By Greg Weimer
In “Outliers: The Story of Success (2008),” Malcolm Gladwell describes how it takes a series of small mistakes — seven, on average — to cause a plane crash. He writes:
“In a typical crash, for example, the weather is poor — not terrible, necessarily, but bad enough that the pilot feels a little bit more stressed than usual. In an overwhelming number of crashes, the plane is behind schedule, so the pilots are hurrying. In 52 percent of crashes, the pilot at the time of the accident has been awake for twelve hours or more, meaning that he is tired and not thinking sharply. And 44 percent of the time, the two pilots have never flown together before, so they’re not comfortable with each other. Then the errors start … These seven errors, furthermore, are rarely problems of knowledge or flying skill. It’s not that the pilot has to negotiate some critical technical maneuver and fails. The kinds of errors that cause plane crashes are invariably errors of teamwork and communication.” (p. 184)
Gladwell is onto something here. A 2019 article analyzing NIOSH firefighter fatality investigations from 2006 to 2014 identified the top 10 categories of contributing factors:
- Medical screening
- Fitness and wellness programs
- Training
- Medical clearance
- SOPs/SOGs
- Incident command
- Strategy and tactics
- Communications
- PPE
- Staffing
At first glance, these seem like basic — even obvious — factors. But perhaps that’s exactly the point. Are we missing the bigger picture?
What can you control?
Looking at this list, it’s clear that some of these factors are within our control. But too many people will shift blame to others or even the vastness of these factors — a “where do we even begin?” mindset of non-action. But each of these factors can be broken down into meaningful actions.
Ask yourself, what is within my sphere of control? Fitness, training, command, strategy/tactics and communication are all within our own abilities to improve. You can start a fitness routine; it doesn’t have to be a big production. Push-ups, squats and jogging work great; a little yoga is always fun, too. Then incorporate that with a mask-up drill under duress and before you know it, you’ve completed two tasks toward your bigger goal. Where else can you chip away, working to become a master of your craft?
Attack the key factors
Remember, we want to master the basics, not be a Halligan baton twirler. Mastery allows us to free our minds and look at the bigger tasks at hand.
Get with your senior lieutenants, captains and battalion chiefs — whoever runs your scenes — and pick their brains. Even if you don’t run a formal communication/command system like Blue Card, there is logic to how these officers run their show. If you can understand the who, what, when, where and whys, you will have a better grasp of how command will work. And if for some reason there is no plan, now is a great time to start correcting that.
The same goes for tactics. Make those conversations happen with the senior people in your department, and bring forward the latest research. The UL Research Institute’s Fire Safety group is doing wonderful studies along with the Firefighter Rescue Survey — two hubs of intel that can inform the creation of new SOGs.
With communication, the factor that seems most critical is simply presence of mind. Take a breath, think about what you are going to say, hold the radio at the correct location, and talk slowly and calmly. Take time to make time.
Master your craft
If these things all seem squared away, ask yourself these questions:
- Is our training effective and rooted in quality content?
- Are we emphasizing the fundamentals or glossing over them?
- Are our SOPs and SOGs aligned with today’s fire environment, or are we still operating on concepts from the 1970s?
- Have we learned from those who came before us, and from the hard lessons revealed in reports published on FirefighterCloseCalls.com or NIOSH firefighter fatality reports?
The truth is, we must always remain students of our craft. We must take these lessons, adapt them, and make them our own so we can prepare our members for the next fire.
Some may argue that the job is too broad, too complex, and requires mastering too many disciplines. I’m not here to debate departmental demands or how you should prioritize them. What I am challenging you to do is this: Be perfect in the core competencies the public expects from you.
Be able to force a door. Throw a ladder. Conduct an efficient search. Stretch a line. Make a rescue. Do these things with professionalism, precision and pride. These should be daily drills for your crews, just like truck checks.
- Week 1: Ladder throws
- Week 2: Call outs and review search priorities
- Week 3: Walk through the gap-set-force with a door and bungee cord (if you have a simulator, even better).
- Week 4: Stretch a line.
Be 1% better today than you were yesterday, which is about 15 minutes of your day spent improving.
Now, I am fortunate enough to work with firefighters who have literally hurdled over our other crews because they couldn’t mask up fast enough and were slowing us down. We are fortunate not to have a motivation problem, but if you do, incentivize the drill. Make it a point of company pride, make a race out of it, give the crew extra downtime if they meet a time standard.
Of course, not every operation or drill will go perfectly. But professionalism is not measured by flawlessness, but rather by how we recover through intelligent, deliberate decision-making. How we go about getting better and adapting to every challenge. Jones and Bartlett’s Fire Officer book (Chapter 3, p. 87) calls this a learning culture. I call it professionals being professional.
Final questions
When you strive for perfection, your mindset shifts. “The fire went out, and we went home” is no longer the metric of success. Instead, you start asking, “How can we do even better next time? What small flaws did we miss?”
As Gladwell reminds us, it’s the accumulation of small errors that brings down a plane — or, in our world, leads to a mayday.
So, ask yourself: Are you approaching every task as a public servant with the intent to eliminate mistakes and uphold the highest standard?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Greg Weimer is an 11-year career student of the fire service, with 17 years of volunteer and part-time work. He is currently assigned to a multi-discipline house that runs an ALS engine, tender and medic unit. Weimer is a certified Firefighter II, NREMTP, swiftwater operator, boat technician, hazmat operator, Blue Card incident commander, fire safety Inspector, ice water technician, and fire and EMS instructor. He is a graduate of Eastern Gateway Community College with an associate degree in fire science.
