I work for a combination department right outside a small town with one manned station and four outlying stations. We have the largest coverage area for our parish. I had come into work on the mourning of 11/16 and our engine and "light" rescue were already on a medical call. As I sat my gear down we were dispatched to an alarm activation w/smoke in the bathroom. Another on-coming firefighter and I grabbed the two remaining trucks (Tanker and "Heavy" Rescue). The alarm activation was a dual coverage call with the city department. Enroute to the call; on a four-lane hwy with 2 lanes east-bound, 2 lanes west-bound, and a middle turning lane; traffic was dividing into the right lane. As we came near one the city stations their responding engine decided to pull out into traffic in front of us. This caused all the traffic in the right lane to move over to the left lane (our lane). Three cars swerved into the left lane in front of the tanker. The tanker swerved into the turning lane, narrowly missing the three vehicles. I was in the heavy rescue and was forced to slam on my brakes by two vehicles swerving into my lane. Before we could arrive on scene we were cancelled by the city’s dispatch center. When asked if they had anyone on-scene yet their response was that they had a medical sprint truck nearly there!

LESSONS LEARNED: I understand that competition can be a good thing but when it comes to endangering the lives of the people we are tasked to serve and the lives of our fellow firefighters then departments need to seriously look at their priorities. In one minute so many lives could have been lost all because of a bad decision and the worry of making it to a call before another department.