August 2017 Fire Notes

■ Long Before Truss Placards: This Placard was a Pretty Good Indicator the Building was Built Well & Could Take the Impacts of a Building on Fire.

■ And also a Possible Indication of a Sub Cellar

When a Supervisor Does Not have Confidence in a Subordinate, it is Most

Often the Result of a Failure of Leadership

Because Subordinate Competence is the

Responsibility of the Supervisor.

Ensuring the Knowledge and Competency Levels

of Subordinates is a Property of Good

Leadership.

■ Truck Placement and the Ability to Maximize the Use of the Aerial Device is the Difference Between being a Competent Operator and

a Guy who Drives the Truck.

■ Learning Capabilities of the Apparatus, Practicing when to

Take the Inside vs. the Outside, and Being Able to Spot the Tip where Needed are all Vital in

Both Operator Development and User Effectiveness.

EXPECT

FIRE

!!!!

Never Underestimate The Effectiveness Of Booster Tank Back Up

■ Second in Goes Right to Work or Spends Time Laying a Line Prior to Being Available.

■ How Much Time do you have to Flow on 2 Tanks on a Residential Fire?

■ TEST IT.

Wanna be an “Old School” Fireman?

Then Get Into the CRAFT. Put Down your Phone, Have Some Coffee, and Talk

Shop. Learn Something, Teach Something. Talk

About Fires, Talk About the Rig, Talk About the Area. Get Out and DRILL. Pull Lines, Throw Ladders,

Walk the District, Throw Problems at Each Other and Solve Them. Riding that Rig Everyday is a PRIVILEGE, Earn It.

When a “MAYDAY" is Given Early

in a Fire Operation

we Need to Rewind the Clock and Examine if

Things Were Missed Upon

Arrival

Size-up: Both Initial & On-Going

■ Its More than Just “Sounding Good" on the Radio.... Identify the Critical Factors Affecting the Operation you are About to Undertake.

"An Officer who Lacks the Discipline to Train His or Her People will Never be Safe, Even if He is

Relegated to Standing Outside the House on Every Fire Because no one Trusts their Crew. Safety will

Never Exist where People Refuse to Train and Know Their Jobs."

-Benjamin Martin, Henrico Fire VA.

One Of These Will Get You Tangled In Wire, The Other Won't.

■ Be Mindful of Your Personal Gear!

The OV■ Disciplined and Focused.

■ The Job is to Watch for Change of Conditions, When Engine Guys Makes their Knock it’s time to shine and let the Steam that's Produced Out.

■ The OV Simple but yet One of the Most Important Jobs on the Fireground.

■ We Need People Full of Passion, Commitment, and Competence Flooding our Fire Service. Not Ones Looking for “Just a Good Job".

■ Encourage Hard Work, and Reward it.

■ Breed an Environment of Ownership.

■ Empower your People!

“Positioning Out of the Way For the Truck.. it's Not Just the Polite Thing to Do, it's

the Right Thing to Do!"

■ Attention Fire Service!!!

■ When you Arrive to Your OT or New Assignment and The FIRST Question you Ask is “What's the WIFI Password?", We Are of the Opinion That you are in Need of a Mindset Recalibration.... This is as Much About MINDSET & ATTITUDE as it is About Operations and Skill Set.

Need A Good Reason To Put A SB Nozzle On Your Highrise Packs?

Flat Roofs At Night Are Really Dark!Don't Make Your Inspection Cut

Where Others Walk!!!

Beware Of Killer Cornices!

■ Concelead Avenues of Fire Spread Facilitate Unexpected Collapse Hazards.

■ Masonry Veneers are a Real Hazard, Usually Indicates Lightweight Modern Construction.

■ Don't Boast About how Experienced you are if Your Not Willing to Share your Experience by Mentoring Others.

■ Don't Hoard Information If it Makes You a Better Firefighter.

■ If you are Not Passing it Along to Develop Other Members in your Dept. or your Fire Service, Your Experience is Losing Value.

What’s Your Plan?

Search and Rescue – 2 Totally Different Tasks.

■ Do you have a game plan for each?

■ Is your game plan always the same?

■ Does the age, and size of the victim matter?

■ Do you perform a second victim sweep once you find the first victim?

■ If you knew in the next hour you would be called on to save the person you loved the most, what would you do about it?

■ My money is on TRAIN for the next hour. There will be no warning or heads up, your greatest asset is being ready.

■ Think of all the bad calls you have made, any of those could have been your loved one, all of them were loved by somebody.

■ Treat them like they are your own, get up and get ready for the next run.

■ Don't Wait for a Class to Come to You.

■ Reach Out to Instructors for Some One on One.

■ Any Good Fireman Will Gladly Accept.

"A true senior guy will not simply teach newer firefighters how to

perform a task, but also why that task is

performed and the effect it has on the overall fireground

operation."

Apartment Complex Fires■ These buildings are often accessed via multiple

stairwells.

■ Fires (especially top floor fires) can quickly enter the attic space and begin spreading horizontally.

■ While the primary fire is attacked, crews must also quickly be assigned to the most threatened attached exposure.

■ Check directly above the stairs then begin to move toward the original fire area, checking as you go.

■ Under certain scenarios, we may be defensive in the original fire area and offensive in the exposed area - this must be carefully coordinated by the IC.

Attached Garage Fires■ If you can’t stretch

multiple lines, where will the first one go?

■ Is your crew practiced at putting the wagon pipe on a well involved garage while the crew stretches a line inside?

Attached Garage Fires■ These fires will travel quickly

up the involved side and into the attic.

■ If the inside door held, conditions inside are likely to be very clear, but beware the conditions above you. Get hooks & hoseline quicky to the top floor.

■ Check the attic conditions immediately above the stairs, if its on fire - start there, if not work toward the fire.

You Are Responsible

For You!

"You Don't Know, What You Don't Know, Until You Know It!"...

■ Initial & On-Going 360 View is Always Mission Critical.

Crews Utilize The Elbow Off The Pump Panel To Get A Better Angle

For A Store Front Attack.

■ Consider:– Width of Street– Length of Aerial – Power Lines– Set Back of Building

“There are 2 Things a Leader can do: he can contaminate his environment with his attitudes & actions, or he can inspire

confidence.” -Hal Moore

■ Care for your Men. ■ Prove to Them you Care About their Welfare. ■ You'd be shocked by the Increase in Morale and Performance

■ We MUST move with purpose, time is of the essence. When we train we MUST move with purpose, we can't expect to show up to a working fire and perform effectively if we haven't trained. We MUST do a 360, we MUST be able to effectively stretch our hose lines, we MUST be able to mask up with gloves on, we MUST be effective in forcing doors, we MUST do a body length search inside the front door, we MUST sweep behind the door, we MUST search for survivable space and we MUST get water on the fire.

■ If your Expecting to use Door Control on a House with Transoms think Again.

■ The Front Door will Indicate their Presence Further in.

Keep The Chase Out Of Pipe Chase.

Aggressive Truckwork is Built upon Foreseeability.

Know Where the Fire is Going Before it Gets There.

■ If you're a Company Officer, get Involved in Training & be a Part of the Crew.

■ Keep an Open Mind & Understand you are NOT a Know it All & Can Learn from Every Member of your Crew.

■ In Builds Trust & Brings the Team Together.

EXPECT VICTIMS!If you're Not

Practicing Searching

through Piles of "STUFF" for THEM Than you're Not

Putting THEM First!

Make Sure Your Training

Environment Mirrors Their Environment!

43% Of Our Victims Are Found In Bedrooms

■ VES is the fastest way to those bedrooms.

■ There has not been one recorded VES related LODD up to this date.

■ Make no mistake, VES is dangerous. But like anything, if properly trained it can be extremely effective.

THE ENGINE "Fire Attack"

■ 29% of rescues with a 51% survival rate. This is the highest survival rate for our civilians of all of the fireground assignments. Why? TIME - decreasing our time to the interior, decreases our time to THEM, decreases their time to removal and care which increases the survival rate.

■ 23% of our victims are in the room of origin which is fire attacks job to search.

■ 42% of our victims are located in a room adjacent to the room of origin, GET OFF THE LINE & SEARCH!