Write It Down!
DEPARTMENTS
EDITOR’S OPINION
More years ago than he’d probably care to admit, a young captain, who “grew up” in the tenement areas of New York City, was promoted to the rank of battalion chief. His background, he was told, would never prepare him for the high-rise experience of Manhattan where he was newly assigned.
One of his first “experiences” occurred in the dawn hours of an awakening business district. The entire facade had been blown away from a 44story office building, covering the midtown street with rubble and leaving a 400-foot skeleton standing in its place. Fire and search responsibilities were, to say the least, complicated, enormous, and dangerous. More companies arrived than the batallion chief thought he would ever see as an interim commander. Orders were given in rapid-fire succession. Too rapid for memory.
A scowl-faced deputy chief arrived and, with a note of intimidation and intent to blame, asked, “Whadaya got?” and “Have you any idea where all your people are?”
“Tommy,” the battalion chief said to me later, “I don’t know why, but I wrote every order and communication down on a piece of paper.”
The stunned expression on the overbearing supervisor’s face reinforced this lesson for all of us ascending in the supervisory ranks of the fire service.
William Richmond, Philadelphia’s beloved fire commissioner, is facing an experience now that serves to heavily underscore the simple threeword title of this editorial. The actions or inactions of the city’s top decision-making officials, who were involved in the police action that resulted in the M.O.V.E. conflagration and the deaths of 11 civilians, have been under a week-long investigation by a special blue-ribbon commission convened by the mayor to apportion blame for an “absolute disaster.”
Commissioner Richmond followed 66 witnesses to the stand, each of whom presented testimony that contradicted not only each other, but virtually every point made in the case. Orders, statements, and scenarios were altered and reversed to support every accusation of blame.
Commissioner Richmond will indeed echo the battalion chief’s sentiments to “Write it down.”
Fire and emergency personnel are in a command business where those around us can choose to forget and alter circumstances when the critical finger of accountability begins to move in its circle. The fire service never had a “cover your a—” philosophy as do most of our politicos in today’s city managements. When pressed for an explanation of the week-long contradictions of “facts,” Commissioner Richmond replied, “I can’t tell you who is lying, 1 can only assume that when we come up here and put our hands on the Bible that we are all telling the truth.”
These two experiences may hold many lessons; however, one common thread is obvious. Command decisions made in the heat and urgency of battle are not always recalled exactly as they happened. Take the few extra moments to establish a running record. Write it down!
