, I'm ambo so know a little more about that then I do fire (Which he is) So he is a station manager, who has a car which he can use as a day to day run around, to the shops, kids to school etc.
However it is fitted with blues to act as a work car, because he can be called at almost any time and must respond from where he is, eg; home.
Which is why he has the unmarked car.
Not sure what the other comment is on about, as I have never heard of this, unmarked ambo cars are used for the same reason as fire.
Hope this helps! :)
@@findthebadger418 it's exactly as I said. Bank paramedic aka works for an agency. Signs on with the agency when they are able to provide cover. I also have a work colleague who's a paramedic technician who's on the same deal.
Daily driver, with blues and twos on.
Thank you all for your replies. And I thought UK emergency services were very similar to Australia!!
Without wanting to sound offensive, but It seems like a cost cutting measure, using one station officer to cover a 24 hour period. Station Officers here are rostered on set hours and use official vehicles so you wouldn't need to respond in your own car.
With ambulance you have a duty officer (like a shift supervisor) who again work a set roster and use official vehicles. Duty officers are also rostered 24/7.
When I was working in the outback we'd take an ambulance home and respond after hours from there. But these are in remote areas which you wouldn't have in the UK (with the possible exception of the Scottish islands).
M3ta7h3ad You have watch commanders who run a “shift” of firefighters. They usually go in the fire engines with everyone or have a marked fire vehicle but won’t take them home.
Then you have station manager (this guy) who will respond to incidents in his unmarked vehicle because he is allowed to take that one home.
You need a little more under the hood if you're going to run with the Bimmers and such
Lol that focus still packs a punch but nothing compaired to a traffic unit those are animals lol 😂
@@AndrewR2130 It's a Mondeo ;)
Should have got the 2.5T mondeo that would easily keep up with the bmws
London fire brigade have the use of BMWs and Audi’s
@@alexthomsonuk not with the turbo 5 cylinder engine - its like shit off a shovel
do you smirk when speed cameras go off? whats the process for that?
omfgallusersaretaken If it’s anything like the US or what I know of Europe, it will still trigger a ticket, but the issuing department will not actually issue it if the car is responding to an emergency. Many departments have lights set up so one is always on even when flashing or alternating for that reason, so it’s immediately clear their lights were on in the speed camera photo and there’s never a time where no flashing lights are actually on.
@@fadingfirkin1 thank you, I've seen a few emergency vehicles set off cameras and wondered what would happen - obviously your not getting a ticket but the paperwork must be frustrating. Brilliant channel, thank you.
@@omfgallusersaretaken its a little annoying as the ticket still gets issued and i have to justify why i broke the speed limit, not a great issue, but a pain in the arse........
I May be the thousand Person who is asking this. But what for a Emergency Unit are you?
Probably police
Nvm he is a fire officer
Why 2 different siren tones? Is it so 1 siren can be heard further away than the other?
TheGreatAviator 67 Are you talking about the faster and slower ones? If so, that’s mostly because people hear change more clearly, so you’d alternate between the speeds to get someone’s attention (in many countries that use two speeds, the faster is usually also used when going through intersections - at least in the Netherlands and I believe Germany). If you’re just talking about the two different pitches in one siren, it’s again a case of people hear differences more clearly than just a single siren, and depending on the siren and area can help you tell which direction they’re coming from.
Changing tones also grabs the others drivers attention. If you are following another emergency vehicle most drivers will react to the first one but not to the following so I would normally change tones.
The same goes when approaching junctions and traffic lights etc. The change of tone normally has a reaction making the other drivers look where the different sound is coming from.
What’s underneath the bonnet of your car? Those BMW’s are giving you the slip. Next car maybe is a Beemer. Nice driving and can you please show us the lights on the car? If not that’s fine just curious what setup you have.
I only have a mondeo 1.8 TDCI 125 hp, its not essential that i get there as quickly as the fire trucks. We have a minimum spec for officer cars and its nowhere near that of a police car
Nelvis okay I’m not familiar with all of the appliances in the Uk. As I’m living in Sweden and Sweden don’t have all of those fire appliances that you have in the UK, we have fire trucks of course and bright coloured officers cars. Very rarely do they have any unmarked cars. They’re having some cars but they have a little mark on it but no emergency lights and sirens what I know off
What is it that you do do?
I was a fire officer
exactly what is this car's purpose, it runs code 3 calls but is not medical or Police?
Scott Pattullo fire service incident commander
What is with the "There's some extra paperwork" @ 0:44 ? I can't see anything of note...
MrDrummer25 speed camera
speed camera activation..............camera didnt catch it though
I’m pretty sure I saw the flash before the rear facing camera went away. And by extra paperwork, do you mean for you (because you automatically get sent a ticket and have to go back and show you were running blues and twos) or for the police (because they need to look at the footage before issuing a ticket)?
If you're gonna have to use your POV for shifts, you could at least get a federal Signal box to switch between siren modes - and put the switch by your clutch foot :)
I think these are wired like our ambulances, where you have a siren master switch then then cycle through wail/yelp/combo with the horn pad. I remember decades ago the old ambulances had like a floor mounted high beam dipper switch to activate the old mechanical siren.
Yeah my POV had a Fed Signal box in the center console with an intermittent foot switch to hold for intersection, but I used the dial to flip from yelp/wail/phaser. Handled my lights too, both code 2 and 3.
For the record, I am not old enough to remember the time you mention, and anyone who says differently shall answer to my cats!
@@StyxRiverGynoid Sorry, when I said "I remember decades ago" I meant I remember being told about how decades ago.....OK, I'll confess the truth!
The first ambulance I drove was a 1972 F-100 in 1988. Back then each ambulance station was responsible for their own finances (before being taken over by state government). On a couple of occasions two of us drove 400 miles across the border to pick up a retired NSW ambulance, brought it back and added it to the fleet. Now we get a brand new ambulance every few months and the fleet has grown threefold.
heh, I'd ask for your old ones but Australia looks like it is not friendly to vehicles at the best of times, let alone working ones :)
One word of advice. Please don't ever let anyone sell you any of the International rigs from the US. Those things are a pile of ████ even new :P
@@StyxRiverGynoid years ago the Fire Service here had a fleet of American LaFrance trucks. Damn things spent more time getting repaired than being used!
i.pinimg.com/736x/2f/aa/b2/2faab2cbcfb9a6c809ee14e4f42e4603.jpg
So what do you actually do?
tipper truck jumped the red light ....................
He'd just let the police car through, and thought the coast was clear, so went through on amber. Wouldn't you have done the same?
@@dedistaulapanodki6293 The light was clearly red , he is slow moving , you are not supposed to go through on a amber .
I thought the police car was a vauxhall?
There were quite a few. One of the first was an Astra estate but it didn't stop the 2 times it passed running blues. There was a Vauxhall van and an X5 before they caught up to (then lost :) ) the 5 series which parks up at the end.
Alan Hutchins the Vauxhall was the first police car but by the time he turned around he had lost the Astra and then the bmw police cars passed in the opposite direction
Vauxhall Astra for a police response car? Seriously?
If it's similar to the Holden Astra (and I'm sure it is), they're only fitted with a 4 cylinder 1.6L engine.
Maybe Australia should've sold the V8 Commodores (used here for Highway Patrol) to Britain. I know Britain got the Vauxhall VXR8 (a rebadged Holden Clubsport). Holden stopped making the V6 and V8 commodores leaving police forces to find an alternative.
The V6 Vauxhall Insignia bombed out (poor sales and no V8 option), leaving the Kia Stinger as the only suitable alternative. Seems the Mustang wasn't considered safe enough for police work.
@@coover65 Over here they're a lot more conscious about emissions than having fast response vehicles. I imagine they'll say our tighter roads mean higher powered cars would be used to their potential. The Astra is mainly used around towns with cars like the BMW 3 series, 5 series and X5 and Audi A6 Avant for traffic units. I've also seen a Skoda Superb V6 4X4 estate and a couple of Focus STs being used as an unmarked unit. Others used in towns include the Ford Focus, Mondeo and Kuga, Hyundai i30, Vauxhall Insignia but only 2 litre 4 cylinder versions I think and some others depending on the area. Cities use Toyota Priis, BMW i3s, etc.
They'll probably want 4 doors to enable them to transport suspects and so the Mustang would be ruled out through not being practical enough.
@@coover65 The British version of your Highway Patrol mostly use BMW 3 series/X5, with a few Audi's and Volvo's here and there. The Vauxhall Astra's are generally for non traffic-related incidents.
Lorry driver needs to lose his licence.
Only if you were prepared to lose your for jumping the lights by just a second or so.
Not many cars would be keeping up with that BMW
Not just that its a BMW, but a driver trained way beyond normal response driving standards.
Not sure I would even try either a marked unit is much easier to see, then a unmarked car with a couple of blue beacons in the window
@@interceptor-ss8kb When I did my training, the rule was to try. Sit on their back bumper and take advantage of all that visibility. Mind you, my training was with similar high-performance vehicles, not a stock Mondeo diesel :)
Don't British cops use V8s?
@@coover65no biggest engine is a 6 cylinder turbo but they are way quicker to 60 then most v8s
You see far too many Fire officers driving too fast or having poor road craft … no need to drive fast, let the front line staff on scene deal with it and slow down … don't want another incident now do we ? (I await the opinions of all that and more, thank you)
Depends on what his job actually is, probably. It looks like he's a senior fire officer. In the US, any technical rescue or multi-agency run usually ends up with a senior officer as IC - Incident Commander. They run the boards, assign the units to their roles, co-ordinates external resources like medevac, strike a higher box alarm, etc ... so they need to be there as fast as any other responding unit. It looks like he's in that sort of role, or Safety Officer maybe
Kind of hard to say for sure from this side of the pond, given the differences in ops.
@@StyxRiverGynoid Interesting how different countries operate. In Australia the station officer is part of the crew, so runs as IC on small jobs (like RTCs and single structure or small fires).
On larger jobs, a higher ranking officer will respond (on roster duty officer) in a pick up to take on the IC role at big jobs.
Fire don't do any medical involvement in Australia (our state run ambulance services are separate from the state run Fire and rescue), so all medivacs/ambulance chopper retrievals are co-ordinated by the ambulance service.
I know it's only TV, but we (Australian paramedics) chuckle when we see a fire truck responding WITH an ambulance to a medical job on US TV shows. Please tell me LAFD don't operate like those on 9-1-1. Now there's a painful show to watch!
I can only speak for the VFD Departments I've been in, but I'm pretty sure Career Departments use the same SOP/SOGs
A lot of VFDs will get Firefighter/Paramedics on staff, but for the most part EMS rigs and fire trucks will roll from the same House as they're part of the same Company. All firetrucks have at the very least EMTs on board, and can do reasonable BLS if first-due. It's worth noting that even with Paramed quals, some places require ALS and ACLS to be Career, not volunteers, but that's not the case at my House
What rolls on first-alarm is up to Dispatch, but it *is* usually a truck -and- a rig. 7 people on scene gives more options than 2, and removes waiting for assistance if the pt is bariatric, or there's technical issues with packaging. Also the rig crew might not have reached the House to respond before the truck crew has, so the goal is to get bodies on scene the fastest (some VFDs can staff their House 24/7, others with substations like mine are subject to being toned out via Minitor with only the engineers staying in the House)
Generally there's Company Officers, right seaters in the trucks. They're in charge of their unit's people usually. The Chief for a Company will go to runs they're needed on as as IC, or if it's a major where multiple alarms have been struck will go with Chiefs from other areas and they take up either IC or sub-command roles like ISO as required.
We do a lot of mutual-aid activation, even for a first-alarm. Where I am now, we've got station coverage within 10-15 miles of each other across the entire county, all dispatched from one central dispatch location (includes law enforcement as well). Then there's State Police and their resources, and even Coast Guard. All that with a Level 3 TC at the County Seat that has a helipad, and a L1 TC within 15 mins flight time
So that's for my particular rural AO. Urban departments usually run the same as far as I can tell
I haven't seen the show you reference, but they're going on runs in urban and probably are more Career than VFD, so their dispatch rules are gonna be different than ours.
@@StyxRiverGynoid Thanks for the insight. "Volunteer paramedics" seems an odd concept for us. It costs too much to be a paramedic (3 years full time university) to not do it as a career based job. Plus you have to maintain competencies to maintain paramedic registration. If you're a volunteer and only do say 8-16 hours a week some may find it hard to keep their skills up. All ambulances here irrespective of whether you're in a city of 2 million or an outback town of 1,000 are staffed by full time professional paramedics. We don't have BLS level EMTs. In the most remote locations, registered nurses usually act as interim level ambulance staff but there's probably 25 in my whole state.
Ahh, by volunteer in context it means "not paid" :) Depending on the Department you could be running 12 hour shifts or 24, with a day off (and you still end up listening to see who's getting toned out in case they need extra bodies like a nasty MVC we had here 4 nights ago - I got stuck in the tailback and ended up heading up to block the road at the nearest safe turn around to start flowing people back ... and all I was doing was getting Burger King! Thankfully spouse loves me. Cats were not so accommodating :) )
Because VFDs are volunteers, it's run primarily on donations, plus state and sometimes county level funding. But most of the operating costs are paid for by fundraising like breakfasts. Quals & requals (fire and EMS) are run by the state, and discounted, but a lot of people get the quals themselves, since most of us have "real" jobs too. Medical professionals are always wanted! It's juggling but it's a great way to serve the community.
Heck, some VFDs have Explorer programs, which gets 16-17-18 year olds in (trained and supporting, not on the fireground itself I clarify before anyone gets in arms) - See czcams.com/video/6-VHjdTSYLs/video.html (not my Dept, just like showing people "kids" is a misnomer these days)
Your description of the setup your side of the Pacific is what we'd call "Career", but the differences really are organizational more than proficiency, I think. I know we wouldn't be able to provide anywhere near the coverage of our County we do if it was Career, with concomitant wages etc involved, but we have the same quals (I think the areas that require ALS/ACLS be Career do it because of insurance reasons)
Thanks for the comparisons. I'm always interested in differences across the world - the job remains the same but it's always good to learn how others go about doing it!