Firefighters in North Carolina, who have no children of their own, surprised everyone when they stepped in to babysit the kids of parents requiring emergency medical attention.
Responding to a medical call for which they had limited training, the firefighters didn’t hesitate to go above and beyond the call of duty. Upon arriving at the family’s home, they realized that both parents would need to be transported to the hospital. Seizing the moment, the brave team from Harrisburg Fire Department’s Engine-3 took on the role of babysitters for the couple’s two young boys.
Chris Carter, a Firefighter with the Harrisburg Fire Department said, “We were dispatched for a medical call and [when we] got there the patient needed to be transported along with his wife, so the parents had to leave two children in the house.”
Another responding firefighter, Lee Dewitt said, “We all knew what needed to be done. So we needed to get the family the medical help they needed right away and it just became natural that we were all ready to just take care of the kids until grandma and grandpa were able to get there and take over.”
The firefighters kept the boys, aged 1 and 7, entertained by playing Hot Wheels and pushing them in a toy car around the block. They did so for about half an hour until the children’s grandparents arrived to take over.