• corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 days ago

    I was at Ground Zero NYC. As I toured the area around the wreckage site, a pilgrimage many of us do (and ask me why roasting cashews is a trigger), I saw a firefighter on the sidewalk. He was on the low curb, his legs in the roadway almost splayed out like a child, hands on knees, palms up meditatively, dressed in full turnout, mask hanging from his neck, big hat beside him, slumped over and breathing slowly.

    He’s sleeping the sleep of the exhausted who can’t stop, can’t go home, but needs 30 min to keep going.

    We quietly moved on, even though the ambient noise was insane, as we didn’t want to be the ones to wake him back into this hell. Let him be a monument for a moment longer, for years after.

    25 years later and images from that time are still with me. We haven’t learned from the disaster. We haven’t fixed the broken things that led to this extremist vandalism and mass murder. The religious extremists are now bombing schools and homes in Lebanon and Iran, and continue destroying Palestine and many other sites.

    • flandish@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      3 days ago

      i heard stories from the old guard before me that the 80’s may have involved such things as “gotta shit during a house fire so time to search the bathroom” and “oh hey that looks tasty…”

      • bitteroldcoot@piefed.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        3 days ago

        Flood zones are notorious for spreading Infectious disease. If he has been in the flood waters and/or the rain splashed any of the flood water up onto his food he gets infected. Yes the rain is washing him, but still, eating in a flood zone on top of used flotation gear is a bad idea. As recent lettuce based infections have shown. Some things don’t wash off with water.

        https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11627491/

        • Doom@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          3 days ago

          Your heart’s in the right place, I appreciate that, but it’s more dangerous during emergency work like this to pass out or make a stupid mistake from skipping a meal. Infection is treatable, death is not. It’s not practical or logistically possible to simply evacuate every time someone needs to eat either. In situations like this they are likely running long shifts with teams swapping out at set intervals. Trust that these are working professionals that have been trained in how to keep themselves safe.

  • Jumi@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    24
    ·
    4 days ago

    They don’t even manage to give him a somewhat dry place. That’s embarrassing

    • Mpatch@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 days ago

      Wow. You obviously have never been in a dire situation, under pressure, a high stakes situation before.

    • Jax@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      3 days ago

      sudden downpour

      There needs to be a Lemmy wide rule that if you comment without reading the article, you’re instantly banned.

      • Jumi@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        3 days ago

        If your relief efforts dont involve tents or something similar you fucking failed

        • Jax@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          3 days ago

          Seriously? You think tents are valuable in a fucking typhoon?

          A typhoon is the eqivalent of a hurricane, numbnuts - you’d look like the dumbest motherfucker alive setting up tents. Which, I suppose, tracks considering your takes.

        • some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          3 days ago

          I assume where he is in the image, that’s exactly where he needs to be at that moment. So you think there should be a tent right where he is, yeah? Ok, sounds like a priority, then. We’ll need about five more guys with sandbags on my man here so he can drip dry while he finishes his lunch. Hup hup, you heard the man!

      • Jumi@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        3 days ago

        Whoever was planning the typhoon response and is organising the operation.