America’s firefighters mostly do not fight fires
In sunnyvale, a city in Silicon Valley, police officers sometimes transform into firefighters before your eyes. All public-safety officers are trained as both cops and firefighters. Cops may arrive at an incident as a police officer and realise that a firefighter is needed instead. So they strip down to their underpants (sometimes in the middle of the street), and jump into the fire kit stored in the boot of their patrol car. When they are done, they change back into their police uniform.
Mr Mercado also points to the physical requirements needed to become a firefighter. Applicants may be asked to climb a 24-foot (7m) ladder, and drag a 120-pound (54kg) tyre for 50 feet. Mr Mercado says this prevents many people who could be good medics from qualifying. It may also put off women (only 5% of paid firefighters in America are female).
For American city-dwellers, a large red fire engine screaming down the streets with lights flashing is a common sight. Yet although the firefighters that leap from the engine may don fire gear, there is often no blaze in sight. A grand-jury report in Orange County, California, found that fire departments responding to health-emergency calls would often dispatch a fire engine with four firefighters and an ambulance with two emergency medical technicians.
2023-08-03 11:43:18
Article from www.economist.com
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