upworthy

firefighters

Heroes

Read the incredible hand-written notes an 8-year-old girl has been sending to firefighters

Her small gestures are making a world of difference.

Photo courtesy of Beth Crosby

Beth Crosby (who goes by the name @thegarbagemom on social media) asked her 8-year-old daughter, Grace, to write personal notes to firefighters in her community. She had no idea she'd be so moved by what her daughter said. As one of the many Los Angeles residents near the devastating wildfires, Beth and her family feared they had to evacuate their home. Preparing go-bags was understandably confusing and scary for their child, but Beth reassured her that firefighters were working hard to keep them safe.

Beth decided the best thing she could do for Grace was to teach her about giving back. Their local YMCA (the Anderson Munger YMCA in Koreatown) began collecting donations for fire stations and people who have been displaced. Beth shared, "They've worked non-stop and are just amazing! I wanted to help my daughter feel a tiny bit better about this horrible tragedy and show her we need to be helpers in any way that we can."

When Beth saw that the YMCA was asking for handmade notes to include in their care packages, she knew this was a perfect family activity. So they got to work.

Beth shared, "We talked about what we thought would make the firefighters feel supported, and what we could say that would make them know that the entire city is grateful for them." Grace's answer was to the point, which was merely that we need to tell them: "We are here for you."

Photo courtesy of Beth Crosby

Her first letter said "Hi my name is Grace and I am thinking about you. It makes me feel sad to hear what you are going through. But we are here for you! I'm 8 years old and I live in L.A. I hope to meet you one day. My friends and family and the whole city loves you!" She included a hopeful hand-drawn picture of a bird sitting perched by its nest, looking up at fire clouds with a rainbow on the horizon.

But it was their conversation after that really put things into perspective for Beth. When Grace was asked how she was feeling, she said she just hopes they can "keep going." She also relayed she felt just a little better knowing that maybe, just maybe, the cards and drawings would help firefighters and victims "not give up."

Other children sent over their letters/pictures, as well. @amfymca_ktown on Instagram shared notes from young kids like "Thank you for risking your own lives to save people from the fire." And "I appreciate your hard work. You are amazing," accompanied by their own heartfelt drawings.

On a pinned Instagram post, this YMCA noted that they're looking for more comforting and uplifting notes. They wrote: "Special project for ALL. You can do at home, with friends, school groups, companies, etc. These will be placed inside our care packages and delivered to many LAFD firehouses."

At the end of the day, Beth and so many others, just wanted to teach her kids that there are ways to feel less powerless in times of tragedy. She says, "I wanted to help my kid feel like she's contributing."

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Digby the therapy dog saved the life of a woman who was about to jump off a bridge

DSFRS/Twitter

When a person gets to a point where they are actively considering taking their own life, helping them out of that state is a delicate endeavor. Sometimes a major intervention is necessary. Sometimes being reminded by an anonymous stranger that life is worth living is helpful. And sometimes, a non-human touch can be the catalyst that pulls someone away from the edge.

When first responders were called to a bridge near Exeter in southwestern England where a woman was standing over the guard rails, threatening to take her own life, the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service (DSFRS) showed up to help. In a post on Twitter, DSFRS explained that multiple agencies had responded to the scene, and that police negotiations weren't going particularly well.

"The situation was becoming increasingly worrying," they wrote.

While humans struggled to reach the woman, a therapy dog showed up to save the day.

"One of the fire crews had the idea to bring along Digby, our 'defusing' dog," they explained. "Digby helps crews who have been exposed to trauma during talking therapy 'diffusing' sessions."

Digby is a 3-year-old Australian Labradoodle who has been with the department since he was four months old.

"When Digby arrived, the young woman immediately swung her head round to look, and smiled. This got a conversation started about Digby and his role at the fire service," they wrote.

"She was asked if she would like to come and meet Digby if she came back over the railings, which we are pleased to say she did."

"We wish the woman involved all the best in her recovery," they added.

How amazing that Digby not only helps first responders deal with their own trauma, but he also helped save this young woman in her darkest hour.

Hopefully, the woman gets the help she needs to live a satisfying life—and perhaps that help could include a therapy animal of her own.

According to UCLA Health, animal-assisted therapy provides many physical and mental health benefits to patients. "The simple act of petting animals releases an automatic relaxation response," the university's website states. "Human interacting with animals have found that petting the animal promoted the release of serotonin, prolactin and oxytocin—all hormones that can play a part in elevating moods."

UCLA says Animal therapy also:

  • Lowers anxiety and helps people relax.
  • Provides comfort.
  • Reduces loneliness.
  • Can provide an escape or happy distraction.
  • Can act as a catalyst in the therapy process, breaking the ice or reducing initial resistance to therapy.

Maybe dogs really are a human's best friend. We certainly are better off as a species with our animal companions by our side.

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Chicago cat miraculously uninjured after leaping from the 5th story of a burning building

Chicago Fire Media/Twitter

They say cats have nine lives for good reason.

The Chicago Fire Department captured a cat's miraculous plunge from the fifth floor of a burning building on video, and the fact that the cat came away from the jump uninjured is an incredible testament to feline physiology.

Someone from the fire department was filming the exterior of the building while firefighters fought the fire. Suddenly, a black paw reaches out a window of the fifth floor. Then it disappears for a bit—time for whatever spacial calculus cats do in their heads—and then a whole cat leaps out and sails downward, legs outstretched as onlookers gasp and scream.

Somehow, he manages to clear the concrete wall and land on a narrow patch of grass, bouncing once as he hit the ground on all fours. Then he ran off to hide under one of the firefighter's cars.

Watch:

"It went under my car and hid until she felt better after a couple of minutes and came out and tried to scale the wall to get back in," fire department spokesman Larry Langford told The Guardian. He said the cat was uninjured. (No other injuries were reported in the fire, either, thankfully.)

The "she" is actually a "he," and he's a housecat named Hennessy. The owner says he has not returned since the fire and neighbors are on the lookout for him in the Englewood neighborhood.

How do some cats perform such feats and walk away unscathed? It's actually a fairly simple—though still super impressive—mix of physics and physiology.

For one, a cat's terminal velocity is comparatively low, so they don't hit the ground as fast as we would. They also have a relatively large surface area in comparison to their weight, which reduces the force with which they hit the ground.

Of course, cats can and do injure themselves falling or jumping from high heights. But their survival rate is pretty mind-blowing.

In 1987, researchers studied 132 cats brought to a New York City emergency veterinary clinic after falling from high-rise buildings. A whopping 90% of treated cats survived and only 37% needed emergency treatment. One cat even fell 32 stories onto concrete and only ended up with a chipped tooth and a collapsed lung. It was released after 48 hours.

"Being able to survive falls is a critical thing for animals that live in trees, and cats are one of them," Dr. Jake Socha, a biomechanist at Virginia Tech, told the BBC. "The domestic cat still contains whatever suite of adaptations they have that have enable cats to be good up in trees."

If cats fall, they are quickly able to rotate their bodies to land feet-down. If they jump like the black cat did from the burning building, they have even more control. Cats will splay out their legs to create more drag, like a parachute, and their powerful leg muscles act as shock absorbers (which explains the bounce when Hennessy hit the grass).

The way cats' legs are built also help keep their bones from breaking.

"If the cat were to land with its legs directly under him in a column and hold him stiff, those bones would all break," Dr. Socha told the BBC. "But they go off to the side and the joints then bend, and you're now taking that energy and putting it into the joints and you're getting less of a force at the bone itself."

That doesn't mean, of course, that it's perfectly safe to let your cat hang out on your balcony. Cats being injured from falls from high heights is known as feline highrise syndrome. People assume that because cats can survive leaping from great heights that it's not a problem if they do, and since cats do like high places, being careless about windows or balconies can put pet cats in danger. Falls put them at risk of serious injury, such as shattered jaws, broken teeth and limbs, or punctured lungs.

Our feline friend in Chicago gave us an impressive example of what cats are capable of, but he was lucky to walk away uninjured. Thanks to the firefighter who made sure Hennessy was okay, and hope he finds his way back home soon.


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Firefighter extinguishes conspiracy theories with cold hard facts

Cres/Twitter, @wildlandmike/TikTok

Who would have thought that giving the world access to all human knowledge via the internet, the ability to follow and hear from experts on any subject via social media, and the ability to see what's happening anywhere in the world via smartphones with cameras would result in a terrifying percentage of the population believing and spouting nothing but falsehoods day in and day out?

Those of us who value facts, reason, and rational thought have found ourselves at some of our fellow citizens and thinking, "Really? THIS is how you choose to use the greatest tool humanity has ever created? To spew unfounded conspiracy theories?"

It's a marvel, truly.

Between Coronavirus/Bill Gates/5G conspiracies and QAnon/Evil Cabal/Pedophile conspiracies, I thought we were pretty much full up on kooky for 2020. But apparently not. The massive fires up and down the West Coast have ignited even more conspiracy theories, some of which local law enforcement and even the FBI have had to debunk.

Can we please get off this timeline of insanity?

Thankfully, there are voices of reason out there. Pretty much any rumor you hear or see gets fact checked pretty quickly, so unless you're so far gone that you think every single fact checking website is "in on it," it's not too hard to find the truth.

And sometimes, the truth comes in brief, refreshing, not-unattractive packages.

A firefighter who goes by the TikTok handle @wildlandmike shared a quick response video to a young woman's ridiculous conspiracy-laden video about the Western fires. His delivery is perfect, and Twitter users are going gaga over it.

It doesn't hurt that Wildland Mike fits the "hot firefighter" stereotype, and many of the responses were...well...thirsty. (As a colleague asked this morning, "Do they not let ugly people become firefighters or something?") Good-looking experts spewing facts is a double whammy of attractiveness in the disinformation age. It is what it is.

But the comments also highlighted the unfortunate fact that this girl making the conspiracy video has an actual reach.


Just for funsies, I looked her up on TikTok. She has 2.6 million followers, SO THAT'S NEAT. Most of her content doesn't appear to be this off the wall crazy, which actually makes it worse. Kids are going to follow her to see her talk about her dog or her having lived in an amusement park and then get hit with a conspiracy theory video. It's also entirely possible that she makes conspiracy theory videos for a joke or as satire or something, but DON'T YOU KNOW SATIRE IS DEAD AND PEOPLE BELIEVE BATSH*T CRAZY THINGS IN 2020, @cierra_mistt???

Seriously, is there some kind of humanity reset button somewhere? Has anyone looked for one in earnest? Maybe it's hidden under the edge of Flat Earth or on the belly button of Sasquatch or something.

At any rate, more firefighters fighting fiction with facts, please. It's the content we all need right now.

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