Iwas very impressed with “Street Scenes” by Lieutenant Mike Ciampo (July 2008). These types of articles add quite a bit of great “user” type information for us in the volunteer/combination departments. Please keep those types of real-world articles coming.
James Woodworth
ERT Captain
Marathon Petroleum Company
Illinois Refining Division
Company inspections more than just housekeeping
How many departments have an active “company inspection” program? How many of these programs use all the members of a shift or station? These questions come up in the suburban arena all the time. Officers are responsible for the completion of the inspection, and the punch list is followed. But, is that all we need to do? I’d like to think not.
The “company inspection” is a vital part of the firefighting aspect of our lives. Although we all agree that aggressive inspections and compliance minimize fires, what about fire deaths? Could it not be argued that fire deaths are also reduced? Sure, fewer fires, fewer opportunities for fires. I think not. Whether we like it or not, fires will always happen, even in the most compliant of occupancies, without any violations. The training and familiarity that come with being in the occupancies is what truly reduces our risks. A case in point is the Super Sofa Store fire in Charleston, South Carolina. It was a huge tragedy. One of the items mentioned in the investigative report was the lack of current inspections for the premises.
Let’s examine this point a little more closely. The owner’s failure to obtain permits and the use of improper construction practices often mean that the city and the fire department have no idea that changes have been made. Maybe occupancies like that wouldn’t be inspected by a company. But then again, why shouldn’t they? I’m not advocating turning all firefighters into fire inspectors. International Fire Service Training Association (IFSTA) Fire Ground Support Operations, First Edition, states in Chapter One: “All too often, firefighters fail to understand how a fire inside a structure is behaving because they are unfamiliar with the type of construction and its characteristics or with remodeling that the structure has undergone over the years.” How do we get our firefighters to become “familiar” with these structures? Driving through town and looking at the front or sides of a building just doesn’t cut it anymore. What’s going on inside?
Even if building department and fire prevention personnel are in these buildings and preplans are complete, the information is only one-dimensional. It’s documented, but nothing goes over like physically visiting the building, talking with the occupant, discussing what changes would benefit them (as well as your operations), and creating a sense of belonging to a “bigger” picture. The Super Sofa Store had an abundance of maneuverability issues within the “showroom.” Maybe discussions between occupants and fire line personnel would have trickled down to more room, maybe not; 20/20 hindsight is not fair. But the questions remain: Are we really prepared? How do we accomplish this?
All programs start with code adoption and education. The fire codes, the National Fire Protection Association, and the International Code Council give the minimum requirements for construction and safety. Look at your community, your department, your resources, and your time.
Creating a program takes time; it also takes commitment. It takes commitment from the trustees, the administration of the department, the shift leaders, and the firefighters. It takes education. You need people who are familiar with the fire codes and how to follow up on the issues. You need to be aggressive toward completion. It does not stop there, though. This type of program also needs to flourish. It needs to develop a strong relationship between industry and the community. Public education programs need to keep the community associations informed of the benefits of these programs.
Information sharing also needs to be developed and maintained. The information superhighway needs to be available to every line officer, staff officer, chief officer, and so on. Not just one crew should be familiar with the occupancy. What about the other shifts or backup companies? If a tragedy were to strike early in the incident, the information obtained needs to be available. The type of information we are concerned about includes building drawings and digital pictures of the exterior of the building, floor plans for the interior of the premises, the types and hazards of the commodities within the building, hazardous materials, and so on.
It sounds like a preplan, doesn’t it? Well, in effect, getting into these occupancies for inspections is exactly that. We need to make sure our information is up to date. We need to realize that structures, businesses, and layouts change. That is the reason company inspections are so important. It is repetitive work. However, based on the potential for catastrophic losses, including lives, it has become a necessary evil.
As Chief (Ret.) Alan Brunacini (Phoenix, Arizona) noted in ”Old Mutt, New Tricks” (Rules of Engagement, Fire Engineering, June 2008): “The structural fire we fight is the result of how that place meets or does not meet the code and the behaviors of the people connected to that fire event.” Without seeing these buildings and operations, we cannot be properly prepared for the firefight we may encounter.
Michael Tolka
Lieutenant
Addison (IL) Fire Protection District #1
More than an “Opinion”
In “NASCAR and Elephants” (Editor’s Opinion, August 2008), Editor in Chief Bobby Halton presented a great story and a very true analogy.
Jay G. Reynolds
Senior Instructor
Delaware State Fire School
Dover, Delaware
The August Editor’s Opinion is probably one of the most upfront, germane, and best written examples of where the fire service is today that I have ever read. I applaud Bobby Halton for having the integrity to “say it like it is” and for his honesty in relating the story, which could have had a much different ending.
A smile came to my face as I read the reference of the “old bulls” of the fire service. They are truly the backbones of the service and the people we emulated when we first joined up. It’s a shame so many of us have been put out to pasture. Being so forthright goes a lot further than beating around the bush.
Adrian J. “Buddy” Cales
Asset Protection Manager
PSEG-Corporate Security Services
A safer approach?
I read with interest in News in Brief (July 2008) that Florida was now going to require placarding of structures with trusses. While I applaud the Florida legislature for taking steps to provide important information to firefighters, I wonder if they got it backward. If a placard on a truss building were missing, firefighters may be lulled into a false sense of security. Shouldn’t we placard the buildings that do not have trusses? Placarding nontrussed buildings would still give responders important information about the structure for size-up purposes. If the placard could not be seen because of weather or darkness or was removed because of remodeling, responders would treat the building as a truss building, thus erring on the side of safety.
After all, with our knowledge of modern building construction and the common use of trusses, shouldn’t we assume a modern building is of truss construction and fight the fire accordingly unless we know otherwise? We all know there is much more to size-up than reading a placard, but during the hectic first few moments of a fire, we should do all we can to gather important information to ensure the safety of our members. A missing placard should not lead us in an unsafe direction. These views are strictly mine, not those of my department.
Thomas Crist
Firefighter
Melville (NY) Fire Department
Looking for “here and now” answers
I started hanging out at my local fire department when I was a teen (1990s). It was different then. You saw more fire, and EMS was the wayward child. We grew up with the 30° fog pattern, and every response was an emergency. We all found out that our attitude toward EMS is really like looking up to your younger brother but not wanting to admit it to anyone and that the fire department of the past truly is in the past. A few years ago I attended FDIC, and a mother of a fallen firefighter spoke to all of us. She told us if we really wanted to save lives we need to be more supportive of sprinklers. What was I thinking? If all new and renovated structures had sprinklers, then what? After her plea, everyone was quiet, because I was not the only firefighter in there thinking about it. And no one talked about it after the opening ceremony.
We are told that live-fire training is too dangerous and should be outlawed. But, you ask, “How am I going to grow as a firefighter with no live-fire training?” or “Can I continue to grow as a firefighter with evolutions and simulators?” Chief (Ret.) Alan Brunacini, Phoenix, Arizona, tells us that an unoccupied commercial structure with fire showing is an automatic defensive fire. Well, what about the big one? We firefighters, young and old, hear what these leaders are telling us, but we do not want to hear it for many reasons.
Are we being selfish? Am I in this business to be the hero? It’s a very confusing time for firefighters, especially young, impressionable ones. Whom do we followthe old guys looking for a reason not to go in or that firefighter who has never lost? Or are those old cautious firefighters looking out for our future? The fire service is full of fads and buzzwords. So, are these changes fads or what the U.S. fire service is becoming? We continue to respond to fires and a lot of EMS calls. It is a changing fire service, but whom do we follow? To whom do we listen? I do not know either. But our fire service is going to change with or without us.
Ryan Murphy
Firefighter
Janesville (WI) Fire Department
The many sides of training
As we continue in our endeavor to catch up and meet the demands of today’s fast-moving fire service, we must not forget that training is the most essential tool we have. It feels as if, with all the obligations fire departments have committed to, training has gone to the back of the list. Training, too many times, is being pushed to the back to accommodate the more public and government-pleasing tasks we find ourselves doing week in and week out. We need to remember that training is and always will be the foundation that keeps the fire service ready to respond. Our foundation starts with the application process to obtain employment at a fire department. We must abide by the exact rules and regulations set forth by the agency to make sure that our application is not tossed to the side because of our not following instructions.
Next, we go through months of testing and assessments of our mental and physical capabilities. If we are lucky, we can sell ourselves as the best candidate to a panel of officers who hold our future in their hands. When the day comes to start rookie school, we reflect on the effort it took to obtain the job and how militant the process was and want to make sure we don’t get out of line or mess up. Entering rookie school, we prepare to endure whatever they throw at us to prove ourselves worthy of the job. The accomplishment of completing rookie school will stay with us a lifetime. The memories of obstacles we overcome and lifetime friendships made will be ingrained in us forever.
Our first day on the job is incredible; we just want a call, any call, so we can put our training into action. After several months on the job, we are already starting to settle in and think we are pretty knowledgeable and that these old-timers sitting on the recliner didn’t receive the extensive training we did. Maybe now is a good time for the wake-up call!
These old-timers who have been holding down the fort while we were getting ready for our roles may not have the extensive training, but they have life experience that will take us many, many years to obtain. We must use all of our resources (young and old) to make sure we pass along new and old fire tactics and training that will be used for years to come. We need to get back to hard-core training, reaffirming those basic skills we so easily forget. I find today’s firefighters having trouble with simple tasks like hoseline tactics and techniques. There is an art to humping hose and backing up the nozzleman. How easy it is for the hoseline to be the hardest job on the fireground!
We need to evaluate ourselves on an individual, companywide, and departmentwide basis and conduct training that will strengthen our weaknesses before they become our downfall. Take the time to make a self-evaluation and start training. Others will follow suit. When we train, we have a tendency to unite just as if we were on a working structure fire. There is a certain part of us that “clicks” when we have a challenge or task in front of us. Training brings out the best while exposing the worst in us. We need to be strengthening each other, and we will see the fruit on the fireground. It sounds so basic and easy, but it seems so hard to accomplish. It’s almost as if we have to train to train.
Pabel Troche
Firefighter II/Paramedic
Smyrna (GA) Fire Rescue
