Fire Department Takes Medical Calls in Stride

March 24, 2010 — -- Washington, D.C.'s Engine Company 10 is one of the busiest fire departments in the country. It's widely known as the "house of pain" because of the grueling pace the firefighters keep.

On any given day, they'll respond to about 25 calls in a 24-hour period.

The firefighters love putting out fires. But what makes Engine Company 10 so very busy is this: The vast majority of the 7,000-plus calls the firefighters answer each year are not fires at all. They are, in fact, medical calls.

"Nightline" followed the department over many shifts and several days. Many medical calls came in. A woman, combative and running into the street, was thought to be on the drug PCP. A 50-year-old man hemorrhaging blood because of -- he says -- a mistake in his routine kidney dialysis treatment. An 82-year-old woman bleeding from her rectal area. An 83-year-old with respiratory distress.

Leo Ruiz is a paramedic firefighter with Engine Company 10. He has all the training and skill of an Army battlefield medic. Like many of his fellow firefighters, he loves serving his community.

But he signed up to fight fires. And as we followed Engine 10, we saw it happen again and again. When the men at Engine 10 arrive on the scene of a call, it's not a fire hose they pull out; it's a medical bag.