The theory that firefighters are born and not made is one I subscribe to. However, far too often we are not born with an inclination toward safety. We all can and need to do a little more to make sure we come home safely. That should be the motivating factor when we are operating at an incident.
On any given day or night, sporting contests play on televisions in firehouses throughout the country. When you watch the best teams play, it’s clear they’re unified by a common denominator: practice. Those teams win because they know the playbook better than other teams.
Firefighters function in much the same way; those that perform well know the playbook. Training is the lifeline that we need to survive. I know firsthand that some departments do not have the finances to support the training that they would like. But we all have to realize that fires burn at the same temperature in New York as they do in Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Keokuk. As my dear friend Chief Billy Goldfeder says, “It is that 101st fire we have to be prepared for.”
When you look at buildings that have taken firefighters’ lives, in most cases they are types of buildings common to a lot of areas. It is not the fully involved dynamite factory that we are getting killed in. We all also know that the fires themselves are not the root cause of firefighter fatalities.
Apparatus accidents are a serious concern. A big complaint that I hear all over the country is that civilians do not yield to approaching apparatus. The way vehicles are constructed today, no one can hear us until we are on top of them. When I first joined the fire service, fire apparatus accidents were unequivocally the other person’s fault. Today, that is not the way things play out. Every week reports are transmitted about apparatus accidents, some involving serious injuries and firefighter fatalities. We all have to try a little harder to make sure we do everything we can to get to and from the firehouse without creating our own incident.
What else is killing firefighters? How about heart attacks? How often do you hear about someone dying at a shockingly young age? There are far too many 36, 45 and 52-year-olds succumbing to heart attacks. How many of us participate in a physical fitness regimen? There are a lot of firefighters who do, but I would guess the majority don’t. We have a physically grueling job, yet we don’t train for it.
The first step is to take some time and review the basics, the fundamentals that too often get overlooked. Training does not have to involve live burns; it can be as simple as sitting around the table and talking amongst the “troops.”
I will try to bring you useful information gleaned from my own experiences that you can use in drills to help you to keep up your end of the bargain and come home safely. If you have a topic you would like to see discussed, please let me know. I am very fortunate to call some of the most revered fire service leaders personal friends, so I have a brain trust I can always consult on even the most difficult issues. Until next time…stay safe!