The popular comedy television show Tosh.0 pokes fun at videos people have posted online. The show brings in one person who’s done something really embarrassing and allows him to re-enact the video to get it right — they call it a Web redemption.
It was in that spirit that I phoned Lt. Ron Barber of the Chicago Fire Department. Earlier this week, Barber’s Engine 82 rolled up on an early morning apartment fire on the city’s south side. They found heavy smoke pumping out of open windows and victims clinging to telephone poles.
Barber’s size-up report: “Holy sh*t.”
It’s not surprising that the audio clip of Barber’s radio traffic went viral.
“I never pulled up on anything like that,” he told me. It was the people hanging on the utility poles that really got to him — the subsequent rescues were made more difficult by the close proximity of high-voltage power lines.
Keep in mind, Barber is not some freshly minted recruit having his first crack at the mic button. He’s a 25-year veteran who responds out of a busy firehouse in one of the city’s more notoriously impoverished areas. He’s seen his share of sh*t.
Of course, firefighters, being the sensitive and caring creatures that they are wouldn’t dream of giving him a hard time over his radio slip up.
“I’ve gotten a number of phone calls,” Barber said. “One guy wants to get T-shirts made up.” (And if they do, I want one.)
“At least he didn’t say, ‘holy f*ck,’” one CFD official told me.
Barber said he feels bad about not giving a more detailed size-up. The 5 a.m. call had shaken Barber and his crew from their sleep. As he walked around the building and held the mic keyed to hold the channel open, a full and complete size-up ran through his head.
Yet, when he spoke, he said, only “holy sh*t” came out.
When all was said and done, about eight of the 24 units in the four-story U-shaped apartment building were destroyed. All of the civilians were rescued, and no firefighters were injured.
It was an out-of-the-ordinary incident, Barber said. And everybody on scene performed at their maximum capabilities.
One of the firefighters on scene later told Barber that his succinct size-up was all they needed to know.
Sometimes, you can say so much more by saying less.