Share your strategies, tactics and experience!  Every Friday we’ll post a picture or video and want to get your take on the situation.

THE SCENARIO:  What would do you do for this heavily involved attached garage fire?  Does the split-level layout change your strategies/tactics?  Give us the report and your RECEO VS considerations.  Have fun!

• What is your initial report?
• Rescue considerations?
• Exposures?
• Confinement issues?
• Extinguishment strategies and tactics?
• Overhaul, what areas will you focus initial searches for extension?
• Rig placement?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Share your strategies, tactics and experience!  Every Friday we’ll post a picture or video and want to get your take on the situation.

THE SCENARIO:  Check out the video and let us know how you would handle it.  Ready…Go!

• What is your initial report?
• Offensive or Defensive?
• Search type?
• What type of attack lines would you use, how many & where would they go?
• Ventilation considerations?
• How many resources would you have/want for this fire?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Enjoy & Be Safe!

A while ago I was having an “All Smoke” with a couple of my mentors, Captains Richard Dollahan and Chris Garniewicz.  We were busy solving the Department’s problems (yeah, ours has them too) and started wondering how we can motivate people to approach the job with the same passion and intensity that we do.  HOW DO YOU TEACH SOMEONE TO “GET IT”?

We discussed all of the key topics such as mentoring, being “the thumb” and other brilliant theories.  The collective conclusion was that YOU CAN’T!

Could it be as simple as, you either GET IT or you DON’T? Maybe it is.

We are optimists, so we reorganized our thoughts and realized that the three of us were always the ones (respectfully) taking the time to intimately learn our equipment, asking questions in training and having this discussion while everyone else was in the house enjoying “personal time”.

So our new theory is this… if you GET IT, then maybe you need to GIVE IT to other people.  Even if it means holding their hand, breaking the ice or handing them a tool in the dayroom and asking them questions about it.

Maybe the problem is that we get so deeply engaged in expanding our own knowledge, experience and brains, that we forget to include others who may be content hanging back.  They may be willing to learn but need a nudge or they may too intimidated by the “Type A” macho crap to pipe up and ask.  Give it to them, set them up for success, build their confidence and maybe they’ll start to “get it”.  Drag people into conversations and training and remember that little nugget of knowledge may save their life or yours.

I love this job.  I love my brothers (some more like distant cousins, but family anyhow).  Our profession is one of the most intense, interpersonal, technical and risky out there. I understand and appreciate what it takes to have pride and ownership in myself, a crew, a rig and a firehouse and how all that translates to success when the bells ring.  I get it… and I’m gonna give it to you?

-Thanks and Be Safe-

Also check out…

“30% Club…  Wanna Join?  Pay Your Dues”, by Jake Rixner via www. SafeFirefighter.com,  April 26, 2011

“Be The Warrior”, Matt McDowell via www.safefirefighter.com, May 25, 2011

“We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident”, Chris Brennan via www.fireservicewarrior.com, December 26, 2010

Share your strategies, tactics and experience!  Every Friday we’ll post a picture or video and want to get your take on the situation.

THE SCENARIO:  Check out this “soupy” commercial job in PG County, MD.  Give us your RECEO breakdown, initial actions and initial rig placement.  Ready…Go!

• What is your initial report?
• Rescue considerations?
• Exposures?
• Confinement issues?
• Extinguishment strategies and tactics?
• Overhaul, what areas will you focus initial searches for extension?
• Rig placement?

As seen on YouTube and Facebook…

Click here to view the embedded video.

NOTE:

• The Command presence
• Notice the professionalism of the operating crews
• Notice the window A/C unit falling to the street (around :40)
• Notice the Outside Vent crew stopping floor below as the Engine starts getting a knock on the fire

Go to the Facebook conversation to get full details, accounts and reactions from brothers in cyberspace as well brother who were at the fire and know the area and operations… http://www.facebook.com/NateDeMarse/posts/292471494132640

Thanks and be safe!

Share your strategies, tactics and experience!  Every Friday we’ll post a picture or video and want to get your take on the situation.

THE SCENARIO:  You’re wearing all the hats today! You’re dispatched to a reported “structure” fire.  It’s the middle of the week during Christmas vacation and the neighbors don’t know if the kids are there or not.

• What is your initial report?
• Where is the fire?
• Where is it going?
• How many lines do you anticipate for this fire?
• What size AND length line would you use?
• HOW MUCH OF A PRIORITY DO YOU PLACE ON SEARCH?
• What search tactics would you use?
• What type and where would you vent?
• What tactics are a priority?
• What are your assignments for YOUR crews?

Make training, professionalism and pride part of your New Year’s resolution!  We’re in the process of building our 2012 calendar with intense, realistic hands-on training, interactive classroom events and good old-fashioned brotherhood.  A couple of events already scheduled include:

• Ventilation, Entry & Search Techniques –  Southeastern Fire School @ SC Fire Academy – March 10, 11
• SC State Firefighters/ Fire Chiefs Conference – Myrtle Beach, SC June 4-9

• S.A.F.E. Firefighter- Smart, Aggressive, Fundamental, Efficient (Interactive Lecture, 2 Hour) – 2 in January – Dates in the Works
• First Due Forcible Entry (Hands-On, 8 Hour) – Early February – Dates in the Works
• Ventilation, Entry & Search Techniques (Hands-On, 16 Hour) – Mid February – Dates in the Works
• First Due Forcible Entry (Hands-On, 8 Hour) – March- Dates TBD
• Fireground Rescue (Advanced RIC) (Hands-On, 16 Hour) – April – Date TBD

Share your strategies, tactics and experience!  Every Friday we’ll post a picture or video and want to get your take on the situation.

THE SCENARIO: You are on duty with your usual crew on your usual rig.  You arrive at this working fire in Lowe’s.  The fire is in the rear loading dock area and spreading into the store.  The manager reports at least 2 employees still inside.  They were last seen in the rear (close to but not in the area of the fire).  YOU CREW IS ASSIGNED PRIMARY SEARCH FOR THE VICTIMS.  Smoke conditions diminish as you go deeper into the building until they are almost zero visibility w/ low to moderate heat.  You encounter the typical “big box” layout (as pictured).

• What are the known hazards?
• What are the unknown hazards?
• What resources would your FD assign to accomplish the necessary strategy or tactic?
• What tactics would you use to accomplish your assignment?

VSP is one of the hottest topics of conversation in the fire service today.  Captain Marsar’s research has taken the fire service by storm and has created an interesting “new” flavor of the month for those who feed on “firefighter safety through spectatorship”.  Maybe it was because of my animosity for the “let it burn” folks within our profession that I was initially against the concept of deciding if a building is searchable from the front yard and was unfairly biased.  However, the more I read about and discuss it the more I realize that I HAVE ALWAYS PERFORMED VSP!

• What conditions do I have, where are they and where are they going?
• What time is it and where are the people inside?
• Where and how can I get in to this building?
• How do I get out of this building?
• Do I have enough resources to do what I need to do now?
• What can I do now?
• Is this an offensive or defensive fire?

Is this a size-up or Victim Survivability Profiling (VSP)?

Our priorities of life safety, incident stabilization and property conservation (LIP) are one of the first things that you learn when you get into this job.  As our training continues, we learn about phases of fire, flashover and how to “read” smoke.  Then, hopefully, someone taught you about Lloyd Layman’s tactical considerations of RECEO VS (rescue, exposures, confinement, extinguishment, overhaul… vent and salvage… in that order).  What is supposed to happen is, you take all this knowledge, fight a few fires, learn from them, reapply as necessary then repeat.

As this process continues over years, you hone your skills, learn from your misreads, mistakes and close calls (or better yet someone else’s) and get better and smarter.  After time, you become the “senior man” or the officer in charge and get to use that knowledge and experience.  YOU decide mode of operation, where and how to position the first line and where/how to start a search.  NOW YOU GET TO DECIDE WHO LIVES AND WHO DIES.  If a civilian dies at one of “your” fires, DID YOU AND YOUR CREW (as an extension of you) DO EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER TO PROTECT THEIR LIFE in the manner you were taught your first week of fire training?

TENABLE versus VIABLE, THERE IS A DIFFERENCE.  Tenable may depend on smoke, heat, flame and interior layout of the occupancy or any combination.  Things are NOT always as they appear from the exterior.  Viability MAY be related to tenability, however occupant age, health and relative location to the fire all impact how long someone may be “viable”.  For that matter, our actions may directly impact tenability and how long someone may be viable.

How efficiently the first line gets stretched, advanced and water gets on the fire will have the greatest impact on tenability.  The time it takes us to get the smoke out of the building will also directly and greatly drive how long someone may be viable.  However, the only location on the fireground that is the most tenable AND protects viability is OUTSIDE.  Getting IN, searching tenable areas and pulling people OUT of the buildings is the only true way of holding up our end of the deal.

One of my favorite quotes from Chief John Salka is “You don’t know what you don’t know.”  We live and work in the unknown and OUR REALITY is making decision based on limited or unknown information.  Sometimes a situation leads us into some dangerous areas based on conditions, information and YOUR gut feeling.  These factors may lead you through or around “untenable” areas into those “voids” where panicked civilians seek refuge when faced with no exit and certain death.  They are not condemned to death; they are just waiting for us to come in a get them.  That’s where our training, experience, discipline and professionalism are put to the test.  It is not our job to decide who lives and who dies.  It is our job to do our job by getting water on the fire, letting the smoke and heat out and helping the helpless.

1. “Can They Be Saved? Utilizing Civilian Survivability Profiling to Enhance Size-Up and Reduce Firefighter Fatalities in the Fire Department, City of New York.”  , Stephen Marsar
2. “Survivability Profiling: Applying What We’ve Learned”, Stephen Marsar, Fire Engineering July 2011
3. “‘Survivability Profiling’ is Key to Ending Preventable LODDs”, Stephen Marsar, FireRescue Magazine November 2011
4. “Muliple Rescues in Fatal Lewisdale Fire”, from www.hvfd.com
5. “…Report Critical of Pasadena Fire Department’s Failure to Find Woman’s Body After Fire”, from Pasadena Star News Online
6. “Sometimes It’s Not So Simple”, from www.backstepfirefighter.com

Saws, irons, ladders and rescues were the flavor of week for our brothers in Bluffton, SC.  Safe Firefighter, LLC just wrapped up a RIC Refresher for the Bluffton Township Fire District.  Training included calling the Mayday, self-rescue, rapid intervention crew assignments and operations and performing proactive RIC tasks.

Luckily, each company was able to train with their own crew which made the training that much better.  As a result of their hard work, the BTFD logged the following stats:

• 48 training hours
• 320 staff hours
• 320 Maydays called
• 160 “window bars” cut
• 160 “slide bolts” cut
• 80 “padlocks” and chain cut
• 80 hinges cut
• 80 doors force w/ the irons
• 80 windows laddered and vented by 1 firefighter
• 21 RIC deployments
• 21 downed firefighters rescued