Waiting

They say emergency medicine is hours of boredom interspersed with moments of sheer terror. I am currently enduring through those hours of boredom. Today was not my scheduled day to work the ambulance. I worked my other job this morning and then had the afternoon and evening with family and friends. It wasn't until tonight, just as I was snuggling into my warm bed, that my pager went off that additional resources were needed in a dual mutual aid request. Two large separate structures in our neighboring district were actively ablaze. Arson was believed to be the culprit.
Generally our station has enough employees on shift to cover a small fire call and an EMS call simultaneously. But, as anyone who has ever worked in emergency services knows, when it rains, it pours. Henceforth, we have extensive mutual aid agreements with surrounding fire and EMS services. The conundrum that arises with mutual aid agreements is sometimes other districts have such a high demand for our services that it actually leaves our own district lacking sufficient coverage. Tonight's fires have sapped every available resource in our county...except our ambulance crew.
We wait, monitoring the onscene crews' radio traffic in earnest. By no means am I wishing for something to befall someone but I am seriously growing weary of the waiting game. I am hyped up on adrenalin and yet utterly exhausted at the same time. My mind debates sleep but, as is often the case in the EMS world, the moment you settle in and get comfortable, something hits the fan.
So, I think I'm gonna go snuggle in a recliner, see what's on TV at this unruly hour and maybe catch some "zzzz"s in the process.