2013 Greenville SC Fight for air climb.

Well I completed my first Fight for air climb today. And 1310 grueling stairs later I can say I finished, a full lap around the lower deck of the Greenville SC BI-LO center, in full bunker gear, SCBA, and breathing air. No record time for me, but with no training and having not run more than the stairs in our station since fire academy, I was proud of myself. Eight members from my department competed in the 2013 Fight for air climb (enough to earn us a bronze sponsorship and a department logo on the obligatory "i did it" shirt). A small feat but something to be proud of. The one thing i saw today though that was better than anything else was the obvious aura of brotherhood present. I cant recall exactly but roughly eight different fire departments were present, some with two people, some closer to ten. But the group of firefighters that showed up clearly were the ones who understood brotherhood. Im sure there were some real competition minded guys in the bunch, but if so they never showed it (although these were most likely the ones passing me on the stairs). Everyone there was one big family, there to have fun and raise money and awareness for lung disease. Getting to see brothers from other departments and joke about who will be carried into the winners circle to collect our winnings was the best part of the whole day. After dealing with a slight morale funk it was refreshing to be a cousin at a family reunion. No one had to know anybody, but we all knew what the other did on a day to day basis, The sacrifices they had made, and what they had given to make a difference in the world. And through that came rejuvenation. A word I absolutely did not think would be a descriptive word of the day turned out to be the most fitting.

 So in closing, will i do it again next year? Currently my legs tell me no, but I will. And I will be in better shape and ready to conquer those stairs once again. 

If your having a tough time with brotherhood or morale, just know there are others out there who lack it and desire it just that same. And sometimes something you thought would be the death of you turns out to bring new life.

Expect fire...

Engine 1 be en-route, automatic fire alarm activation...

Sound familiar? It should, thousands of firefighters are dispatched to automatic fire alarms every day. And as we know, 99% of the time we do a walk around, find the alarm panel, reset the alarm, and go home. Routine? Shouldnt be...

I cant recall the first time i heard the phrase "expect fire" but after i did it stuck with me. Too many times we get the alarm at 2 A.M. we dont pack out, dont wear our PPE, and most importantly dont expect fire.

What could be worse than showing up to reset the alarm panel in nothing but your turnout pants and whatever t-shirt you were sleeping in, only to find a strange orange glow associated with billowing black death coming from the 4th floor of your local office building...You know what im talking about, the thing we didnt expect...fire. Now what? How far behind the 8 ball are you now?

I can recall a bank not 1 block from our headquarters station that was notorious for false alarms. I was new to the fire service and even expecting fire as a new guy, I too had grown complacent with this structure. However one day like any other, around noon, the tones mentioned above dropped for an automatic alarm. We went the whole 1/4 mile down the road not thinking about more than what we could see out the window only to arrive and see thick black smoke pushing from the roof (six floors above)...Lets just say we got caught with our pants down so to say. The necessary steps were taken, entry was made, and the whole structure was charged with smoke. The elevator motor had caught fire and was burning enough to charge 6 floors with smoke. We ended up performing an elevator rescue for a handful of people, located the fire, and got everything under control. This incident luckily wasnt a tragedy, however ever since that day I have made my best attempt to adopt the phrase "expect fire" for every call.

You may say well we have never had an incident where the few seconds it takes to don my full ensemble made a difference. Well think through this scenario:

You are dispatched to smoke in the area (common) at 3 am. You arrive to find a two story residential home with two cars in the driveway and toys in the yard. No one is outside. You see heavy fire in the middle room, A side, second floor, self vented. Hopefully at this point the AB and DA corners are being viewed as VES opportunities. You see thick black smoke pushing from the upper levels of the rooms. How many seconds are wasted on now donning your PPE that could be used to VES a room and potentially save a viable victim? In minutes these rooms may flash. Farfetched? Not so much...

One search regarding this issue will reveal dumpster fires turning into four alarm burners, automatic alarms with heavy fire on arrival, 911 hang-ups with victim rescues performed. We should never become so complacent that we put ourselves and the citizens at risk. This is our job and we are expected to perform a task when called on. The least we can do is be ready to operate at full capacity upon arrival.

False alarm? Great, we just had a real time drill. Now lets go home.

It happens. Be ready, be prepared, expect fire.

Reporting for duty...

     Welcome to Priority Firefighting! This will be my first ever Blog of any sort and I have high hopes for it and what will come of it. To start off, this is a page managed by a Firefighter for Firefighters. My goal is to bring to light my opinions, studies, and experiences regarding all aspects of the Fire service. I view the Fire service as more than a job; it is a lifestyle, career, art-form, calling, and a craft rolled into one. I loathe complacency and see the future of Firefighting heading down some roads with quite questionable tactics. At Priority Firefighting we will aim to better ourselves and others at the craft of Firefighting we are a part of, engaging in positive discussion we will give and take opinions from other brothers to make ourselves better at our job. My posts will be designed to get you thinking and outside the box. I look forward to learning more from others through this process than I do anything else.

     I refer to my Blog as "Priority Firefighting" for a reason. I feel that too many of us have gotten away from the three Firefighting priorities:

1. Life Safety
2. Incident Stabilization
3. Property Conservation

     Priority Firefighting will focus on these three critical steps when discussing tactics and procedures. Our own safety is paramount and reducing the number of LODDs is up to us. I am not here to re-invent the wheel, just with others help, make it a little rounder and smoother.

     I look forward to the discussion this blog will incite and hope someone sees my passion for the Fire service in the words I write.