RMES Ride along

After seven years as a photojournalist and dozens of emergency calls I have never travelled to a scene with lights and sirens.

Until April 6 that is.

I was in the Chief’s office at the Redwood Meadows Emergency Services  (RMES) station to interview Rob Evans about his promotion to Fire Chief.

About five minutes into the interview Evans paused, said they had a call and left to see what it was.
They had received a call for a car fire on a service road in Kananaskis Country.

When I stepped out of the office to see what was happening, Evans asked if I had my camera gear and if I wanted to ride with him in the departments’ rapid response pick-up truck.

I, of course, said yes, went back into the office to grab my camera and while being careful to stay out of the way of the engine crew, go into the rapid.

The drive from the hall was fascinating, the first thing I noticed was that the sirens, which I’ve heard from the outside and are quite loud, are much quieter when heard from inside.

I was also stunned, more than I probably should have been, out how other drivers on the road reacted as we drove down Highway 22.

When I drive myself to the scene of and accident or fire, I have a general idea of where all of the responding police and fire units are thanks to my radio scanner.

If I am ahead of any emergency vehicles I frequently check my mirrors and makes sure to pull off the road and be out of the way well before they reach me.

Even without the advantage of knowing that they’re coming there’s no excuse not to get out of the way of emergency vehicles.

On this call, two pick up trucks continued driving, blocking the way, oblivious to us for some time as Evans honked the horn and worked to safely pass them.

I was told that this is actually about average but it does get worse on weekends as more people come out into the country.

We arrived on the scene moments after the engine did while that crew was still unrolling hose lines and getting their breathing masks on.

Evans said that everything went well at that scene. The proper strategy was with a combination of water and dry chemical extinguisher used to put out the fire.

With the fire out, they cleaned up their gear, turned the scene over to the Kananaskis Fire Investigator and returned to the hall where I was able to finish my interview with Evans about his promotion.

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