As you probably already know, an unprecedented meeting of the American fire service met in Tampa back in 2004. The Life Safety Task Force generated a list of 16 Life Safety Initiatives. I’m sure most of us had seen or heard them. But, if you are truly dedicated to saving your lives and the lives of those on your department and your crew, you will have come pretty damn close to memorizing them. Yes, they are that important.
I’d like to touch on one of those today. It is the fourth initiative, and it reads as follows: “All firefighters must be empowered to stop unsafe practices.”
In preparation of our latest program over at Firefighter NetCast, I was exposed to the arguments both for and against the use of positive-pressure attack. Chief John Kriska, a proponent of PPA, was the featured guest for the program which can be found at our site http://FirefighterNetCast.com or over at iTunes under firefighter podcasts. I ran across what may well be the best video out there to demonstrate what happens when a PPV is set in a doorway and started before adequate thought is given to its potential effects.
I have accumulated a fair amount of training whether it has been in the classroom, at a controlled practical evolution, or on the fireground itself. I know you have too, because I’ve seen you there as well, learning new ways to perform tasks, honing skills you’ve already learned, and perhaps even sharing your knowledge with others.
Help me then if you will, to figure out why we continue to see examples of near-fatal consequences on the videos regularly making the rounds on the internet? Surely you know of a few of these head-shaking videos, and you may have seen this one as well.
This article is not meant to argue whether or not PPA/PPV should be used on your fireground. Rather, as you watch the video, count how many “trained firefighters” it takes to kill an interior crew. Take a peek:
As this video clearly shows, there are several on the fireground who seem to have forgotten some of the basic stuff we learned in our very first fire training classes: fire behavior. As a “trained firefighter”, can you read the smoke? Does it tell you what is happening inside this “box”? Has the fire vented? Will it? What’s going to happen when it does vent? Where do you want to be when this happens? Would you have done anything differently before crawling inside?
Of course!
Sitting here in front of your computer monitor, not many of you would miss the signs of an impending hostile fire event, would you? I wonder if the guys in this video would see the same signs if they were watching the video rather than performing the dance toward death. If they were “trained” they probably would have seen the problems. Why then, did no one speak up in a real situation?
I’ve seen it locally. Firefighters with decades of experience seem to forget some of the basics. Perhaps they take a shortcut, emboldened by the lack of disaster as their shortcut worked so many times before. These are trained professional firefighters, many of them friends I have known for years. They know better. Why, then do we do stupid things on the fireground?
Maybe it’s because we have gotten away with it before.
Maybe it’s because no one stopped us before.
Maybe it’s because “that’s the way we’ve always done it.”
But, maybe our luck will run out one day, as it does about every 80 hours here in America.
As a firefighter, do you feel you have the ability, indeed the responsibility to say “NO” to your company officer? As a company officer, do you feel you have the ability, indeed the responsibility, to say “NO” to your chief officer?
In this video, who should have said, “NO”? Everyone. Even the camera operator, if he/she were a “trained firefighter” should have the ability, indeed the responsibility, to keep our brothers and sisters from killing themselves, purely because we don’t feel it is our place to say “NO.”
Departmental policies, procedures, and guidelines must allow for “All firefighters must be empowered to stop unsafe practices.”
But moreover, each member must realize that they are not only able -but as trained firefighters- also responsible to stop unsafe practices. We need to establish ownership of this responsibility.
If you or your department hasn’t made this paradigm shift, the time is yesterday. Take your own steps now to enact each of the 16 Life Safety Initiatives. Let each of us “trained professional firefighters” all work together to get the job done safely so we all go home at the end of the day.
Just say no.
From 
“If one of your firefighters gets into trouble, how are you going to get them out?”
“You won’t be the best at everything, but no one is.”
“Looking back on it, the things we talked about that weekend were shown to us as being “fresh” ideas ten and even twenty years later.”
“Since I don’t have a juicy “moment of Zen” for you, I will instead give you some things I have learned along the way from some great guys.”
The message is simple, yet it is often forgotten. I use it to reign myself in when tension is high and focus is required.
Sizeup, Risk/Gain
You may recall the tragedy in Dunwoody on January 24, 2010 in which Ann Bartlett, 74, died when a fire swept through her home after firefighters responded to her early morning emergency call and left when they couldn’t find a blaze. Five hours later, they responded to a second 911 call from neighbors and found the home fully engulfed. Her body was found in the home’s remains after the fire was extinguished. 
Two of the four officers initially fired are looking to be reinstated. They say they were fired for violating a department guideline in that they failed to establish command during the initial response. They claim they could not establish command because they had no scene yet. 
Stupidity, Buttons, and Balls- Oh, my!
Whilst whistling Mr. Postman, I sit down and open my email, clicking through things to flush into my deleted items folder in a great attempt to stay ahead of the email pile that will surely accumulate. Items that catch my eye are temporarily pardoned for future perusal.
“Fundamentally, I believe that all members of the Saint Paul Fire Department’s uniformed division must share a common bond – a common culture – and a shared base of experience and perspective. We all must be confident in each member’s ability to operate safely and effectively on an incident scene or when representing our department to the public. It shouldn’t matter if we’re assigned to a hazardous materials team, an Advanced Life Support medic rig, or the Chief’s office – all of us should share the core competency and the shared experience of being first – and foremost – a firefighter.” -Chief Tim Butler
Caliber of posts relating to the Fire and/or EMS fields 
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With all the outcry from the initial story, it began to look like the story had run it’s course. But, the “looked like a comedy act” remark now makes Rubin fair game. It just didn’t have to happen. 
The New Haven 20 Finally Get Their Due
A five alarm fire marks the end of a historic and beloved building in the Massachusetts Berkshires this week. The Egremont Inn is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, having been around since before the American Revolution. The three-story wood frame structure did not have a sprinkler system. Of course, the cause has not yet been determined. One firefighter suffered minor injuries. 
It had been previously reported that the Forest Service issued a memorandum to Southern California Managers
“Catastrophes Don’t Take Holidays” –Local 2
In my weekly 360 Burn, I usually try to find interesting posts that may not normally pop up on your radar. That’ll have to wait until next time, because with all the talk about Balloon Boy and the suspended firefighter in Pennsylvania, my partners at FireEMSblogs.com have really stepped up and given us some must-reads.
“Treating everyone with a broad brush when it is not indicated is never a good idea. But failing to comply with an order from the leadership who is trying do their job by creating some uniform and objective rules isn’t a good idea either.” So says Mick Mayers in 
If you haven’t heard about his newest giveaway, FireCritic is offering up the new Monopoly Firefighter Edition game with a winner being chosen just in time for the holidays. I’m already getting one for each of our stations for when the guys get sick of the Wii. It’s easy to enter, see 
As I’m hanging there upside down like a piñata, the station draws a call for an explosion and fire. Clowns turn to Olympic sprinters as everyone wigs out and bolts for their spot on the equipment leaving only me and the instructor on the safety line up top.
We’ve all seen it before- it’s a managerial shortcut to a solution for a relatively benign molehill involving one or two guys, but everyone gets a taste of the punishment. It’s a path that leaves the door open for numerous other issues to take root. And it left the administration locked into a position that offered no flexibility, and flexibility would have worked marvelously here.
We’ve become so used to having the spin-meisters do the thinking for us. It’s so much easier to be told what to think and to follow the herd than it is to develop our own views and stand up for them. Stoking the fire with patriotic gasoline, we’re being told this is all about a fire chief denouncing the patriotism of a firefighter.
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