Sep 20, 2011

Prank Fail

Look, I've been a firefighter for nearly a decade. I've been through rookie pranks. Pulled a few of my own. Generally speaking the pranks done in good fun. The rookie looks a little silly, but how s/he reacts to it will flavor their career for a long time. If they're gutsy, the rookie will pull a few of their own right back.

The key to a good prank, of course, is that (A) no one gets hurt, and (B) it doesn't affect job performance. (Having to put on a dry shirt or pair of pants from a water fight is not affecting performance. Delaying response to an alarm by screwing with someone's gear is.)

All that said, this "prank" is WAY over the top, and could have gone WAY wrong:



Generally speaking, on-duty carry is not permitted in fire departments. I won't say I've never heard of it happening, but it's usually verboten. Still, firefighters as a group tend to be pretty much type-A take-the-bull-by-the-balls folks. If *one* person had been in the truck bay instead of the ready room, it wouldn't surprise me to see a rookie lying on the floor with the business end of an ax sticking out of his bean. I am still surprised that not ONE of the crew didn't try to fight back... but then again, it's easy to Monday-morning quarterback this one.

No word on whether the rookie still has a job - but I'm betting on not.

(For a few more interesting and less job-endangering ideas, try this site.)

2 comments:

Weer'd Beard said...

Yep whoever OK'd that bullshit, and the guy in the mask should be fired. That's horrible judgement, and in a dangerous job judgement THAT bad and lack of foresight (Like "What if somebody trying to kill me to save the crew? Or What if somebody manages to call 911 or get the cops involved in this prank? Or what if somebody tries a daring escape or attempt to hide and hurts themselves?") will get people killed.

Furthermore everybody should be admonished for lying down and waiting to die.

The only reason why none of them were killed by the robber is he wasn't a real robber and wasn't interested in killing. Somebody WANTING to kill everybody there could have done it without breaking too much of a sweat.

If somebody is going to kill me I'd like them to be really tired, and maybe in need of medical attention.

Old NFO said...

OH man... If he'd tried that in a Florida firehouse in the late 70s-early 80s he'd be dead.