Firehouse.com

Editor's note: A close call that occurred at the scene of a motor vehicle accident taught firefighters in Maryland not to take any call for granted and even prompted them to develop standard operating guidelines (SOGs) for automobile accidents. As the author, who was the commanding officer at the scene, noted, "We had many SOGs in place, but had never adopted an auto accident SOG in writing. We took these accidents for granted because there had never been a significant firefighter injury as a result of an auto accident response.