"Rescue Me" 6/20

First of all, I don't live in New York, so I really can't swear to what
the racial climate of the city is on every issue, but would people
really complain because a fire truck passed over attending to a guy
with breathing troubles so as to deal with a more-immediate crash of a
school bus full of injured kids?

Milhouse Van Houten...

That didn't really make sense to me either. The kids were in immediate
danger, trapped in an overturned school bus which was leaking gasoline. It's
not even a choice. And what was the fire department responding to the other
call for anyway? Isn't that for paramedics and an ambulance?

Zombie Elvis...

Often, firefighters arrive on the scene to offer immediate aid before
the paramedics do (firefighters are trained in first aid and could
have at least given the guy mouth to mouth if he had needed it). This
is certainly the case here in Chicago and I wouldn't be surprised if
it were true in New York as well.

Ken from Chicago...

Yeah, there was a public spat about it a few year ago when Daley wanted the
firefighters to do crossover training in non-fire incidents. Personally I
thought they should just shut down the "Fire" department and rename it the
"Emergency" department. Cuz having fire trucks roll up to deal with elderly
people with medical emergencies seems like a bit much.

Of course, someone will now tell me that this was based on a real
incident and the clip of Al Sharpton was a real news story...

Zombie Elvis...

It does sound similar to news stories about a number of racial
incidents in New York, including The Crown Heights Riot. The Wikipedia
doesn't mention Al Sharpton or his inflammatory speech after the riot.
But his biography does mention it in one sentence near the end:

record hunter...

Could be...who knows? (speaking of racial issues in ny)