Did you ever consider that the firefighters you know just haven't told you about it... These are not pleasant memories and I have told very few people about these experiences myself. The first time I saw this happen was shortly after I was hired many many years ago. We showed up at a dump truck vs. a bicyclist.
The bicyclist was laying face down in the drainage ditch next to the road. The police had thrown a blanket over him and said he was dead. Only he wasn't dead... yet. Unfortunately, his face was in the water; he still had a pulse but he was not breathing. We tried all the way to the hospital to revive him. He didn't die from his injuries... he had drowned. Maybe he would have died anyway and this was the kindest way for him to go...
This is not actually the worst story I could have told you. Some of them are recent enough that I could still get in trouble for mentioning them in public. You see there is this thing called HIPPA... we are not allowed to tell people these stories. the story I told you came from an ERA before HIPPA. We can be prosecuted for disclosing details about the calls that we are on. That is why I seldom give any information about some of the horrible medical calls I have been on. And believe me you don't want to know...
I am glad that this never happens in your world... because these are the type of things that I saw which eventually resulted in my retirement. I loved helping people, but I worked in a town with a lot of problems, the crime capital of our state actually. I didn't go off on a disability and I do miss my crews and a lot of the good things that we did for people that often went way beyond what anyone would expect. I am proud of those things, but I have a lot of terrible memories also and even writing this reply has got my heart rate up and I am feeling shaky. After 25 years I knew that I had seen and done all that I could with the fire service.
When we pray for military personnel, we also pray for police and emergency people too. You all do great things and deal with terrible things; thank you for all that you did.