One of the things you learn when driving fire trucks is called “protecting the scene.” As the driver of a large piece of fire apparatus, you park it at an angle across the lane of the road where your crew is working and the one adjacent to it. You angle the front tires in such a way that, should the rig get struck, it won’t be pushed into your crew. A Fort Worth fire crew recently demonstrated why this idea is so important. The driver of this fire truck likely saved multiple lives when he did this.
8 Comments
Tom235 · June 18, 2026 at 6:59 am
It’s amazing how blind drivers are around accident scenes. I suppose their eyes get attracted to all the activity and lights and they steer their vehicle to follow. Dark wet mountain roads are not safe places to be working an emergency scene. I’ll guess city environments have a similar problem.
TRX · June 18, 2026 at 7:45 am
> I suppose their eyes get attracted to all the activity and lights and they steer their vehicle to follow
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That’s a recognized thing, at least with motorcycle racers. A bike will go down, and then the next half-dozen behind him will veer offline to create a multiple-bike-mess, because that’s where they’re looking.
There was a Canadian reality TV show called “Canada’s Worst Drivers.” Unlike most of that sort of show, they actually tried to teach people how to drive rather than just making fun of them. The host’s continual refrain, many times per episode, was “look where you want to go!” which is the flip side of that.
SmileFtW · June 18, 2026 at 7:56 am
Where in Ft Worth was this? When did it happen?
Divemedic · June 18, 2026 at 8:44 am
Don’t know. It was put out by the Ft. Worth fire department on their social media feeds. I saw it because I am still connected to that world.
It's just Boris · June 18, 2026 at 8:21 am
So this is not where I thought this post was going when I saw the title.
As always, thank you for a glimpse of “how thing work” in a profession very different than mine.
Tennessee Budd · June 18, 2026 at 5:33 pm
Pickup driver should immediately lose his license. If you can’t see a big fucking fire truck, you have no business driving.
Curtis · June 21, 2026 at 11:28 am
And then some dickbreath cop on a power trip arrests the driver for obstructing traffic. Which happens when they hate each other.
Divemedic · June 21, 2026 at 2:34 pm
We only had that problem once. We had an old school FHP trooper tell us to reopen the road. The battalion chief pointed out that there was about 50 gallons of diesel on the road. The trooper said, “That don’t mean shit. I can put a cigarette out in that shit. Check state law, the police having jurisdiction are in charge of any incident on a public road. Open the road, or you are going to jail.”
The chief replied, “No problem. What’s your name?”
FHP: “First name Trooper. Last name Smith. Last chance. Open this road or go to jail.”
“No sweat.” (on the radio) “Battalion chief to county. Trooper Smith has taken control and responsibility for the scene. All units in service, returning to quarters.”
“That’s not what I meant,” said the trooper, “I meant open the road, not leave.”
Battalion chief: “You are in charge of the scene, not my people. You wanted to be in charge and wanted the road open. You got what you wanted. Hope things work out for you.”
We left, and NEVER had an issue with FHP or any other police agency again with regards to traffic control.
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