A call crackled out over the radio at 2:35 p.m. and four firefighters at Fire Station 1 on East Magnolia Avenue were on alert.
The firefighters listened intently as they gathered up their turnout gear and piled onto the truck.
Hunter Billingsley, student firefighter, took his place behind the wheel of the fire truck. Lieutenant Joshua Smith took the front seat. Cameron Wineman and John Konstant, both student firefighters, took seats inside the cab.
The call was for the Family Health Clinic, located on Opelika Road — a medical call.
Auburn has five fire stations and only one ambulance station, so they dispatch the fire station first.
The Auburn Police Division was also on the scene.
“We establish command and the police make sure everything is safe on scene,” Smith said. “We come in, and, any basic first respondent care, we provide it. We get some baseline vitals for the paramedics and patient information, and then, once the ambulance gets on scene, we assist them with anything that they need.”
If the situation is bad enough, sometimes a firefighter will ride with in the back of the ambulance with the patient to the hospital.
Smith said they respond whether it is a stubbed toe in the middle of the night or a more serious medical emergency such as a heart attack, the majority of the their calls invovle some type of medical issue, according to Smith.
The station handles a variety of calls that differ each day from minor car accidents to full-blown fires.
“I was working with someone else on a different shift, and we had a fire in some apartments a few weeks ago,” Wineman said. “It was fully involved. We put it out and everything, everybody was safe. It went well.”
Not all of their calls involve fires, however, and on the way back to the station, a call came over the dispatch involving a car accident on East University Drive and North College Street.
Billingsley turned the truck around and headed towards the location of the accident.
An ambulance was already on site along with the APD when the firetruck arrived a few minutes after getting the call.
The firefighters got out of the truck to assist with the accident. The drivers were shaken up, but no one was injured.
Battallion Chief Joe Lovvorn was at the scene and, once it was safe, gave insight to firefighters’ peculiar hours.
“When I met my wife, I was doing this career, so she’s used to me being on this schedule and my kids are used to me being on this schedule,” Lovvorn said. “It’s tough being away from the kids on the nights I have to work, but I make the most of my days off.”
Career personnel, such as Lovvorn and Smith work 24-hour shifts with 48 hours off.
Student firefighters work day shifts from 7 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Nighttime is supposed to be their downtime, but they have to run calls when necessary.
Each day of the week there are specific duties that have to be done.
Smith said they do those tasks when they have time between calls and daily duties.
During the first week of April, all of the stations were required to do their bi-annual hose testing to see if any of the hoses were damaged.
Smith and his group were covering for the other stations that day through Station 1 so everyone else could test the hoses. Their usual station is Station 2 on Shug Jordan Parkway.
“Early this morning, we did some fire drills,” Billingsly said. “We did them for the University where we go in and make sure everybody is familiar with exiting the buildings. We did three of those today.”
After leaving the scene of the car accident, the truck headed out to Kiesel Park, where they set up for a CPR class they would be teaching the next morning for city employees needing to update their training.
“We do random stuff every day; nothing is ever the same,” Smith said. “This afternoon was setting up CPR stuff and hose testing, and the next shift it will be pre-fire plans and fire hydrant maintenance.”
Smith said one of the most fun parts of their job was training the youth within the department who are unlike anywhere else.
The crew does a lot together, in and outside of work.
“We’re here for 24 hours, so we live together, we work together, we eat together,” Smith said.
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