Pride and Ownership

So this is a two part blog. Part one is a book review and part two is an essay I was required to write that refers to the book.

Part 1- Book review:

As I mentioned in a previous blog I have recently been selected as a new recruit with the City of Charleston fire department. As part of my moving up in the fire service I was required to read this book and write a short essay on it before my first day of recruit school. 

The book was one I have been wanting to read but never took the initiative to do so (a move I now regret). If you havent read it, stop reading this and go get it. Any fireman who owns it would be happy to loan it to you. Granted you dont mark it up and fold the pages. In that case youll be buying a new book. 

The book refers to exactly what the cover states. Its about Pride and ownership, as it refers to the love we have (or have lost) for the job. Chief Lasky puts it bluntly and gives a good kick in the side to most of us. This guy really, and I mean really loves his job. Chief writes in his book how we seem to have lost what it truly means to be a firefighter, how all the old timers and mentors are fading out, leaving us (and I speak for myself) to learn all the tips and tricks past down over the years on our own. But also what we lose with the generation change is our traditions. Chief goes on to give plently of examples as to how we can upkeep these traditions, building morale, and not forgetting what it means to be in the fire service.

The book is absolutely perfect for someone just getting into the fire service all the way up to the chief of chiefs and everyone in between. If you love your job youll be absolutely fired up (pun intended) after reading this.

My good friend and great fireman Dave Werner over at headsupfirefighting says, "its a great book, but unfortunately to many people read it and dont know what to do with it". What he means is its easy to read the book and look at all the great pictures, get fired up, put it down, and forget what you were fired up about. 

So I caution you, read the book, but fight for the job. Fight for what he speaks of. Learn to love the job or as he bluntly puts it "Get out".

Part 2- Essay:

As I mentioned i was required to write a short essay on what pride and ownership means to me in relation to the fire service. I could write for days on the subject but they only asked for 500 words so I figured I wouldnt make it too long. Its as follows:

Last week this essay changed. I had something said to me that I had never heard another person say before. Something that stirred a wave of emotion and helped me truly see the pride and love I have for my job. What was said to me is "I have never really looked at fighting fire as that big of a deal" Implying that my job required no risk, knowledge, skill, or inherent danger to perform. The moments following this quote are more of a blur than anything because my mind was racing with memories of my own experiences fighting fire, memories of my brothers and myself putting our lives on the line, getting burned, risking going home to our wives, and memories of brothers sacrificed, for what? For people who think what we do is not "that big of a deal"?

I had finished the book Pride and Ownership a few days prior and was still on a high after reading it so that may have lead to the many emotions i felt. But what truly became evident was the amount of pride I have for this job.

Pride is described as:

The quality or state of being proud: as

a : inordinate self-esteem

b : a reasonable or justifiable self-respect

c : delight or elation arising from some act, possession, or relationship.

For myself, pride as it relates to the fire service is a justifiable self respect, and delight of elation arising from some act, possession, or relationship.

The justifiable self respect comes from what Chief Lasky says regarding Firefighters, he states we are “the jack of all trades, but were also the masters of them all”. Through the knowledge and skills one acquires on the job its only right to have respect for yourself and the members of your department. For me the delight of elation arising from an act is the feeling I get when a call goes well, you put your skills to work, and they play out how you trained. When it arises from some possession, thats how I feel when I make the day my day. Its also the possession of the job, telling someone I am a firefighter implies possession and its true. I am my job, I have to be. And the elation I get from the relationship is like no other. Its one the people who do not know, never will. Its the brotherhood that comes with living one third of your life away from your first family to live with another.

Now when I think of ownership I think of that possession I talked about. Every day hundreds of thousands of firemen and women show up to work and as Quintus Horatius Flaccus said in 65 BC, Carpe Diem. Every day we must seize the day, especially at the firehouse. Because that shift is our shift, the trucks are our trucks, the tools are our tools. The constituents of our city depend on us to treat it like so. The firehouse is literally our home away from home and ownership comes naturally when the parts of pride we discussed have truly blossomed inside. The pride and the ownership of the job go hand in hand and we need to learn to treat it like so. A person who either does not know the job or does not have the pride most of us feel may not have felt the overwhelming emotion I felt when someone so blatantly discredited the work we do on a daily basis. When we truly come to fruition with the pride we all need to have in our job is the day when we treat the task at hand as the most important task of the day. No matter how trivial it may seem. Because how we treat the everyday is how we will react on the one day.  

Remember, we have the best job in the world. Be proud of that.

Bumper line loads

Bumper lines are one of those things crews either seem to overlook or are too nit-picky over. Personally  I enjoy the bumper line and have had the opportunity through two different departments to play with different hose loads and nozzles, also putting them into use on different car and trash fires. There are many different loads one can utilize for the bumper line, all with pros and cons.

One load I recently came across that i had never heard of is called the "Scorpion load" the video is from the guys at San Marcos Fire. I really liked the look of the load so my crew and myself gave it a shot last shift.

We currently use a hoseload that I am unfamiliar with if it has a name or not. So until I see it elsewhere Im going to refer to it as the basket load (self named due to the two handles similar to a basket you are left with). Essentially you start with laying a loop of hose perpendicular to the bumper, leaving a loop draped out of the hose bed, then make another loop (towards the grill) draped that way. Leaving two ears of hose coming out the front and back of the bumper. For the rest its a simple flat load running the direction of the bumper. Once loaded you're left with two ears of hose cradling a flat load, take one loop and feed it through the other. Leaving two handles put (like a basket) that are girthed together. For deployment you simply lift the handles and place the load on the ground and go. Sounds simple enough. One problem, now your left with a bundle of hose to be flaked out (we use 100'). With poor loading skills and the adrenaline of a call, its easy to kink up the hose.

The scorpion load is a quick and efficient load that is easy to deploy without kinks. We took 100' and loaded it accordion style (a basic load a lot of departments use) and timed one man deployments (working out the kinks), without running, the accordion load timed 17 seconds. One man scorpion load timed 10. Now 7 seconds doesnt seem like a lot, but if you can do it quicker and easier, why wouldnt you?

Heres the video from San Marcos Fire:

Scorpion load

Now, heres what I really like about this load. Its not shown in the video, but say you are in close quarters with the fire and dont have much room for all the hose to go straight out (which you wont in most parking lots or roadways) If you have two people available to pull the line, Nozzle man takes the nozzle and heads to the fire and the backup man takes the coupling loop and heads at a 90 degree angle from the way the nozzle man is heading. In our tests, the nozzle got stretched to roughly 40 feet from the truck with the hose fully flaked out in a large "S" ready to go. All in about 6 seconds. I couldnt help but enjoy such a perfectly orchestrated hose pull. 

Go out and train on what load your department uses. If it doesnt work very efficiently dont be afraid to try different loads. You never know what youll find. The key here is to train, train, train.

Three time probie

As I look at the calendar on the wall here in the station I see my last day circled and fast approaching. This will be my last day at my second fire department. Soon to move on to hopefully my final resting place errrr department.

I look at the last few years of my life as a learning experience. Having the opportunity to work for a fire department in central Florida, I've had the chance to travel the country providing disaster relief to thousands of disaster survivors, work for an upstate South Carolina fire department, and in less than two weeks ill become a probie once again for the City of Charleston South Carolina fire department. A move that needless to say im very excited about. I'll be going back through the fire academy in CFDs recruit school for at least 18 weeks and then the remainder of my year will be spent doing what the probie does. If you aren't familiar with how that goes I'm including a link from the guys at fireopsonline regarding the top 25 things a probie should know and do.

Take the time to read this if your looking into getting into the fire service or already are. Even a veteran could benefit from some of these firehouse behaviors.

25 things a probationary firefighter should know and do

The biggest thing I can add to this is, your probationary year (and even the first few years of your career) boil down to what you make of them.

Our job is hard, and sometimes the guys in your house are even harder. Understand that any joking or hazing is part of the job and comes with the territory. The guys want to know who you are. If you can't take a little joke, then I don't want you backing me up in a fire. If you break easy in the house, you'll break easy in the field.

Learn to joke and keep your nose in the books. Ask questions when you have them. Don't pretend you know how to do something if you don't. Don't brag, the guys will notice if your good at something. Be the first for almost everything, and train, train, train.

Always remember, you have the best job in the world. A job thousands of guys wish they had. Be thankful and always watch yourself.

VEISR

Okay so I'm not about to try and reinvent the wheel here. By no means do I have the experience or know how to try and give my "professional" opinion. But what I'd like to do is give my opinions and discuss things I've learned.

As mentioned in the beginning I am partial to truck company operations and strive to make sure I learn the art of truck work before it gets too watered down in years to come.

A fireground tactic I'm particularly for since I learned it a few years back is VES or incase you aren't familiar Vent Enter Search.

Essentially VES is an aggressive fireground tactic used to rapidly locate and extricate a victim from a room in danger of being overcome with fire conditions and when the only feasble means of entry/egress is through the window. You may have never heard of VES and this is new to you, you may have and need a refresher, or you may be a more experienced man and have better input than I do on the topic. Either way don't take my word for it, get out and train on it, as a company. Learn about it, because if you have any doubts on if you can step up to the plate when the time comes, chances are you can't.

First off we need to identify where the victim is located, we accomplish this one of two ways:
1. We have a very strong indication people are home due to clues on scene, time of day, cars in the driveway, etc...
2. We get off the truck and have a mom grabbing our turnout coat screaming and yelling my babies are in there! And pointing at the bedroom window.

The latter is a pretty good indication you have a victim, just be sure to clarify If her babies are human or animal. Not that it's of any less importance to the homeowner, but it should make a difference on how aggressive our tactics are going to be.

Once we have a possible victim location we need to initiate the first part of VES which is vent. First floor occupancies are an easy go. Take the window, the sash, and the curtains. Clear the glass and remove any obstructions.

I'd like to rewind for a moment and say something I hate that I have to say, but do not get off the truck without the tools for the job. Remember "two hands, two tools" (future article). At a minimum have a set of irons. In a perfect world with perfect staffing you'll have two people dedicated to this function, equipped with irons, a hook or two, a water can, and a tic. So get out and train, one and two man teams. See what works for you. But please, think how embarrassing it would be to get to the window with a screaming mother on your heels only to have to turn and run to the truck to grab your tools.

Back to venting...if its a two story a 24' should do nicely. A proper one man throw should get it in position and vent a good portion of the window. Place it at an exaggerated angle to allow for heavy loads and possible bailouts (remember we're going to the most volatile non-fire rooms there are, so back drafts are common with the sudden oxygen fed airflow we have created. This also means we have to act fast...real fast). Place the tip at or blow the sill.

For elevated first floor windows. Use a Halligan as a step or a loop of webbing on the tip of a hook for a leg up.

Side note. Once vented take this time to mask up. The few seconds it takes will allow it to backdraft if its going to initially. Thus making the room non tenable. If this happens move down the line to the next room. This also allows excess smoke to escape before we enter. Now you may say, we'll if I was ready to jump in before its lit off I might could have the victim. Well probably not. Most likely you would get caught In the flash thus breaking the first priority and point of this blog, life safety.

Now we've vented, next comes entry. Easy enough. Get inside. You can go two ways. Head first or feet first. Both have pros and cons. Head first puts you low and on your belly right away, but be sure you sound the floor before diving in. This way also makes you dedicated to the entry. Can't really turn back. Feet first places your head higher in the heat but allows you to feel the distance to the floor and allows you a back out move if things go south.

Train with your guys on placing a hook in the window sill. This allows two things:
1. It allows you a landmark when coming back around the room to find a window in the darkness.
2. Allows the outside guys to know that window is being searched. One caveat to this is, you have to train on this or to the outside guys, they'll just see is an extra tool. Leaving you landmark-less.

Once in we are going to change the name here, from VES to VEIS. We're adding isolate. By this we mean, isolate yourself and the victim from the fire. Easiest way to do this, find and close the door. Get low, see the door get straight to it. Sweep the immediate area outside the door, don't get crazy, just the immediate area and close the door.

Now comes search. We can do this different ways here. The fire academy way, searching on the wall covering a few feet of floor area. Or we can search for a victim and reach out and get them. Get your feet on the wall reach out and sweep. I'm 6'3" with a 6'5" wingspan, if I stretch out I can cover most any bedroom wall to wall with a tool. Find the bed, search over and under, search the closet, and especially under the window.

In a recent study on firefighter heart rates, heart rate were highest during search and rescue. Therefore making your senses go out the window. Stay focused on your surroundings maintaining situational awareness and be mindful of smoke and heat conditions. If your burning, get out, you don't have long.

For my own wording ill add an "R", standing for rescue. We need to not just practice searching, but also how well rescue a victim. Practice for ladders or high windows (remember Denver?) if we don't practice how well get the person(s) out then what good is finding them?

VES is one of the most dangerous fireground activities we can perform. It's focus is saving lives in the most aggressive manner we can muster as tactically as possible. Don't go out and jump in every window you see. Train on it and practice reading smoke. Our job is to save lives and this is another means of doing so. Remember to train, train, train.

Repetition is the mother of success...

Repetition is the mother of success...For some reason this past Sunday was the first time I have ever heard this saying, and it rang true. Repetition truly is the mother of success. I've often heard "luck is given to the prepared" and to an extent I believe this is true.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with a combat medic who spent some time in Afghanistan treating trauma patients in worse shape than any of us could ever imagine or have the opportunity to run in our careers. We talked about things he had learned and how he operated considering he didn't truly operate under medical direction or protocols for his stay in the desert. He was forced to adapt and overcome many truly austere situations utilizing the resources he had all the while, avoiding death.

One topic in particular we talked about was the gear he carried on his person. He stated he carried up to 15 CAT tourniquets at any time and made all his men carry almost just as many. However the part that interested me most was what they did with the tourniquets. Get this....they trained on them. Now some of you are probably turned off to this because I haven't spoke the fire language yet but hang with me for a minute.

Imagine these guys in the field, on the line, doing it to it. In their hands they have a CAT tourniquet, which once you learn it is really a simple application. But in the midst of all the stress of combat and when you'd think they wanted some down time, here they were, training. Left arm amputation, right leg amputation, light off, on your friend, night vision goggles on. They learned what they had to learn initially and continually trained on it, over and over and over, until they had it down, then they practiced some more. And it wasn't on advanced tactics. It was on the basics!

We need to be like this on a day to day basis. On or off work, the basic skills are what will save our life when SHTF. Pulling hose, air management, SCBA awareness, nozzle operations, forcible entry, calling a mayday, etc. These are the things we need to be (and dare I say) perfect on.

"We learned them in the academy and trained last year on  calling a mayday, why should I practice?" Take a listen to any number of mayday calls online. You'll see why. The things we thought we knew  go out the window when it all goes bad. We need to be able to almost act without thinking.

Remember, "In the heat of battle, you will never rise to the occasion, but only fall back on training".

OVM operations, do more with less...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gMpWgKsWQf4

Above is a great video put out by the guys at one nine truck going to work at a working fire. Now understand I am partial to truck company operations (as you'll see in coming posts) but partial or not, these guys are spot on with how they operate, especially the OVM.  This fire has very little fire footage but the point of posting it is to show how many tasks need to be going on outside while the engine company is performing fire attack.

One thing I particularly enjoy, besides the hustle, is how methodical he is. There is no question in his mind as to what he needs to do. In roughly 9 minutes (excluding the time from the footage of the other cameras) OVM ladders 3 sides of the building, vents necessary windows, creates a means of egress, passes off tools to control utilities, and gets to the roof for ventilation. Needless to say this guy is an animal.

One note I'd like to make regarding the means of egress is the fact that tunnel vision didn't take over. I would venture to say most guys would go straight to forcible entry, causing more damage to the home. Instead, he uses his brain and takes the window allowing him to easily manipulate the lock and open the door. Remember, our brains are a stronger tool than any set of irons.

Another thing regarding this video is that it reinforces my point that one trained guy can perform multiple tasks if manpower is limited. Doing more with less is something most departments are having to learn.

A note to the paid guys with excuses on manpower....it's to my understanding these guys are volunteers...

I want to again note the hustle of these guys and how ready to work they are when they get on scene.

The art of reading smoke

With one of the leading causes of LODD fireground operations being firefighters caught in flashovers, one must ask what is the reasoning behind this? Are we just too aggressive? Are we searching in areas victim survivability profiling would say are non-tenable? I would venture to say that a refresher in reading smoke may prevent many of these situations..

Smoke can tell us so much about what sort of fire we have, what may be burning, is it structural or still room and contents, where it is, where its going, etc...

I'm not going to try and re-invent the wheel here, just encourage you to take some time to include reading smoke in your personal and company trainings. Start with this video, it's ten minutes and full of great information about reading smoke. It's a great start. Then from there, open some other fire videos, pause it in the beginning, read the smoke and ask yourself questions and answers about your opinions. Watch the video and see if your right....

The art of reading smoke

Not for the faint of heart...

So the reason I actually started writing this blog was due to a frustration I live with and wanted to write about. Its in regards to the all time most heated fire service debate...Volunteer Vs Paid...Since the beginning of the fire service when paid guys were first being introduced there has been a rivalry. And the reality is it will always go on. Just like Fog Vs Smoothbore or Truck Vs Engine these arguments will forever go on. However my strong feelings are not based on wether or not paid guys are "better" than volunteers, this is not the case at all, because it is not true, lets clear that up right now. Heres my issue (put your sensitivity on hold): Ignorant, untrained, unwilling, unmotivated, and complacent "firefighters" who in my brutal opinion do not have the right to step foot on an apparatus or put an air pack on. And the reality is I see volunteers with this mindset more often than not.

http://www.kentland33.com/news/index/layoutfile/home

Take a step into Kentland volunteer station 33...An almost myth-like station in a district known as Kentland that is within Prince George County Maryland. This station as you may see on the website is 100% volunteer 100% of the time and guess what? I guarantee you they will Firefight circles around you, paid or not. These guys are the bees knees when it comes to firefighting and I would not for a second question their abilities compared to big paid departments such as NY or Indy.

 So whats different? How is it that a 100% volunteer station is so well put together with formal SOPs and whose members are receiving medals of honor? Well besides the fact that they are one of the busiest stations in the country and occasionally have 3+ working fires in a shift.......they care. Simple as that, they care. They have a passion for the job they do and have an obligation to keep that area of town as safe as they can, all for free. They dedicate themselves to training regularly, constantly perfecting their craft, and providing the best dang firefighting around. The secret? An aggressive, smart, trained, and confident mentality.  A mentality that seems to be absent in the fire service. Especially that dirty word "aggressive".

So heres to my problem. The other day i was perusing Instagram and typed in the hashtag "firefighter" to try and find some cool fire photos to look at, I then saw the hashtag "firefighterlife" and thought id click on it, what I found made me sick. Picture after picture of young (some appeared to be in high school) boys and girls each standing around their local apparatus in a bunker coat making an atrocious "duck face", throwing a peace sign, or holding a halligan like they knew how to use it. They had captions such as "just doing what i do", "firefighter life",  or  some other ridiculous caption that let people know they are the real deal, real salty dogs who eat fire and slay the dragon. When in reality (and im judging lots of books by their cover here) most of these people I saw guaranteed dont know what its like, and wont. The majority of these pictures were of volunteers. They have been pacified and brainwashed by society today so that when faced with a situation taxing every one of their senses where not only their lives but others are in the balance, they would shut down. They dont have the first clue as to how to force a door, handle a smoothbore, throw a 24' alone...but you better believe they can wear that fresh out the box turnout coat and shiny helmet in their room to pose for their mall prowling group later and be the crazy friend whos a firefighter (as if the 487 stickers on their car didnt let you know to start with).

WWKS? (What Would Kentland Say)? They probably wouldnt say anything, because the great ones never do. They know theyre good, they dont have to tell you. Im sure they would be just as disgusted as myself and the fire service warriors long gone who are rolling over in their graves at todays pacified fire mentality. But the reality is they are too humble, I speak from experience here because the gentleman who got me interested in the fire service was a paid member of PGFD for many years and never spoke of his accomplishments. I only found out here recently of his accolades and accomplishments. Trust me when I say he was salty, he was salty.

The disgust gets more personal than online. I am absolutely appalled at the number of both career and volunteer firefighters whos main goal in a 24 hour shift is to see how many movies we can get under our belt, or who will take off of work that conveniently coincides with the training calendar for the month. When people say how they are glad they were off because we had a busy shift or had training to do, I have to walk away because violence is not allowed in the workplace.

Our job isnt an office job, or a warehouse job, or a fast food job (absolutely no discredit to any of those jobs) but our job is one that entails life risk on such a level where we will face death eventually undoubtably because of our career. Wether it be a LODD or cancer from exposure, the numbers are real, and the reality is this job requires us to strive to be the best we can possibly be every day, on and off. Volunteer or career. Fire is fire, and fire kills.

When I see career firefighters who have been on the job 15 years and cannot tell you how many GPM the nozzle we have to pull on a pre-connect has or have no clue we had hydraulic spreaders on the truck (true story), but you better believe they can tell you who got drafted in 1967 to what team, how he played, what he played, how much money he made, his middle name, etc I feel an emotion that I didnt have until I joined the fire service, Its a mix of anger, rage, disappointment, confusion, and did i mention anger?

Now dont get me wrong, having outside passions and desires is not a problem, I enjoy many activities I enjoy that I feel am very knowledgeable on. The problem is when you know this passion inside and out, and dont have a clue how to do your job. This is a problem because guess what? I am forced to depend on you. My life in partially in your hands, and that scares me.

So I look ahead into my future career with the fire service and wonder what all will change. How soft and complacent will we get? Where will the salty dogs go? Will we stop going inside structure fires because the word "aggressive" scares us? Where does it end? I honestly believe the end of the true craft of the fire service is nigh. And im just starting my long journey down the road to retirement.

So I ask, Volunteer or Paid are you giving everything you have to your calling or are you just here because its cool? Do you train to perfect and hone your skills or do you avoid anytime you have to put gear on? If you have lost or never had the desire to improve not just your skills but the others around you, then get going or get out. Either wake up, get combat ready, and make a difference. Or turn in your badge and go home, now. Why? Because, not only do you not deserve the badge, But I dont want you here, and when my life is in danger because of your complacency im ready to see you change or leave. So get the pacifier out of your mouth, learn how to use a halligan, take classes, learn from the older guys (especially the quiet humble ones, theyre the first to pull your butt out of a fire), man up, learn the craft, and never stop learning. You cant ever know it all, and when you think you do its time to go.

So back to the debate, Paid Vs Volunteer? Whos the top dog? The answer? Its up to you...are you the better firefighter or not?

Our job is dangerous as is. Lets not make it more so with our actions.

PS...Smoothbore or nothing and if your not on a truck company, youre on the wrong apparatus.

Prescott heroes...

     I have been thinking a lot about the 19 members of the Hot Shot crew in Arizona since it happened on 6/30...Been trying to think of something to write that was worthy of such a tragedy. However I havent been able to come up with anything. Nothing worthy of my words atleast. So below is a list of the crews names and ages. Let us learn from these heroes. Rest easy brothers. Well take it from here.

Ashcraft, Andrew - 29
Caldwell, Robert - 23
Carter, Travis -31
Deford, Dustin -24
MacKenzie, Christopher - 30
Marsh, Eric - 43
McKee, Grant -21
Misner, Sean - 26
Norris, Scott - 28
Parker, Wade - 22
Percin, John - 24
Rose, Anthony -23
Steed, Jesse - 36
Thurston, Joe - 32
Turbyfill, Travis - 27
Warneke, William - 25
Whitted, Clayton - 28
Woyjeck, Kevin- 21
Zuppiger, Garret - 27