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!
Enjoy & Be Safe!
Safe Firefighter, LLC will be teaching it’s 16-hour “Ventilation, Entry & Search (VES) Techniques” during Southeastern Fire School at the South Carolina Fire Academy.
NOTE: In the catalog, they are calling it “Tools in your Hands: Truck Company Operations” but it’s our VES class. Below is a class description & registration to print out…
This hands-on based class will provide participants with life saving skills needed to effectively force entry, ventilate and search fire buildings using multiple different truck company tactics and skills. Participants will get high repetition training on critical skills using realistic props and scenarios. These skills include: conventional forcible entry, power saw (K12) forcible entry, rope search, vent-enter-search (VES), vertical and horizontal ventilation and advanced ground ladders. Participants can take the skills from this class home and have an immediate impact on fireground safety.
SIGN UP HERE: SoutheasternFireSchool_Registration
GOT QUESTIONS? Call us (843) 247-6044 or email us at info@safefirefighter.com
Posted in Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, Emergency Communications, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, News, Rescues, Safety and Health, Special Operations, Strategy and Tactics, Technology & Communications, The Brotherhood, Training, Training & Development
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
Safe Firefighter, LLC is proud to announce is newest training partner TroxFire Training Solutions, creator and manufacturer of the TruForce forcible entry training system. We are excited to be working with Captain Danny Troxell of the DCFD and look forward to getting the TruForce on the streets down here in the Southeast.
We just took delivery of our TruForce system and will getting in service and road-ready ASAP.
Safe Firefighter, LLC will also be an authorized dealer for the TruForce system. If you have any questions about the TruForce or would like to setup a class or demo please contact us at info@safefirefighter.com or (843) 247-6044.
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!
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: Watch the video of this heavily involved 2-story balloon frame house. Note the wind and the exposures. Give us your RECEO breakdown, initial actions and initial rig placement. Have fun…
As seen on YouTube and Facebook…
NOTE:
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.
Posted in Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, Dispatch & Communications, Emergency Communications, Fire Dispatch, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, Major Incidents, News, Rescues, Technology & Communications, Training, Training & Development, Uncategorized
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:
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 the Officer on the 4 person TRUCK company who ARRIVES FIRST at this single-family house fire. Due to other call volume, the FIRST DUE ENGINE is 5 minutes away.
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).
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!
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.
Posted in Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, Fire Prevention & Education, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, Funding & Staffing, In the Line of Duty, Line of Duty, Major Incidents, News, Rescues, Technology & Communications, Training, Training & Development, Videos
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:
Posted in Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, In the Line of Duty, Line of Duty, Mass Casualty Incident, News, News and New Stuff, Rescues, Special Operations, Training & Development, training-fire-rescue-topics, Uncategorized
Safe Firefighter, LLC is proud to announce it’s newest sponsor/ partner Desert Diamond Industries. DDI began manufacturing cutting blades for the construction industry and has found a new, and growing home, in the fire service.
Their key fire/rescue products include the “Safety Blade”, the new industry standard in multipurpose diamond blades currently in use by some the largest and busiest department’s in the U.S. and endorsed by Brotherhood Instructors. Some of their other FD products include the 12 and 24 tooth carbide tip blades, the ideal option for vertical ventilation operations, the multipurpose “Chunk” blade and countless other tools for rescue/ US&R applications.
Backed by a “Lifetime Operator Error Warranty”… “When lives are on the line, the last thing you need to worry about is your blade!”
To see their full line of products click here: Desert Diamond Industries
You can see these products in action during any of our Truck Company and/or Forcible Entry Classes!
Contact Safe Firefighter, LLC @ info@safefirefighter.com for more information
Found this 2-part video of a serious fire in Detroit. This fire originated in the obvious dwelling, then spread to the neighboring duplex.
Some background of this incident and some of the things people will notice:
Some of the interesting points about this operation:
Are you looking for quality, cost-effective Fire Service training options?
I’m excited to be a part of a new training event series that will bring first-rate education and hands-on training to affordable, regional locations. There are two events this fall from Go>Forward Training:
Gateway Midwest in St. Charles, MO, Oct. 21-23
Liberty Regional in King of Prussia, PA, Nov. 4-6
Over the weekend, more than 18 educators will teach 30+ sessions for firefighters, company officers & chiefs. The instructor lineup features a combination of speakers – both big names you’ll recognize and some new faces with fresh perspectives. Pre-conference seminars will start two days before with big fire service names such as Tim Sendelbach, Alan Brunacini, Dennis Rubin and Rich Gasaway.
These unique and fully interactive events will feature hands-on training, conferences and social opportunities all geared towards making you a better firefighter, officer and leader!
The hands-on training includes classes like RIT, Forcible Entry, Man-in-Machine, Engine Co. Officer Development and more – and you can choose two-day progressive classes or combine hands-on and conference sessions. And there’s time for social sessions and 1:1 interaction with peers and instructors, so you can really build your network.
I’m excited to be teaching “S.A.F.E. Firefighter: Smart, Aggressive, Fundamental, Efficient” in both locations, and also “Get Your Head In The Game: Size Up for Every Seat” in Pennsylvania.
“S.A.F.E. Firefighter…Your” This class will compare what we learn in the classroom to working on the street. We will talk about that dirty little word; “aggressive”, how it is perceived and how aggressive mentalities should be applied in the fire service. We will also talk about firehouse and fire ground fundamentals. Finally, we will discuss how to bring all of these concepts together, apply them to your daily life as a firefighter and the impact that it will have on your crew and department.
“Get Your Head in the Game…” This “kitchen table” style training will introduce new ideas for performing en route size ups, initial on scene reports and traditional on-going assessments. Participants will be able to interact during open-forum conservations and tabletop scenarios comparing “old school” and “new school” fire conditions, strategies and tactics. Regardless of experience level, everyone will get great feedback, ideas and drills to take home and share.
To check out these events and register, go to www.goforwardtraining.com.
Snapped this picture during an EMS run. Invaluable lessons can be learned by paying attention during non-fire runs.
Some of the things we noted:
1. The additional slide bolt lock on the front door
2. No door knob on the bedroom door
3. Open light fixtures
4. Only one smoke detector (in the kitchen, not pictured) but it was 3 feet down the wall.
What hazards and/or fire behavior can we expect from these pictures?
Posted in Uncategorized
Short and Simple…
As a firefighter, what is the best complement that you can GIVE and/or RECEIVE?
Be SAFE
In last weeks post, “Not So Vacant, Vacants”, we showed some pictures of a vacant, under construction, row with signs of occupants. Now we want to hear from you.
What would you do given the following scenario?
You are dispatched to “smoke in the area”. Dispatch is reporting multiple calls. You arrive on the block to find heavy smoke pushing from the second floor, middle of the row.
Take this scenario as far as you want. If you run with 1 on a rig, go with it. Tell us how you would accomplish your suppression goals. If you have 16 firefighters on a First Alarm and want to take it to 3-alarms, awesome, tell us how you would use the resources. We look forward to your feedback.
Be SAFE
We were out in the Engine and noticed something odd about the rowhouse pictured below. Construction was stopped a couple of years ago, this row was boarded up and marked “unsafe”. However, the opened windows on the second floor peaked our interest. As we checked it out further, we discovered a problem that may be easily taken for granted in a “suburban” area.
When most of us think about fighting fires in vacant buildings we either envision urban areas with blocks of old and derelict houses or rural settings where a single old house sits decaying in the overgrowth. These pictures are from a random row of empty, new construction, houses in an otherwise well-kept suburban neighborhood. Given the demographic of this area, firefighters generally wouldn’t think twice about calling this row “EMPTY” or “VACANT”. Presumably, they would set their strategies and tactics in motion accordingly.
THESE PICTURES ARE PROOF THAT WE CAN NEVER TAKE THINGS FOR GRANTED. This is why we EXPECT FIRE and WHY WE SEARCH!
This post is riding on the coat tails of couple of recent Fire Engineering Blog Talk Radio episodes where they discussed strategy, tactics and size up of vacant structures. The links are below and it’s a GREAT listen.
FireEngineeringTalkRadio, Episode 46- Keeping Fire In Your Life from June 20, 2011
FireEngineeringTalkRadio, Episode 38- Traditions Training from June 7, 2011
Thanks and Be SAFE
The following article is a great “peek” into the state of the modern fire service and shares a very honest and accurate observation as to our possible direction and future as the American fire service. It is being shared with permission from Joe Brown, www.justlookingbusy.wordpress.com. Enjoy!
How did it come to be this way? Is this truly the future of the fire service, to not fight fires at all? It’s hard to be called out for being wrong when you stand on the side of over-cautiousness with a second helping of safety. And alas that is where the nation’s authors have gone to avoid confrontation, a catch phrase contest on who can be the safest.
I have a new catch phrase for you, “Return to Effectiveness”. Effective actions combined with appropriate timing to achieve a positive outcome. Effectiveness = fires go out, people get rescued, the fire department does it’s job.
Don’t sell yourself short… read the rest of this great post at www.justlookingbusy.wordpress.com
This video was sent to me by Matt Mokracek via Facebook. It’s a trailer for an air management training program. The message is clear and hard-hitting. CHECK IT OUT & PASS IT ON!
Thanks again to Matt for the link.
Be SAFE
Check out this promo for a documentary on Detroit Fire Department. It’s a great video and can really put things into perspective.
Be SAFE
“What you showed me isn’t in the book. What are the Chiefs gonna say if I do this? Are you gonna have my back if I do this and someone says something?”
This is a real quote from a firefighter at a recent training. As an instructor and a fire officer, one of the “hurdles” I have encountered is that people have FF1, FF2, a cape and a “S” on their chest. However, when they pull up with fire blowing, they don’t know whether to stretch a line or go fetal.
We seem to always worry about what “the book”, the Chief or a lawyer will say. Also, we are so worried about book knowledge and pieces of paper that we fail to learn the real life application of our job.
A buddy of mine took a class from Mike Ciampo at FDIC. In that class, Ciampo told them that he didn’t agree with the term “tricks of the trade” because the “the tricks ARE the trade”. We are losing, or have lost, mentorship and skill sharing in the fire service. If we don’t learn it in “the Essentials” or take an online class about it, it doesn’t exist. Then we wonder why firefighters die.
I’ve gotten deer in the headlight looks when asking firefighters what they would do if their preconnect didn’t reach, how to size up a handline and what “shocking the door” was. Guys have told me that we offensively attack fire with a wide fog and didn’t know what “the irons” were. And we wonder why firefighters die.
Safety is more than just a buzz word, a sticker on a helmet or a program. True safety is grassroots, its hands-on and its continuous. It’s being proactive instead of reactive. A couple of nuggets that I remember from Tom Brennan are his desire to perform “seven tasks all at once” and to “make the building behave the way WE want it to”. If our training and operations more closely mirrored this approach, we may see the LODD numbers continue to drop.
WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS!
Thanks and be SAFE
Roll Call for October 9 through October 22
SAFE Firefighter is going to give an overview of how WE did as a fire service from Saturday to Friday of every week. Please feel free to leave comments or add comments with links to additional information. Thanks and Be SAFE!
Roll Call for the week of October 9 through October 22…
LODD-RFB
Civilian Fire Deaths
Close Calls
Other News
 This blog is part of the Emergency Services Ad Network. For marketing opportunities, please click here |
Model building and fire safety codes that are adopted and consistently enforced ensure the highest… (more)
Patient's roomate is arrested on burglary charges when he came to the hospital for a visit.… (more)
Now more than ever before, we have an incredible amount of new resources with which to assist us as… (more)
Wind blowing into the broken window of a room on fire can turn a "routine room and contents fire"… (more)
Follow Us!