Samatters Radio

Captain Eric Wappel shares a tale of complacency and how he faced it head-on with his department.   On January 3, 2022, the North Judson – Wayne Township Fire Department was dispatched for the second time to the same residence for a “furnace smoking.” Captain Eric Wappel wasn’t available for the first response, but responded to the second call.    He recalls thinking to himself, from the get go, this was another “BS” call since the department was just at this address two hours earlier. Eric says he was complacent, which led him to leaving his radio strap and his Nomex hood at the station because we are just going to tell the occupants (again) that everything is OK.  Only this time, they found a fire in the crawlspace under the house near the furnace.  Eric ended up going into the crawlspace without his radio strap and without his Nomex hood on. This episode shares his story of complacency and how he faced his department and shared his lessons with them.   Eric Wappel is a firefighter/EMR at North Judson-Wayne