| Editor’s note: A mobile home blaze on January 3 was to be the first fire of Firefighter Shawn Hall’s career following his training academy graduation. However, the crew never made it to the incident after a truck clipped the back of his engine, causing a rollover. In this exclusive article for FireRescue1, Firefighter Hall recalls that day and speaks of his recovery. |
Fla. rescue personnel rush to help 4 of their own
FireRescue1’s Year in Review 2008
By Firefighter Shawn Hall
Jacksonville, Fla., Fire Department
 Photo courtesy of Jacksonville Fire Department |
I’d had a few medical calls, but not a structure fire — this was going to be my first one. We were just actually finishing a medical call and were thinking about breakfast and then got the structure fire.
I was a little nervous like any first-time firefighter would be, but I was probably more excited than anything. We were about a mile to half a mile from the scene when we were struck; I didn’t see it as I was at the back, but I heard it. The right side of his bumper struck our back left tire.
The impact actually turned us around 180 degrees so our backend was going down the street and then fell over onto the passenger side of the engine and I knew we were going to roll over. A 65,000 pound truck was going over and I knew this was going to hurt.
When we came to a stop, I couldn’t breathe, the air had been knocked out of me. I was scared. The first thought I had was that I hadn’t given my family a kiss before I left for my shift.
I wondered if the two guys in the front in the front were dead; I knew the one in the back with me was moving.
Took things slowly
I couldn’t move. I’d been a paramedic, so I did know something about medicine. I knew there were many things that could’ve happened to me, and I thought I had broken my back. It took about 45 minutes to extricate me. Because I was stable, they took things a little more slowly.
At the hospital, the staff had to stop issuing visitor passes because so many people were coming to see me from the department.
I’d only been on the job for two weeks so I didn’t even know most of the people. The day after the accident, when I was in the operating room for hip surgery, I later found out that one of the officers stopped off to bring some sandwiches to my family so they didn’t need to worry about lunch.
This was a guy I’d only met a couple of times. Having all of these firefighters doing things like this, taking care of my family while I couldn’t, was a huge help.
When I was allowed to return home three weeks later, my wife had to take a leave of absence from work to take care of me. The surgeon told me I’d be incapacitated for close to a year, but in the first week of May I was able to return to light duty and was able to start walking without any assistance.
I’ve been going in for lots of physical therapy in the months after the accident, but was able to start doing it by myself six weeks ago. I’m hoping to go back to full duty by January or February, that’s my goal.
I am so thankful to my brother and sister firefighters, not just here in Jacksonville but anybody who ever said a prayer for me.