This is not entirely a rescue/ems thing, but it sort of fits.
Locale: same boonies; run down home
Time: mid-day
Dispatch:(initial call) ***fire, please respond to report of an outside fire . . .
The female firefighter, leg splinted as the result of a recent call, watches as hubby hesitates to respond, because he's due at work.
Wife: I'll call the shop for you. Go.
hubby takes off, siren wailing
Dispatch:(2nd tone) ***fire, please respond to an outside fire that has moved inside...
huh???
Voice: engine 3 on with one
various people sign on, responding - then...
Voice: engine 3 to dispatch, disabled . . .
what???
After calling in her husband late for work, the female rips the splint off her leg, hobbles to the car, and takes off. Upon arriving at the scene, she finds that her husband isn't present.
Female:(to deputy) Where is he?
Captain: I sent him for an engine.
Female: he doesn't have a CDL.
Captain: doesn't matter. Didn't have a choice. So and so trashed engine 3.
Female:(noting smoke showing from the attice vent) we've got light smoke over here. Whaddaya MEAN he trashed the engine???
at this point, the daughter of the owners of the house appears, frantic because her cat is in the house. She tugs at the female's bunker coat, pleading with her to go inside for the cat. Sighing, the female complies with the pitiful plea, rescuing the cat.
Female:(after the fire is out, to the captain) Does rescuing the cat mean I'm a real fireman now?
Captain:(eyeing her 38C chest) uh . . . no. I don't think that will ever happen.
She smacks him. End of discussion.
By the way - the engine WAS trashed. In an effort to respond in a timely manner, the driver had tried to take a 25 mph curve in excess of 55 mph. Took out the ladders on a telephone pole, kept going. Hit a stone retaining wall with the front bumper, kept going. Didn't stop until he went over a culvert and ripped the air brakes off the engine. He's no longer on the department, but nothing more could be done, because the first responding cop on the scene from town is a lt. on the dept., and the first responding county deputy was the deputy fire chief from the dept. The joys of living in small towns.