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April 2016 Connect with us at FirefighterNation.com


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3/22/16 2:40 PM

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3/22/16 2:40 PM

RESPONSE

Another Ferrara innovation in the evolution of fire fighting has arrived. Featuring the
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April 2016
Volume 34, Issue 4
To subscribe, visit
www.firefighternation.com

s
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58
48

48 A Small Line with a Big Punch

62 Risk Management Models

A look at the uses and benefits of 1-inch highperformance hose and how it matches the 2-inch
hose in every flow category tested.

How a real-life incident in a Wisconsin fire


department involved applying a risk management
model and ended up saving a life.

By Paul Shapiro

By David F. Peterson

52 Integration Nation
The author explains to a nontechnical audience
the fundamentals of linking data systems in the
fire department. If you think it may be too costly,
ask yourself: Can you afford not to integrate?

65

By Matt Hinds-Aldrich

65 Finding a Common Thread


The author, a seasoned fire academy instructor,
faced his most challenging class15 Saudis who
had no command of the English language,
firefighting skills, or love of the joband instilled
in them the soul of the firefighter.
By Schuyler Sonny Cudd

58 The Road to Resilience, Part 1


Along with the stories of courage and bravery,
there is a darker side to firefighting that needs
attention: helping the helpers to stay mentally fit
and healthy.
By Naomi L. Baum

68

68 50 Dos and Donts, Part 5


Tips cover family visits, profanity, ethical
purchasing, abusing the position for favors, misuse
of department vehicles, and being out of your
response area.
By Stan Tarnowski

F ire r escue M agazine April 2016

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3/22/16 2:29 PM

ITS THE PRODUCT OF BLUE-SKY THINKING AND CLEAN-SLATE DESIGN.

ITS INSPIRED BY INTERVIEWS WITH HUNDREDS OF FIREFIGHTERS.

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1604FR_3 3

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nts
e
m
t
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a
Dep
8 From the Editor
The many paths firefighters travel in their careers
and lives.

32
26

By Erich Roden

14 Nozzlehead
Do your drills and training match your
fire operations?
By Billy Goldfeder

20 Apparatus Ideas
Loveland-Symmes (OH) Fire Department receives
two engines and a quint.
By Bob Vaccaro

26 Wildland Urban Interface


The tactical benefits of working with aircraft.
By Todd McNeal

32 Fire Attack
Engine company operations in multiple dwellings.
By Mike Kirby and Tom Lakamp

38 Hump Day S.O.S.


All firefighter injuries and deaths will never
be preventable.
By David Rhodes

42 Distant Fires
Fires of note from April 1916.
By Paul Hashagen

44 From the Chiefs Desk


Is higher education necessary in the fire service?
By Ronny J. Coleman

46 Thermal Imaging
Using a camera during preflashover conditions.
By Carl Nix

72 Company Officer Development


Providing training tips in the fire station bathroom.
By Stephen Marsar

74 Community Risk Reduction


Best practices in global risk reduction.
By Jim Crawford

COVER: The pilot of a wildland firefighting aircraft looks down on his drop area to determine his drops
effectiveness during what is always a dangerous operation. Aircraft drops are often done near operating firefighters on
the ground, guiding the aircraft to its target. As the wildland urban interface season approaches, we are reminded of the
brave pilots who fly aging aircraft over some of the most dangerous firegrounds in the world. Working effectively with
aircraft requires more than just a professional relationship between pilot and firefighter; it requires a bond held together
by the realization that both are in harms way to accomplish the same mission. Working in conjunction with aircraft
also adds a tremendous layer of command responsibility to ensure that aircraft are used effectively and at the right time
during the operation. (Photo by Mike Meadows.)

76 New Deliveries
77 New Products
78 Classifieds
79 Ad Index
80 The Backstep
Guidelines on what is high risk/low frequency.
By Matthew Tobia

F ire r escue M agazine April 2016

1604FR_4 4

FireFighterNAtioN.com

3/22/16 2:29 PM

VISIT US AT FDIC BOOTH #3437


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1604FR_5 5

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M A G A Z I N E

VICE PRESIDENT/GROUP PUBLISHER

Eric Schlett - erics@pennwell.com


EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Bobby Halton - roberth@pennwell.com

ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT
NATIONAL SALES MANAGER

Ted Billick; tedb@pennwell.com; 801-262-1871


MEDIA SALES CONSULTANT, WESTERN REGION

Erin Herrett; eherrett@pennwell.com; 208-309-2747

EDITOR IN CHIEF

MEDIA SALES CONSULTANT, MIDWEST

Erich Roden - erichr@pennwell.com

Diane Giuffre; dgiuffre@pennwell.com; 908-500-8231

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

MEDIA SALES CONSULTANT, NORTHEAST

Diane Rothschild - dianer@pennwell.com

Anthony Maglionico; anthonym@pennwell.com; 973-251-5073

SENIOR EDITOR

Kindra Sclar - kindras@pennwell.com


ONLINE NEWS/BLOG MANAGER

Bill Carey - billc@pennwell.com

MEDIA SALES CONSULTANT, SPECIAL ACCOUNTS

Joseph Porter; joep@pennwell.com; 215-230-1950


MEDIA SALES CONSULTANT, EAST & MIDWEST

Ted Billick; tedb@pennwell.com; 801-262-1871

EDITORIAL ADVISORS AND CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS

MEDIA SALES CONSULTANT, SOUTHEAST

Les Baker, Dwight Clark, Jim Crawford, Randy Frassetto,


Billy Goldfeder, Todd Harms, Angela Hughes,
Greg Jakubowski, Rhoda Mae Kerr, Steve Kidd,
Mike Kirby, Joseph Knitter, Tom Kuntz, Tom Lakamp,
Stephen Marsar, Bruce J. Moeller, Ph.D., Garret Olson,
Tom Pendley, Jordan Ponder, Forest Reeder,
Homer Robertson, Tiger Schmittendorf, Peter Silva Jr.,
Andy Speier, John Sullivan, Matt Tobia,
Bob Vaccaro, Tom Vines, Becki White

Tim Tolton; ttolton@pennwell.com; 678-974-2472


FOR ASSISTANCE WITH MARKETING STRATEGY
OR AD CREATION, PLEASE CONTACT
PENNWELL MARKETING SOLUTIONS

Vice President Paul Andrews


(240) 595-2352; pandrews@pennwell.com
CHAIRMAN

Robert F. Biolchini
ART DIRECTOR

Josh Troutman - josht@pennwell.com


PRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Rae Lynn Cooper - raec@pennwell.com


VICE PRESIDENT, PENNWELL MARKETING SERVICES

Paul Andrews
marketingservices@pennwell.com; 240-595-2352
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Brandon Rowland - brandonr@pennwell.com


DIRECTOR OF EPRODUCTS

Scott Nelson - scottn@pennwell.com


AD TECH MANAGER

VICE CHAIRMAN

Frank T. Lauinger
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Mark C. Wilmoth
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT,
CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT AND STRATEGY

Jayne A. Gilsinger
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, FINANCE
AND CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Brian Conway
FOUNDING PUBLISHER

James O. Page, 19362004

Adrian Zavala - adrianz@pennwell.com

SUBSCRIPTION DEPARTMENT

DIGITAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN COORDINATOR

Phone 847-763-9540 / fr@halldata.com

Erin Northrop - erinn@pennwell.com

REPRINTS, EPRINTS & LICENSING

Rae Lynn Cooper


raec@pennwell.com / 918-831-9143

www.pennwell.com

FireRescue
4180 La Jolla Village Dr., Suite 260
La Jolla, CA 92037-9142
Phone 800-266-5367 or 973-251-5077
Fax 858-638-2601
www.firefighternation.com

F ire r escue M agazine April 2016

1604FR_6 6

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3/22/16 2:29 PM

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1604FR_7 7

3/22/16 2:29 PM

From the Editor

A Road Most Traveled?


The many paths of the fire service
e travel down many roads to get where we
are in our careers and lives. And with the
month of April upon us, I hope one of these
roads takes you to the Fire Department Instructors
Conference (FDIC) International 2016. But there are
other roads we must take, as well. When we look to the
basic service demand of our citizenryfire attackthe
roads have many forks in them that we are forced to
take as we prepare ourselves to be ready for the next
fire. Preparing to attack the next fire should perhaps
take a renewed approach every year because we are
finding better ways to analyze our communities built
environment, socioeconomics, and population trends
while developing programs and deployment strategies
to meet these needs. We are also finding better ways to
incorporate established, proven tactics; handle emerging response-type demands; and, just as importantly,
take care of our own.
This month, we discuss several topics that make up
the key parts of planning, deployment, mitigation,
and recoveryprincipal parts of any fire attack plan.
We start with where it all should begin: planning and
risk reduction. Jim Crawford discusses best practices
from the United States and the United Kingdom
that will be juxtaposed during a panel discussion at
the upcoming Congressional Fire Services Institute
next month. Once we know what programs produce
the greatest outcomes, we need to dig deeper into
the makeup of our communities to begin targeting
hazards and the at-risk in our response areas. The best
way to do this is by conducting analysis of the metrics
accumulated by us and our governmentsit is the
integration of Big Data into our fire service prevention, planning, and operations. Matt Hinds-Aldrich
from the Atlanta (GA) Fire Department helps us
make sense of data systems fundamentals so that we
can start digging in.
We should also take a look to our past to see where
weve come from so that we can learn what to repeat
in the future. Paul Hashagen brings us another great
installment of Distant Fires from 100 years ago. Id
say thats a good number of historic years to analyze
and a good sample size. And with a firm understanding of history and contemporary challenges, we need
to be ready for them. Thats where training comes in,
but where can we start when our days rapidly fill up
with daily activities and incoming runs? Steve Marsar

By Erich Roden

Connect with Erich!


Stay in touch with
Erich Roden
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/
ErichRodenFRM

F ire r escue M agazine April 2016

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from the FDNY thinks every day should start with


some potty training. Yes, bringing the daily training
message to a place where youll always have a captive
audience is a novel approach. Check out Steves article
to find out where and how to do it.
Once weve become more aware of our communities needs and are training accordingly, its time to
put it all to the test. Mike Kirby and Tom Lakamp
take the engine company to the multiple-dwelling
fire. Todd McNeal discusses the amazing impact
and efficiencies of wildland urban interface (WUI)
firefighting aircraft and how they need to effectively
work with the other 50 percent of the WUI equation:
ground forces. And Paul Shapiro shows us how new
developments in hose design can have a huge impact
for us on the fireground.
One of the roads we should all take is the road to
resilience. Resilience takes a constant beating in the
fire service as we, along with other related groups, suffer from the maladies of burnout, compassion fatigue,
substance abuse, and the consequences of doing what
we do. This month, Naomi Baum sheds some light
on the dark side of the fire service that we always
know is there. Naomi goes in depth on this topic
and describes the unfortunate realities and responder
statistics in Part 1 of this article. We all have issues in
our lives and occasionally fall victim to the negative
aspects of these issues and end up not just potentially
losing our careers but our personal freedom as well.
David F. Peterson asks these leaders to develop
effective risk-management practices in the field with
a sanctioned risk-management model in policy form.
The emergencies we are required to respond to are
inherently dangerous because of their unsettled nature
and the dynamics involved with their development
and necessary abatement. David correlates this reality
by describing a real-life incident in which a risk-management model was effectively and capably applied
and subsequently a life was saved in the process.
This months FireRescue offers many roads for you
to travel down. And Ill close with one of my favorite
Yogi Berra quotes to sum up the reality of which
roads we have to travel down during our careers and
profession: If you come to a fork in the road, take
it! No quote can be truer in this sense as the
emergencies and inherent hazards found in our work
make these the roads most traveled.

F ireF ighterNAtioN.com

3/22/16 2:29 PM

SURE, CHANGE CAN BE TOUGH.


BUT, HEY, YOU RUN INTO
BURNING BUILDINGS.
What if an SCBA was more comfortable,
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Check out the MSA G1 (and request a demo) at

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1604FR_9 9

W E G O IN WIT H YOU.

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3/22/16 2:29 PM

1604FR_10 10

3/22/16 2:29 PM

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FIND IT @

Turbo Fire Trucks


By Bob Vaccaro
The winter months are usually slow in announcements
of any new fire apparatus ideas. The apparatus
manufacturers usually wait until FDIC to make any major
unveilings. So Bob Vaccaro decided to look at some
past technological designs that we have seen in the fire
apparatus industry going back over the past couple of
decades. Some have been good and some not so good.
www.firefighternation.com/author/bob-vaccaro

Photo of the Month

MyFFN member Brian


Gettemeier posted this
photo of a custom shield
that was built by one of his
friends for his father as he
enters his 40th year as a
career firefighter. Do you
have a shot of a special
object that you or someone
else created to commemorate fire service, courage,
etc.? Remember, FirefighterNation.com is the place
to share your fire service photos and videos with more than
60,000 members!

Lost in the Fog of the Fireground


A former Marine who fought in World
War II used the term lost in the fog
of war. According to this author, the
expression describes both the literal
fog created by the dust, smoke,
and debris of the battlefield and,
more importantly, the mental fog of
confusion and uncertainty created
by lack of knowledge of the enemy.
In an effort to improve his work on
and off the fireground, Joe Pronesti,
a 26-year veteran of the Elyria (OH)
Fire Department and a lead instructor at the Cuyahoga Community College Fire Academy, studies fires, both
his own and others from around the country. While doing so,
he continues to review the lessons from one fire in particular
under his command where he personally became lost in the
fireground. Getting sidetracked on arrival is a serious problem for incident commanders. Learn from an officers example
of being sidetracked by the scene:
www.firefighternation.com/author/joe-pronesti.

Featured Blog: A Firefighters Own Worst Enemy


Are you looking to improve your situational awareness, size-up,
firefighting operations, training, and more? Then take a look at A
Firefighters Own Worst Enemy, a blog created by Jason Hoevelmann,
a deputy chief/fire marshal with the Sullivan Fire Protection District
in North St. Louis County (MO). This blog examines everything from
promotions and interactions with leadership to hose stretches and
bailout kits. It focuses on the topics that are important in the fire
service and provides guidance and advice to help keep firefighters
safe. Check it out at: www.firefightersenemy.com.

Like us on Facebook:
facebook.com/firefighternation

12

F ire r escue M agazine April 2016

1604FR_12 12

Follow us on Twitter:
twitter.com/firenation

Its Easy to Share!

Did you know that all FireRescue


articles are available online? You can
access the complete issue each month
online. Bookmark your favorite authors,
share articles with your firefighters, or
enjoy reading on your smartphone or tablet. Scan the QR
code to visit the FireRescue magazine pages today!

Get connected: linkedin.com/


groups?about=&gid=111539

Get the latest from our


Bloggers: FireEMSBlogs.com

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3/22/16 2:29 PM

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SEE THE CLARIT Y.

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THER MAL IM A GE RS

3/22/16 2:29 PM

Nozzlehead

Drills, Training, and Renting Our Behavior


Do your drills and training
really match your fire operations?
Dear Nozzlehead

By Billy Goldfeder

Got a fire service


question or complaint?
Let Nozzlehead hear all about it.
Hell answer you with 2,000 psi
of free-flowing opinion.
Send your letters to:
Nozzlehead, c/o FireRescue
PennWell Corp.
21-00 Route 208 South
Fair Lawn, NJ 07410
Attn: Diane Rothschild
(dianer@pennwell.com)

14

Preplan your first due for no surprises (oh


damn, I didnt realize Acme Dynamite had a
factory in our district).
Train every shift (or weekly for the volunteers) for at least a couple of hours; thats
meaningful, hands-on training with goals,
objectives, and drills that are result based.
Be nice and dont act like a jerk to the
public.
So, before we go further, lets cover the be
nice/dont be a jerk part.
I was recently made aware of two company
officers in two completely different parts of
the United States who made similar remarks
on fire/EMS runs. Both essentially told the
patient (or his family) to stop wasting the
fire/EMS departments time calling them for
nonsense calls. These are both true stories.
In one case, the company officer actually said to the family member that it was
ridiculous for fire/EMS to be called for that
specific situation. Really. In the other case,
the officer made a similar remark to the
retirement community staff about wasting
the fire departments time. Really.
The good news is that both of these officers are former officers and kudos for those
fire/EMS department leaders for formering those
two clowns. The bad news is that there are people
in our business who feel that way and speak that
way. The other bad news is that one of the above
patients actually died following the run.
Lets wrap this behavior discussion up really
quickly so we can get onto the other points you
were whining about.
Simply put, career, volunteer, part-time paid,
poorly paid, or whatever, when you are on duty,
responding, etc., the department you are a member
of (and the community served) is RENTING
YOUR BEHAVIOR. You are either compensated
by pay or your desire to volunteerwhatever
motivated YOU to apply (no one forced you)
in exchange for certain types of behavior. It is
the departments responsibility from the start to
educate and train you to fully and unequivocally
understand what acceptable and unacceptable

to sound like such


I will do my best not
d
I am really annoye
a whiner; however,
lls
dri
nt
me
fire depart
about the way our
e
to the way we operat
ed
par
com
ins
tra
and
have
we
t
tha
is
le
mp
on the scene. An exa
zone
d in a new hazard
recently been traine
ere
wh
m
nd progra
management comma
g and then we have
inin
tra
ine
onl
e
hav
we
simulator training.
oom
hands-on classr
g, our leaders have
Based on the trainin
y
size up a certain wa
decided to arrive and
the
on
ed
bas
y
n wa
and operate a certai
it
uld be wonderful if
training ... which wo
d
(an
nel
son
ately, our per
mattered. Unfortun
o
aut
rm
ala
atic first
those on our autom
k
nts) revert right bac
me
ign
ass
aid
l
tua
mu
tones are
the
en
wh
ys
wa
to our cowboy
inwe never had the tra
dropped. It is as if
h.
wit
in
s to beg
ing or the new policie
ughts because I am
I welcome your tho
s
attitude about all thi
really having a bad
es
dlin
hea
ng to make
and am afraid its goi
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res
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is
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ething
some day when som
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ion
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ope
of these crazy fire
Pissed Off in PA

Dear POd,
Thanks for trying so hard to not sound like a
whiner. Congratulations, you failed miserably. You
are whining, but in this rare case it may be valid.
Its refreshing to not hear you whine about having
to:
Actually do company drills.
Respond on EMS runs.
Turn out in seconds, not minutes.
Turn out at 0300 hours to help Grandma
because no one else can help her.
Do proper, thorough truck and equipment
checks.
Do things without your officer asking your
opinion every time.
Stop at red lights and stop signs.
Drive the equipment as if your family is driving
in front of you.

F ire r escue M agazine April 2016

1604FR_14 14

FireFighterNAtioN.com

3/22/16 2:29 PM

firerescue.hotims.com

1604FR_15 15

3/22/16 2:29 PM

In your departments case, the leadership of you and your area


departments has decided to follow some common, proven, and
time-tested practices specific to improved command, control, and
accountability. Thats actually very cool; good for them. But, once
behavior is. And while it must be policy driven, the golden rule
they do, you should do the following:
applies here, such as treating people the way you wish (or you
Review it with the troops.
wish your mom, dad, spouse, kids, whoever is important to you)
Get applicable input from the troops.
to be treated.
Develop the final training for the new policy and standards.
Still confused? OK, try this. Imagine your mom is sitting on
Deliver classroom training.
one shoulder and your chief is on your other shoulder. Now go
Deliver practical hands on training.
ahead and do your job. Makes it pretty clear on how we should
Include all departments that respond together on runs.
and should not behave.
Test and verify the training of all those involved so it is clear
As far as your operations not mirroring your training, there is
everyone is undeniably trained.
a very simple solution: Have your bosses grow some guts to lead.
It is now time to institute the policies with ZERO tolerance for
Now for you folks who believe in group hugs, quality circles,
any nonsense or fireground playing. Its now time for no-nonretreats, getting input from everyone on everything, and clicking
sense and competent leadership to ensure that all personnel are
your heels twice, thats fine; hurry up and do thatwell wait.
doing what they have been trained on.
You done yet? Lovely.
Hopefully, in a fairly disciplined department, the officers wont
The reality is that there are circumstances where personnel
be forced to enforce because the members do what they were
input is critical. Ask those on the nozzle about new nozzles? Ask
trained on and behave as expected. Unfortunately, there are cases
those driving about specing new rigs? Ask the troops about new
such as what you wrote me about where some members fail to
SCBAs? Ask dispatchers about new CAD systems and console
follow what is agreed on. And perhaps even worse, the officers
ergonomics? Ask training officers and instructors about training
shy away because they dont want any trouble, wanna be loved,
props? Ask crews about new apparatus design? Ask commanders
dont wanna rock the boat, have to get along with these people,
about command related systems? Yes. Absolutely. Yes!
and all the other sentiments that belongs on a pretty greeting card
Ask and USE that input for YOUR final decisions (chief )
but not coming out of the mouth of a fire officer.
but remember, sometimes a fire department (and especially the
Whats missing in your department is the understanding of
fireground) is not a democracy. It cannot work that way and be
what behaviors are and are not acceptable. Essentially, as soon as
successful. Its time proven.
one company or firefighter is allowed to play on the fireground
without consequences, that behavior now
becomes the new standard, and it goes
downhill from there.
In the case where your department is
(Patent Pending)
doing well but some of the mutual-aid
departments arent, its incumbent on your
leaders to have a face-to-face with the others
and find out whats going on and why. If for
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Apparatus Ideas

Loveland-Symmes Triple Threat


Smeal/Spartan delivers two engines
and a quint to Ohio fire department
he Loveland-Symmes (OH) Fire Department (LSFD) is one of the most progressive
fire departments in Ohio. The fire district is
comprised of the cities of Loveland and Symmes
and was created as a joint fire district in 1989,
when the Loveland Community Fire Department
took over fire protection for Symmes Township
and became known as the Loveland-Symmes Fire
Department.
It currently operates as a private fire company
governed by the LSFD Board of Directors that
contracts fire and EMS services to Loveland and
Symmes Township. The department operates four
fire stations (two in Loveland and two in Symmes
Township) that are staffed with firefighter/paramedics 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days
a year.
The fire district is located approximately 25 miles
north of Cincinnati and has been growing at a fast
rate. It is a suburban area with strip malls, light
industrial, restaurants, and two major interstates
running through the area as well as newly constructed four- and five-story apartment buildings

By Bob Vaccaro

being built, as well as some 4,000- to 5,000-squarefoot homes. The population is 29,000 and grows to
40,000 during the daytime.

REPLACEMENT SCHEDULE
According to Deputy Chief Josh Blum, the
department tries to follow a regular replacement
schedule for its apparatus. Engines are replaced
every 12 years and aerials every 15 years if feasible.
While this might seem early for some departments
to replace their vehicles, Blum states that they are
actually saving money by early replacement. The
department gets more money for the sale of the
vehicles because they are newer and maintenance
costs are lowerthey are replaced before any
major work or overhaul has to be performed on the
vehicles, Blum says. The vehicles being replaced
are 17 and 21 years old.
The planning for the replacement of the two
engines and the quint began in 2014. We were
looking at various manufacturers and wanted to
upgrade features on these vehicles that we didnt
have on the older rigs, Blum says. We went

LSFDs new fleet, with two Spartan/Smeal engines and a Spartan/Smeal 75-foot quint. (Photos by LSFD.)

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COME SEE PMI AT FDICBOOTH #3217

Apparatus Ideas
through the Ohio state bid process and eventually chose Smeal/
Spartan for the manufacturer to build all three trucks.

VEHICLE STRATEGIES

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Some of the ideas the department wanted to incorporate in the


new vehicles were bigger and lower hosebeds; sealing the chassis
with a corrosionproof paint to prevent corrosion and rust; disc
brakes all around; air bags on the front, rear, and sides of all cabs;
and the ability for a single firefighter to operate the aerial and
pump from the pedestal of the quints turntable.
The department also wanted all three vehicles to be built on
Spartan chassis for ease of operation, safety, and maintenance.
The roominess of the Spartan cab was also a deciding factor.
Our committee actually traveled to the Spartan chassis factory in Michigan to see the completed chassis and cabs and then
traveled to Nebraska to the Smeal factory to see the completion
of the vehicle bodies, Blum says. Both were great to deal with,
answered all our concerns, and were receptive to all our ideas.
After the visit, we also came back with some other ideas that

An LSFD engine with large side compartments.

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1604FR_22 22

Engines
2015 Spartan/Smeal Gladiator chassis.
400-hp Cummins ISX9 diesel engine.
Allison EVS 3000 automatic transmission.
Hale 1,500-gpm pump, 500-gallon water tank, 30-gallon
Class A foam cell.
6-kW hydraulic generator.
Quint
2015 Spartan/Smeal Gladiator chassis.
75-foot steel aerial with prepiped waterway.
400-hp Cummins ISL9 diesel engine.
Allison EVS 4000 automatic transmission.
Hale 1,500-gpm pump, 300-gallon tank, 20-gallon Class
A foam cell.
10-kW hydraulic generator.
Whelen LED Light packages on both.

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we incorporated. We really were pleased with the


outcome of all three apparatus.

APPARATUS FEATURES
The engines have low large hosebeds that carry
a great deal more hose than the pumpers that they
replaced. The front bumpers are extended with a
swivel six-inch intake on one side and a gate wye
with 200 feet of 1-inch attack lines on the other
side. The crosslays have two 200 feet of 1-inch
attack lines with a side-mounted dead load of
400 feet of 1-inch attack line. The rear hosebed
has 1,050 feet of five-inch, large-diameter hose
(LDH); 600 feet of 2-inch attack line; 600 feet
of three-inch attack line; a three-way valve; and a
blitz line.
The quint has a 75-foot piped-in waterway on
the aerial with a 2-inch discharge. It also has
six-inch LDH intakes on both sides. Ground ladders consist of a 35-foot, a 28-foot, a 24-foot, two
16-foot, one 10-foot, and a 16-foot roof ladder. It
features an electric remote control Akron nozzle at
the tip that can be operated at the pump panel and
at the pedestal by a single operator if needed. The
rear hosebed mirrors the engines but has 750 feet of
five-foot LDH instead of 1,050. All vehicles have
a FoamPRO system installed with 30-gallon foam
cells on the engines and 20-gallon on the quint.

The LSFD 75-foot quint also has large side compartments.

The engines have 6-kW hydraulic generators and


the quint has a 10-kW.
You can see all three of the vehicles are well
stocked with hose and ladders as well as having
thought out larger compartments carrying a great
deal more equipment than our previous units,
Blum says.
Also incorporated was a Fire Research PumpBoss
with governor and throttle controls and Omni

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Apparatus
Ideas

The rear of one engine with reflective striping and a low hosebed.

pump control valves. While some departments are


shying away from all the computer-operated electronics, we havent had any issues so far, says Blum.

PLAN AHEAD
As you can see, the LSFD has planned well for
this large purchase. It had firefighter safety in
mind with choosing the larger cab with air bags
all around as well as lower hosebeds. All three
vehicles carry a great deal of hose, especially the

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quint, for long stretches at the newer apartment


buildings and dwellings being constructed in the
response district.
As Ive written in past columns, when you
are writing specs for a new apparatus, dont just
spec a replacement. You have to look into the
future and try to imagine what your response
area might be like 10 years from now. I know
that might sound crazy to some, but its better
to plan with larger compartments and bigger
hosebeds so you can expand without worrying
about outgrowing your big investment too early.
Replacing your vehicles earlier if you can afford
it is also another option.
In any case, be proactive like the LSFD is, and
with a little preplanning you will have purchased a
vehicle or, in this case, vehicles that will be
functional for your fire district.
Bob Vaccaro has more than 40 years of fire service experience.
He is a former chief of the Deer Park (NY) Fire Department.
Vaccaro has also worked for the Insurance Services Office, the
New York Fire Patrol, and several major commercial insurance
companies as a senior loss-control consultant. He is a life
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Wildland Urban Interface

Working with Aircraft


The application and tactical benefits
of rotor-wing and fixed-wing aircraft
Fixed-wing aircraft
is responsible for the
most impact on large,
fast-moving fire fronts.
(Photo by John Cetrino.)

By Todd McNeal

s the wildland fire conditions continue to


increase in intensity each year throughout the
West, wildland firefighters have to react with
improved tactics and a rapid response with both
ground and air assets. As I watched the 2015 fire
season unfold, it became apparent that air resources
were vital in the combat of the rapid fire growth
and the most problematic result of extreme fire
behaviorlong-range spotting. All wildland firefighters responding to an expanding incident need
to be knowledgeable of aerial firefighting tactics
and proficient at working with the air resources to
maximize their effectiveness. Like most technology in our modern word, the aerial firefighting
resources of this country are becoming more diverse
and constantly improving. Their ability to maneuver, drop precisely, provide remote intelligence,
and deliver more suppression agent has never been
greater. However, despite all of these and numerous other technological advancements, the need to
work in conjunction with ground resources has not
and will never change.
As our world witnessed this past fire season, the
resultant fire behavior produced by the droughtstricken West was staggering. The loss of life and
property was record setting and the statistics of

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1604FR_26 26

acres consumed and dollars spent were also. When


fire conditions reach such an aggressive and dangerous state, the ability to attack solely on the ground
is ineffective and hazardous. The only way to help
slow progress and defend values at risk is the fleet of
aircraft. Both rotor-wing and fixed-wing have their
advantages and disadvantages under certain conditions, and both aircraft type require different tactical application and response from ground resources.
Wildland firefighters in any sort of command function on a rapidly expanding wildland fire must have
a strong working knowledge of the application and
tactical benefits of each aircraft class and type.

ROTOR-WING AIRCRAFT
This class of aircraft is the most versatile used in
wildland incident management. Helicopters are
the backbone of suppression and logistical missions
and support ground resources in many ways. From
troop shuttles to gear hauling to water dropping,
these are used successfully every summer flying
thousands of hours. For the sake of brevity, I will
not list all of the advantages or disadvantages in
every possible situation, but I would like to touch
on the fundamental considerations when working
with helicopters.

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Wildland
Urban
Interface

First and foremost: Always request use of


helicopters through the air tactical group supervisor (ATGS) or helicopter coordinator (HLCO).
These individuals are the aerial supervisors over
the incident and directly manage the airspace
and maintain vigilant accountability for all the
aircraft working over the fire. These supervisors
are juggling all of the mission requests from the
incident management team but also the daily
suppression resources and need to be notified of
the request to track and ensure all objectives for
that operational period are being addressed. This
request may be routed through the division/group
supervisor (DIVS) you are working for or may
come directly from you to ATGS depending on the
DIVS management preference. Regardless, this has
to be done over the air tactics frequency assigned
to the incident and is now more commonly done
over the air-to-ground command channel because

Rotor-wing aircraft are the most versatile used in wildland


incident management. (Photo by Tod Sudmeier.)

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1604FR_28 28

of the complexity of the incidents and the volume


of radio traffic related to working with the various
aircraft over the fire.
When requesting helicopter resources, please
make sure that you have a specific location for
the helicopter to report to; this could be a global
positioning system (GPS) coordinate or a general
location identified on the daily fire map like a drop
point or topographic feature identified within a
division. If you choose to use GPS, please ensure
that the coordinates are given in the format of
degrees and decimal minutes. This display format is
the default used by aircraft working over wildland
incidents and is how their GPS is set. An example
of this format reads like this: 38 2.335 N by 120
13.675 W.
In addition to having a concise location of
the mission, one must have prepared a clear and
concise mission objective or target and a ground
contact who the inbound helicopter can hail when
approaching the target area. The radio traffic
between the assigned helicopter and the ground
contact must be conducted on the appropriate
assigned air-to-ground tactical frequency that you
made the request for aircraft on. The single most
frequent oversight I have witnessed while working aircraft on wildland incidents is the identified
ground contact does not respond promptly to the
inbound helicopter. This is frustrating for all parties
and ultimately dangerous for the pilot with exposure to the unnecessary flying in circles trying to
raise a contact on the radio. If you are the ground
contact, please take your radio off scan and be on
the correct channel.
Once you have established contact with an
inbound helicopter, ensure that the pilot has a
clear understanding of your location and the target
location in reference to your position. This verbal
description can most easily be accomplished by talking in terms of clock dial direction from the pilots
position (not yours). You would absolutely not use
your clock directions because the pilot doesnt yet
know where you are; you should also not use vague
descriptions like: I am the person with a yellow
helmet next to the large pine tree.
Protocol suggests that you give a clock direction
from the pilots perspective to your location and
then add an adjective of high, level, or low. This is
critical information for the pilot to be able to look
in a specific direction and wait for additional visual
clues to your location. The additional clues from
you should most typically be in the form of a mirror
flash or a bright panel you have placed near you or
the target.
Once the pilot has a reference location for you,
the next transmission should be to describe the
target location and desired action of the helicopter
in terms of a unit of measure that they are inti-

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Wildland
Urban
Interface

mately familiar with: rotor widths. Once the target


has been described and the mission completed,
give feedback to the pilot, especially if you have
additional needs or, for example, want to correct
the placement of the water drop that just was completed. If you have no additional needs, make sure
the pilot understands that you have released that
ship back to the ATGS for reassignment.
Another very important safety issue to remember
around the larger helicopters is the significant rotor
wash that comes down out of their rotor and the
subsequent impact on the fire behavior and the
vegetation. Please ensure as the ground contact
working with a type one helicopter that you can
positively confirm with the pilot that all ground
resources are out of the target area.

FIXED-WING AIRCRAFT
This class of aircraft is responsible for the most
impact on large, fast-moving fire fronts. They can
be used in an offensive or direct suppression mode
or in an indirect mode. Fire behavior explodes
when conditions are in alignment, and when that
occurs there is little ground or air resources can do
to stop perimeter growth and spotting.
Point-protection of certain values at risk can
be accomplished but often the greater perimeter
continues to grow until conditions producing the
extreme behavior abate. These conditions are when
the fixed-wing aircraft are exceptionally beneficial

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to assist in dropping out in front of the fire front


to slow its progress, giving ground resources time
to construct an indirect containment line. Once
the line has been built, it is once again the fixedwing aircraft that are often used to pretreat the
green side of the containment line in anticipation of firing operations.
One difference between the requesting paths for
fixed-wing vs. rotor-wing aircraft is that mission

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requests for fixed wing or air tankers are not


typically generated by the field personnel. These
resources are usually coordinated at the operation section chief (OSC) and air operation branch
director (AOBD) level. The AOBD works directly
with the incident commander and the operations
section and through the ATGS to prioritize the
targets and missions for the large fixed wing. An
exception to this might be during the initial attack
phase or when division-level resources are using the
smallest fixed-wing aircraft, called single engine air
tankers or SEATs.
Despite the fact that requests and coordination are handled at higher levels in the incident
management organization, the ground
level personnel must be aware and
mindful of the activities of the large
aircraft, especially if they are working
in your assigned area. These machines
are dumping enormous amounts
of retardant that weighs close to 10
pounds per gallon and comes in drops
at times of more than 10,000 gallons.
This fact means the path of retardant must be clear of personnel and
equipment and must be confirmed by
the pilots of both the delivery aircraft
and the lead plane. The lead plane is
responsible for communication verbally
and by demonstration to the Type 1
tankers and the very large air tankers
(VLATsthose carrying more than
8,000 gallons) the line to fly and when
to drop the product. Ground personnel
supervisors would be well advised to
listen to the air-to-ground command
channel and watch for the lead plane
making its first pass with a tanker in
tow. This is the called the dry run and
the next pass will be liveyou do not
want to be under it. Remember that if
you or you crew are not able to get out
of the drop zone, lay flat on the ground
away from aerial hazards with your
head toward the approaching drop with
one hand holding your helmet and the
other outstretched and firmly grasping
your hand tool.

Never underestimate the length of the retardant


drop or you may return to your vehicle with a new
paint job.
Todd McNeal is a 24-year veteran of the fire service and chief of
Twain Harte Fire in Tuolumne County, California. He has a diverse
background in wildland and structural fire management and
suppression and has been serving as a division/group supervisor
on a Federal Type II Incident Management Team for 10 years.
McNeal has been an instructor in the fire service for 15 years,
holds numerous ICS qualifications in wildland operations, is a
registered instructor with California State Fire Training and a
California fire officer, and has a bachelors degree in natural
resource management.

AIR AND GROUND


Aerial resources are quite effective in
suppressing the advancement of
wildland fire, but it is the boots on the
ground that will ultimately stop the fire
by securing the edge. One last thought:
If you park your vehicle and are out on
foot for any reason, be mindful of
aircraft of any type working overhead.

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Fire Attack

Engine Operations in Multiple Dwellings


Strategies for conducting safe and effective operations

By Mike Kirby
and Tom Lakamp

Assessment is essential in
tenements with long hallways, ordinary constructed
dwellings with multiple
entrances, and single-family
dwellings converted into
multiple families with various
entry points. (Photos by CFD.)

ther than single-family residences, the


multiple dwelling is the second most likely
occupancy at which we are likely to respond
to a fire. Both are considered residential occupancies, and yearly we lose more lives because of fire or
smoke in residences than in any other occupancy
type. To meet our mission of protecting life,
we must know our buildings, practice to become
proficient in deployment and advancement of
hoselines, and execute efficiently and effectively on
the fireground.

TYPES OF MULTIPLE DWELLINGS


There are several types of multiple dwellings all
across the communities we serve. They range from
Type 1 buildings that are built like a fortress with
alarm and protection systems to lightweight woodframe boxes of matches without any protection or
early warning systems. Sadly, there are some multiple dwellings we dont even know exist, such as the
illegally subdivided single-family dwelling.
Type 1: Protected multiple dwellings. Typically, these
are high-rise buildings with alarms, stairwells, elevators, and standpipe risers and may or may not have
full sprinkler protection. The construction features

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1604FR_32 32

of these buildings generally limit fire spread, with


the exception of utility passages that arent protected
or are poorly installed. The doors are usually selfclosing metal with metal frames, which help limit fire
spread. Smoke spread is common both horizontally
and vertically and sometimes hard to control. Fires
in these dwellings are generally contained to the
single residential unit and can spread into the public
hallway and stairwell if the interior door is left open
or outer windows fail and wind is a factor.
Type 2: Unprotected multiple dwellings. These
are generally large multiple dwelling units that are
either standard tenements or older garden-style
apartments. These units often do not have fire suppression systems and sometimes, depending on size,
do not have monitored fire alarms. These are very
common buildings with construction of unprotected steel bar joist and poured concrete floors,
and they may have metal doors with metal frames
or wood doors with metal frames. Fire spread is
generally not a huge concern in these types of apartments, unless it spreads via utility passages, window
to upper windows, or a door is left open or fails.
Just as in any building, smoke spread is an issue in
these types of multiple dwellings.

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3/22/16 2:29 PM

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There are some multiple dwellings where a stretch via a ladder or using a rope
might be your first plan of attack to speed the stretch and get water on the fire
in a more timely fashion.

Type 3: Ordinary constructed multiple dwellings. These are


also very common across the country. Often they are found in
urban areas and towns in the main street type setting. These
buildings are brick and wood construction, and extension via
the void spaces between floors and walls is the biggest fire spread
concern. These buildings generally arent really tall; however,
they can be cut up and subdivided oddly, depending on the size
and shape of the building. Its often hard to tell from the outside
of these buildings how many units there are per floor, layouts,
and which windows access a particular apartment. This makes
paying attention to layouts on other types of runs and conditions on arrival important!
Type 5: Wood-frame multiple dwellings. These are the most
common form of multiple dwellings and can either be traditional construction or newer, lightweight construction. Its in
this construction type where we see entire floors or the roof
structure burned off an entire building because of rapid fire
spread. These buildings are generally garden-style apartments;
however, newer buildings with limited fire protection systems
and alarms have grown to cover city blocks with lightweight
structural members throughout. A fire in the dwelling compartment that doesnt extend out of the unit isnt a big deal in these
buildings. However, when it extends vertically in utility openings or via exterior combustible coverings (siding), we can end
up having a major fire fairly rapidly.

INITIAL ENGINE COMPANY OPERATIONS


The most important response priority is getting a line into
service to the fire area to stop the growth and spread of the fire.

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1604FR_33 33

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33

3/22/16 2:29 PM

On arrival, determine the


extent and location of the fire.
If its not obvious, someone has
to investigate; this should be
the company officer.

This action alone will save more lives and


property than any other action. When the
engine arrives on the scene, a quick assessment of conditions and the extent and
location of the fire are important to start
an appropriate attack. The initial attack
will usually be a 1-inch hoseline; however, advanced fire conditions involving
multiple units and extending into the attic
space may require a quick knockdown
with a 2-inch line or master stream as
handlines are being placed.
On arrival, determine the extent and
location of the fire. If its not obvious,
someone has to investigate; this should
be the company officer. The remainder
of the crew should stay at the apparatus
and await orders to stretch. This ensures
there is no delay in having people run
back to the apparatus and also ensures the
line is placed appropriately the first time.
In some large multiple dwellings, fire or
smoke might not be visible on arrival and
an assessment of the right entrance point
will be required to get to the fire quickly
with your hoseline. Assessment is essential
in tenements with long hallways, ordinary
constructed dwellings with multiple
entrances (front, side, or rear), and singlefamily dwellings converted into multiple
families with various entry points.

GETTING THE LINE IN SERVICE


To speed the stretch, deploy and flake
your line to the point of service. This is
going to be where you encounter products
of combustion and can retreat to a safe
location if something fails or goes wrong.
In a garden apartment with the door
intact, this will involve having the nozzle
and first coupling at the apartment door. If
the door isnt intact, this will be the land-

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1604FR_34 34

ing one floor below the fire apartment. In


a tenement, this will be the fire apartment
door if the hallway is tenable. If the hallway isnt tenable, its the stairwell landing
opposite the fire door with additional hose
staged in the hallway on the floor below.
In some multiple dwellings, you need to
make sure you have enough hose before
ever arriving to make a stretch to the fire
area. There are several factors to consider
when determining hose loads and layouts
to best serve your response area. Just
because another fire department loads or
uses certain types of loads doesnt mean it
will work for you!
Courtyards and limited access: This is an
issue where you cant get the apparatus
close enough to the building to use preconnected lines that typically would be used on
single-family dwellings set back 50-75 feet
from the road. We have some of these that
require 400-500 feet of hose just to make it
to the apartment from the closest point of
apparatus access. To show up at a fire and
try to make your 200-foot crosslay a 550foot hoseline will make you look bad and
not serve our mission as a fire department.
Tall buildings: These can be three- to
six-story multiple dwellings with long hallways or old, ordinary type apartments with
access to apartments from the stairwell.
The presence of a well hole in the stairwell
will allow for a quicker deployment of
your line; however, a standard return
stair without a well hole requires a large
amount of hose. Take a five-story building
with 150-foot hallways and no well hole.
You could need eight to 10 sections of
hose just to make it to an apartment and
cover the fire area. There are unique buildings that have weird interior courtyards,
wraparound stairwells (around an elevator

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Fire Attack

In some multiple dwellings, you need to make


sure you have enough hose before ever arriving
to make a stretch to the fire area.

shaft), or other configurations that can take


even more hose to make it to the fire area.
Again, its best to figure this out before the
fire through training and preplanning than
try to make a 200-foot preconnected crosslay
work and failing in our mission.
Standpipe-equipped buildings: These
require a stretch from the riser and the
right hose configurations, equipment, and
knowledge to operate effectively from the
riser. Ensuring your proficiency in these
operations is paramount for success as the
time to get water on the fire increases drastically because of the system, distance from
the apparatus, and having to connect and
create an attack line from a modular system
you carried to the floor below.

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OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Number of fire lines and staffing: Just like
any other fire, you will need an attack line,
a backup line, and an exposure line (floor
above) to fully cover fire operations. You may
need additional lines depending on extension, but planning for three lines will get you
started. Sometimes, in difficult stretches, the
first-due engine may need assistance with
its line to stretch to the seat of the fire. It is
difficult for an officer and a single firefighter
to deploy a 1-inch hoseline up five stories
and down a 150-foot hallway. To speed the

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1604FR_35 35

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1604FR_36 36

3/22/16 2:30 PM

Fire Attack
evolution, ensure kinks are managed and assist with advancement
(especially if starting from the stairwell in a long hallway with an
open apartment door). A second engine assisting is vital for success.
If the second engine works with the first engine, then you need
additional engines or personnel to stretch the backup lines and
vertical extension lines.
Controlling doors: Many firefighters are afraid to chock doors
after getting glimpses or inappropriately interpreting recent
scientific studies. In multiple dwellings, there are often several
doors to go through to get to the fire area. In a large tenementtype building, you can encounter several doors, all of which need
to be chocked to keep the hose moving and avoid a pinch, kink,
or total loss of water. Take into consideration that there is often an
entrance door to a lobby, door to a hallway on the first floor, door
to the stairwell, door leaving the stairwell, and apartment door,
which all have to be navigated. This requires five door chocks, and
companies should be prepared to manage these obstacles.
Alternative means of hose deployment: Sometimes additional
lines may need to be stretched via an alternative means by using
a ladder or rope stretch. If you have a well-involved fire in a
large multiple dwelling with exposure issues on multiple floors,
dont overcrowd the stairwells with multiple lines. Once you put
more than a couple lines in a stairwell, it becomes nearly impossible to move up or down effectively, the hoses get intertwined,
and advancing a line on the bottom of the pile becomes nearly
impossible. There are some multiple dwellings where, because of
layouts or stair configurations, a stretch via a ladder or using a
rope might be your first plan of attack to speed the stretch and
get water on the fire in a more timely fashion.

PLAN AHEAD
As you can see, there are many considerations during engine
operations at multiple dwellings. These structures pose the greatest
concentrated life hazard for residences, and the need for proficiency and speed in operations is paramount to meet the main
mission of the fire department. To ensure proficiency, master the
basic engine skills of line selection, deployment, flaking, advancement, and operation of the hoseline. Ensure proficiency in your
self-contained breathing apparatus and donning at the location
where you put water in your line (point of service).
Get into your response areas, pay attention on other runs, and
practice in buildings and complexes that you think will be difficult.
If you dont know how much hose you will need, stretch and figure
it out before the fire. If you dont have these fires often, practice for
them frequently so you dont revert to the 50- to 75-foot front yard
stretch you use all the time at a single-family residence. Do it right
before the fire so you can be effective and safe at the fire!

Your Legacy
of Safety
Begins with

If you are responsible


ibl for
f fre
f and
d life
lif
safety and your jurisdiction protects
mid-rises, high-rises or other complex
structures, you should review and
consider adopting the International
Fire Code (IFC) Appendix L (2015
Edition) in your next code cycle.
Appendix L covers Firefghter Air
Replenishment Systems (FARS), the
latest technology in life-saving air
management in IDLH environments.
FARS is a standpipe for air, delivering a safe, reliable,
constant supply of breathing air when and where frefghters
need it most. Firefghters can refll their air bottles in less than
a minute at stations located throughout a structure and have
the ability for an SCBA quick-connect feature, making ground
air management achievable in mid- and high-rise structures.
FARS works with standard equipment used in almost every
jurisdiction, and because it is a building-installed system, it
has no negative impact on department budgets.
More than 400 buildings throughout the U.S. are already
equipped with FARS. To fnd out more about IFC Appendix L
and why FARS is relevant in your jurisdiction, visit our website
or contact us.

Mike Kirby is a captain with the Cincinnati (OH) Fire Department (CFD), assigned
to Engine Company 12. He is a 22-year veteran of the fire service with experience
in paid and volunteer fire departments.
Tom Lakamp is a 28-year veteran of the CFD and the special operations chief.
Lakamp is also an adjunct instructor at the University of Cincinnati Fire Science
Program and has a bachelors degree in fire science. Lakamp is a graduate of the
National Fire Academys Executive Fire Officer Program.
FireFighterNatioN .com

1604FR_37 37

BUILD A LEGACY OF SAFETY.


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Hump Day S.O.S.

Not Everyone Makes It Home


And some get thrown away in the pursuit

By David Rhodes

t has been a decade now since the 16 Life


Safety Initiatives were developed and dispersed
throughout the fire service. Undoubtedly, there
has been change as a result as departments, officers,
and individual firefighters reexamined a host of
cultural, policy, training, design, and other factors
contributing to line-of-duty deaths (LODDs).
Some say that these efforts didnt go far enough
while others argue that they have gone too far and
the safety movement is out of control.
The thought of everyone going home in our
profession strikes an emotional reaction in each of
us, because we truly want that. No one wants to see
a member, or the family of a member, suffer and
certainly, barring the few psychotic case studies, no
one wants to be injured or killed themselves. So where
are we a decade later?

PREVENTABLE LODDs
According to the National Fire Protection Association Web site, from 1997-1984 the average number
of LODDs was 137, 1985-1994 it was 110, 19952004 was 100 (excluding 9/11 deaths), and 20052014 was 82. What do these numbers really tell us?
Are we looking at the right things when it comes to
risks? Those who worked (and are still working) on
educating and challenging us are to be commended
for the holistic approach. I certainly want to see the
decline in numbers continue, and I want to ensure
that we remain focused on understanding that the
16 Life Safety Initiatives were developed to eliminate
preventable deaths.
I recently heard someone using the Everyone Goes
Home slogan, then making the comment that all
firefighter deaths and injuries are preventable. This is
not the first time I have heard someone say that but
the frequency of hearing it is increasing. Caution: All
firefighter injuries and deaths will never be preventable unless we shut the fire service down.
In our admirable course to reduce LODDs, we have
to be careful not to create unrealistic expectations or
become obsessed with the numbers game. There is no
way to know that a person has stored a propane cylinder in a house on fire that will explode and kill one of
our members. There is no way to know that someone may lose his footing and fall off a ladder. Risk
management is a process to reduce and help eliminate
these possibilitiesbut it is not a guarantee.

38

F ire r escue M agazine April 2016

1604FR_38 38

HINDSIGHT BIAS

If we create a belief that all injuries and deaths are


preventable in our profession, then we also create
the culture of hindsight bias that immediately places
blame on the individual, the officer, or the incident
commander. Hindsight bias is the tendency people
have to view past events as more predictable than
they really were before the events took place. After
an event occurs, people often believe they could
have predicted the outcome of the event before it
actually happened.1 The belief that all are preventable translates to blaming individuals for actions or
inactions when we are looking retrospectively with
all the information, information that in many cases
our member, officer, or incident commander did
not have or did not understand in the full context
of its importance.
When this type of culture (hindsight bias) emerges,
many of our best and brightness will be thrown away
and shunned as if they have committed some great
crime against humanity, when in fact whoever was
working that day would have made the same decisions and had no impact on the outcome. As that
happens, the culture of inaction will emerge because
any decision to engage in anything will be a risk that
most wont be willing to take. Internal investigations
will take on a new mission to seek and destroy anyone who has anything bad happen on their watch so
the cover your butt culture can thrive. Your people
will stop using common sense and wait for you to tell
them everything to do.

SITUATIONAL REACTION
Lets look at how we react to and perceive an LODD
as a result of a cardiac arrest. Think about it: You
are in a leadership role in your department and one
of your members dies while on an emergency scene
after climbing the stairs in a building to check on a
fire alarm. The individual has been with the department for 20 years and is overweight and smoked his
entire career. Does your organization blame itself for
this LODD? Is an investigation launched to see who
was responsible for hiring the individual or allowing a
high-risk candidate for heart attack to operate on an
emergency scene? No, most dont. Do we change our
policy so that no one in the department is allowed to
climb stairs? We basically grieve for our loss, we dont
place blame on anyone or even look to find fault, and

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3/22/16 2:30 PM

Hump Day
S.O.S.

we return to the same hiring practices and lack of


preventative actions without much thought. This is
deemed an unfortunate incident.
Now lets up the emotion! You have a 25-year-old firefighter who is making a push in a hallway. Its 2:00 a.m.
and you are operating at a two-story frame residence as
the incident commander. There are cars in the driveway
and, based on your experience, the fire conditions are
such that a fire attack with 150-175 gpm will allow you
to knock down the fire and complete search. The young
firefighter collapses and receives burns that he doesnt
recover from. Other units move into place, knock the
fire down, and complete the search, and no one was
found. Your decisions are immediately scrutinized, and
your judgment is questioned. Why were you allowing
crews to operate in that structure? Were you supposed
to be able to predict that the young man would collapse
from some unknown medical condition possibly as
simple as dehydration? Is the investigation going to ask
how many energy drinks the guy had that day or what
he did the night before?
You train and drill your battalion, stay up on the latest information on strategy and tactics, are not afraid
to take action, and have always sized up the situation
and made good decisions. Sometimes, even at the
grumblings of your crews, you have held them back
when your internal risk management formula told
you no go! Because of your constant training, your

people have experienced some sprained ankles and


pulled muscles, which puts you on the watch list of
the risk manager. But now you are under investigation and transferred, people turn away when they see
you coming, and you dont get many phone calls asking for advice or to check on you to see how you are
doing. The risk manager proclaims, I knew it was just
a matter of time. Your organization has just personified you as a second victim.
Meanwhile, others who do nothing for their members or the organization hang out at the fire station
and collect a check. They finished their training the
day recruit school was over, but they continue on
unfazed by the events because their people all went
home and their members went injury free all year.

BEYOND OUTCOME
In the book Behind Human Error, the point is made
that outcome cannot be the sole indicator of success.
Fireground operations are extremely complex, and
when something bad happens an investigation must
focus not only on the practitioners at the sharp end
of the process. The sharp end of a complex system is
characterized by how practitioners adapt to cope with
complexity. We should be extremely sensitive to the
limitation of known remedies. While good management and organizational design may reduce accidents
in certain systems, they can never prevent them.2

ANSWER YOUR

CALLING

WITH

COURAGE

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TE
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Scott Boyd
CSU Graduate, Captain, Savannah
h Fire &
Emergency Services, Savannah,
ah, Ga.

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FESHE
RECOGNIZED

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1604FR_40 40

3/22/16 2:30 PM

In the book The Second Victim, author Sidney Dekker


asks, How do people cope with having caused a
terrible accident? How do they cope when they survive
and have to live with the consequences ever after?
We tend to blame and forget professionals who cause
incidents and accidents, but they are victims too. They
are second victims whose experiences of an incident
or adverse event can be as traumatic as that of the first
victims. Yet information on second victimhood and its
relationship to safety, about what is known and what
organizations might need to do, is difficult to find.3 If
we are truly the brotherhood we say we are, the best job
in the world as we say, is our mission to destroy anyone
involved directly or by proxy or is our responsibility to
find out what we need do in these situations to protect
our investment and learn from the situation? Can we
be cultivating mental health problems within
our members by establishing unrealistic
expectations?

David Rhodes is a 30-year fire service veteran and a battalion


chief in an urban fire department in Georgia. He is a chief
elder for the Georgia Smoke Diver Program, a member of the
Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC) Executive
Advisory Board, a hands-on training coordinator for FDIC, an
editorial advisor for Fire Engineering and the UL Fire Safety
Research Institute, and an adjunct instructor for the Georgia
Fire Academy. He is a Type III incident commander for the
Georgia Emergency Managements-Metro Atlanta All Hazards
Incident Management Team and is a task force leader for the
Georgia Search and Rescue Team. He is president of Rhodes
Consultants, Inc., which provides public safety training,
consulting, and promotional assessment centers.

DONT PLAY IT SAFE


We must continue to embrace the 16 Life
Safety Initiatives and work hard to understand
and reduce risk, but we should never get to
a point where we create a culture that fails to
act and believes that risk management equals
no action and playing it safe. We should
never shun and throw away our resources
even if they make a mistake. If you want to
have the greatest impact on LODDs, start by
making sure your health and wellness program is funded and functioning, your health
screenings prevent high-risk members from
operating in high-risk environments, and your
members are adequately trained to drive and
operate large apparatus.
Focus on creating members who are
competent in all the skills of firefighting,
return to common sense, and dont focus so
much on creating rules that obstruct
learning or prevent members from entering,
searching, and extinguishing fires in
structures.

ENDNOTES
1. Yarnell Hill Fire: Serious Accident Investigation,
September 2013, www.iawfonline.org/Yarnell_Hill_
Fire_report.pdf . (Authors note: The team assembled
for the State of Arizona approached this investigation and report on one of the most professional and
meaningful context and provided us a guide into
how we should approach any investigation to avoid
hindsight bias.)
2. Dekker, Sidney, David D. Woods Richard Cook,
Behind Human Error, Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2nd
edition (August 1, 2010).
3. Dekker, Sidney, Second Victim: Error, Guilt, Trauma
and Resilience, CRC Press, (March 26, 2013).

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1604FR_41 41

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Distant Fires

April 1916 Fires


A look at fires that made history

By Paul Hashagen

To read more

from Paul Hashagen,


visit www.firefighternation.
com/author/paul-hashagen.

42

n this months column, I present historic


fires or significant events in the fire service
from April 1916. A reminder: Readers are
encouraged to share information from their
departments.
April 3, 1916: New York, New York: It was
almost 2:00 on a Monday afternoon. The
weather was a pleasant 50 degrees as police officer Frank Bye rocked on his heels at the corner
of Beekman and Nassau Streets watching the
downtown Manhattan crowds rush along the
sidewalk. From up the block, shouting voices
caught his attention. Moving toward the
sounds, he noticed flames coming from the
third-floor window of 16 Beekman Street. He
broke into a run, heading toward the old six-story
building to warn the occupants. Arriving at the
door, he met people fleeing the structure, alerted by
the shouts of the huge crowd outside. Bye pulled
the alarm box handle. Moments later, Fire Department of New York (FDNY) units were rolling to
the scene.
Within three minutes every window was filled
with flames. The first-arriving unit was Engine 32,
a high-pressure hose wagon. (High-pressure companies relied on the high-pressure water system spread
throughout lower Manhattan. The system allowed
individual hoses to be stretched and regulated
directly from special hydrants, eliminating the need
for steam pumpers.) The company traveled only
three blocks from their quarters on John Street,
then ran into a wall of flames. Firefighter William
Plender, the chauffeur of Engine 32, ducked his
head and drove the rig through the fire. The flames
scorched him and four other firefighters on the
rig. He stopped the wagon at the corner of Nassau
Street and took a high-pressure hydrant. Firefighters
stretched and operated several hoselines only to be
driven back, their streams falling short. Flames 20
and 30 feet high poured from the windows, igniting the building next door, another old six-story
paper warehouse. Three additional alarms were
immediately transmitted as flames rolled up the
outside of the adjacent 16-story structure known
as the Beekman-Nassau Building. Inside the tower,
elevator operators were extremely busy shouting

F ire r escue M agazine April 2016

1604FR_42 42

Photo courtesy of the

Paul Hashagen collec

tion.

the alarm and shuttling tenants from the


upper floors.
Chief John Kenlon arrived and had lines placed
at strategic locations on the roofs and fire escapes
of nearby buildings. Water towers were erected
and supplied. The number of streams being used
overtaxed the water supply, and the least effective
streams were shut down, improving the overall pressure. Construction officials and fire chiefs also kept
a close eye on the runoff water that was filling the
subway excavation. Sandbags were used to divert
the rivers of water cascading down the street.
The editorial department of The Sun newspaper, the rear of which adjoined the rear of the fire
building, was able to cover the front-page story
without leaving the building. The wall of flames
was knocked down. A long, drawn-out battle went
on into the night to extinguish the remaining
deep-seated pockets of fire within the mountains of
rolled paper.
April 7, 1916: Bayonne, New Jersey: Shortly
after 4:00 in the afternoon, a fire broke out in the
plant of the Texas Oil Company. The two-story,
wood and corrugated iron structure was located
on a 600-foot-long pier at the foot of East First
Street. Filled with large quantities of lubricating oil,
gasoline, kerosene, asphalt glue, and tar products,
the fire was soon blazing, fed by the exploding

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3/22/16 2:30 PM

containers of flammables. A barge moored nearby,


filled with 45,000 gallons of kerosene, was ignited
by radiant heat. The flames then spread to another
nearby pier. Arriving units under the command of
Chief Alfred Davis were faced with a highly flammable situation. Deploying a motor engine and
four steamers, the chief soon had five streams in
operation. On the waterside, oil company and New
York City fireboats moved in, pressing five streams
into the fire.
Mutual aid from Jersey City helped hold the
flames despite the numerous reverberating explosions. A deluge set was also set up in an attempt
to hold the expanding mass of flames. Firefighters
braved the wall of heat and the dangerous
explosions, hoping to prevent the fire from
reaching six huge oil tanks only 300 feet
away.
On the waterside, sections of the pier
collapsed, setting adrift flaming tins and
barrels. Fireboats scrambled to control
these floating hazards. Two hours into
the battle the wind shifted, helping the
70 exhausted firefighters. The aggressive
positioning and dogged maintenance of the
hose streams held and extinguished the fire.
The firefighters brave and effective work
checked the spreading flames and saved the
remaining plant and its stored flammable
liquids.
April 15, 1916: Kingstree, South Carolina: It was about 10:00 in the evening
when the delivery person for the Gulf Oil
Refining Company entered the plants storage building to fill tanks for the following
days deliveries. Somehow, the lantern he
was using ignited a fire among the 100
iron drums of gasoline and a large store
of kerosene. Within seconds, the fire was
spreading, fueled by the flammable liquids.
The fire alarm was transmitted, bringing
the local fire department quickly to the
scene. On their arrival, it was clear the
main building could not be saved, as thick
clouds of smoke and large sheets of flames
shot hundreds of feet into the night sky.
Explosion after explosion rocketed flaming
drums hundreds of feet from the blazing
building creating an extreme exposure
hazard. The fire reached the nearby
Southern Cotton Oil Company buildings,
setting fire to the ginnery and offices.
(Cotton gins removed the seeds from
cotton; these seeds were stored and the oil
was later extracted.) Flames raced through
the machinery and stored cotton. Firefighters concentrated on keeping the flames from
spreading to a nearby seed house and a

private home. Their efficient work saved the two


structures and also limited the damages to nearby
railway tracks and equipment.
Paul Hashagen is a 40-year veteran of the fire service. He retired
from the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) after 25 years of
service, with 20 of those years in Rescue Company 1. Hashagen
is a former chief of the Freeport (NY) Fire Department and is still
a member of Truck Company 1. He has written several books and
numerous stories on the history of the fire service including Fire
Department City of New York: The Bravest; An Illustrated History
1865-2002; and One Hundred Years of Valor: Rescue Company
1 New York City Fire Department Rescue 1915-2015. Visit his
Facebook page at Paul Hashagen-author.

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1604FR_43 43

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From the Chiefs Desk

Is There a Doctor in the House?


A discussion of higher education in the fire service

By Ronny J. Coleman

n the days of vaudeville, there was a scene that


often occurred that had a classic ring to it. Someone would collapse from a medical emergency
and the master of ceremonies would cry out, Is
there a doctor in the house? Chances were that
there would be one because of the limited entertainment options of the era. In a modern context, I have
personally been on aircraft where the flight crew has
uttered the same request. In this case, the answer
was usually that there was not a doctor but someone
trained in basic life support who responded.
Let us imagine that we are at a large fire service
conference. Could we ask the same question: Is
there a doctor in the house? The answer is probably
yes. And most of you know exactly who you are and
how hard it was to obtain that doctorate. So, why
raise it in this column?
My answer is simple: In spite of what we have done
to raise the bar in the field of education, we do not
have a capstone degree that is broadly available to our
best and brightest. Achieving a doctorate in our field,
fire administration, is somewhat difficult. We have
a lot of doctors in our industry, but they may not be
focused on fire administration.

PROGRAM AVAILABILITY
Where is the incentive to go through the rigors of
getting a doctorate in fire and emergency services?
And how accessible are these programs? Yes, there
are programs out there. But, if you are a chief officer
in West Hickup Falls, South Dakota, what sort of
program is going to be readily available to you?
Of course, one of the responses to that concern is
to look on the Internet for a long-distance program.
And that is a viable option, but it comes with limitationsnot the least of which is that the numbers
who register for courses online and the numbers who
complete them are not as high as we should expect.
So let me shift to a comparison of our peer groups,
specifically criminal justice. Do they suffer from the
same deprivation? Hardly. Go the Web site www.
criminaljusticeprograms.com/programs-by-state/ and
look at the number of programs that are available to the
upwardly mobile and aspiring chief of police. Again,
this is not certificate envy on my part. What I am comparing is the construct of our system in comparison
to our peer groups. We are not competitive with law

44

F ire r escue M agazine April 2016

1604FR_44 44

enforcement, and I would submit that we are not competitive with the educational levels of city engineers,
human resource directors, and city managers either.

THE MEDICAL FIELD


Then again, I have actually heard it stated that being
a fire chief does not require any type of college degree
and that thousands of fire chiefs are doing their job
without having any degree at all. You know what
that is true, too.
Maybe we are about to face the same dilemma that
the medical profession faced about 150 years ago.
According to the United States National Library of
Medicine, the first organization of medical professionals was chartered in 1766. By the early 1800s, there
were regulations, standards of practice, and certification of doctors. By 1847, the American Medical
Association was formed. It was 40 years before the fire
chiefs formed their organization, the National Association of Fire Engineers. By the late 1870s, there were 62
medical schools in the United States. Event after event
followed that has placed a set of criterion in place to be
a medical doctor. In contrast, how many colleges were
involved in education of fire chiefs in the 1870s? There
wasnt even a study of the body of knowledge about
firefighting until Chief Ralph J. Scott did one in 1928.

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS?
Where is any requirement on the fire service to
possess a doctoral degree? Do we need such a requirement? Is there really any reason for post-graduate
degrees in an occupation where the lack of a degree is
not considered a liability by the hiring organizations?
I will leave the discussion open for now. But it has
got to be answered in the next few years if the fire
service is to have a true top-to-bottom educational
framework. Is there a doctor in the house? What
kind of doctor is he? And does the doctorate provide
a knowledge base that increases the fire services
efficiency or effectiveness?
Ronny J. Coleman is a retired state fire marshal for the State of
California. He has achieved chief officer designation at both the
state and national levels. Coleman has a master of arts degree
in vocational education, a bachelor of science degree in political
science, and an associate of arts degree in fire science. He is
president of Fireforceone, a consulting firm in California.

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3/22/16 2:35 PM

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Thermal Imaging

Do Thermal Imaging Cameras


Help During a Flashover?
Use in preflashover situations

By Carl Nix

lashovers are extremely dangerous and have


claimed the lives of too many firefighters over
the years. Many articles and training programs
have been produced to help firefighters understand
a flashover situation and how to escape safely. In a
flashover situation, fire conditions progress rapidly
from what was a hot fire to what becomes an inescapable fire.
As an instructor, I have heard firefighters say that
a thermal imaging camera (TIC) can help you during a flashover. This is not true. A TIC is a tool to
help detect a flashover, but it cant help you if youre
caught in a flashover. Think about the amount of
time, or lack of time, you have in a flashovertwo,
maybe three seconds to get out of the situation. You
have to move quickly. In this scenario, you dont
have time to look at your TIC.
A preflashover situation is where your TIC can
help. Your TIC can give you a visual indication of
warning signs that you would otherwise not see.
Without your use of a TIC, the thick smoke acts as
a visual barrier to what is actually going on above
you. Convective velocity, thermal layering, and even
rollovers are often hidden inside the smoke and are
difficult or impossible to detect. The TIC can help
you visualize these events. Your TIC can help you
identify how rapidly the fire gases are moving across
the ceiling, indicating that they actually have some
place to go other than the room you are in. Thermal
layering is also visible to the TIC. When one or
both of these two visuals change, convective velocity
slows or thermal layers descend, it can serve as an
early indicator of potential flashover conditions.
Ive mentioned this in my previous articles and
probably will continue to do so because its key
to staying safe when entering a burning building:
Always have your TIC with you so you can scan
a room prior to entry. This is so important when
avoiding a flashover. Scanning with your TIC lets
you look for signs of excessive heat buildup, particularly near the ceiling, or levels of high heat closer
to the floor where you might not otherwise expect
them. Your TIC will also help you locate potential
vertical or horizontal vent points in case you need
them and where the secondary means of egress are.

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1604FR_46 46

In a flashover situation, these tactics are lifesaving.


Your TIC is there to help you recognize the
dangers that you may encounter and how to avoid
those dangers so you and your fellow firefighters
can go home safely. Simply put, if you have no
other means of control such as ventilation or a hose
stream, you must get out quickly. If you wait until
the flashover is taking place, its too late for the TIC
to help you escape this extremely dangerous occurrence. A TIC cannot help you in a flashover, but it
can help alert you to a pending flashover.
Its also important to note that the temperaturesensing feature on your TIC is not a reliable indicator of flashover or preflashover conditions. The
temperature-sensing capability of your TIC cannot
accurately detect the temperatures of gases, which is
where the greatest threat usually lies in the growth
stage of a fire. Your TIC is designed to detect surfaces but not gases. Temperature sensing is best used
when evaluating the temperature differences in the
same or similar materials. For instance, when performing overhaul, you might use the temperaturesensing feature to tell you what portion of drywall
is hotter than another portion of drywall. When
comparing like materials, the actual temperature
displayed does not matter as much as the difference
between the temperatures.
Fortunately, a flashover is not a routine occurrence but a culmination of successive, prior events
that can lead to a potentially catastrophic outcome
for firefighters. It is these preflashover events that
you must be aware of. In the same way that you use
a TIC to size up a building prior to entry, you must
constantly size up the interior conditions of a fire
environment and be observant of change. Once you
see the changes coming, you can find a path out of
harms way.
Carl Nix is a 30-year veteran of the fire service and a retired
battalion chief of the Grapevine (TX) Fire Department. He serves
as an adjunct instructor for North Central Texas College and a
thermal imaging instructor for Bullard. Nix has a bachelor of
science degree in fire administration and is a guest instructor
for Texas A&M Engineering Extension Services (TEEX) annual fire
training in Texas.

FireFighterNAtioN.com

3/22/16 2:35 PM

firerescue.hotims.com

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by Anthony Avillo

NEW EDITION

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NEW TO THE THIRD EDITION
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firerescue.hotims.com

1604FR_47 47

3/22/16 2:35 PM

Riviera Hotel high-rise


handline flow tests.
(Photos by author.)

The 1-inch high-performance hose


BY PAUL SHAPIRO

ost fire departments have the ability to deploy 2-inch


handlines, and many have the big line as a preconnect
to make a quick, large-flow attack on a significant
fire to achieve a quick knockdown. This is usually
done with the first-in unit. Of course, they also have the ability to
make up 2-inch handlines from static loads in the hosebed for
large-flow operations. The flows for these big lines usually range
from 250 to 325 gpm. When it comes to large-flow handlines, the
2-inch hose has always been the weapon of choice, because its
lower friction loss capabilities allow for more flow.
The drawback to using 2-inch line is that it is heavy, which
makes it tough to deploy, especially in a first-in, quick-attack
mode; it is also difficult to move around after it is charged.
Because of these negative traits, firefighters will often avoid using
the 2-inch line. The end result from this is that smaller lines
will be pulled and lower than required flows will be delivered.

REPEATING HISTORY
Its a true fact that the fire service tends to do what it has always
done in the past when it comes to certain issues, and the 2-inch

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1604FR_48 48

handline is a good example of this. History tells us that it is the


only line that works for big flows as well as high-rise fires. Assistant
Chief Bill Nemick with the Pueblo (CO) Fire Department brings
up an interesting point. He states that firefighters tend to choose
the size of the attack line based on the type of fire. A 1-inch
line is used for small fires such as single-family dwellings and the
2-inch line is used for the large commercial fires. Once again, this
strategy is based on what has always been done in the past. He then
states that we should match the gpm to the British thermal units
and use the water delivery equipment that is best suited to get the
job done. As you will see, the 1-inch high-performance hose can
be used for the high gpm-demanding fires in certain situations.
Another good example of doing things the way we have always
done it concerns the handline used for high-rise firefighting. Again,
history tells us that the only line that can be used is the 2-inch
because of the pressure issues in the high-rise structure. We are now
proving that two-inch and 1-inch are also an option in some
situations. Table 1 illustrates this. These numbers were taken at a
500-gpm/65-psi high-rise system in a 25-story building.
In recent years, there has been a resurgence of training and

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advocating of the use of the 2-inch attack line. Several fire service
instructors specialize in training in advancing the big line with
very positive results. They have shown techniques that remind me
of athletes training for an event. The basic use of body mechanics
makes a big difference in moving the big hose.
What I would like to do is add to the outstanding techniques taught
by these instructors by making the handline lighter while maintaining
the same 2-inch handline flows. I will focus on the large-flow handline concept with a different twist to it. We will be using 1-inch
high-performance attack hose for the high-flow handline for the purpose of making the big hit line easier to deploy. The high-performance
hose has the ability to expand up to approximately 178 inches when it
is charged. This, along with a friction-reducing inside liner, creates a
lower friction loss and therefore allows for higher flows.

MATCH THE FLOW


The question that comes to mind is this: Will a 1-inch
high-performance attack line provide the flows that the 2-inch
line can produce? In the majority of the cases, I would say yes.
Take a look at the 2-inch nozzles that are in use today. You will
find that the majority have flows ranging from 250 to 325 gpm.
These flows are achievable with 1-inch high performance. The
high-performance 1-inch hose provides a realistic alternative for
a high-flow line as far as ease of deployment is concerned. It is a
lot easier to pull from the hosebed and extend when it is charged.
A 50-foot section of high-performance, 1-inch hose charged
weighs approximately 71 pounds and a 200-foot line weighs
approximately 284 pounds charged. Conversely, the same length
in a 2-inch line weighs approximately 533 pounds.
Once in a while, there is a call for a high-flow handline for an
interior attack. Yes, a 2-inch line can work, provided that there is
sufficient staffing and the proper techniques are used. Four to six firefighters are not uncommon for this scenario. It does not matter what
the flow is, the weight of the 2-inch line remains the same.

Table 1. High-Rise Fire Protection System,


Handline Flow Tests
8/24/15: Riviera Hotel Las Vegas Nevada
System Specifications: 500 GPM @ 65 psi SORP

SORP 85

GPM 165

TIP 7/8 in.

NP 54

SORP 85

GPM 185

TIP 15/16 in.

NP 50

SORP 85

GPM 210

TIP 1 in.

NP 50

SORP 85

GPM 218

TIP 1 1/8 in.

NP 34

ECO 10
2-in. hose 150 ft. with 2-inch couplings
SORP 85

GPM 177

TIP 7/8 in.

NP 62

SORP 85

GPM 201

TIP 15/16 in.

NP 60

SORP 85

GPM 217

TIP 1 in.

NP 54

SORP 80

GPM 248

TIP 1 1/8 in.

NP 44

BIG 10
2-inch hose 150 ft.

SORP 75

GPM 265
GPM 345

TIP 1 1/8 in.


TIP 1 1/4 in.

NP 50
NP 56

SORP: standpipe outlet residual pressure GPM: gallons per minute NP: nozzle pressure
NOTE: Tests were done from the hydraulically furthest standpipe outlet from the building pump.

FireFighterNatioN .com

1604FR_49 49

A high-performance 1-inch high-flow line can be deployed as


easily as an interior standard-flow attack line with a flow of 265
gpm. So, does a high-flow, high-pressure 1-inch handline create
a problem with the hose becoming rigid and hard to work with
because of the higher pump discharge pressure (PDP) as compared
to the lower PDP of the 2-inch line? Is the flexibility diminished? Try a simple test. Charge a 1-inch handline and throttle
up to 250 PDP but do not flow water. Next, drag the line, as you
would, through an obstacle course such as the burn tower, fire
station, or other realistic environment. What you should notice
is that there should be a little rigidity at the nozzle. This should
not affect your stream-directing capabilities. The rest of the line
should be just as easy to drag through the hallway and around the
corners as if it were pumped at a common interior attack handline
pressure (120-150 PDP).

FLOW TESTS
The statistics presented in Table 2 compare 2-inch and
1-inch high-performance lines at 200 feet with their corresponding flows and PDPs. The 1-inch high-performance hose
is manufactured by Key Fire Hose. The nozzles used for this test
are smooth bore tips based on a 50-psi nozzle pressure. Because
the high-performance hose will have a higher friction loss than
the 2-inch at the high flows we are trying to achieve, a nozzle

Table 2. 2-in. Handline Flow Tests


vs. 1-in. High-Performance Handline Flow Tests

HIGH PERFORMANCE
1.88-in. hose 150 ft.

SORP 80

A 265-gpm flow from 200 feet of high-performance hose.

PDP is for a 200-ft. handline


Friction loss is for 100 feet of hose
GPM

TIP SIZE

NP

NR

FL

PDP

265

1 1/8 in.

300

1 3/16 in.

50

99

10

80

50

111

15

325

1 1/4 in.

85

50

123

20

90

PDP

PDP is for a 200-ft. handline


Friction loss is for 100 feet of hose
GPM

TIP SIZE

NP

NR

FL

160

7/8 in.

50

54

20

90

185

15/16 in.

50

69

25

110

210

1 in.

50

71

35

135

265

1 1/8 in.

50

99

55

185

300

1 3/16 in.

50

111

60

190

325

1 1/4 in.

50

123

80

210

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49

3/22/16 2:35 PM

Can you see the difference? High-performance hose is just 18 inch larger.

Various low-pressure nozzles can be used.

A 2-inch line is on the left and


the high-performance line is on the
right. Here is where the high-performance hose is worth its weight
in gold.

with a low nozzle pressure is needed to keep the overall discharge


pressure as low as possible. The flows for the 2-inch start at 265
gpm since it is considered to be a high-flow handline. The flows
for the 1-inch high performance start at 160 gpm because this
line can be used for both low- and high-flow operations. The tests
include flows at 160, 185, 210, 265, 300, and 325 gpm.
The 1-inch high-performance hose was able to match the
2-inch hose in every flow category. The tradeoff with the lighter
and easier-to-deploy hose was that a higher PDP was needed
because, as previously mentioned, the 1-inch high-performance
hose has a higher friction loss than 2-inch hose. Should the
higher PDP be a big concern? I say no. First, its important to
understand that the higher pressure used on the hose itself is
well within the pressure capabilities that the 1-inch high-performance hose is designed for. The most common hose pressure
ratings for attack line hose includes a 1,200-psi burst pressure
and a 400-psi annual test pressure, which means that, according
to the National Fire Protection Association and the manufacturers, the hose can be used up to 360 psi on the fireground. The
high-performance hose has a 1,500-psi burst pressure, an annual
test pressure of 500 psi, and a working pressure of 450 psi. We
did not get anywhere close to that for both the standard hose and
high performance on any of the lines we tested. The highest pressure obtained was 210 psi.

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1604FR_50 50

When the 1-inch high-performance hose is used, because it has


1-inch couplings, it would make
sense that it could be connected to
a 1-inch preconnect discharge.
Its important to remember
that the standard for the small
handline preconnect plumbing
is two inches, which will not be
able to support the flows needed
for a high-flow handlineat least
efficiently. Therefore, it is crucial
to connect the line to a 2-inch
discharge, whether it be a standard
2-inch or one that is designed

for a 2-inch preconnect.


One thing that wasnt mentioned in the flow tests was the
fact that the nozzle reaction for flows above 250 gpm with the
1-inch high-performance hose is severe enough to cause the
hose to buckle right at the nozzle. Because the high-performance
hose is smaller than the 2-inch, it does not handle the nozzle
reaction as well. The 2-inch hose does not have a problem with

A 2-inch discharge offers the best results.

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The 1-inch hose will have a tendency to kink at the nozzle at the high flows
because of nozzle reaction. The solution to this is adding a short section of
2-inch hose at the nozzle.

nozzle reaction at all. Keeping that in mind, we decided to use


a short piece of 2-inch hose five feet in length at the end of
the 1-inch high-performance handline for the sole purpose of
absorbing nozzle reaction to assist the firefighter with handling
the high flows. It worked great.

firerescue.hotims.com

You protect the people.


We protect the gear.

GO WITH THE FLOW


Striving to do a better job means being able to constantly
review and change things as needed. The 2-inch handline has
been a great tool for a big-flow fire attack. In reviewing the big
line, one area of improvement that needs to be addressed is to
look at an easier way to deploy it. We have partially done this
with some excellent training from fire service instructors across
the country.
As you can see, the 1-inch high-performance hose along with
this training completely solve the deployment issue. As firefighters, we need to continuously look to improve our work environment. Just because it has worked in the past doesnt mean that it
cant be done better.
Paul Shapiro has been involved with the fire service since 1981 and served as an
engineer with the Las Vegas (NV) Fire & Rescue for 28 years until his retirement. He
is a certified fire instructor III for Nevada and has served on the faculty of many fire
academies throughout the United States. Shapiro authored Layin The Big Lines, a
book on large-flow water delivery. He specializes in the research, development, and
training on large-flow water delivery systems and fire stream management. His
extensive research on large-diameter hose, both as supply and discharge lines, has
been published frequently in fire service trade magazines.

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FireFighterNatioN .com

1604FR_51 51

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3/22/16 2:35 PM

n the shadow of 9/11, a great rallying


cry went out across the fire service
interoperability. No longer could we
operate within our own silos. Like
the move to standardize hose
couplings a generation before, having a radio
grid that allows us to communicate and
collaborate with our neighbors was no longer a
luxury. Fast forward 15 years and interwoven
radio networks, enormous mobile command
units, and plain language communication are
prevalent, if not universal. Yet, departmental
silos remain as prevalent. The most pressing silos
in the fire service these days concern data.
Now, youre forgiven for rolling your eyes; Big
Data, Little Data, and every data in between
have all the hallmarks of yet another fad. Everywhere you turn, someone is pontificating data
as the salve for all manner of problems. With
this article, I suppose I am just as guilty. But I
am not alone. In the December 2014 issue of
FireRescue, Erich Roden and Matt Quinns article
Big Data in the Fire Service: A Primer outlined
extensively the multitude of ways Big Data is
already poised to impact the fire service. As they
put it: Simply put, Big Data can be defined as
any collection of data that is too large to be processed by any of the standard tools commonly
used to work with data.1
Be it response time data, building inspection
data, or any other, the fire service may be chock
full of potential Big Data, but the fire service
and data arent exactly peanut butter and jelly.
Data is something we do as much as it is something we use. Data is something we rush through

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F ire r escue M agazine April 2016

1604FR_52 52

n
ta, building inspectio
Be it response time da
ck
cho
be
y
ma
fire service
data, or any other, the
e
vic
ser
fire
the
t
bu
ta,
full of potential Big Da
y.
y peanut butter and jell
and data arent exactl
o.)
(Photo by John Cetrin

in the middle of the night so we can get back to bed. It is the forms we begrudgingly
complete to keep headquarters and city hall happy. Data is something we tend to do
for someone else. Moving to digital data systems has multiplied the amount of data
but not necessarily the ways we use data. As we start to improve the ways we use the
data, the more we realize just how siloed our data and our data systems are. Data
system integration is the next rallying cry that is poised to sweep the fire service.
This article focuses specifically on data integrations as they relate to the fire service. It briefly introduces a number of concepts around data architecture, software
configurations, and data portability, as they are essential to understanding the capabilities and limitations of current data and records management systems (RMSs).
This article is not intended to provide a comprehensive technical how-to manual
on data integrations; it is intended to help a nontechnical audience understand the
fundamentals of linking data systems.

DATA SYSTEM INTEGRATIONS


How many computer systems does your organization have to record a firefighters
certifications? How many different places does your organization record who worked,
on what day, and on what unit? When a family narrowly escapes a residential fire, how
many places would you have to look to determine if that was one of the houses where

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departmental personnel will be actively engaged


in overseeing this process, the data are exchanged
directly, in real time, to the respective computer
systems and persons. As far as the end user is
concerned, the systems just talk to one another
and pass the necessary information back and forth
seamlessly.
There is a certain magic to data integrations. The data just go where they need
to go, are sent in the format they need to
be received, and trigger outcomes they
need to accomplish. However, this magic
is anything but. This requires extensive
programming, system configuration,
and information management planning. To be effective, data integrations
need to be carefully planned and extensively project
managed. The magicians of an integration are the
IT staff and the software project managers. While
the technical details and specifications may be best
left to the experts, it is important for firefighters
and fire service leaders to be at least broadly familiar
with the language and terminology of data.

DATA FOR FIREFIGHTERS

your department installed a smoke detector or had previous contact? Data system integration is the process by which different data and RMSs are linked on the back end
so that data transfer directly, seamlessly, and accurately from one system to another to
improve efficiency and effectiveness. Or, as IBM Analytics put it: Data integration is
the combination of technical and business processes used to combine data from disparate sources into meaningful and valuable information. A complete data integration
solution delivers trusted data from a variety of sources.2
For the end user, it should seem intuitive: A change is made in one system and
is automatically updated in another system. No more keeping multiple lists and
spreadsheets or logging into multiple systems to ensure they all match up.
To illustrate the concept, lets begin with a scenario: A firefighter/paramedic
has been diagnosed with meningitis and now the department needs to cover the
employees upcoming shifts and identify personnel and patients the employee likely
came into contact with. First, the automated shift-scheduling system pulls a list
of certifications from the training RMS and identifies the next person from the
overtime list that meets all the certifications and criteria required to fill the shift.
Next, the department queries the incident RMS to identify all calls to which the
sick employee responded. An automated message goes out to all potentially exposed
personnel and other stakeholders, alerting them to the possible exposures. While

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1604FR_53 53

These broadly accepted definitions, borrowed


from the data industry, are useful and necessary
to ensure a fundamental baseline of knowledge
about data systems:
Data: Data are* any values, labels, or information related to a thing. (*Data are always plural.)
Said another way, data are information that has
been translated into a form that is more convenient to move or process.
Data dictionaries: A data dictionary is a collection of descriptions of the data objects or items
in a data model for the benefit of programmers
and others who need to refer to them. Each data
object or item is given a descriptive name, its relationship is described (or it becomes part of some
structure that implicitly describes relationship),
the type of data (such as text or image or binary
value) is described, possible predefined values are
listed, and a brief textual description is provided.
Data quality: Data quality is the term used
for information that has five elements of quality: completeness, consistency, accuracy, being
time-stamped, and standards-based. Within an
organization, acceptable data quality is crucial
to operational and transactional processes and to
the reliability of business analytics (BA)/business
intelligence (BI) reporting. Data quality is affected
by the way data are entered, stored, and managed.
Data portability: Data portability is the ability to move data among different application
programs, computing environments, or cloud
services. Data portability has become commonplace (although not universal) among application

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3/22/16 2:35 PM

programs designed for use on diverse vendors software.


Authorization and permissions: Authorization is the process
of giving someone permission to do or have something within a
computer network or program. Authorization is sometimes seen
as both the preliminary setting up of permissions by a system
administrator and the actual checking of the permission values
that have been set up when a user is getting access.
Data architecture: Data architecture is a term applied to both the
process and the outcome of thinking out and specifying the overall
structure, logical components, and logical interrelationships of data.
Data mapping: Data mapping is a process used in data warehousing by which different data models are linked to each other using
a defined set of methods to characterize the data in a specific definition. Data mapping serves as the initial step in data integration.

ALL-IN-ONE SOLUTIONS VS. INTEGRATIONS

firerescue.hotims.com


# #
!"# "# "
  !## ! # !#
#"!#
!"# #!# #!

# ! # # 
# # !
#

When we begin discussing data system integrations, the most


obvious question is: Why not just buy one piece of software that
does everything? Many existing RMSs that fire departments already
have do just that. Most of the major RMS vendors are designed to
allow a department to enter fire and EMS incident data, maintain
training logs, document fire investigations, manage various inventory and daily inspections, and even conduct building inspections.
Some RMS solutions are bundled with the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system to provide the whole package. So, with native
built-in all-in-one functionality, why would a department even
want to consider maintaining separate systems?
The all-in-one package approach served us well during the first
generation of the digital fire service as we moved from paper forms
to digital forms. Yet, as fire departments become more tech-savvy
and tech-capable, many are looking to independent software solutions to meet specific needs. Moreover, even if a department uses an
all-in-one solution, there is likely other software across the department and municipality that could be integrated: human resources/
payroll software, building/planning department software, etc. Data
integrations are just as important to all-in-one solutions.
Many software vendors, including all-in-one systems, have
anticipated this move and have already created boilerplate integrations between popular software pairings to provide these linkages
at reduced costs. Ask any software vendor at a fire service trade
show what other software (even sometimes competitors) that
they integrate with, and they are likely to have a list of software
with which they currently successfully integrate and a list of other
software with which they could potentially integrate. Integrations
are becoming the bread and butter of the software industry.

APPLICATION PROGRAM INTERFACES

 ! "!!


 

#

Connecting computer systems, each with their own language,


structure, and security, is a bit like fire pumps, each with their
own threads, plumbing, and design. Like the move to standardize
couplings, computer engineers created a standardized connection

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Table 1
Version 1

123 S. Smith St. SE

Version 2

123

S. Smith St. SE

Version 3

123

S. Smith St.

SE

Version 4

123

S. Smith

St.

SE

Version 5

123

S.

Smith

St.

SE

Table 2
Unit Numbers

123 S. Smith St. SE, Apartment 2304

Address Ranges

120 125 S. Smith St. SE

Table 3

in which most agencies operate, these potential additional costs


are likely to face intense scrutiny. However, the upfront costs are
often considerably less than deciding after the fact to integrate the
systems to address the frustrating inefficiencies, errors, or duplications of new but still siloed computer systems.
Linking different systems requires a comprehensive data integration to ensure the data go in the correct directions, go in the
correct form, and are linked to the correct information. When
data exist in a silo, they can take any form that is convenient.
When linked to other systems, the data architecturethe way it
is configured, ordered, and populatedbecomes very important.

SHARING DATA

Building 1

14 007700100445

Building 2

15 206 04 095

Building 3

17 0161 LL0158

interface, known as an application program interface (API), to


facilitate the linking of different computer systems.
Many of the data systems and RMSs fire departments are
already using have built-in APIs, although many fire departments
may not be using them to their full potential. More importantly,
just because your data systems have an API doesnt mean all your
systems are automatically or necessarily inexpensively connected.
Identifying essential and preferred data integrations should
be a vital component of specifying, bidding, or purchasing new
software. Data integrations are likely to add sometimes significant
costs to the overall purchase price of new software and should be
anticipated in budget requisitions. In the tight financial climates

Discussing data integrations very quickly gets mired in complex


technical jargon and concepts. Again, many of those specifics are
best left to the IT professionals. For nontechnical staff, the question
is: How could you improve your agencys efficiency and effectiveness
by sharing data? This is a question being asked all across the country
and serves as the lynchpin of Open Data Initiatives in municipalities large and small. The challenge of linking data systems among
city agencies can be as fundamental as ensuring that record A in one
system relates to the same location as record B in another.
Traditionally, location linkages are based on the physical address of
the property. However, given the complexity of matching addresses
in large/subdivided buildings and the differences in data architecture,
addresses are difficult to use for this purpose. For example, some
systems concatenate addresses into one field as seen in Version 1 in
Table 1. Others handle the various components of streets differently:
street numbers, direction, name, type, post direction, etc.

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When specific unit numbers or address ranges are included,


they only further complicate matters, as can be seen in Table 2.
In other areas, parcel numbers are used for this purpose. Parcel
numbers are less ideal, as most use both alpha and numeric characters. Also, parcel numbers are often spaced inconsistently and
may even have different number of digits. Additionally, there may
be multiple buildings on one parcel, or one large building may sit
on multiple parcels. The three actual parcel numbers in Table 3
are all within the same city limits.
What is needed is a unique identification number that all
municipal services would share to facilitate data integration across
data systems. New York City is an example of best practice in this
arena. Under the Bloomberg administration, the city adopted an
Open Data Initiative to link previously siloed databases. The goal
was to create more efficient and transparent municipal services.
One of the lynchpins of that initiative was the creation of a
unique building identification number (BIN) that would link
each of the disparate systems together.

INTERDEPARTMENTAL BENCHMARKING
Similarly, as fire departments work to ensure they are providing
the highest quality service to their respective communities, more

communities and governments are asking: How are we doing


relative to similar communities? Unspoken in that question is a
presumption: How are we doing relative to similar communities
currently? With the advent of the National Fire Incident Reporting
System (NFIRS) Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW), National Fire
Operations Reporting System (NFORS), and Fire Community
Assessment Response Evaluation System (FireCARES), we are on
the cusp of an explosion of real-time, interdepartmental benchmarking and comparisons.
The forthcoming NFIRS EDW is, as fire data evangelist Sara
Wood puts it, the missing piece of NFIRS, allowing more
real-time access to not only their own departmental data but
that of comparable, or not so comparable, departments across
the country. While the data remain only as accurate as they are
entered, the EDW will allow users to create reports to drill down
into every corner of NFIRS data.
The NFORS system is designed to supplement and expand fire
incident data capture beyond the current parameters of the NFIRS.
NFORS is a Web-based system to capture, analyze, and benchmark
data of what occurred on the fireground, how long it took, and
what was the outcome. With the data available real-time, personnel can review what occurred; document positive and negative
outcomes; and translate that data into usable information for policy
makers, training personnel, and elected leaders. While each of the
specific data points can be entered manually after the incident,
NFORS is configured to allow importation of data from CAD and
RMS solutions. Moreover, since many of the largest RMS vendors
have been active stakeholders in designing NOFRS, many are
working on direct integrations to allow seamless data entry directly

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into NFORS without having to enter data in multiple locations.


FireCARES is loosely related to NFORS, having also been
borne out of the landmark Firefighter Safety and Deployment
Study. FireCARES measures and scores a fire department for
how well, comparatively, it performs: If fire department resources
(both mobile and personnel) are deployed to match the risk levels
inherent to hazards in the community, it has been scientifically
demonstrated that the community will be far less vulnerable
to negative outcomes in firefighter injuries and deaths, civilian
injuries and deaths, and property losses. FireCARES analyzes
massive amounts of fire department data to identify if resources
are appropriately deployed to match a communitys risk level.
This initiative measures the fire loss outcomes of a fire department relative to an idealized version of itself, resulting in a performance score. The program is based on a complex mathematical
model that factors in many data points and makes a number of
theoretical assumptions to derive the performance score.
This is a prime example of the difference between Big Data and
traditional approaches to analyzing performance. Traditionally,
we want to look at specific incidents to figure out what caused
positive or negative performance outcomes. Or we want to break
it down to look at specific territories (everyone here knows Battalion A is unique) or other local nuance (well the train along
XYZ Street always slows Engine Q down). With Big Data, the
individual data points become less important; outliers, missing
data, and other data quality problems are identified and removed
using statistical techniques, often without anyone ever looking at
the specific data point. Relationships among the data are identified by the analysis of the data.
     
 

The chorus for this rallying cry is growing louder. Fire departments
across the country are becoming increasingly data savvy. Data are
becoming less of what we create simply for someone else. Integrating
data systems is the backbone for this paradigm shift. Fire service
leaders dont need to be experts in data architecture or API configurations to realize its value. They do, however, need to broadly understand what integrations can and cannot do and budget appropriately
to ensure vital systems are appropriately integrated. With the current
speed of technological development and data production, the only
limitation of how interconnected our data systems will be in another
15 years is our willingness to embrace integrations. As expensive as
integrations can be, can we afford not to?

REFERENCES
1. Roden, Erich, and Matt Quinn, Big Data in the Fire Service: A Primer, FireRescue, December 2014.
2. IBM Analytics, Data Integration, www.ibm.com/analytics/us/en/technology/
data-integration.
Matt Hinds-Aldrich, PhD, is a management analyst for Atlanta (GA) Fire Rescue
Department, where he manages a diverse range of projects and initiatives. He has
been actively involved in the fire safety field for 15 years, having most recently
served as a fire science assistant professor and interim program director at Anna
Maria College. Most of Hinds-Aldrichs work focuses on performance management, organizational problem solving, and community risk reduction initiatives. He
has researched, written, and presented extensively on the concepts of firefighter
culture, behavioral economics in public safety, and the unfortunate topic of
firefighters arrested for setting fires.

  



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The

Road
Resilience
Part 1

to

Taking care
of ourselves
BY NAOMI L. BAUM

Along with the stories of courage and


bravery, there is a darker side to firefighting that needs some light shed
on it. (Photo by Chris Mickal.)

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irefighters are tough. Walking into burning buildings and putting out the flames take a great deal of both physical and mental resolve. Spending months and years of their lives training so
that, when the call comes, they are ready to jump into action
and save lives, firefighters sometimes seem invincible to the publicand
maybe even to themselves. But are they? What happens after the flames are
doused and the fire is out? Where do firefighters go, and what do they do?
Psychological studies show that first responders, a group that includes not
only firefighters but also police officers, paramedics, and emergency room
workers, are at greater risk for work burnout, compassion fatigue, alcoholism, and more. These statistics call attention to the fact that, along with the
stories of courage and bravery, there is a darker side to firefighting that needs
some light shed on it.

HELPING THE HELPER


Helping the helpers is the concept most often used when discussing the
often overlooked needs of people who have chosen to be in helping professions. Used with professional groups ranging from trauma psychologists and
social workers to police officers, firefighters, and humanitarian aid workers,
helping the helper refers to noticing and paying attention to emotional needs
that have often been neglected amid the enthusiasm of these helpers to do
their work.
There are two parts to consider in how we help ourselves, the helpers. There
is the day-to-day maintenance that is required if we are to stay in tip top
condition. Then, there are those special occasions after particularly difficult or
horrific events we have encountered in our work that require special attention.
Here, I will focus on the first part of helping the helper, the daily routine.
How we normally take care of ourselves can greatly affect the way we
perform under stress. Just as we all know how important it is to exercise, eat
well, and get enough sleep, there are activities that we can engage in that
will keep us mentally fit and healthy. The concept of resilience is particularly
helpful here.

WHAT IS RESILIENCE?
Picture a spring. When you compress the spring, or when the spring is
under a lot of pressure or stress, it contracts. When you stop pressing on it,
or remove the stress, the spring bounces back. This captures the essence of
resilience. It is a flexible attitude that allows for a wide range of emotions
and reactions. It is the ability to withstand stress and to bounce back after
adversity. A resilient person will feel pain, anger, sorrow, and fear without
worrying that he will be swallowed up by those feelings. Allowing yourself
to leave these feelings and move on to happiness, joy, excitement, and fun is
the essence of resilience. That spiral motion of movement between the more
difficult emotions of pain and sadness to happiness and joy characterizes
resilience. The ability to access a variety of behaviors and activities and to be
flexible and decide what works for you right now is true resilience.
So how do we build resilience? How do we let ourselves express a wide
range of emotions in a healthy and constructive way? Can resilience, in
fact, be built? In the Building Resilience Intervention (BRI) model that
I developed and implemented worldwide, there are four essential steps.
Learning about these steps and practicing skills related to them can greatly
enhance coping in populations that have been exposed to a large variety of
traumas ranging from natural disasters to terrorism and war. Specifically,

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THE ROAD TO RESILIENCE


first responder teams who have trained in the BRI have
reported improvements in stress level and feelings of
well being as well.

STEP ONE
The first step in helping yourself is developing selfawareness, self-knowledge, and understanding how
your mind and body are connected. For a start, take
an inventory of your stress level. What stresses do you
have in your life? Are they ongoing? Transitory? Are
they things that are in your control or out of your
control? Examples of ongoing stresses are elderly parents
and physical illness. Stressors that are more short term
include an unexpected bill, a deadline at work, and covering shifts for a friend on vacation. Check out where
your stresses occur. Are they mostly at work? In the family arena? Somewhere else? Of course, none of this will
change the stresses in your life, but mapping them out
can help you become more aware of what is going on in
your life and examine what you might change and what
you cannot. Often, sharing your results with a partner
or friend can be helpful as well.

STEP TWO
The second step in building resilience is learning how
to communicate about feelings. Research shows that

ROOKIE to CHIEF

FIREFIGHTER

the single most important feature in helping people


cope with adversity is the amount of social support they
have from family and friends. Learning how to reach
out and talk to family members about how you are
feeling and what is going on in your life and learning to
listen to them can go a long way toward strengthening
existing social networks. In my experience, firefighters
often have difficulty sharing their work life with their
life partners. They often feel that nobody outside of the
station house can actually understand them. Learning
how to break down those barriers and share with the
important people in your life can create a sense of support that is invaluable.

STEP THREE
What do you do when the going gets tough? How do
you help yourself? What works for you? Do you call a
friend, go fishing, read a book, or take a nap? Examining how you normally cope with stress and adversity
and expanding on those existing strengths and resources
comprise the third step in resilience building. Most
people have a preferred method of dealing with stress or
hard times. For some, it is physical like going for a run
or taking a bath. For others, it may be reaching out to a
friend. Yet others prefer to curl up with a book or watch
a movie.

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Beware of the quick fix of alcohol or drugs. They


may provide temporary relief but should not be
used as a consistent crutch over the long term.
Often, the use of alcohol or drugs quickly turns into
abuse and further exacerbates existing problems.
Trying out new ways of coping and finding new
hobbies and activities that you enjoy are important
steps in resilience building. The more resources
you have at your fingertips, the better off you are.
That way, if one avenue is closed, you always have
something else to try.

of fitness for whatever life has in store. This takes


both time and attention, but the results are well
worth it. Just to recap, spending time on the following four essential steps will lead you to the road of
resilience:
1. Learning self-awareness and understanding
your stress.
2. Communicating emotions.
3. Identifying coping resources.
4. Finding meaning.
Working on this with a work partner, or one at
home, is a great way to go.

STEP FOUR
The fourth step in resilience building is finding
meaning. Firefighters can easily find meaning in the
hard work they do saving lives, but they may have
a harder time understanding the tragedies that they
encounter over the course of their careers. Finding
a way to talk about the existential dilemmas they
face that may include feelings of helplessness and
crisis in belief can be an important part of resilience
building.

TAKING THE STEPS


Taking care of yourself, not only physically but
also mentally, will keep you prepared and in a state

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Naomi L. Baum, Ph.D., is a psychologist who internationally


consults in the field of trauma and resilience. She is the former
director of the Resilience Unit at the Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma where she created the Building Resilience
Intervention (BRI), a program she has implemented extensively in
both Israel and internationally in post-disaster and post-trauma
environments. Baum directs the International Summer CourseTrauma and Resilience from the Israeli Perspective, a course
offered in conjunction with the Hebrew University. She is the
author of two books, Life Unexpected: A Trauma Psychologist Journeys through Breast Cancer, and Free Yourself from Fear: A Seven
Day Plan for Overcoming Fear of (Recurrent) Cancer. Baums Web
site is: www.naomibaum.com.

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A real life example of their effectiveness


BY DAVID F. PETERSON
mergencies of all types are inherently
A fairly well known risk statement from the
dangerous because of the unsettled
National Fire Academy was worthy of consid.
le
rt
tu
nature of incidents and the
eration: Risk a lot to save a lot. Risk a little
e
Behold th
s
s
re
g
ro
dynamics involved in both their
to save a little. Risk nothing to save nothing.
p
He makes

t.
u
o
is
k
development and abatement. Consequently,
However, this seemed to be too simplistic.
c
e
when his n
the hazards and risks to emergency respondWhile
there are several other risk manageConant
James B.
ers are abundant, and injuries and death are a
ment models that have been developed over
very real possibility for all emergency medical
the years, one stood out as being very comservices (EMS) and fire department personnel.
prehensive and yet specific enough to be applied
What is needed to help minimize risk to responders is
at nearly every type of emergency. We will get to the one
effective leadership to model risk management in the field; an
statement that was selected for our fire department.
effective and sanctioned risk management model in policy form;
The purpose of a risk management policy is to help provide as
and comprehensive training on how to use a risk management
safe a working environment as possible for all department personmodel for any emergency. What follows is a real life incident that
nel through an administrative control. Yet, merely proclaiming
applied a risk management model and saved a life!
a risk management model as the way is a hollow approach and
deceptive to all members unless proper training supports the
DEPARTMENT IMPLEMENTATION
policy. Therefore, the risk management model was presented as a
As the fire chief for a village, paid-on-call fire department, I rec- new policy at a department training session. The reasons for the
ognized the importance of developing and applying a risk manpolicy were outlined, and then several scenarios were presented
agement policy for our department employees to follow. Most
and discussed thoroughly so that all personnel understood the
fire departments do not have formal risk management policies, or application and utility of risk management. In short, I wanted
statements, or mantras, and my department was no exception.
to make it abundantly clear that our goal was for everyone to go

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home after each emergency response with their safety and well
being completely intact.
Over the course of several months and after application of
the risk management model at all emergencies, the concept of
risk management seemed to take root in department members.
Our own approach was to include the risk management model
in all incident checklists and even laminate it on the dashboard
of all emergency vehicles. The premise was to get it out in
front of everyone to see and use so that it became part of our
response fabric and cultural mindset. Numerous and repetitive
uses of the risk management model were exercised each week
during both EMS and fire training sessions. Essentially, we
slowly turned each department member into a risk management
officer.

RISK MANAGEMENT MODEL POLICY


The International Association of Fire Chiefs developed and
issued a policy regarding rules of engagement as a general order
for all responders. That policy states: To address risk at each emergency, and to minimize risk to each responder, all personnel are
expected to consider and operate with this risk model in mind:
DO NOT risk your life for lives or property that cannot be
saved.
Extend LIMITED risk to protect savable property.
Extend vigilant and measured risk to protect and rescue SAVABLE lives.

The collapse zone that pinned the victim to the floor was inside the west door,
approximately one third down the south wall on the right. This view is looking
at the west side of the building after the emergency phase has ended. Broken
trusses can be seen hanging from the wall. (Photo by Lloyd Schultz.)

THE INCIDENT
Just over three years ago, an extremely windy day had ensued
on a hot, late August afternoon in southern Wisconsin. At a construction site for a future semi-truck wash facility, workers were
installing large-span, lightweight, wood trusses onto the top of
the wood-frame walls. This was a large pole frame type of building, approximately 110 feet long and 50 feet wide, and the trusses
were craned into place where workers at the top of the 20-foot
walls secured them into place. To rely on the strength of the ends
of the building, the trusses were installed on each end initially
and then worked toward the middle.
After three trusses were installed on each end, and while the
fourth truss was being positioned on the east end, a wind-induced
collapse occurred. The last truss fell against two other trusses on
the east end and they fell to the floor of the building, shattering
apart as they fell and pulling the south wall in toward the center
of the building.
At the same time, the last truss installed on the west end also
collapsed and fell to the ground. It was at this location that four
construction workers were involved in the immediate collapse
area; one of them on the ground was struck by the truss remains
and pinned to the floor.
Other on site workers immediately checked on the four workers and found that one of them was unconscious but breathing
and bleeding profusely from a head wound. Even though hed
been wearing a hard hat at the time, the force of the falling
truss destroyed his head protection and violently forced him to
the sand and fine-gravel floor. One of the workers immediately
called for emergency help and police, fire, and EMS responded.
Meanwhile, with the remaining trusses and the south wall flailing
in the high winds, the remaining workers on site did not enter

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1604FR_63 63

The Risk Management Model displayed on the dashboard in a fire truck.


(Photo by author.)

the collapse area. After a quick head count, it was soon determined that the worker who was struck and bleeding was the site
foreperson.

INCIDENT MANAGEMENT
First on the scene was a local police officer who verified the collapse. He was quickly joined by a Wisconsin State Patrol officer.
Both of these officers immediately entered the collapse area to
render aid to the pinned construction worker, with the local
officer bracing the leaning south wall the best he could. Shortly
after the arrival of the police officers, a fire engine arrived with
five firefighters followed by a rescue with one paramedic and one
emergency medical technician. A few minutes later, a grass fire
truck arrived with two additional firefighters.
The incident commander (IC) who arrived on the engine
conducted a quick assessment and, combined with on scene
information, considered an entry into the collapse zone for rapid
victim removal. His thought process was that the worker may
have life-threatening injuries and need to be removed as soon as
possible to save his life. The IC reflected on the departments risk
management model policy and the three statements. He knew he
was presented with a savable life but that it presented a significant

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This image is looking at the south wall of the structure from the west side
after the emergency phase. Note the bowing of the wall because of the
collapse of the trusses. This wall was secured with ropes and anchored to a
grass fire truck during the emergency. (Photo by Lloyd Schultz.)

The collapse of trusses within the structure viewed from the east side after
the emergency phase. (Photo by Lloyd Schultz.)

risk for his personnel to enter the collapse area. Consequently,


while he would locate outside the collapse zone, he committed
to sending only three people into the hazard area to package and
remove the patient based on these observations and situational
awareness.
The remaining trusses at the roof area appeared to be secured
and nonmoving. The remaining trusses did not appear to have
forces applied to them from collapsed trusses.
The unsecured trusses appeared to be all on the ground or at
least secured at one point that appeared to keep them stable. The
south wall would need to be secured promptly and simultaneously with the rescue effort as the high winds were unrelenting.
A firefighter used the grass fire truck to act as the anchor and
prevented the south wall from collapsing further with rescue rope.
The worker was bleeding profusely and time was of the essence.
A medical helicopter was dispatched by the IC. Because of
extreme risk, all personnel would need to wear their fire helmets
with the paramedic wearing a hard hat. These responders entered
with a patient backboard, EMS supplies, and hand tools to
attempt a rescue.
On entry, the paramedic assessed the patient and found he
suffered a severe head injury with a possible cranium fracture and was unconscious but breathing. The patient was also

64

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1604FR_64 64

bleeding from the mouth. Cervical traction was applied with a


cervical collar, the head wound was addressed, and the patient
was rapidly placed on the backboard and secured. Within five
minutes of responder arrival, the patient was removed from the
collapse zone and administered more medical care in a safe area.
All responders safely vacated the hazard area at the same time
as patient removal and began to assist the paramedic in securing the patients airway. At this point, the patient began to be
combative because of his brain injury. After sedation and more
immobilization, intravenous lines were established and extremity
fractures were splinted. Shortly after this on scene medical care,
the patient was loaded into the emergency medical helicopter
transport approximately 20 minutes post extrication. The patient
was flown 41 miles due east to Milwaukees Froedtert Hospital
for definitive medical care.

THE AFTERMATH
It was later learned that the patient was a 36-year-old male
who suffered a skull fracture and brain injury, an abdominal
injury with an internal bleed, and extremity fractures; he was
consequently kept in a coma for two weeks. The paramedic who
treated the victim stated that a few more minutes left untreated
would have surely meant death for this man. The best part of
this story was that he endured a lengthy rehabilitation period
that led to a full recovery. This survivor, and his very grateful
wife, showed up at the fire department exactly one year later,
walked in, and stated that he was reporting back to work two
weeks after that.
Although all responders in the collapse area were subjected to
danger, it is apparent, in retrospect, that careful but expedient
thinking considered extending vigilant and measured risk to protect and rescue savable lives. It is a tribute to the leadership present, in consideration of the departments risk management model
policy, and the effective training in the months leading up to this
incident that changed this potential tragedy into a triumph.
Authors note: As the chief of the department, I interviewed all
responders who responded to this incident and determined that
the actions taken to save this mans life were nothing short of
heroic and completely consistent with our risk management
model and policy. Essentially, these dedicated responders risked a
lot to save a lot in the finest fire service tradition. Consequently,
these responders were given written commendations and received
awards at the next annual award ceremony. The Wisconsin State
Patrol trooper who entered the collapse zone with his first-aid kit
also received an Officer of the Year award for his actions.
The author wishes to thank paramedic Jim Lilly for his contributions to this article.
David F. Peterson is a 35-year veteran of the fire service and a retired Wisconsin
fire chief. He is presently the EMS and fire training coordinator for Blackhawk
Technical College in Janesville, Wisconsin. He has served as a company officer,
training officer, haz-mat team leader, chief officer, and incident commander in his
career. He is a past board member for the Wisconsin State Fire Chiefs Association,
a national presenter on fire service topics, and founder of the Wisconsin Association of Hazardous Materials Responders. Peterson has an M.S. degree in executive
fire leadership and disaster preparedness and is a National Fire Academy graduate
of the Executive Fire Officer Program.

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BY SCHUYLER SONNY CUDD

If we could not give them all of


the technical knowledge, we could
still give them the soul of the
firefighter. (Photos by author.)

Training a multinational/multicultural fire department


fter a career that spanned 31 years in the Louisiana fire service, I was presented with the opportunity of a lifetime, and one that I never expected.
In 2014, I was offered a job as an emergency
response site specialist, the equivalent of a deputy
chief, for a new petrochemical company in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. I
had no idea what I was getting into, but it turned out to be the
most rewarding period of my entire career. (Because of company
policy and Saudi law, I am not allowed to mention the company
name and, because I would like to keep my job, it would be in
my best interest to comply.)
The company that I work for has made industrial history
because it is the largest petrochemical facility that has ever been
constructed in a single phase, with 26 different plants rising out
of the Saudi Arabian desert at one time.
This brings me to the emergency services division/fire depart-

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1604FR_65 65

ment. Now, keep in mind that if the facility is being constructed


from nothing, so was the fire department. At the time of this
writing, our department is made up of around 50 members
from five different countries. Our day staff, or upper command
structure, is mostly American while our shift command is mostly
English and Scottish. Our experienced firefighters are mostly
Filipino while our newest firefighters are all Saudis.
It is this last group that this story is really about. During my
career in Louisiana, I was fortunate and blessed to become a fire
service instructor and worked for the Louisiana State University
(LSU) Fire and Emergency Training Institute for 16 years of my
31-year career. During that time, I trained many firefighters in
a variety of disciplines, including a few years with the Recruit
Academy. It is this experience that led to me working as an
instructor for the brand new fire departments very first recruit
academy in Saudi Arabia.

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RECRUIT CLASS
We started with 15 young Saudi Arabian men who had just
undergone 14 months of English language training. Some knew
very little English at the start, and some did not know any at all.
After the completion of the English language training, they were
sent to us. Now it is important to say that although they went
through English language training, none of the training included
fire service language, and we all know what that is like. We then
added five Filipino firefighters who knew very little English, and
what they did know did not come with formal training.
The assigned instructors included me and another former
LSU instructor. Deputy Chief Duane Mixon was the lead of the
academy. Our training coordinator headed up the program from
an administration position. We then added a young Saudi officer,
Abdulmajeed Al Huthail, who loves the fire service and shows
a lot of promise as a future leader of the department, which is
important as the whole goal of this operation is to place it in the
hands of the Saudis one day. But early on, the young Saudi officer
was there to help with translation. As the academy went on, the
young Saudi officer would prove his worth tenfold.
The first day of the academy was much like any other in that
everyone introduced themselves and we started laying down the
rules. This was our first indication of how vast the language barrier was. Our mindset when we started the academy was to do it
like we had always done it (ever hear that before?). We began in a
classroom and started throwing PowerPoint presentations on the
wall. We soon discovered that the only thing hitting the wall was
our hard instructor heads. The young men could not grasp the
subject at all because they had nothing to draw from. For most
of these men, this was the first job they had ever had. We began
teaching using the same verbiage and rhythm that we knew, and
it was getting us nowhere fast. When we would give them a quiz
on what they had been taught in class the day before, the results
were less than stellar.

CHANGING STRATEGY
After a couple weeks, we knew we had to make a change. For
those of you who have trained firefighters, you can attest to
the fact that you will always have some students who are better
hands-on learners than book learnersI had 20. After several
discussions, I made the suggestion to shut down the computer,
turn off the projector, and close the books. This academy would
have to become a full on outside, physical academy.
Our leadership at the time agreed that we would not be able to
achieve certification but we could build staffing worthy, operational firefighters. We would still follow the curriculum and the
standard. This would be a first for my career.
Let me explain a little about the Saudi Arabian fire service.
Unlike our American fire service, the Saudi fire service does not
recognize things like duty, honor, tradition, and courage. In fact,
being a firefighter in Saudi Arabia is considered a low-end, menial
job. So finding a Saudi who has the fire service in his heart is
a rare thing indeed. In examining these differing mindsets, we
knew we had an uphill battle.

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We started with 15 young Saudi Arabian men who had just undergone 14 months
of English language training.

This academy would have to become a full on outside, physical academy.

We also knew that we had 15 Saudis who were simply balls of


clay who did not know that they were NOT supposed to love the
fire service. Although we would have to compromise on how we
taught the academy, we refused to compromise our love for what
we do and who we are. We would affect hearts and minds. If we
could not give them all of the technical knowledge, we could still
give them the soul of the firefighter.

THE ACADEMY
The academy was held at the Saudi Aramco Advanced Live Fire
Training Center. If there was a theme park for live fire instructors
to go play, this would be the place.
It started like all academies on the training ground. By nature,
Saudi people are sometimes not the biggest or strongest people.
Most are small. Some are taller than others but most are not very
physical in size or strength. So, early morning exercise became a
battle of attrition. Eventually, they all became stronger in body
and mind.
The mindset of the men coming in was very timid and shy. No

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one would be the first to volunteer


to do something. In fact, we would
have to demonstrate and explain
things many times over. The men
were afraid to make mistakes and
did not want to be singled out. We
were told that we had to be very
careful with how we speak to them
for they offend easily. Many times
we would ask: Do you understand? Yes? In unison, they would
respond, Yes. This was their
response not because they understood but because they thought they
were supposed to say yes.
I started doing things to affect the
hearts and minds of the recruits. I
would talk to them about what the
job is, what it means. I began to
speak of tradition and honor and sacrifice. Here I was, in their
eyes this big, old, salty firefighter with the leather helmet talking
to them like I just walked out of central casting. As corny or
ridiculous as that sounds, we began to see something happen. The
light was beginning to come on. Although we still had a long way
to go, they were starting to get it.
Like in any academy, you have those who rise to the top and
those who just try to get by. We saw leaders start to emerge. They
began to challenge and motivate each other. The skills we were
teaching were starting to take hold in their minds and bodies and
the love of the job was taking hold in their hearts.

MEMORABLE MOMENT
One of the most memorable moments, of which there are more
than I can list here, took place about three months in during our
first night burns on flammable liquids. What I saw and heard that
night I will never forget.
The industrial petroleum complex unit, which is made up
of many different props, was our focal point for most of the

The skills we were teaching were


starting to take hold in their minds
and bodies and the love of the job
was taking hold in their hearts.

academy. We would train on one


prop at a time and slowly add more
props as the recruits ability and
confidence increased. By the time
of the night burn, these young men
could fight as many as eight or nine
props at a time by moving from
one to another as the fires were
extinguished.
All external field lights were
turned off and one by one we lit 11
different fires; and one by one, they
pushed and they fought. As each fire was extinguished, it began
to get darker and darker until the last fire was extinguished. Then,
as I stood there in the darkness of a training center on the other
side of the world, I heard the joyous screams and cheers of pride
and accomplishment roar out of these young men as though they
had fought a great battle and were victoriousfor they were.
They did not win the fight of simply battling the fire. They won
the battle within themselves of shaking off what they were told
of being a Saudi firefighter. On that night, at that moment in the
dark, we all became brothers.

BROTHERHOOD
The academy would continue on for another three months after
that. They would train and fight many more fires and endure
more hardships. But now they were different. They were now firefighters. At the end of the academy, I told them how proud I was
of them and how much being a part of history meant to me.
I told them that, in my heart, we had trained the very best
firefighters in the entire kingdom of Saudi Arabia and would put
them up against any other crew that could be found. I
told them that I would stand with them as my brothers
and, as we continue to move forward with making
history here, nothing will ever compare with having the
honor and blessing of being a small part in the shaping
of these young men.

I told them that, in my heart, we had trained the very best firefighters in the entire kingdom
of Saudi Arabia and would put them up against any other crew that could be found.

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Schuyler Sonny Cudd is a 31-year veteran of the fire service and


is working as an emergency response site specialist/deputy chief in
Saudi Arabia. He started as a volunteer for the Boyce (LA) Volunteer Fire
Department in 1984. Cudd worked for Rapides Parish (LA) Fire Protection District 2 as well as one season as a Type 2 wildland firefighter in
Colorado. In 1995, he worked as an aircraft rescue firefighter (ARFF)
in England Airpark Fire Department. In 1997, Cudd became an adjunct
instructor with Louisiana State Universitys (LSU) Fire and Emergency
Training Institute (FETI), teaching in the Industrial and ARFF programs.
In 1998, he was hired as a full-time instructor at LSU FETI where he
was promoted to program manager. Cudd is NFPA/IFSAC certified as
an Instructor 2, Officer 2, Incident Safety Officer, Haz-Mat Technician,
and NIMS 400 Level instructor, fire inspector, and fire investigator.

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Firefighters
little black book:
A pocket guide
to safety
BY STAN TARNOWSKI

fter serving three decades as a firefighter who progressed through the ranks to become a fire chief, I
thought this may be the time to share my thoughts on
how all firefighters and officers can better servenot
necessarily from a physical command perspective but from a
personal character perspective. I call it leading from the front
regardless of your rankthrough daily conduct that is morally
and ethically sound.
Over the past months, I shared 40 of my dos and donts, and
here are the final 10 to add to your pocket guide. This series
should be used as a daily reminder of the things we should and
shouldnt do to respect and serve our community.

#41: FAMILY CLUSTER AT THE STATION.


A fire department family has a very unique bond. Unless you
have been in one, you cannot know it. The family cluster provides for its own in many special ways. Things are talked about

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and acted on that we wouldnt do with our personal families. Our


station family will help with critical incident stress management
for members who have been working on scene at a crisis.
Our work family cluster helps us deal with those emotions and
get us back to our personal families. Stay strong for each other
and help each other always. We do not want to see any more
firefighter suicides.

#42: PROFANITY AT THE STATION.


In 1975, when I started my career, the language around the
firehouse was obnoxious to say the least. Every other word seemed
to be a cuss word. Profanity in conversation seemed to go hand
and hand with our job. Well, I am happy to say that over the past
30 years, there has been a great adjustment for the better. There is
much less profanity, and I believe it is a shift in the family dynamics, respect given is respect earned, and more of our folks continuing their education levels. All of these initiatives help to achieve

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As 21st century firefighters, we need to


do our job smarter and with a high moral
aptitude. (Photo by John Cetrino.)

that goal to lower the usage of profanity around the home and fire
station. We have to watch what we say and how we say it!

#43: OBSCENE GESTURES ON AND OFF DUTY.


In metro Atlanta (GA), an engine operator driving his engine
company through town was accidentally cut off by a driver
switching lanes. His immediate response was to show the car
driver how he felt about that and flipped him off. Needless to say,
the engine operator had to apologize and was reprimanded as a
result of the complaint file by the other driver. Whether you are
driving your engine company or your personal pickup truck, act
smart and dont make any gestures.

#44: ETHICAL BEHAVIOR WHEN OUT PURCHASING ITEMS.


Always use good ethical business behavior when you are out
purchasing anything. Never, ever take anything for free. Wearing
your uniform and driving up in your engine do not provide free

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access to all you need. In the supermarket, you must pay the same
prices as the customers in line with you. Some business owners
and managers will want to give you a discount because you are a
firefighter but, while free and discounted items sound like nice
gestures, it is unethical for us to accept. Other citizens who witness
this may not say anything right then but will possibly talk about
how they felt it was wrong for us to get a deal while they had to pay
full price. When offered a deal, reply: We really appreciate your
offer; however, our department policy doesnt allow for it.

#45: USE OF YOUR POSITION FOR FAVORS.


This topic is a killer. If you get in the habit of using your position to obtain favors from people, then you have put yourself
in that unethical, immoral category. I know chief officers who
would always make sure they wore their work uniforms when
they went shopping for anything, especially for items like a house
or car; looking at private schools and colleges with their children;

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and for services like roofers, painters, electricians, and plumbers.


What starts out to sound like a great idea, even to your family
members, can end up disastrous.
As a rule of thumb, never show up representing your department in uniform if you are purchasing personal items. This will
keep everyone on the same ethical page.

#46: BORROWING/STEALING ITEMS


FROM YOUR DEPARTMENT.
It is a general bad habit to take or borrow anything from your
station. Taking pencils, pens, and paper; using the copier machine
for personal needs; or taking tools, equipment, or even a truck for
your personal use will put you in the category of being unethical.
We all need to purchase our own items for our personal use. The
work items and equipment are for work jobs and use. Make good
choices. Purchase your own items, and then you wont have to
look over your shoulder wondering.

#47: FIRE DEPARTMENT-ASSIGNED TAKE-HOME VEHICLES.


The topic of who gets to take home a department vehicle when
they are off duty has caused much discussion and even arguments
within the department. Some departments have strict rules where
only the fire chief will be allowed to take his department-assigned
vehicle home. The chief of the department is for all intents and
purposes the only one who will need to have access to all his gear
and radio equipment, including computers, in the event of a
manmade or natural disaster/incident.
The on-duty suppression folks already have all their apparatus,
vehicles, and equipment with them at their station. Fire marshal, fire
arson investigator, fire prevention officer, and public information
officer are positions that use a non-first response vehicle that needs
to arrive within the designated response time to an incident. Thats
not to say that they wont be needed at the call, but those who are
assigned to these positions and vehicles can drive to their stations to
pick them up and respond to the incident from there. Most departments will not include these people and their vehicles as part of their
list of emergency vehicles needed to handle an emergency.
We have all heard stories of incidents occurring during off-duty
hours where the assigned driver of these nonemergency response
vehicles had to explain a situation that occurred off duty while
they were driving their department vehicle, including incidents
such as accidents; driving under the influence; or being seen leaving a dance club, taking the family to the mall, or going out to a
restaurant. Use sound judgment.

#48: BEING OUT OF YOUR RESPONSE TERRITORY.


We all have situations that come up in our personal lives while
we are on our 24-hour tour that may need our attention. You also
may need to handle a detail or check on something that one of
your engine company members is concerned about, but if you
handle any of them you will be out of your assigned response area.
Doing something outside of your response area may appear OK
on the surface until you have to answer to your chief, or a citizen,
why it took you so much longer to get to their fire or medical call. It is imperative that we follow department suppression
operations policies. Think before you act.

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#49: CONDUCTING COMMUNITY OUTREACH


IN YOUR STATION NEIGHBORHOODS.
Having served in the northeast and the southeast, there is one
thing I know for sure: Your fire station neighbors love having
you there. If yours are like many, they will drop off pies, cakes,
casseroles, cupcakes, and all sorts of goodies out of the blue. Now,
that is what I call a good neighbor relationship. When it comes
to addressing neighborhood interface, efforts should include the
following:
Dont keep all your stations closed up like no one is home. If
you are a volunteer department and no one is supposed to be
home, then that is fine. If you are a career, full-time department, that is very different.
Dont send the message to your neighbors that you are only
interested in them if they have an emergency.
Do keep your station doors open and actually feel free to
stand or even sit out front of your stations and wave to your
neighbors like you would in your own home neighborhoods.
Lets face it, citizens pay taxes and the tax base in your city
pays for salaries and benefits as well as your operating equipment. If they see you being open and friendly, they will feel
better about paying their taxes and may even give an extra
donation to your department.
Do one thing to get to know your neighbors. We sponsored a
cookout at one of our multifamily structure neighborhoods,
with no pool, on one of those 95 to 100 degree days. We then
laid up the 100-foot aerial and played off the 750-gpm monitor
hovering over the basketball court for a couple hours. The community and the media loved us for that. Be creative and win!

#50: INTERFACING WITH YOUR


OPERATIONAL COUNTERPARTS.
Its never an easy task to get all public safety groups to agree and
operate together and play nice all the time. This could mean both
off duty and on duty, working incidents, and in the conference
room planning budgets. The other departments could be public
works, electrical, streets, code enforcement, etc. Everyone wants
to be in charge. Does this sound familiar to you?
Dont start a war with your police department, especially if it
also controls the 911 communications center.
Dont try to play the city manager against any one department
in an effort to look good in front of him.
Do be friendly toward all departments that operate within
your organizations structure.
Do play nice when at meetings with other department members. That means get along, be polite, and stay professional.
Do share all the information you may have on an upcoming event or a potential incident. Trust is everything when it
comes to public safety, so act accordingly.
Do act mature and responsible in everything you do. It will
pay off in the short and long run.
Do be kind.

EMBRACING 50 DOS AND DONTS


Every once in a while, we all have to stop and examine how we
conduct ourselves in everything we do and every way we do it,

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in and out of the public and family eyes,


on the job and off. This has happened to
me, so I had a chance to reevaluate how
I was conducting my moral and professional business. Sometimes I didnt like
what I saw in myself and had to make
changes. After my public sector fire service
retirement, I saw that life would continue
to throw us those curveballs and provide
temptations that would have us making
choices. You can make the right ones or the
wrong ones; I made a few of each.
I was able to finish a fire service career
with some 30 years of personal and professional experiences that led me to write
these top 50 dos and donts that I consider
important enough to share with you. Some
appear to be common sense while others
are more complex and of a delicate nature,
but I have seen firefighters lose sight of
their goals and make minor errors in choice
that can lead to disaster, up to and including the termination of a career.
As 21st century firefighters, we need
to do our job smarter and with a high
moral aptitude. Every day, we learn of
another firefighter, lieutenant, captain, or
chief officer being reprimanded and even
terminated for conduct unbecoming. If
we choose the wrong way, we will have to
serve out our punishment.
I ask you to conduct a mental/moral
check when you are reviewing these top 50
topics and see how you fare. Be honest
when doing it, as only you will know the
true answers to the questions. If you are
not happy with what you see or how you
feel, then this is the time to make changes
in your life. If you dont change behaviors
that could be considered destructive, then
the cycle will continue and your daily
situation will grow worse. You can make a
difference in your life right now.
Stan Tarnowski, chief (ret.), began his career in 1975
with the Boston (MA) Logan International Airport
Fire Department serving in multiple operational and
administrative positions. In metro Atlanta, Georgia, he
served as chief, 911 and EMA director in Union City,
deputy and suppression chief at the Georgia State Fire
Academy, and chief of training at the Henry County Fire
Department. Tarnowski received his associates degree
in fire science in 1976 from Bunker Hill Community
College, has several public safety certifications, and is
an NPQ Board Certified Level 4 fire instructor. He is the
president of Firesafe Consulting Group.

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1604FR_71 71

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Company Officer Development

Potty Training
How to provide fire attack training tips
to all your members 24/7!

By Stephen Marsar

o overcome nervousness in a would-be speech


givers or performers stomach, there is an
age-old adage that advises them to picture
the audience naked in an attempt to humanize the
experience and bring the performer and audience
down to the same basic level. For the company
officer attempting to conduct a drill on fire attack,
I would not recommend such a strategy. First of all,
in this day and age of a kinder, gentler fire service,
political correctness, and equal employment opportunity, it may cause issues. But more importantly,
do you really want to picture your firefighters
naked? Perhaps the advice of another tried and true
technique is to picture your audience doing what all
humans must do naturallygoing to the bathroom.
Yuck! OK, perhaps we should skip that one too ...
or should we? (Where the heck is this article going?)

BARE BOTTOM
Lets take those several trips a day to the bathroom to a more professional level. Let us use them
as an opportunity to take advantage of this captive
audience (at least for a few minutes) on each visit.
Talk about teachable moments! Now, bear with me
here (no pun intended). If you go out and spend a
minimal amount of cash on a few inexpensive and
basic picture frames and the applicable mounting
system to secure the frames, you can use them to
keep your firefighters attention as they hit the
head. Well call it the Potty Training Program (or
PTP for all you acronym addicts out there).
Lets say youre reading a recent article in FireRescue, and you come across an article that is a perfect

topic to drill on and to educate your members.


Normally you might plan a sit-down drill period, or
hands-on training session, or perhaps just pass along
what you learned at an informal Roll Call based on
what you read. Now, lets take that one-time drill a
step further.

SEAT UP OR SEAT DOWN?


It doesnt matter here. In addition to disseminating the information formally to your members, how
about typing up the highlights of the article (or
better yet, cut out the article itself ); putting it in a
frame; and hanging it in the bathroom above the
urinal, on the wall next to the toilet (or on the inside
of the stall door if that would work better), and perhaps by the sink or hand dryer. Just make sure they
wont get wet or splashed. Now the members (both
male and female) can have the opportunity to read
while theyre taking care of their personal business.
In addition to fire attack strategies and tactics,
this technique can also be used to reinforce rules
and regulations, training bulletins, safety messages,
etc. Theres almost no end to what can be posted as
long as it is fire service-related and kept on a professional level.

DONT FORGET THE AIR FRESHENER


To keep the articles and the basic educational
premise behind them fresh (again, no pun
intended), remember to change information in the
frames on a regular basis; Ive found that monthly
works best. Also, use lots of pictures and diagrams
accompanied by few words whenever possible (we
dont want our members turning these trips to the
bathroom into long study sessions). Additionally,
you can ask your members for ideas on what theyd
like to see in the frames to keep them up to date on
their firefighting, technical rescue, and EMS knowledge skills (the equipment manufacturers likewise
would love you for it!). In those cases, be prepared
to do some homework to search for the information
that the members say theyd like to see.

POTTY MOUTH
Put the Potty Training topic where it wont get wet. (Photo by author.)

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In my volunteer department, our company


captain, Sal Ancona, instituted his Potty Training

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program with great success. Some of the topics he


covered with diagrams and pictures include apparatus placement, exposure identification, oil burner
parts and potential emergencies, foam operations,
portable ladder placement, and chain of command
(with associated responsibilities). Other suggested
topics include body substance isolation, communicable disease prevention, commercial tourniquet
application, driving safety/emergency vehicle operator course tips, and pumping operations. Another
interesting take is to post fireground pictures (available from many different sources) with the caption:
Whats Wrong with This Picture? or What
Would You Do?

Potty Training, just when you think the members


have gotten the hang of it, you can plop a quiz into
the mix.
Keep it short and sweet (five to 10 questions
max), and base it on the previous few postings.
Perhaps posting the questions by the toilet or urinal
and the answers by the sink will help satisfy those
who seek instant gratification on their test taking
success.
The difference between this kind of Potty
Training compared to the real-life type is that the
members will see it and take notice right away and,
although jokes may be bantered around at first, as
the company officer you will hopefully see the
benefits start to emerge immediately.

END RESULT
Perhaps one of the unintended outcomes of Potty
Training programs has been the talk it has inspired
among company and department members. The
topics and pictures have sparked some spirited
debate, standard operating guideline discussions,
and even spontaneous drills on the correct use of
tools and equipmenta homerun for everybody
involved. Use it to its full advantage.

I HAVE TO P
P as in Pass. Using the Type A personalities
of your firefighters, perhaps after a few rounds of

Stephen Marsar, EFO, MA, is a 25-year veteran and captain


in the Fire Department of New York (FDNY). He is also a former
chief and commissioner of the Bellmore (NY) Fire Department.
He teaches extensively at the FDNY and Nassau County (NY)
Fire and EMS academies, and hes an adjunct professor at the
Nassau County Community College. Marsar has a masters degree
in homeland defense and security from the U.S. Naval Post
Graduate School as well as a bachelors degree in fire science
and emergency services administration from SUNY Empire State
College. Marsar graduated with honors from the National Fire
Academys Executive Fire Officer Program and is a National Roll
of Honor inductee.

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Community Risk Reduction

Global Risk Reduction


Best practices and event support
e often talk about best practices as if
we know what that really means. In my
world, that is pretty straightforward: Best
practice means producing the best results. As my
recent articles have delved a little more deeply into
evaluation concepts for community risk reduction,
I think only a short recap is necessary to help make
the point of this column.
Best results can mean most efficient, or effective, or both. We can measure best results for every
aspect of what we do in the fire service: emergency
response, plan review, fire investigation, public
education, and code enforcement. Each has its own
particular nuance for these measures, but we can
describe our efforts as being faster, less expensive, or
improving public safety in concrete terms.
So when I look for best practices, Im looking
for examples of community risk reduction efforts

By Jim Crawford

ously producing measurable results because their


fire death and incident rates are lower per capita
than ours here.
That is true for the United Kingdom, where on
average the fire death rates are about 30 percent less
than ours, even though we have made tremendous
progress here. What does that mean? It means that
the human race is capable of more in the area of fire
safety, so our job is far from over.
Merseyside in the United Kingdom had an
aggressive home safety visit program where, over
a 12-year span, members conducted more than
700,000 home safety visits. They reduced their
fire incident rate by more than 30 percent and fire
death rates by more than 50 percent. Surrey, British
Columbia, has published a scientific study on the
results of its home visits over time, producing measurable and statistically valid reductions of incidents

Some of the more interesting and challenging


programs in the U.S. are related to more recent
efforts I describe as community paramedicine.
that provide us with examples of how to be more
efficient and effective. We can find examples of
programs in the United States and elsewhere in the
world.

WORLDWIDE PROGRAMS

To read more
from Jim Crawford,
visit www.firefighternation.
com/author/jim-crawford.

74

In the United States, as more of our call volume


is devoted to emergency medical responses, it is
natural to look for best practices there. And with
a population that is continuing to age and baby
boomers taking up a larger percentage of just
about every community, we know we can expect
more medical emergencies. So being efficient and
effective is what were supposed to do.
Elsewhere in the world, I find examples of
emergency response and prevention programs that
provide us with best practices related to fire safety.
Thats because, in many industrialized nations, the
fire loss statistics (incidents, deaths, injuries) are
better than ours in the United States. They are obvi-

F ire r escue M agazine April 2016

1604FR_74 74

and fire deaths. Ontario, Canada, is also producing


some great examples from which we can learn.

EFFORTS IN THE UNITED STATES


To be fair, there are great examples of programs
that are working in the United States. Many are
showcased at the National Models in Prevention
Symposium conducted in Fairfax, Virginia, again
this year, with case studies posted on the Vision
20/20 Web site (www.strategicfire.org).
Some of the more interesting and challenging
programs in the United States are related to more
recent efforts I describe as community paramedicine. In loose terms, that is the integrated approach
to emergency medical responses and outreach that
aims to be more efficient, keep people out of the
hospital setting, improve outcomes (like heart
attack survivability), and manage call volume.
Ill be writing more about case studies in the
future, focusing on places like Spokane Valley, WA;

FireFighterNAtioN.com

3/22/16 2:36 PM

Anaheim, CA; Mesa, AZ; and Rio Rico, AZ. Best


practices are also available at the Fire Service Based
EMS Advocates Web site: http://fireserviceems.
com/download-best-practices. But you can learn
more by attending my presentation at the Fire
Department Instructors Conference (FDIC) International 2016, April 18-23, in Indianapolis (www.
fdic.com).
There will also be a panel presentation at the 28th
Annual National Fire and Emergency Services Symposium and Dinner, hosted by the Congressional
Fire Services Institute (CFSI) in Washington, DC,
May 4-5 (www.cfsi.org). Both presentations will
focus on best practices from the United States and
abroad. The CFSI panel will include presentations
from a cross section of practitioners so you receive
more than one perspective.

Jim Crawford, FIFireE, is project manager for Vision 20/20


and a retired fire marshal and deputy chief of the Vancouver
(WA) Fire Department. He is a member of the NFPA technical
committee on professional qualifications for fire marshals, a
former member of the Standards Council for the NFPA, a fellow
of the Institution of Fire Engineers, a life member of the IAFC,
and past president of the International Fire Marshals Association. Crawford is the author of Fire Prevention Organization
and Management and serves as an editorial board member of
FireRescue. He has received the R. Wayne Powell Excellence in
Fire Prevention Award, the Dr. Anne Phillips award for leadership
in fire and life safety education from the Congressional Fire
Services Institute and the International Fire Service Training
Association, the Fire Protection Person of the Year from the
Society of Fire Protection Engineers, and the Percy Bugby Award
from the International Fire Marshals Association.

EVENT SUPPORT
Im not plugging these events for my
benefit. It is important to support them
because of what they do for us collectively.
Training is a no-brainer, and FDIC International is the largest training conference
for the fire service in the United States.
The CFSI program has a separate function
that is equally critical. It includes a full day
of seminars featuring national fire service
leaders, administration officials, federal legislators, and congressional staff. This the only
program in the fire service that features such
a distinguished panel of national leaders
involved in advancing federal legislation and
administering federal programs benefiting
the fire service. It offers important information and answers questions about the federal
governments role in preparing our nations
fire service to perform its mission more
effectively and efficiently.
The dinner serves an equally important
purpose: It is CFSIs principal fundraiser
that enables the organization to continue
its work with Congress. Have you tracked
issues related to firefighter safety? Survivor benefits? Grant programs that help
purchase equipment, provide staffing, or
provide for fire prevention programs? CFSI
is the collaborative body that works avidly
on our behalf.
Attend these events. Even if you dont see
my presentations, it is important to show
up and support these efforts.
Jim Crawford will present Community
Risk Reduction: the Future of the Fire
Service on Friday, April 22, at 10:30
a.m. at FDIC International 2016 in
Indianapolis.

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By John M. Malecky

The Refton (PA) Brush 59 is this Ford F-550 XLT 4 4 with


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SVI Trucks
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The Detroit (MI) Fire Department placed in service 10 Smeal


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Nazareth (PA) operates this KME heavy rescue with a Predator


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nonwalk-in body with ROM doors, a 9,000-pound Warn winch,
an Onan 20-kW PTO generator, a storage rack for five SCBA,
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KME Fire Apparatus


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PHOTO BY ADAM ALBERTI

The Halesite (NY) Fire Department has in service this Rescue 1


heavy rescue unit on a Spartan Metro Star chassis. It has a 450hp Cummins ISL 9 diesel engine; a 10-inch raised roof cab with
a 24-inch bumper extension; and an 18-foot, nine-inch nonwalkin body. Other features are a Harrison 30-kW generator, a Will
Burt Night Scan, a rack for 21 spare SCBA cylinders, an awning,
and a 4.5-ton portable winch.

76

F ire r escue M agazine April 2016

1604FR_76 76

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800-369-6671;
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Elbecos Shield Color Block Soft Shell Jackets are specifically
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Darley Lightweight Booster Hose


Darleys lightweight, kink resistant, noncollapsible booster hose is equipped with a full-flow
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FoxFury Command 20 Wildland Fire Helmet


FoxFurys ultra-slim Command 20 LED firefighter helmet
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Duo-Safety Ladder
Folding Roof Ladders
The Folding Roof Ladder by
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Underwater Kinetics
800-852-7483; www.uwkinetics.com
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1604FR_77 77

a pril 2016 F ire r escue M agazine

77

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1604FR_78 78

F ire r escue M agazine April 2016

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FireRescue (ISSN 1094-0529, USPS 858-060). FireRescue is published 12 times per year, monthly, by PennWell Corporation, 1421 S. Sheridan, Tulsa, OK 74112. Periodicals postage paid at Tulsa, OK 74112 and at additional mailing offices. SUBSCRIPTION PRICES: Send $24 for one year (12 issues) or $44 for two years (24 issues) to FireRescue, P.O. Box 3425,
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airmail postage. Send $20 for one year (12 issues) or $35 for two years (24 issues) of digital edition. Single copy: $10.00. POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to FireRescue, P.O. Box
3425, Northbrook, IL 60065-9912. FireRescue is a registered trademark. PennWell Corporation 2016. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Permission, however, is granted for employees of corporations licensed under the Annual Authorization Service offered by the Copyright Clearance Center Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood
Drive, Danvers, Mass. 01923, or by calling CCCs Customer Relations Department at 978-750-8400 prior to copying. We make portions of our subscriber list available to carefully screened
companies that offer products and services that may be important for your work. If you do not want to receive those offers and/or information via direct mail, please let us know by contacting
us at List Services FireRescue, 1421 S. Sheridan, Tulsa, OK 74112. Printed in the USA. GST No. 1268113153.

1604FR_79 79

3/22/16 2:40 PM

The Backstep

High Risk/Low Frequency


Guidelines for first-arriving companies

By Matthew Tobia

emember the last time you responded to a


trench rescue? Never? For most of us, the answer
is identical. Structural collapse? Confined
space rescue? Wilderness search and rescue? As allhazards organizations, your fire company is going to
be summoned to a wide range of incidents, some of
which will be once-in-a-lifetime events. Repetition
builds experience, but high-risk/low-frequency events
demand a different approach than the bread and butter operations you can accomplish from memory.

TRENCH COLLAPSE
Its early spring, and a recent spike in temperatures
has permitted crews to perform some critical work
on a waterline. An 18-year-old worker is repairing a
12-inch pipe at the bottom of an unshored 15-foot
trench that is approximately three feet in diameter. Its
a family business, and the workers father is operating the backhoe while his uncle and brother prepare
a section of pipe to replace the one that is damaged.
Although the father has more than 30 years of experience, the trench collapses on his son, burying him
under tons of soil. You are the first-arriving engine
officer (or chief officer). What do you do?

LEARNING FROM OTHERS

To read more

from Matt Tobia,


visit www.firefighternation.
com/author/matthew-tobia.

80

Commercial pilots, responsible for the lives of thousands, must maintain a command-level knowledge of
their job. But, is it reasonable to expect them to be able
to recall from memory all of the steps (in the correct
order) necessary to overcome an inflight emergency?
Under the most extreme circumstances, these tremendously well-trained professionals do not rely on their
memories to overcome chaosthey rely on checklists.
If you subscribe to the idea that the first five minutes of any incident are a predictor of the outcome,
then your obligation is to ensure that the initial
decisions made, actions taken, and orders given are
100 percent accurate and executed flawlessly. Such
accuracy cannot be borne out of experience alone.
Every engine, truck, and emergency services unit
that has the potential to respond to any high-risk/
low-frequency event should keep a set of cue cards (i.e.,
checklists) in the vehicle cab that can be referenced
quickly during response. The cards should describe, in
large-print/bulleted form, the initial considerations for
the first-arriving officer. Resist the temptation to put
these on your tablets or smartphones. Technology is an

F ire r escue M agazine April 2016

1604FR_80 80

amazing thing, right up to the point when it does not


work and you are left in the Dark Ages. Who arrives
first is far less important than ensuring that they are
equipped with the tools to be successful.

RESPONSE
Back to the trench collapse. First-arriving officers
do not need to know that there are three classes of
soil or that a square foot of soil weighs 100 pounds.
The officer does not need to be a trench-rescue technician. As chief officers, our obligation is to ensure
that initial companies are equipped to make the right
decisions. The cue card could read as follows:
Do not enter any unshored trench >4 feet in depth.
Stop 250 feet from the reported incident address
(turn off the vehicle).
Establish command and provide a Brief Initial
Report (request police for crowd control).
Establish a Cold Zone, and direct all responders
to stage 500 feet from the scene.
Establish a Hot Zone (100 feet), and remove all
personnel from the area while shutting down all
sources of vibration.
Determine the number of victims and the extent
of the entrapment.
Call for additional resources.

RESOURCE PROTECTION
The trench incident is just one example of tragic
circumstances to which we could be summoned, and
although it might be perceived as unrealistic to
expect company/chief officers to rely on checklists for
high-risk/low-frequency events, requiring their use
will inevitably and undeniably save responder lives.
There are countless examples of first responders who
have died engaging in a once-in-a-lifetime incident
armed with nothing more than a servant heart.
Tragically, this will not bring them home alive.
Nothing can or should replace being a student of our
service, and every day is a training day. Checklists,
however, represent a nearly zero-cost way to
demonstrably improve our performance when the
varsity team has been called to the field.
Matthew Tobia is an assistant chief with the Loudoun County (VA)
Department of Fire, Rescue, and Emergency Management and is
a 27-year veteran of emergency services. He can be reached at
matthew.tobia@loudoun.gov.

FireFighterNAtioN.com

3/22/16 2:40 PM

firerescue.hotims.com

1604FR_C3 3

3/22/16 2:40 PM

825 LB TIP LOAD RATING


The HP 78 Ladder holds 750 lbs of
 
  

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3/22/16 2:40 PM

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