VOICE FOR EVERYONE | Share your voice with KSHB 41’s Alyssa Jackson
One thing the heat doesn’t stop are emergencies. In fact, it can create them.
"It’s so dry and hot you can get car fires, grass fires, house fires," said Brian Wilson, captain for the Kansas City Fire Department.
When you see firefighters, you typically see them in action, responding to a call.
For a few hours on Wednesday, KSHB 41 got to see what it’s like for Kansas City Fire Department's Station 35 while they took breaks from the heat.
KCFD Battalion Chief Jermaine Kemp drove us around to see if any emergencies or non-emergencies happened.
"We should get to any call in the city in five minutes or less," he said.
In one of the city’s busiest districts, they only got one canceled call in a span of a few hours. No one at Station 35 is complaining about that. They needed this break even if it was short.
"It’s been tough — I don’t like warm, I wait for the winter," said Joseph Knopp, a KCFD firefighter. "The lack of breeze, put a fire on top of that. [You] come out hoping to cool off and you don’t get that relief."
Wilson also weighed in on what it's like working in the heat.
"Needless to say, by the end of it, we’re all soaked from sweat just for a normal car fire," he said.
When you’ve been a firefighter for years, you can probably recall record-breaking heat, but Knopp can't remember the last time it was this hot.
"I grew up on the coast, so even when it got hot we had a breeze," he said.
Regardless of what they must respond to or how it feels, they just do what the job requires.
"You go in there, put water on the fire, you go through your bottle and a lot of times you physically can’t do anymore," Wilson said. "You’re dizzy, shaken, you’re on the verge of a heat-related emergency, so you have to take a break."
On afternoons like this, they take the moments of relief and the air conditioning when they can.
“You just never know what you’re gonna get," Kemp said.
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