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Pre- Planning a tool for Fire Ground Survival

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Often times firefighters have to gripe when being told they have to conduct Pre-Planning. During this time firefighters should understand the opportunity that has been afforded to them. Firefighters have to take notice of the construction , and hazards while the building is open to them. Even if a firefighters are on one man company it is no excuse. Here are some suggested steps to help you get started.

  1. First make an appointment to ensure the owner or manager will be there to grant you all access to the building and answer any question.
  2. Gather all forms provided by your fire department for pre-planning. Those things may include even taking a(n) book on building construction which may aid you in writing strategic and tactical objectives.
  3. Firefighters should seek answers on anything they are questioning such as building codes and safety violations believed to have been committed. Seek answers from Fire Marshals or Code Enforcement personnel. Do not give information for which you do not have the authority or don’t know to be an absolute fact.
  4. Ensure you have a site plan as well as a building sketch.

Future post will actually allow you to interact with pre-planning to aid in getting better at this task

Posted by on January 16, 2012 • Filed under: Building Construction, Education/Training, fire-prevention-education, firefighter-safety-health, Training • Tagged: , , , ,

16 Life Safety Initiatives

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  1. Define and advocate the need for a cultural change within the fire service relating to safety; incorporating leadership, management, supervision, accountability and personal responsibility.
  2. Enhance the personal and organizational accountability for health and safety throughout the fire service.
  3. Focus greater attention on the integration of risk management with incident management at all levels, including strategic, tactical, and planning responsibilities.
  4. All firefighters must be empowered to stop unsafe practices.
  5. Develop and implement national standards for training, qualifications, and certification (including regular re-certification) that are equally applicable to all firefighters based on the duties they are expected to perform.
  6. Develop and implement national medical and physical fitness standards that are equally applicable to all firefighters, based on the duties they are expected to perform.
  7. Create a national research agenda and data collection system that relates to the initiatives.
  8. Utilize available technology wherever it can produce higher levels of health and safety.
  9. Thoroughly investigate all firefighter fatalities, injuries, and near misses.
  10. Grant programs should support the implementation of safe practices and/or mandate safe practices as an eligibility requirement.
  11. National standards for emergency response policies and procedures should be developed and championed.
  12. National protocols for response to violent incidents should be developed and championed.
  13. Firefighters and their families must have access to counseling and psychological support.
  14. Public education must receive more resources and be championed as a critical fire and life safety program.
  15. Advocacy must be strengthened for the enforcement of codes and the installation of home fire sprinklers.
  16. Safety must be a primary consideration in the design of apparatus and equipment.
Posted by on January 4, 2012 • Filed under: Education/Training • Tagged:

Hold Your Assignment

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Often times aggressive fire companies want to get inside and do work, but it is with that same aggression firefighters get killed. If any firefighter out there could justify why 15 firefighters should be operating in a 1100 sq ft ranch house here is your opportunity. Firefighters have to be thinking firefighters, and use the basics. What do I mean? One company for fire attack, a company to back them up, a company to search and open up. I do realize that the number increases as the square footage goes up but it still needs to be managed. Interior supervisor’s need to recognize when too many companies are on the interior and correct the problem. It has already been proven that it takes 12-14 people for a RIT team to rescue one down firefighter, but yet we continue to put RIT teams in a position to rescue multiple firefighters with only a 3-4 person team. My point being if your position is not to be committed to interior operations your time will come so stand by. Remember the items that burn today are highly volatile and cause conditions to change as well as the inexperience on the fire ground making poor hose line selections, and improper fire ground coordination of ventilation.

Posted by on December 30, 2011 • Filed under: Education/Training, fire-rescue-topics, firefighter-safety-health, firefighting-operations, training-development • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

D.E.R. Deep Environmental Retrofit

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D.E.R.  Deep Environmental Retrofit, the process of adding large amounts of insulation and wind proofing to older buildings.  The concept is simple; Add more layers of insulation and wind proofing to cut down on the amount of energy needed to heat or cool a building.

The layers are:

1. Blown in cellulose insulation in the original wall cavity.  Most turn of the century homes in this area didn’t have any insulation.

2. Wrap the entire inside wall with Tyvek, then fur out the walls and add another layer of blown in cellulose.

3. On the exterior wall add 8+ inches of rigid insulation with staggered seams. All seams are taped on each layer and another layer of Tyvek is added.

4. Indicates the 2 layers of Tyvek inside the house, 1 of which is wrapped under the floor.

The end result is 16+ inches of insulation with very little chance of air infiltration.  All of the areas that cannot be filled with blown in or rigid insulation is filled with spray foam.  Even the windows are triple glazed to prevent air infiltration.  The vendor says you could heat the finished room with a hair dryer.

You can see the before and after mock up  in the picture.  In the before picture there is no insulation and plenty of cracks and voids for air to permeate the building.  These leaks help heat from a fire escape and allow fresh air to be sucked in, which is great for firefighters but bad for heating bills.

Firefighters are all too aware of what happens when fresh, oxygenated air runs out at a fire.  The fire darkens down and the temperature continues to rise until something fails or something is opened by a firefighter.  When this happens you get a back draft or a smoke explosion.

We have all been taught that building contents are far different than they were for previous generations of firefighters.  Flashover is being reached at a shorter time than a couple decades ago, and I can post a side by side video if you’d like.  The lower times are caused by a combination of better sealed buildings and the composition of the contents.

So after that overview, how long would it take to starve a room and contents fire of oxygen when the room is sealed and insulated this well?

A couple side notes:

The floor joists were notched during the original construction.  That’s pretty common in these houses.  But you can see in the after picture that the floor is still notched.  How much extra weight has been added to this building and it remains on the original inferior construction?

The vendor indicated they have done dozens of houses in my area and the biggest concern they heard was from electrical inspectors who wanted the power lines from the solar panels to be candy striped.  PV power too?  I think that is a discussion for another day.

Stay Safe.

Donovan

Posted by on November 28, 2011 • Filed under: Building Construction, Education/Training • Tagged: , , , , , ,

Size up this fire.

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The point of view in this video shows almost everything that is happening so you have to imagine yourself showing up at street level and the limited view you would have had.  The first arriving companies thought it was a fire in the rear porches.  They were right, but, the fire was already inside the second building when they arrived.  

 I spoke with the officers on scene and from their point of view upon arrival they thought it was back porches and they thought they may have inadvertently pushed the fire into the second building.  The officer on the first line to the rear was wondering why the fire was going to 3 alarms, let alone 4.   It was obvious to command what was going on, but from the rear it was a different story.  You can see the rear was a floor lower than the front. 

I wish we could just get a couple second video from the front when the first arriving companies got on scene, but that’s not going to happen.  Too often when someone posts a video the commenter gets to watch the whole thing and then decide what they would have done.  It would be better to just get a few seconds and then watch the comments, to keep everyone honest.  But comment away. 

Was going to the rear with the first line a good choice?

Would going in from the front then making a basement attack have worked?

What size line are you going to bring?

Are there any other issues that should be brought up?

I may sometimes sound like a stickler for rules because a firefighter should at least know the procedures that way if they do something that isn’t in line with the procedures they have to provide reason instead of “I didn’t know”.  My only critique is that at least one of the trucks arriving on the subsequent alarms should have looked at the roof instead of just putting the stick up.  This would have minimized the chance of a guy alone on the roof, especially a relatively new guy.  That’s just my opinion and I have had that opinion since this video was taped almost 9 years ago.

Stay safe.

Posted by on September 22, 2011 • Filed under: command-leadership, Drills, Education/Training, Engine Tips, firefighting-operations, training-development, training-fire-rescue-topics, Truck Tips • Tagged: , , ,

When to use 2.5 ” ADULTS “

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A — Advanced Fire Upon Arrival

 D — Defensive Operating Mode (Defensive Operations)

 U  — Unable to Determine the Extent (Size) or Location of the Fire

 L — Large, Uncompartmented Areas

 T  — Tons of Water  (One ton of water per minute with a 1-1/8” tip)

 S   — Standpipe Operations

Posted by on July 19, 2011 • Filed under: Education/Training, Engine Tips, firefighting-operations, fires • Tagged: , , ,

Failure During Training

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During the setup a multi-agency drill, a conversation was started after a prop that was going to be used was built. The conversation covered when to remove a firefighter from the prop that will be used as apart of an Air Management course. The statement was made a firefighter starts to lose it you remove them from the prop. My feelings of course is that you allow them to stay there and work it out. My feelings are this way because, I feel that we are giving firefighters a false sense of security. Allowing them to believe that there is going to be a hand to just reach in and grab you when your in trouble. Firefighters who have experienced being lost and disoriented, or running out air know that this is not so. It was said to me that it seems like we just want firefighters to fail this particular skill by allowing them to panic and not pulling them out. My thoughts are the failure would be to pull them out and build that falsehood that help is always going to be right there. The basics are simple and plain if and when you get jammed because if your a firefighter going into structure fires you will, its simple you panic you could very well DIE! Yes I said it! Its a harsh reality,  but true. You have to have a survival attitude and training to go along with it. So I ask you the fire service where is the failure. Is failure allowing firefighters to be pulled out because they panic, or Failure not to let them panic and hammer the point home?

Posted by on July 8, 2011 • Filed under: command-leadership, Drills, Education/Training, fire-rescue-topics, firefighter-safety-health, training-development, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: , , , , , , ,

The Greedy Ones

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Over the past couple of weeks I have become very disheartend with the fire service in my local area. I have realized that there is a lot of  lip service paid to Doing the Right Thing, but very little action as to which. The dishearting comes from the lack of truly sharing resources and information. Even though I have been in the fire service very long when I started thirteen years ago it was expected and acted upon when you had information or were doing a training, that it was going to be shared so as many firefighters as possible could be affected. Now with that being said the Greedy Ones and in this case Greed is not Good. The belief I was given coming up in the fire service and still believe today is share the information, share the training so that many can be affected not just your particular group or agency. Do the days no longer exsist of if I got it you got it. It appears that firefighters now use the mentality of the fish from the movie Finding Nemo Mine! Mine Mine! Who are you? Where did you come from? Last time I checked that ain’t the Brother/Sisterhood I knew or know and/or want to be apart of. My point is as you go out and find new information and you know its validated and correct share it with the masses it does you know good trapped up inside that head of yours.

Posted by on June 27, 2011 • Filed under: administration-leadership, command-leadership, Education/Training, training-development, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: , , ,

Drilling vs Training

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As the fire service seems to grow younger, there seems to be a lack of understanding in drilling and then training. Some have the mindset that drilling means training and vice-versa and they would not be far off the mark. However, you have to train before you Drill.

Drills are a series of exercise that provide insight into how well you took in the instruction on a particular skill set (s ) being taught.

Training is just that, training on those skill set ( s ) to gain mastery. Often times now I see the cart put before the horse, and drills are conducted poorly companies perform poorly. When you want firefighters to gain a particular skill set they must be trained to perform and then evaluated through a series of drills.

So I ask you do you train before you drill or are you drilling all the time?

Posted by on June 20, 2011 • Filed under: command-leadership, Education/Training, training-development, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: , , , ,

Investing and Not in a 401 K

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I have written on this topic before but, I feel that it is even more important now. In a time when the Fire Service is under attack by the political hacks who are suppose to be servants of the people, our budgets are being cut and what area normally suffers first is training.  Firefighters are innovative by nature but were spoiled when times were better. Paid firefighters often criticize our volunteer brothers for giving of their time freely but, I employ you to see the lesson in their service. The lesson is investing in yourself. Finding a way to make it happen.  A good friend of mine, once a shining star in the NFL, told me during a discussion over dinner that Pro Athletes are relentless in their pursuit of their goal to make it to their respective leagues. Meaning they don’t just quit because practice is over and they are committed to spending whatever is necessary to go to camps and/or strength in conditioning tool. My point is they are constantly investing in themselves to achieve the optimum performance they expect of themselves. Firefighters have to make that same sacrifice in order to achieve the excellence we swore to provide when we took our oath or accepted the badge.  Even while not get raises and insurance cost on the rise, we have to find our way to increase our training no matter what. The Fire Service is becoming a youthful service and providing realistic and relevant training couldn’t be more important. What I’m getting at is we must be willing to reach into our own pockets to build necessary props and travel to training such as FDIC. I’m not saying the fire department is off the hook for training just saying we can’t sit around crying about what we don’ t have because truth be told we never had a lot before. At least not to adequate levels. So I ask again, will you be willing to invest in yourself? It is up to you to give yourself that edge you are looking for when on the fire ground or during promotional testing. What KSA’s will you bring to the table? Ever wonder why that guy you think is a know it all always has something to say or appears to know just about everything? It is because they invest in themselves. They are the folks who drool at the sight of the new Fire Engineering Books Catalog. They are the guys whom pay for the conferences and spend their vacations on doing fire service related things. Sure their are some who could just never shut up and when challenged can’t produce but what about the person who can? Every asked yourself why?

Posted by on June 2, 2011 • Filed under: command-leadership, Education/Training, fire-rescue-topics, training-development, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: , , , ,

Tech rescue rant…

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Ok, let’s talk technical rescue for a minute.  High risk/low frequency. 

 Will you get one in your town?  Yes.

Will you be able to identify it for what it is?  Probably not.

Will you get hurt at this incident?  If you’re lucky, yes.  If unlucky, you’ll die.

I’m not good at drama, that’s as close as I can get.  My gripe and or whininess stems from training with people FOR YEARS and the minute they get a technical rescue they forget most of their training.  I don’t care if you can tie a knot.  I don’t care if you know a good way to attempt the rescue safely.  I do care that you at least give a crap about your own safety and wear your damn safety equipment the same way you do EVERY TIME WE TRAIN.

Fire helmets are not for tech rescue they are bulky and extremely top heavy, your neck muscles wear out fast if you are not standing upright the entire time.  Hell, your neck gets tired if you ARE standing up.  When you are in a hole, on a wall or have climbed into some odd place you want a lighter helmet, and my department has them available.  Yes, my favorite line from guys is “I’m a firefighter, I wear a fire helmet”  Awesome, go over there, distract the cameras by modeling your helmet and wait for a fire to break out near here, because you aren’t going anywhere till this job is done.

Command staff, do me this one little favor; TAKE COMMAND!  That’s right, you spent half of your lifetime to get that white coat, now use it.  You know your men.  You know better than to send the best guy over the edge leaving you with second best to get him and the victim out.  You know better than to leave your guys in a hole for 2 hours while 20 guys wait around the top.  Make it happen.  Rotate your men, a decent technician will not quit until forced to. 

What about this zone thing, what is it called.  Oh yeah!  Hot, Warm, Cold.  Get the men/women back.  They are professionals, they can handle it.  The crew should not look like a bunch of rubber-neckers that stopped and got out of their cars to stare.  Things need to get done, lots of things.

OK, let me stop and move onto something informative. 

 Thanks to Wikipedia we have this: 

Technical rescue refers to those aspects of saving life or property that employ the use of tools and skills that exceed those normally reserved for fire fighting, medical emergency, and rescue. These disciplines include rope rescue, swiftwater rescue, confined space rescue, ski rescue, cave rescue, trench/excavation rescue, and building collapse rescue, among others… Often involving multiple jurisdictions.

Hmmm, sounds bad. Lets see the numbers here.  Are you trained to the “would be rescuer” standard or “professional rescuer”?

Confined space 60% of deaths were “would be rescuers”.

Swift water 50% “would be rescuer”

Trench 65% “would be rescuer”

Not to beat history to death but from Mexico City in 1985 on through Oklahoma city 1995 and through more “modern” times like Katrina, ”would be rescuers” die frequently at technical rescue operations because they don’t know the dangers.

So I wonder, if you are a “professional rescuer” shouldn’t you act like it?  Sure you’re a macho tough guy, but really? Are you more concerned about “saving” a dead body than protecting your own life?

 60% of  ”would be rescuers” are killed in technical rescue operations.  Don’t you owe it to your family or co-workers to at least know when to set the brakeand wait for the knowledgeable guys to show up?  Even if they SUCK to deal with, you live and get to continue working.  Tough guy get’s to show off, and everybody gets to go home.

Fires= go fast

Tech rescue= wait a minute…

Stay safe.

Posted by on April 18, 2011 • Filed under: command-leadership, Education/Training, major-incidents, rescues, Thoughts • Tagged: , , ,

Meet in the middle!

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Many things are being discussed in our service today. My take on things is a mix I suppose you could say between sides of the fence that the Fire Service has created. We have the “Safety Sallies” in the blue corner and the “Aggressives” in the red corner. I did the groups in specific corners for a reason, if you figure it out wonderful, if not, sorry. Many issues are in the front of our minds right now. Searching of insert name of building type here, proper size hose lines, ventilation, etc. We seem to split down party lines and to me this about the worst thing we could possibly do.

 Here’s a novel idea, break down the fence and meet in the middle!Many outstanding and far more intellegent folks tha I, occupy both “camps,” so how about instead of “flinging poo” as Chief Goodrich has elluded to in his post and “Sir Lancelot etc” by Dave LeBlanc, both on this sight. If you haven’t read them, please do before you finish this. These two gentlemen, who, Dave I know personnally and Art I know through his writing and chatting with, represent the corners. These two guys don’t share the same beliefs on some of the issues, yet they are friends, and meet in the middle, in the battleground that has become of Safety vs Aggressiveness.

We all came on this job to be a fireman, to my knowledge no one forced you to get on that engine, truck, or rescue, if someone was forced to come on the job, stop reading now. Being a fireman, is a tough demanding and dangerous job, period! We’ve come a long way from hanging on the tailboard, trying to pull our boots up, to enclosed cabs, with Seatbelts! Wow, are we good are what? Spare me the butt slapping and back patting we all do, before the job is done. Our job is never going to be done, fires happen, fact and people die, if not for us!  Real quick, if you don’t like being referred to as a fireman and would prefer Fighfighter, the touchy feely PC way, just pretend. We have some of the smartest folks in the world working in our profession. IAFF, NFPA, NIOSH, EGH, IAFC,etc, these folks are giving us tools to put in our paperwork toolbox everyday and as firemen and bosses, we need to use them to help keep our members safe. We have hands on training like Brotherhood of Instructors, Vulcan training groups and many other teaching the apparatus toolbox things to make us better firemen, everyday folks!

Novel idea time! Lets use the skills we honed in our apparatus tool box, get the saw, irons, hooks, axes, etc,  to take apart this fence and instead having party lines, like the politicians we all agree we don’t like. Let’s look together and have civil disscussions and conversations on how to make both toolboxes work together, to better enhance the Fire Service. Leave the fingerpointing and second guessing outside of our circle. We truely as Firemen are better than that. Be mindful of the families of the lost or injured Brothers the next time you feel you need to point a finger at any Brother or Department, it could be you tomorrow.

We are in the greatest Profession in the world, the bond we have with each other has no borders, nor should our professionalism to our citizens, towns, districts, and our country! Be Safe, but all buildings get searched, we say when and if that building is unoccupied.

Posted by on February 1, 2011 • Filed under: administration-leadership, Education/Training, firefighter-safety-health, firefighting-operations, line-of-duty • Tagged:

Remember the Horses

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When it’s my week to be the operator, I have my own routine. Just like everybody else has their own. I wash the truck and scrub the hard to reach areas that others don’t do. Then I check the oil, the medical equipment and the rest of the equipment in the cab, then I pull it out front and run the pump. By this time the truck is mostly dry and I get a towel and spend the next 30min or so polishing all the chrome and stainless steel.

Well, during the polish time today a junior firefighter comes up and tells me “you don’t have to put so much effort into washing the piece”. What? Did he seriously say that?

Do you remember the horses? Strong, dedicated, fearless and outdated. Horses had a shaky start in the fire service, just like every new technology does, but they took over and dominated for 60 or so years. There are stories of horses dying in the harness. Horses that were sold that still race towards fire alarms. Horses that would find the fire and the hydrants for the firefighters. Great animals. But it came time for them to go. Guess why? Financial reasons. Don’t think you are exempt from that reason, you are currently allowed to be at the firehouse because your city has not YET cut the staffing to you. You are allowed to be here because the current technology that your city has decided to afford requires the current staffing level. So, yes I do have to put so much effort into maintaining the truck because I am grateful to have this job.

Here are a few other reasons I put so much effort into making the truck look good.

1. The neighborhood\d LOVES to see us out in front of the firehouse washing the truck. Far more people stop and look. Far more people bring their kids to look, and more people ask questions about what we do. Hmmm, customer service? Community relations? You pick the category.

2. Cities will cut staffing as they see fit. Not too many of us have to look very far to see evidence of that, right Lawrence Massachusetts, Wilmington Delaware Rescue 1?. If the neighborhood loves you they will fight for you, you can ask Boston Engine 50 about that. So making friends in the neighborhood is a good thing.

3. New sprinkler heads (not so new now) that turn off by themselves have the potential to make the down and dirty job of firefighting all but obsolete. Much like what happened to the horses. Sprinkler heads like Grinnell’s F920C and others may still be working the kinks out, but when they get these things figured out they will change our job. Also sprinklers may eventually be required in ALL properties. Real estate developers are currently fighting sprinkler installation in new construction, but even if they succeed in postponing it, it’s still only a matter of time. By the time a new firefighter today gets near retirement age the job will be far less dangerous, have far fewer members and have a higher scope of practice than it currently does. It will be a different job.

I polish the truck for me, my crew and for every member of my community.

I polish it for the horses.

Stay Safe

Posted by on January 6, 2011 • Filed under: Education/Training, Thoughts • Tagged:

Hello VPS!

17 comments

I heard these were coming to my city.  The department said they would be put on some vacant properties in the “less desireable” areas of the city.  Imagine my surprise to see it 2 blocks from my house.

Moving on.  Cruising the neighborhood DOES count as training.  I let a few truckies in the area know about this and now my street looks like a parade route.  Either they are interested in the VPS security system or someone is giving away free lunch.

These are not easily defeated.  They do not help with ventilation.  They do not help with access or egress for us.  The properties involved are arson targets and as you can see in one of these pictures the rear porch doesn’t have decking on it. What does that imply about the rest of the building?

My thought is exterior ops, then send minimal crews in for overhaul.  Your life safety should not be risked for an obviously vacant building.   Get in touch with the company that is managing the property and take a tour, figure out how to defeat these things.  I’ve heard they have steel cross bars inside just like the wooden models that board up companies put up.  If that is the case you’d need a diamond blade on the demo saw.  I would recommend the standard abrasive blade but I think that would dissolve quickly and you might only get 1-2 cuts at the needed depth.

Let me know if you have a trick to getting these off safely.

Stay Safe, and good luck with these.

www.vacantpropertysecurity.com

Posted by on November 11, 2010 • Filed under: Building Construction, Drills, Education/Training, training-development, training-fire-rescue-topics, Truck Tips • Tagged: ,

Fire Ground Search

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When you first began to study the fire service and its history, one of the first statements you learn is the mission statement. In this mission statement, it states that our top priority is to save lives and then property. When you are attending, your BASIC fire class one of the skills continually repeated is search and rescue. You are taught to get in and search for life whether you are apart of a hose team or just a crew for search and rescue. When operating in a dwelling or building fire you should be conducting search for life if the conditions allow. The reason we are here is to save lives. The Building is secondary. When you are on scene if you are the IC make, sure this basic but critical task is done. If you are a company officer, ask the IC for the assignment if it is not pre-determined. It is never acceptable to find out after the fire has been extinguished that there was a victim inside. When conducting primary searches firefighters must still stick to the basics of right and left hand search patterns; using the tools such as the Halligan, Axe, Hook, and Thermal Imagers to aid finding a trapped occupant. Practice searching as often as you can! I promise you will learn something new all the time. Get the searches done! It is your job!

Posted by on November 4, 2010 • Filed under: Education/Training, Thoughts, Truck Tips • Tagged:

Flashover Training Needs To Be A Part Of Basic Recruit Training

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Great teaching tool

As firefighters enter the service they should be given as much education as possible to survive. Flashovers are not just something that should be taught out of a book or viewed on a video. Until you have truly been able to witness a flashover and the signs leading up to a flashover, you are truly not prepared. Firefighters are in desperate need of this training as a part of the basic firefighting classes due to the amount of btu’s given off by the materials that are produced now. With the increase in using plastics and foams in building materials and furniture, the list could go on, these events can happen a lot sooner than anticipated. A few signs of Impending flashover are:

  1. Thick black turbulent smoke
  2. Banking down of the smoke
  3. High heat build up
  4. Little fingers of fire are showing ( Rollover or Flameover )

Simulators like in the above training can be brought in by professionals to let you experience a flashover and teach you techniques to recognize and prevent a flashover from occuring. Learning about flashover is apart of basic fire behavior so why not the hands on training.

Posted by on November 3, 2010 • Filed under: Education/Training • Tagged: , ,

Engaged and Ownership

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What do these two little words mean to you in your life? They have different meanings for all of us I’m sure, but, how much thought do we give to these words in our Professional lives as Firemen and as Brothers

In our everyday lives we are engaged in sports, playing, coaching, watching, etc. We are engaged in our families, by being loving husband or wives, fathers or mothers, watching our children grow into well rounded adults. We own cars, houses, computers, cell phones, you name it, we seem to own it. I’m sure everyone out there could fill the page or pages with more, but what do these two little words mean to us as a Fireman? Look in the mirror and ask yourself, if the same level of engagement and ownership at home, is the same level you put forth, when the bell sounds, if everyone did, this would not have ever been written.

Do you take ownership of the Fire Service? Many of our “brothers” will tell you they do, while they are on that cell phone they own, discussing their secondary job for the next day, in the middle of a light weight building construction class? Think about you and the members you rely on every day. This example is only one of a thousand different examples floating around our Profession.

Is your department, your company, or most importantly you as a Professional Firefighter, regardless, career or volunteer, fully engaged in your Profession for the your tour, however long it might be? Do you train, using relevant training or do or you officers pencil whip it to make everything look in order? Do the officers and the senior members work with the younger, newer members to mentor them, or is that “silly training” we just did a couple months ago? Okay, so what’s your point 

Are we as Fireman fully engaged to the job at hand? I say absolutely not for many of us and to me that is unacceptable. Josh Materi, from the Seattle Fire Department put it best. I hope many of you have seen the quote, if not try using that computer you own to search Facebook for it, instead of checking out prospective dates or local pubs. Pay attention to lessons learned by becoming engaged in the recent events going on in our Profession, the rescues in Lowell Mass, wall collapses injuring our Brothers in Detroit, and many more. Become Engaged in our Job, not the fantasy football team you are going up against next Sunday.

Every tour is a training tour; every tour is a learning tour. Fires happen period. We as true Brothers would take a job every shift, but, it doesn’t work out that way. Every time we get on the rig, is a time for us to shine, because we are not being called just to see our smiling faces. We are being called to mitigate someone’s worst day. For those out there that do not like running calls or feel the strong need to drive extra slow to that alarm activation, because you are sure it’s false or we might get disregarded, consider another line of work! This Profession is about so much more than a paycheck and days off. Our Profession is about saving Lives and Property, it is time for all of the Fire Service to stand up look in the mirror and treat Ownership and Engagement as Priority number 1.

Posted by on October 26, 2010 • Filed under: Drills, Education/Training, Thoughts, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: ,

Aiken County Fire School is cancelled October 23-24,2010 More information to follow

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ACFFA Fire School Flyer

Please Click on the above link for the flyer and registration form.

Posted by on October 20, 2010 • Filed under: Education/Training, training-development, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged:

“Try Me” drill for you and the Drillmaster

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OK Brothers and Sisters, a little homework for all of us. I sit behind this keyboard and come up with drills that we all have used or have used in company training to keep up on our toes. I would like you all to give me some topics that hold specific meaning for you and your departments. I want to hear from all of you, this gives me an opportunity to learn from you all as well, let’s give this drill a shot. Fear not, engine, high rise, you make the call, building construction, and many more are sitting in my folder for the future. This “try me” drill is one of the first drills my first volunteer Chief dropped in my lap 28 years ago. Away we go, let’s see what is out there! Drillmaster2.

Posted by on September 29, 2010 • Filed under: Drills, Education/Training • Tagged:

Five Point Size-Up by Lt. Bob Pressler

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B- Building

E- Extent

L- Life Hazards

O- Occupancy

W- Water

Posted by on September 27, 2010 • Filed under: Building Construction, Drills, Education/Training, firefighting-operations • Tagged: ,

Type V Construction and You

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This is an easy drill Brothers, maybe. Company officers it’s time to teach, both you and your members. On the next tour, make some time and drive around your first due area, make a list of all the type V structures. We know the residential are, but what about businesses. Make your lists individually and check them against your inspection files, when you get back in the house, see how well you and your company did. Grab some lunch, then discuss the risks associated with these buildings and how you will handle them, when you get that call at 03:00. Enjoy! special thanks to Chief Gettemeir from FVFPD, for the class I attended to jog my mind to pass this drill on to everyone.

Posted by on September 20, 2010 • Filed under: Building Construction, Drills, Education/Training • Tagged:

Join some of the crew from Firefighter Basics in Class Colleton Fire, Task Force 1

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Colleton Fire, Task Force 1 Join for trainingColleton Fire, Task Force 1 Join for trainingPlease Click the above link to learn more information for this great training opportunity.

Posted by on September 9, 2010 • Filed under: Drills, Education/Training, Scenarios, training-development, training-fire-rescue-topics

Forcible Entry Training Video

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Posted by on September 2, 2010 • Filed under: Education/Training, Truck Tips

RIT and a little challenge tossed in.

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Ok  folks, here we go. We all or most have been hit by less manpower, because we all know we can do more with less. For those of that run with a 3 person company, (Driver, Boss, and a Firefighter) no real challenge here. For those who have 5 or 6 member teams here is the challenge. My company just went through this, we had an acquired structure, through a neighboring FD, but be creative! Three member company as RIT, now take one out to be the victim, two out right? Mayday called, the two member team, equipped with a TIC, RIT bag, and at least a tool, goes in after the downed FF, this downed FF is on the second floor or basement, ours was on the second floor. Drill and Challenge Time!!

1. Do your members know how to call a Mayday and When to call? You might be surprised.

2. Building construction and layout of the structure, confusing?

3. Can two members handle this job?

4. Composure, think about it

5. Radio Traffic

Bosses need not be a victim! Train your folks, show some leadership ability or don’t see what happens. Brothers will more than two members, try this with two, as they say, see how the other half-lives!

Enjoy, can’t wait to hear from all ranks, Be Safe, this is to make us think, not get us hurt!

Posted by on September 1, 2010 • Filed under: Building Construction, Drills, Education/Training, Engine Tips, Truck Tips

Truck Company Daily Checks

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Like always, I’m not here to tell you your job.  Do what’s in your SOP’s and what you’re told to do by your bosses.  I’ve been bouncing around the city in my half a$$ promotional status and I’ve had the pleasure and displeasure of working with a variety of crews.  I just want to review your apparatus operational checks that you do every day.  Again, this isn’t a safety check or anything else, just thoughts.

1.  Safety check, walk around, brakes etc…. DOCUMENT ALL ISSUES and send the report to the proper place.

2. Check the jacks for operation, and range of motion before setting them to throw the aerial.  Do you know any override procedures and how the override affects the aerial operation?  When you throw the aerial don’t just spin it and drop it in the bed.  Throw it to the roof and climb it, one fire house I was at had a garden on the roof and it was the truck operator’s job to water it.

3. Saws need to be warmed up or they will gum up and won’t run properly.  RUN them.  Run the generators and hook up a load, flood lights, fans, whatever they should be loaded to get to full operating temperature just like the saws.  If you’re allowed to, clean out the air filters.

4. Sharpen your tools.  “Salty” tools look pathetic and unprofessional.  Grind the burrs off, wire brush them smooth, and then a LIGHT coat of oil.  They don’t have to be super sharp or you’ll just damage them worse the first time you use it.  You’ll get the hang of it.

5.  Check the jaws and open and close them, don’t forget to leave them open just a little.  We have had issues where the motor ran fine but the pump wouldn’t work or a line was leaking.  Unless you have a new style tool that can be connected and disconnected under pressure make sure you go back after you shut it down and operate all the valves to balance/release pressure.

6. A quick look at the ladders to see if they look right and make sure to operate any pencil/little giant that you have, they get sticky.

7. Finally; check on all those odd ball tools that never get used.  They might be in that rusty compartment that no one knows about.  Give a quick look and identify their uses.  They all exist for a reason so make sure you know it.  You might get to use them once in your career but that one time you’ll be glad you had it.

Let me know what I missed and Be Safe

Posted by on August 19, 2010 • Filed under: Drills, Education/Training, Truck Tips