One of the most common complaints you will see about fire-related blogs and websites is that they are guilty of “Monday morning quarterbacking.” As an owner of a firefighting website, FirefighterSpot, and an avid fire video researcher, I find this to be somewhat true.
In fairness to the departments involved in many of these videos, they often have little or no control of what is being filmed and how it is being released. In an age of Facebook, Twitter and blogs, the ability to distribute video and comment on it is virtually instantaneous.
The key to understanding the process is how these videos get to the Internet. We then need to understand the various resources for viewing and commenting on these videos, and, finally, how firefighting websites can limit Monday morning quarterbacking and encourage the reader and commenter to be more constructive.
Here’s a good example of a size-up video that was originally posted to YouTube:
How does a fire video get to the Internet? The majority of videos being released are often shot by novice, civilian “videographers” who happen to be in the area of an emergency. They are often shooting the videos raw with cell phones and on occasion with video cameras. A small percentage of the videos we come across feature high-quality footage shot by professional fire videographers.
These videographers often have high-quality filming equipment, tripods and all the necessary gear to create professional fire documentation. These professional videographers are typically firefighting enthusiasts (fire buffs) or actual firefighters off duty or retired. The remaining videos are shot with a helmet camera placed on a firefighter’s helmet or a dash camera on an emergency vehicle. Once the video has been recorded digitally, it is typically uploaded to a computer via a USB connection, flash drive or memory card.
Once the video is on the computer, there are numerous outlets online to post your videos. The most common way for the majority of people to upload videos is through the website, YouTube. Fire enthusiasts, firefighters and people in the firefighting industry tend to post their videos here, in addition to other sites such as FlashoverTV, Live Leak and Firevideo.net.
The videos will go live when uploaded and when the user meets the minimum amount of information required on the video. It is worth noting that the information included with videos can be difficult to verify for accuracy.
Here’s an example of a high-quality firefighting video from Ed Gray at Allhandsgoingtowork.com:
When a video goes live, it’s often then posted to the various blogs and other sites that are out there. Many of the firefighter blogs on the Web are very small operations, often run by just one person.
This person is typically searching all the main video upload sites on a daily basis to find the latest fire videos that are either newsworthy or relevant to their site. From the video being in the possession of one individual, it has now reached the stage of being hosted on sites and blogs across the world.
As people start viewing the videos, they often then add them to Facebook, Twitter, Firefighter Nation and other community based-platforms. There is also software available now that allows users to “rip” videos from websites. This is a key item to take note of. If you or a member of your department posts a video to any online video hosting platform, it is safe to assume it will be picked up by various other websites and users without your permission. Because of this, if you have plans to post a firefighting-related video, you must carefully review it for potential ramifications to you or your department.
Here’s an example of a video that was not reviewed before being released to the firefighting community:
When does the Monday morning quarterbacking start? Within minutes of being hosted on YouTube, videos are often commented on. To comment on videos, you need to be a member of whichever site you are utilizing to view them.
Each site will have specific guidelines, from very little control to full comment moderation. Once the videos get picked up by websites like FirefighterSpot, Statter911, FireGeezer and others, the level of commenting typically increases.
The target audience has narrowed now to firefighters or people involved in the firefighting community. We are the toughest critics of ourselves and our fellow firefighters. It is easy to watch a three-minute video and find problems. What isn’t easy, however, is getting the full picture and understanding of what is really happening at the incident.
How can websites turn negativity into constructive criticism?
- Require members or visitors to join website
- Require members to post with name or e-mail address
- Website comment moderation — site owner is able to revise or remove malicious comments
- Having the ability to ban users and related user IP addresses – repeat offenders can be banned
- Carefully title and word articles to encourage positive feedback, intelligent debate, training ideas and lessons learned
The other key factor is in how the website presents the information. I tend to present what I know and leave it to the viewers to make their decision. If the website presents an objective view of the video, it tends to set a better tone for commenting.
Example:
“Firefighters Go To Work On Top Floor Apartment Fire In Maryland”
“Low Manpower and Budgets Put Limited Manpower on Top Floor Apartment Fire”
You can see how the second title is making a judgment on the department featured in the video before the article even starts. I find the title is the most important component in setting the tone in the articles I post. If you set a negative tone to begin with, it’s often the case that comments will echo this.
Example:
“WTF – No Gear in Texas Car Fire Video”
“Car Fire In Texas Highlights The Dangers of Limited Gear Use”
Finally, when we view videos, we need to remember we do not have the entire story. We rarely get a 360 view of the fire and often only have a three to five minute slice of an operation that probably went on for more than an hour on average. We are also not often aware of the specific department involved.
We are unaware of budgets, available resources or standard operating procedures. I find readers base their comments purely on the way they operate in their area. Just recently I had a comment on a video I posted that said, “What are you, dumb? Why would you use a sledgehammer on a roof?” Well, it turns out the department in question does not have the funding to have roof saws on all their rigs. The sledgehammer is their tool of choice because of budget limitations.
We need to remember that there isn’t only one way to do this job, and that there are great things that can be learned from other departments. In many videos, the fire is the least interesting part of it.
But, good or bad, they are amazing tools for training; firefighting videos online have changed the fire service and the way we train. You should take all videos you view with a grain of salt and look for the lessons you can learn in anything you watch.
Finally, here’s an example of how videos online have changed the fire service with this “Fireground Size-Up and Smoke Reading Dale G Pekel Training Video:"