Austin’s Daily Commentary – February 6, 2024

Austin: It started as a typical Monday, but before the end of the business day, some of the first responders in our area would be participating in the recovery operations and response operations to some of the saddest and most tragic scenes any of them had ever witnessed an industrial accident in Columbia County. The suicide of a young person.

Another murder-suicide in a neighboring community. Folks, it's been a terrible couple of days for first responders. And again, that's what they signed up for. You know, we don't spend enough time talking about the routine days the first responders have. I say routine the days that don't necessarily make the headlines with dramatic hostage situations or mass casualties and horrific highway accidents. Just a normal day with a death here, a death there.

And that's literally all these folks deal with, whether it's emergency room technicians who deal with cases that they can't say, whether it's the ambulance drivers that are constantly picking up the remains of those who have died through the misadventures of fentanyl use, or if it's a horrible accident of some description that is off the beaten path of the headlines, something that you don't ordinarily read about. These things happen every single day, and our first responders are there no matter how the call comes in.

I just wanted to take a minute to thank those folks. Whether you're an ambulance worker, an EMT, you work in the coroner's office, we understand and appreciate the duties that you have, often very solemn and very really happy. God bless you. We appreciate you every step of the way. And here's to hoping over the course of the next several days, you get a little bit of an easier workload. What happened over the last 48 hours for you folks right here in the Augusta area? Heartbreaking to say the least. And that's the comment, and a prayer for those folks. I'm Austin Rhodes, AM 580/95.1 FM News Talk WGAC. [00:00:00][0.0]