The Day I said “NO” to the California Highway Patrol

In the summer of 1992, we received a call for extrication. “Attention Bishop Volunteers, Attention Bishop Volunteers, we need an extrication crew and fire response on Hwy 395, South of Warm Springs Road, Please respond.”

Extrications always added a greater sense of urgency. There was at least one victim trapped and at any car accident there was always a chance the fuel was leaking and could catch fire. That is not a good combination when someone is trapped.

I arrived at Station 1 and was the 3rd or 4th in the door. Engine 10, our quick response truck, was already warming up and was close to responding. I got into my turnouts and grabbed my coat and helmet. I jumped into the driver’s seat of Engine 5 and fired her up. This was our rescue rig and it carried all the equipment needed to complete the extrication. Another firefighter climbed into the passenger seat and when the back compartment had 3 more men, I hit the air horn and headed out south of town.

We arrived on scene and found there was a victim trapped in a car that was badly mangled and resting in the dirt meridian of 395, the major (translated to “only”) artery through the area. Traffic was all but stopped as they were rerouting it onto the dirt shoulder. The fire equipment, my truck included, was in the paved lane closest to the meridian.

After about 25 minutes of work we were making great progress to get the victim out of the damaged vehicle. It was then that a particular California Highway Patrolman came up to me and asked if I was in charge of “that rig”, as he pointed to Engine 5. I looked up and said, “yes, that’s my truck.” He responded by saying, “Great, I want you to move it to the other side of the roadway so we can get this traffic moving.” Now, keep in mind I still had men working to return equipment back on Engine 5. If I moved it then my men would have been crossing 2 lanes of traffic to accomplish the task and I didn’t feel it was a safe thing to do.

I looked back at him and said, “No”. Needless to say he was caught off guard and said, “what did you say?” I replied, “I’m not moving that truck.” He quickly retorted, “you’ll do as I say’, to which I replied. “See that man over there in the white helmet….Well that is the Fire Chief and I work for him. I’m not moving this truck.”

Completely steamed he marched off to have a word with Chief Phil Moxley. After 3 or 4 minutes of what seemed to be a disagreement, the officer stormed off in another direction.

A few minutes later the Fire Chief motioned me over. “Perkins” he said, “did you refuse to move Engine 5?” I responded, “sure did.’ To which he replied. “Good job…wait about 10 minutes and move the truck on the other side of the road.”

Stay tuned for my next post regarding another interaction with this same officer years later.