"Rescue Us"
It's been two weeks, since the FX television show has premiered. The show Rescue Me is
done by Dennis Leary and is a post 9/11/2001 portrayal of FDNY firefighters. Now nobody
certainly needs my opinion on the show, but I have chatted with several friends and have
read a majority of the postings on the firehouse.com website forum discussion on the show.
The following represents my thoughts and some snippets of conversations I have had with
others on the show. The short version is that I think the show is "okay". I do not think that
it is any sort of training film, nor do I think it is our finest piece of public relations, but those
things being said I will recount a couple of things that I thought were interesting.
In the first episode at the very end there is a piece where Dennis Leary is walking along the shoreline with firefighters and small children following him. These are the deaths of folks that he carries with him silently and follow all firefighters, EMTs and paramedics. Most of the people I know and work with have some number of these people with them each day in some form or another. Some suppress them and some discuss them, but in all cases they are there. I thought that was a neat thing for the public to know. Yes we asked for this job and yes some are paid to do this job, but part of any compensation whatsoever we may get is to compensate for these "dependents" from our past that we all have to support.
I also fund it interesting in the thread on the firehouse forum that many firefighters were outraged by an "on-duty" firefighter drinking. Well I hope you were damn uncomfortable and embarrassed while you were at home in your living room with your wife and family. Good I am glad you had that discomfort, now maybe you will have enough of the discomfort leftover so when you get to work and you see it on your own job, you will have the nerve to report it and get it corrected. There are firefighters that are on duty today as paid or volunteer that are under the influence in the stations. What ticked me off is the folks who wrote in that will refuse to believe that it happens at all. If it does not happen in your department then please knock on wood and hope that it never does. If it is happening in your department currently, then I hope the show made you see it watch it from the outside and put it in your face directly so that maybe Dennis Leary's actions will actually once again help firefighters in some way he never imagined.
In the second show there was this underlying homosexual theme or issue of gay firefighters etc., etc. In fact the chief actually gets into a physical altercation about this issue. I personally believe the issue of the altercation had less to do with anybody's sexual orientation, but rather the chief's perceived disrespect for comrades who had died in the line of duty. Further it had to do with a guy taking credit for a rescue or incident that he was not involved in. I thought that these last two issues were very accurate as it represents the culture of the fire service to a tee. We would never show any disrespect for a fallen brother and most "real" firefighters would downplay their own involvement in any emergency let alone try to take credit for a rescue or a "job" that they were not even at. As far as the issue of Gay firefighters or female firefighters, or paid firefighters, or volunteer firefighters, I think we just need to figure out what the second word was in all of those terms....firefighter. If the person you are dealing with is a firefighter in the true sense of the word, there is no boundary that would ever get in our way. Do we all have our own opinions, yeah I am sure we do, and I express mine as often as other in the firehouse but I am not sure it is any deal, let alone the big deal we tend to make of it.
I also enjoyed how the chief actually corrected the facts of the Time Square rope rescue of several years ago and pointed out the Pat Barr and Pat Brown were involved, that was a neat little trivia piece.
Once again in the second episode we see Dennis Leery involved with the girl who died in the car crash and he felt somehow compelled to attend the funeral. I know many firefighters who have done this and there are many individual and personal reasons for doing it. Remember that your presence there can bring a variety of a flood of emotions from grieving families and they many not always find the comfort that your perceive. I will not pass any judgments on this issue because all folks and circumstances are different but it was a piece of the show that struck me.
I also thought that many of the discussions I have had with other firefighters all surfaced around the character taking a drink after getting out of the jumpseat and before walking to the building. Not one person commented on the new member who made the sign of the cross before entering the building. I guess that is why I am always saying Baskin Robbins has 31 flavors ,....there is something for everyone. Each of our members gets some strength and burst of courage to enter a job and handle it, all in their own way, for some it might be a drink, a silent prayer, an adrenaline rush, a focus and competitive spirit or whatever it takes but do not ever believe always that every member of your job handles things in the same way. Another neat missed point.
All in all, I ask all firefighters to remember that it is a show and only a show. It is not a training film made for technical accuracy. If you take it as something that is entertaining, then relax, laugh at yourself, and take something small away from it each week as I have tried to do, or look closely at the remote control for your TV, one of the buttons says "power" try that one, it makes the show stop. (Channel up or down also works) I do not think any differently of the FDNY or the profession of firefighters in any way shape or form. I also ask you to think long and hard about what parts of the show you did not think were somewhat realistic, or that you had heard about or knew of. I found that many of the things I saw I have heard, seen, or done. One of the folks I spoke with said that is the reason that fire stations have thresholds and doors so that none of that gets out into the public. If any of that embarrasses you and it is not something you wanted in the public eye, then maybe my title is more appropriate....."Rescue Us"