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.