The Fire Service had rough day yesterday.
There were 3 fires where a MAYDAY was transmitted and at least 6 firefighters injured. Five (5) of those injuries were from the FDNY blaze at 1102 Prospect Place in Crown Heights. Two of those members ( Brothers Wiedmann and Gersbeck ) are assigned to Rescue Company 2 and are listed as stable but in critical condition. Both members were forced to bail from the upper level when the floor flashed.
The FIRE CRITIC has details and coverage of all 3 fires HERE
Dave Statter has the Crown Heights details HERE
CLOSE CALLS! ( If you’re not following Firefighter Close Calls.com you should be … click HERE ) We are LUCKY these were just “close calls” and not Line of Duty Deaths. All 3 fires could have gone either way.
I’m not going to “Monday morning quarterback” or critique these fires … I wasn’t there. I say we were “lucky” because I’m glad these Brothers were injured and not killed. We’re lucky every time we return safely to quarters . Even after hours upon hours of training and years and years of experience … the “odds” are still stacked against us.
This is a dangerous profession and, with every response; there is RISK. There is a ton of debate out there as to what is or isn’t “acceptable” risk and I’m not going there tonight either. I will however mention an interesting post from Teague Kenny over on “The Tailboard”. Teague says the Fire Service motto of “RISK a lot to SAVE a lot is BS” …. as in bullshit. See that post HERE .
What I will say is that I know a pretty good way of decreasing this risk …… PUT THE FIRE OUT!
Yea… remember that??? Firemen have been saying it for YEARS.
Chief Bill Goldfeder himself preaches it. Chief Billy is a good friend of mine. He gave me and Rhett a personal tour of Loveland and their fire stations just last month ( see that post HERE ).
We even dropped by his office. He was VERY proud of his desk. Not how neat, clean and clutter free it was but of the open and highlighted book in it’s center.
The book was John Norman’s Fire Officer’s Handbook of Tactics, 3rd Edition
The highlighted section talked about the importance of getting water on the seat of a fire in the quickest and most efficient way possible….
“More lives are saved by a properly positioned hoseline than any other method”.
( Note: the “Risk Management Plan” pictured above / left is also from Chief Goldfeder)
If we put the fire out, there will be nothing to “flash”. If the fire is extinguished, it can not weaken or burn through lightweight trusses / construction. When a fire is no longer burning, it can no longer produce the toxic gas and fumes that kill trapped occupants.
It just seems simple to me. The FIRE is what’s hurting and killing us …so PUT IT OUT!
A simple strategy that employs a multitude of possible tactics that will allow us to hit our benchmarks and achieve our goal …. the saving of life and property.
My Department is pretty good at it…. have been for over 100 years. I’ve built my career on it. Even “Rookie Randy” is catching on … just look at him (pictured left) “DOING IT” yesterday.
In a long ago “Melrose Misfit” post, my own members once bragged about my ability to do so …“One of the things all of us here are impressed by is his knowledge in strategy and tactics and his uncanny ability to locate the seat of the fire and the fastest way to get to it”.
See that entire post by clicking HERE
So that’s my 2 cents worth … my “rant” for the night. GET WATER ON THESE FIRES before they can injure or ( God forbid) kill any more of our Brothers or Sisters … take it for what it’s worth. My advise and $2.00 just may get ya a cup of coffee.
Ok, to wrap up … Christmas is just 5 days away ! I hope you’re ready because we can’t stop it …LOL. With only 5 days remaining, that means we are up to Day 5 of my 2011 edition of Santa’s Sexy Helpers … and here she is … ENJOY
Stay Safe and in House!
Captain Wines
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To actually say, worse to even believe, that the fire service was lucky in recent events is to discredit the training and education of those involved and to discredit any lessons to be learned afterwards. I don’t believe you intentionally mean lucky in that way, but it’s important to understand context, and for many readers to comprehend maydays, rapid intervention, clear communications, disciplined members moving about through detailed SOPs as “luck” cheapens all of it. Even the very ones who champion safety, to an extreme, lose any value when we chalk it all up to luck. No, the fire service wasn’t lucky, it simply delivered what current conditions and education valued. More lives may be saved by properly positioned lines, but the same fire service that likes to quote this is at each others throats about where that line should go, inside or outside, and even what size, never mind other abstracts such as ‘penciling’ or ‘pulsing’. The members involved in the past events have experienced the effects of those events based on the education and methods of operating their department gave them – or did not give them. Luck had nothing to do with it.
Bill Carey
Allow me to add to the last sentiments, so no one mistakenly assumes I believe that the injuries various firefighters were received are the fault of their department. The past events did impact the departments, but it was the education and training given to those very members that affected the outcomes. To attribute it all, good and bad, to luck is say that education and both good and bad firefighter behavior on the fireground had no impact whatsoever. If that is true, then we should tell NIOSH to stop doing LODD investigations, tell NIST to stop researching fire behavior and Billy G. to stop pointing out or mistakes. We have nothing left to learn, since it is now all in God’s hands. Or Buddha, or whomever and whatever one believes in.
Bill Carey
You misunderstood my meaning and I guess I used the wrong word. No way do I think it was “luck” that got those brothers to the window and stairway…. 100% it was training and experience. What I meant to say was that the “Fire Service” was lucky not to have suffered another LODD … maybe “fortunate” would have been a better word? I’ll clean it up tomorrow so nobody else will misunderstand my meaning… Thanks for pointing it out (didn’t think it read that way)
IT WAS LUCK AND THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO EXPLAIN IT RATIONALLY.