HAIR ON FIRE
by ardavenport
___ NPR ___
Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday
December 4, 2009
Jacki Lyden talks to two of the unintentional stars of the latest youtube viral video, 'Hair On Fire'.
2009 National Public Radio. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
JACKI LYDEN, guest host: From Keyboard Cat to Susan Boyle, youtube has fostered a succession of popular viewing, but the latest hot video comes with a celebrity flare to it. And a blast from the past from the 70's. We have with us today, two of the stars of this latest youtube offering, Roy DeSoto of Torrence, California and John Gage of Tuba City, Arizona. But back in 1975 they were both fireman paramedics with the LA County Fire Department and on a sunny May afternoon they responded to a fire that, thanks to the internet, has managed to smolder on into the 21st century. Gentlemen, Welcome.
Mr JOHN GAGE: Hi there.
Mr ROY DESOTO: Thanks for inviting us.
LYDEN: Now before we begin, I understand that you two were among the very first paramedics, not just in California, but in the whole country.
Mr DESOTO: Yep, I was in the first class. And I recruited Johnny for the second.
Mr GAGE: Yeah, he got me into it.
LYDEN: Well, I have to ask what you think of all the changes that have happened since back then?
Mr DESOTO: Oh, it's fantastic. It's like night and day. Back then, we were still explaining to people just what a paramedic was. But now everyone just takes it for granted.
LYDEN: So, what would you say is the biggest advance since then?
Mr DESOTO: 9-1-1. Hands down, the best thing. I mean, back then, if you had a problem, you weren't always sure who to call - - the fire department, the police or an ambulance. But now, you just call 9-1-1 and they dispatch whatever they need.
Mr GAGE: Oh, and cell phones! Can you imagine what we could have done with those?
Mr DESOTO: Oh yeah! Back then, we had to lug around twenty pounds of biophone along with all the other stuff we had. We got a workout just from carrying our equipment around. Now, everything's smaller and lighter. It's terrific.
LYDEN: Well, we're about to see some of it now. If you could give us some introduction about what happened back then.
Mr DESOTO: Oh, it started out pretty simple really. Uh, Johnny do you want to - - -
Mr GAGE: You tell it way better than I do, Roy.
Mr DESOTO: Okay. We got the call for a fire. It turned out it was some kind of movie premiere and they had all kinds of fancy decorations and a big yellow drape over everything.
Mr GAGE: And they had fireworks.
Mr DESOTO: Yeah, it was some kind of tie-in with the movie.
LYDEN: And the fireworks started the fire.
Mr DESOTO: Yeah, that happens with fireworks. Anyway, there weren't any structures involved, but that drape caught on fire and it fell down on a lot of people. The engine crew took care of the fire and we treated a lot of small burns. There weren't any really serious injuries; it was pretty routine really.
Mr GAGE: Except for all the movie stars.
Mr DESOTO: Oh, yeah. There were a lot of famous people there. Mark Harmon and Mariette Hartley and John Travolta, back before some of them were all that famous.
Mr GAGE: Roy put a bandage on Cicely Tyson's arm.
Mr DESOTO: Yeah, well, because of all the celebrities there, there were a lot of cameras, too. Some of the local TV stations. So, when they brought Zemona Kylie to us, one of the camera crews pretty much caught the whole thing on tape.
LYDEN: Well, we have it cued here, if you could give some description of what we'll be looking at for our radio listeners?
Mr DESOTO: We sat her down there on the back of the squad. She had a first degree burn on her leg. The fire burned part of her dress and I was cutting away the material. She was pretty upset. Burns are pretty painful.
Mr GAGE: But she was carrying on like it was a whole lot worse than it was. And that husband of hers was hovering right behind me the whole time.
Mr DESOTO: Yeah, that's what really started it. He had a lit cigarette on one of those long holders.
Mr GAGE: And he kept waving it around, until it finally caught on her hair.
LYDEN: Well we're about to hear exactly what happened. This is the from the video, 'Hair On Fire.'
( Tape: background sounds )
Tape: Pmdc GAGE: Sir, Sir, please stand back.
Tape: Ms. ZEMONA KYLIE: Oooooooooooooh, the pain! I am wounded!
Tape: Pmdc DESOTO: It's all right, it's all right. We're going to take good care of you. Just relax.
Tape: Ms. KYLIE: Oooooooooh, I am scarred for life! Ooooooooooooooh, oooooooh, my dear Frederick, it is tragic!
Tape: Mr. FREDERICK CHAMBERS: You are strong, my love. You are strong!
Tape: Pmdc GAGE: Sir, Sir, could you please give us room to work? Please, please, stand back. And take that away.
Tape: Pmdc DESOTO: I'm just going to cut some of this away. I'll be very careful.
Tape: Ms. KYLIE: Ooooh, it hurts, it hurts so much! I am maimed for life!
Tape: Mr. CHAMBERS: Noooo, noooo, you will always be beautiful, Zemona!
Tape: Pmdc GAGE: Sir, Sir, please stand back. I've got to ask you to stand back. If you want to help, just give us some room to work.
Tape: Ms. KYLIE: This is just too much! I can't bear the pain! It goes so deep!
Tape: Mr. CHAMBERS: Have faith - - -
Tape: Pmdc GAGE: Sir! Oh, oh, oh, Roy! Fire! Fire!
Tape: Pmdc DESOTO: Oh! Uuuuh - - -
( tape: background sounds - fire extinguisher discharge )
Tape: Pmdc GAGE: Roy! The blanket! The blanket!
Tape: Pmdc DESOTO: Uuuuh!
( Tape: background sounds - struggling, shrieking )
Tape: Ms. KYLIE: Oh! Oh! Oh!
Tape: Pmdc GAGE: Ma'am! Ma'am! I'm just trying to get this off of you!
( Tape: background sounds - struggling, shrieking )
Tape: Mr. CHAMBERS: What are you doing?! Unhand her!
Tape: Pmdc DESOTO: Sir! Sir!
( Tape: background sounds - struggling, shrieking )
Tape: Ms. KYLIE: What? What? What have you done?! Oooooooooooh!
Tape: Mr. CHAMBERS: Darling!
Tape: Pmdc GAGE: Sir!
Tape: Pmdc DESOTO: Ma'am!
( Tape: running feet )
( laughter )
Mr GAGE: I don't think that's ever going to get old.
LYDEN: I really have to ask, Roy, why did you use a fire extinguisher to put her hair out? (laughter)
Mr DESOTO: I just looked up and saw flames shooting up and I just reacted to it.
LYDEN: It looked pretty scary for a moment there.
Mr GAGE: The fire and the heat just went straight up. It didn't burn her head at all. And Roy put it out pretty quick.
( laughter )
Mr GAGE: But I still had to cut it off; she had that wig pinned on pretty well. I don't know what she had on it, but it was really flammable. And there was a lot of it.
Mr DESOTO: It was the 70's; there was a lot of big hair back then.
( laughter )
Mr GAGE: It was just a miracle that her wig didn't go up when those drapes first fell on everyone.
LYDEN: She seemed to put up quite a fight when you cut it off, John. Not to be too indelicate here, but she was quite a sex symbol in her day and practically falling out of that dress. There were quite a lot of men back then who would have wanted to be in your places.
Mr GAGE: Oh, that was the last thing on my mind, but she was a fighter.
Mr DESOTO: Yeah, when the fire alarm went off we'd pretty much get tunnel vision on just what we were doing and not much else.
LYDEN: But she, at least, was still able to get in plenty of bad acting.
( laughter )
Mr DESOTO: And she sure didn't like that haircut you gave her.
Mr GAGE: Oh, no. But I couldn't get the wig off without cutting some of her own hair under it. That was supposed to be worth at least a hundred thousand in pain and suffering.
LYDEN: Did she sue?
Mr GAGE: She tried to sue everyone.
Mr DESOTO: The fire department, us, the city, the county, the TV station, the movie producer, her hairdresser, her dress designer . . . . But every time they'd show that tape, the judge would just laugh it out of court. She even tried to sue her husband about it when she divorced him in the 80's, but she still didn't get anything then either, even though it was his cigarette that set the whole thing off.
( laughter )
LYDEN: So, how did you find out that this tape was on the internet?
Mr DESOTO: I got a call from my grandson one day asking me if that was me on youtube. And I said, 'What's a youtube?'
( laughter )
Mr DESOTO: And my wife, Joanne, found it online and then I called Johnny.
Mr GAGE: I already knew what a youtube was.
( laughter )
LYDEN: So, you still keep in touch?
Mr DESOTO: Oh, yeah, we call all the time, and we manage to get together every few years. We even had a get-together with all the guys from our old station, back in '98, I think. Who organized that?
Mr GAGE: Chet, it was Chet.
Mr DESOTO: Anyway I was still a battalion chief back then. Johnny had to retire early when he got arthritis in his knee; he had a few injuries on the job that caught up with him. But it turns out that they needed some help with emergency services back in his home town and for awhile he was seeing more action than I was. Well anyway, back in '98 is when we first heard that this tape was still around. But no one had a copy and we didn't think anything could ever come of it. That was around the time that Zemona Kylie died in that weird accident with the model planes and the bear.
Mr GAGE: Ooooh, I'm glad I wasn't one of the paramedics who had to go on the run for that call.
( laughter )
LYDEN: Well, unnamed sources have suggested that it might have been Zemona Kylie's children who might have made the tape available on the internet.
Mr GAGE: I guess they got the last word on 'dear old Mom and Dad.'
( laughter )
LYDEN: Well, it's been great talking with both of you.
Mr GAGE: Thank-you.
Mr DESOTO: Thank you for having us. We really enjoyed it.
LYDEN: That was Roy DeSoto at our studio in NPR West in Culver City, California, and John Gage from the studio at member station KNAU in Flagstaff, Arizona. Roy is currently semi-retired and works in hospice care here in California and John is also semi-retired and works with emergency services for the Navajo Nation in Arizona. But you can catch them when they were paramedic-firefighters with the Los Angeles Country Fire Department in the youtube video, 'Hair on Fire '. As always a link is posted on NPR's web page.
(Soundbite of song, "Light My Fire")
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Disclaimer: All characters belong to Mark VII Productions, Inc., Universal Studios and whoever else owns the 1970's TV show Emergency!; and I'm shamelessly borrowing NPR's format; I am just playing in their sandbox.