Firefighter puts his medical training to use at accidents

JESSICA JOHNSON
The Post and Courier

Firefighter Eddie Genthert has worked at Mount Pleasant Fire Station 4 for the last three years.

Being a firefighter is a whole lot more than putting out fires.

Firefighter Eddie Genthert learned that when he was a boy. His father would come home after a busy shift with stories about accidents and people he helped. His father, Ed Genthert, fire chief of the Old Fort Fire Department, left out some of the details, though.

Since becoming a firefighter himself, Genthert has learned that they must detach themselves from the situation: be someone's shoulder to cry on and hold it together at the same time.

"I always admired him," Genthert said of his father. "I have a deeper respect for the fire service now that I am a firefighter."

The Timberland High School graduate became a Mount Pleasant firefighter three years ago. Genthert, 25, started out studying sports medicine at Coastal Carolina University before switching to the fire service. His medical training has come in handy. A large percentage of Station 4 calls are medical in nature. The most challenging: entrapments, heart attacks and high falls.

But one of the worst calls Genthert can remember was a motorcycle accident. Two men were riding down U.S. Highway 17 and took off from a stoplight popping wheelies when one slipped, and the car following behind ran into him, dragging his body. The full details didn't come across on the radio. Genthert said he went to the scene thinking he would drop his medical bag next to the man and see some sign of life.

"The injuries were incompatible with life altogether," he said.

Most calls that come to the station on Six Mile Road during 24-hour shifts are less traumatic.

"If you can dream it up, people call about it," he said.

The most ridiculous call: A driver saw a boat while crossing the Isle of Palms connector and told dispatchers it had crashed.

They rode out with lights and sirens. But there was no crash. A man had anchored his boat in the marsh.

"We get there and it's just a guy out fishing," he said.

The department has seen an increase in fires recently. Genthert said that's when training to take calculated risks comes in handy. If a home or building is more than 50 percent engulfed in flames and no one is inside, they don't go in.

Going a day without a fire at all is a good one, Genthert said.

"Every day you don't go into a structure fire is a day you get to go home to your family."

Reach Jessica Johnson at jjohnson@postandcourier.com.