Mum sparks debate after witnessing ‘sad’ firefighter moment

An Aussie mum has sparked debate online about whether emergency service workers should be able to cut in line after seeing a group of firefighters leave a busy cafe as they didn’t have time to wait to get served.

Jacqueline Fauvel said she had been waiting in line for 15 minutes with her baby when a group of on-duty firefighters walked in and were soon forced to leave due to the long queue.

Fauvel told Yahoo News Australia she’d also seen mobile intensive care paramedics get calls while waiting in line, forcing them to leave to attend an emergency.

“That makes me so sad because I assume they have a short time for a break and then they have to go off and be available at all times in case there’s a fire," the mum said in a video about the incident at the Bean Smuggler café at Point Cook in Victoria.

“I feel like people should just automatically let them in front. They work so hard and all they want is a bloody coffee.”

Her post was flooded with comments from people who said emergency service workers were heroes and they would definitely let them cut in front, while others said firies had cushy pay and working conditions and often weren’t that busy.

Firefighter says they don't expect to go to front of line

Senior firefighter Dan Spooner, from Darlinghurst Fire Station in Sydney, told Yahoo News Australia while there could be slow nights, at his inner-city station it was not unusual to receive 12 call-outs during a 24-hour shift.

“We do not get any breaks,” he told Yahoo. “When you’re on duty, you’re on duty. If you go to the coffee shop you could be waiting in line and an emergency call will go off and we leave the coffee we bought. But we would never go up the coffee line or expect anyone to let us.”

While firies try to have lunch and dinner around the usual times, he said if a call comes through “off we go”, which “does make it problematic as to how you plan your day and maintain your nutrition”.

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“It’s fatiguing,” Spooner, who has been a firefighter for 26 years, told Yahoo. “We have slow nights where we get to recline. But you don’t get a good night’s sleep.

“It’s not like sleep when you go to bed at home, it’s interrupted sleep as you’re always on edge – a garbage truck drives past and you’ve woken up.”

Mum's post triggers debate

Fauvel's video sparked debate, with one person writing: “I always let any emergency service personnel in front, sometimes I get glares from others behind me but I don’t care.”

Another person commented: “As a paramedic, we do not ever expect others to let us in front. Mums probably need coffee more than we do!”

However, some suggested that firies had a lot of free time. “My brother is (a firie) and has been for 37 years and he’ll be the first to tell you what a cushy deal their working conditions are,” a person said.

Others said they always offered to let emergency service workers skip ahead in the queue but usually their suggestions were usually politely declined.

“I watched a group of firies come into a café, sit down to wait and then after about two seconds got up and ran back to their trucks, coffee-less and zoomed off with sirens and lights,” another added.

Police weigh in on 'preferential treatment'

A NSW Police spokesperson told Yahoo officers had 30-minute meal breaks but due to operational responses, this could be at any time of the day and sometimes they didn’t get one at all.

However, when it came to cutting ahead in the coffee line, he added: “If someone is kind enough to stop to ask, then great but we do not seek any preferential treatment.”

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