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.
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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!
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
So, after another frustration round of training where everybody knows everything and the boss gets shouted to the back row, I’ve come to a conclusion (again). You need to have an SOP that outlines what companies should do at different incident types. Lacking that there should at least be a list of minimum standards.
I’m going to start with water rescue because we just messed this up the other day, at a drill not an incident. I’ll just list the minimums and you can go from there.
1. PFD, PFD, PFD. Don’t go near the water without one. Stay in the spectator area if you are only going to contribute to the crowd. Otherwise you can/will fall in and become part of the problem.
2. If you have a dingy that you toss on top of your apparatus STRAP IT DOWN. If it’s on a trailer take the extra second to make sure it’s attached correctly to whatever is pulling it.
3. If that dingy has a motor shut the motor off when near people or floaters or whatever. Don’t operate the blender near flesh. Send a rescuer to the victim and pull them to the boat together. If you don’t need to get in the water DON’T.
4. Don’t let the non-swimmer do a damn thing. Keep them away from the water or they will find a way to add to the problem. Have them go get towels or something equally useful.
5. Remember water rescue in this order; Teach, Reach, Throw, Go.
Teach: “Hey, stand up!” or “Move that way”
Reach: “Grab the stick, Side of the boat, or That buoy”
Throw: “Grab the rope.” Grab the ring” Etc..
Go: “Jump in there Jr. Man” Make sure your guy has a rope on him. We don’t play the maybe game. If he goes out, we always have a way to get them back.
At training there should be a safety boat or another dingy that stays out in the water and does nothing but keep an eye on everyone in the water.
I only say these things because we messed most of them up. How do you do this all the time and still be clueless? And every time we go out and play in the water someone gets run over by the front of the boat and everybody laughs, me included, because if reinforces so many points
Be Safe
Let’s take a look at identifying hazards in different structures. This drill is great because it can be used in-house or on the street and really should be used by officers and firefighters alike. This drill is gaged to make us think and use our common sense, yes I said it, Common Sense! Since this has the ability and should be expanded to meet everyone own first due and then some, I’ll give you ten occupancy types, identify a minimum of 3 a maximum of whatever your company wants, of construction, entrapment, fire spread, etc, hazards for each. These examples are out of my own town of 4 square miles. Enjoy!
1. Single family residential
2. Bowling alley
3. Occupied multiple dwelling
4. Auto repair Center
5. Big Box Store
6. Fast Food Resturant
7. Strip Mall
8. Car Dealership
9. High- Rise Structure
10. Large Shopping Mall
Ok, while I’m not great at getting all the pretty visuals in here yet, this is another good drill for everyone, boss to probie.
Your company is dispatched to a dumpster fire at 01:30 in your apartment complex, your dispatcher notifies you that PD is on the scene with a dumpster fully involved at the location. As your company turns onto the street you pass the closest hydrant, you can see a glow from around the last building in the complex. You arrive to find a commercial dumpster going from end to end, with exposures on the B, C, and D sides of the dumpster. Vehicles on the B and D side and a wooden privacy fence, and electrical pole well involved on the C side. Dumpsters are a cake walk right, wrong! Here’s some questions to jumpstart the mind.
1. What level of PPE is required on this job?
2. Where should your apparatus be positioned?
3. What size line are you going to stretch?
4. What hazards present themselves with the dumpster?
5. Overall hazards of this fire?
6. Do you have procedures in place at your FD for overhaul?
7. What safety considerations are needed for your crew?
8. Trash line attack, or do you have other option?
9. Are bystanders or PD a reliable source of information?
10.Oh yeah, you have 500 gallons of water, now what?
Enjoy guys!
Here is a quick a simple little drill for improving our knowledge of our portable radios, without even picking one up. Needed for the drill: Piece of blank paper for each member, a pencil, and hopefully, the memory is up to the test.
Every member gets to draw a rough picture of the portable they carry, including all pertinent buttons, knobs, bands, and explain all. When everyone is done, get a radio and compare how the crew has done.
Each members keep the drawing, for review at a later day. Simple and easy, the end results are interesting and a review we all need from time to time.
Ok so I am not claiming to be an expert on loading LDH or anything but to see this makes me wonder. What are people thinking when they load hose? This is the rear of the hose bed. Who was in charge of the process? Paying attention to details can go a long way. Check all equipment before it goes back into service. Lets hear some comments on what you all think.
Answer the following questions.
1. What is Balloon Frame Construction
2. What are the Hazards associated with Balloon Frame construction
3. What Classification does Balloon Frame construction fall under meaning Type
Use video to practice size-up and discuss your operations. There is no Charlie side view so do the best you can
Black Fire is a high volume, high velocity, turbulent, super dense black smoke.
L- Ladders
O- Overhaul
V- Ventilation
E-Forcible Entry
R- Rescue and Search
S- Salvage
U- Utilities
These are all truck functions that need to be performed or assessed to see if they need to be performed
This fire started in the garage and quickly moved interior. The fire was caused by a leaking fuel line on a truck. The house was a near total loss. Give your size up and tactics you would use for this fire
Tactics Tuesday, posted with vodpod
All over the internet we see video and pictures of big city fire departments, the amazing structure fires they have and the seemingly endless amounts of manpower they are able to provide. Type in any big city that is near you and you will more than likely find a video or two or several that someone has taken. FDNY, over 11,000 videos on you tube. Chicago has over 900 videos. Los Angeles Fire, over 2,000 videos. These are just a few departments that I look up real quick. They see the “big” fires on an almost daily basis. They have the opportunity to see fire every shift. Everyone big or small has the opportunity to see fire every shift.
For the most part these departments have it together when it comes to fire ground operations and other various jobs that are performed in our profession. Watching some of these videos can provide some very valuable information. Some will show good ways to perform various functions such as roof ventilation, forcible entry, and auto extrication. Some videos show the not so good side of firefighting. The point is that there is something to learn from every video. Good or bad.
If you are in a small town or city department, do not have the mentality that the big cities do things any differently than you. The biggest difference, is that the big cities have the opportunity to perform firefighting operations on a larger scale and more often than smaller ones. Do not let this discourage you from learning from the bigger department and taking something away from them. On the other side of that, big cities can learn something from the smaller departments to. Ventilation is ventilation. The big cities do not ladder the building, use any special saws, or cut the hole any differently than you would at a smaller department. Forcible entry is performed the same way. A pump is a pump. The bigger department pumps pump the same way as those in a smaller one. Extrication is extrication.
One of the biggest things that I believe is wrong is training. If you train your people, there is no reason that you cannot have the mentality that you can do exactly what the big city departments do. In reality, we do. We do the job just the same as the big department do. Fire is fire. Water is water. An engine is an engine. A ladder is a ladder. A rescue is a rescue. Just because you are in a smaller department doesn’t mean you cannot have a big city mentality. A friend of mine is a Lt. in a smaller volunteer department and they have adopted the “Metro” mentality. Train, learn, and share. By doing this we can all learn from one another. Big or small, we all dress the same. We go into burning buildings and put the fire out the same. Stay safe and train like you fight.
A rapid chemical process in which the combination of a substance with oxygen produces heat and light. How many of you got it right? Or learned it a different way.
Based off of what you see. Give your size-up as the first arriving engine officer. Describe the strategies and tactics you may use to combat this fire.
more about “Tactics Tuesday“, posted with vodpod
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A condition in which all combustibles in a room or confined space have been heated to the point at which they release vapors that will support combustion, causing all combustibles to ignite simultaneously.
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