Privilege

•  by Shea Chwialkowski on July 14, 2014 at 1:12pm
• from www.fireengineering.com
• 
  

priv·i·lege

: a right or benefit that is given to some people and not to others : a special opportunity to do something that makes you proud

It is a privilege to be a firefighter. Do you really believe this statement? Firefighters often talk about feeling privileged when they are first due to a “good” working fire, but does the privilege cease when we are doing the things not pictured on the cover of Fire Engineering magazine? There are literally thousands of people who would love to fill our seat on the engine. They would jump at the chance to get on the truck at two in the morning and go pick up Mr. Jones for the third time in a week; okay maybe not ‘jump’ but they might do it without complaint. Think back to when you applied to be a firefighter. Think about those applicants who were not chosen for the position you now hold.  I bet they view the things we may treat as a nuisance as a privilege.

At one point (and hopefully still) you wanted to be a firefighter more than anything else in the world. Sometimes we need to hit rewind on our fire career DVR to hear the promises we gave in earnest during our interview. Ask yourself honestly - are continuing to make good on those promises? Are you the team player you claimed to be? Do you still have a rock solid work ethic? Are you still a self-starter? Are you still willing to be educated and trained? Are you really the person who can be relied upon to deliver in a time of need? Do you still treat this job as a privilege? Your fellow firefighters, lieutenants, captains and chiefs probably already know the answer, but do you? If you have honored all of these claims, that is impressive, but have you prepared to identify when you no longer are? If you have not fulfilled your promises, or feel yourself slipping, ask yourself, “Where did I go, where is the engaged, more eager version of me?”  

Perform an internal primary search - I bet he or she is still occupying a survivable space, behind a closed door, somewhere inside. Get in there and bring ’em out.

7 Reasons Why Teams Fail

Posted by Frank Viscuso on June 17, 2014 at 6:26pm

• from www.fireengineering.com

There are many reasons why teams fail. For example, teams fail when one person wants to take all the credit. My answer to that is if you want to take all the credit when things go right, you have to be willing to accept all the blame when things go wrong. Teams also fail when they are consumed with drama. Drama is what happens when a team is not focused on a goal. People with purpose don’t have time for drama. Below are seven of the top reasons why teams in the fire service fail. A smart leader is proactive and will try and identify early warning signs before their team collapses. Take a quick read and see if one or more apply to your team.

Ten Life Lessons from a Navy SEAL

Bailout or More Hose?

This week is another retro-SOS from my original first few months. These were pictures only so now that we are broadcasting out to the FE community and in full blog mode I will add some commentary. Again, if you already saw this one I hope you get another laugh or affirmation that you are not alone in your thinking.
Well, I will have to say that it is exciting and down right fun bailing out of windows whether its head first down a ladder and doing the flip turn or dangling out the window from a small rope held in place by a tool in the corner (I once saw a guy bailout using a plastic Gatorade bottle as the anchor during an instructor development session). Both of these skills are essential and should be mastered just in case you need them to get yourself or crew out of situation. A potential problem arises however when this type of training dominates the hands on drills in your company. Unfortunately we see far too many firefighters who are extremely proficient and bailing out of window or down a ladder but they are not so efficient when it comes to moving hose from the apparatus to the fire. We constantly see the nozzle tucked under the arm pit with two back up firefighters bunched up within 3 feet of the nozzleman. Each subsequently turning to the other and yelling, “We need more hose!” The guy in the back turns and yells into the smoke along a 150’ hand line, “We need more hose!” No one hears the request and there are no hands on the hose anywhere else. Meanwhile the truck crew (yeah baby!) steps over the engine crew and forges ahead. They start dropping ceiling and proficiently expose 2 rooms and a hallway of attic that exposes a slow swirling orange array of rapid oxidation. 
It’s getting hot in here now so we need to take some windows out. The sound of glass breaking is like music to the ears of those inside. “We need more hose!!” Nothing. The truck crew finishes up a quick search and heads down. On the way out they tell the engine crew, “Hey you need to get that line up there!”…….. “We need more hose……we need more hose……we need more hose……..” Nothing. RIT is outside being very aggressive at placing ladders for egress and has all the proper equipment ready. “Mayday….mayday….mayday we are bailing out the 2^nd floor window on the bravo side!”
Everyone is out safe with only a little discoloration on the turnout gear and a couple melted eye shields. At the critique we applaud ourselves for all the survival training we have been doing and proclaim that if it hadn’t been for that training it could have been bad. We re-double our effort on survival training meanwhile……………………. “We need more hose!”
Not all fire ground tasks are exciting and many require very disciplined teamwork and mastered technique. Moving a hoseline is one of them. Mastery of the essential skills of stretching, moving and operating a hoseline efficiently will prevent more injuries on the fireground than most any other skill.
Balance your training drills to make sure you have the essentials mastered and train to put the fire out instead of spending all your time training to bailout!

By David Rhodes from www.fireengineering.com

Alternate Methods of Securing Ladders

Improving Morale at the Company Level

http://www.firecritic.com/2013/05/23/improving-fire-department-morale-at-the-company-level/

Risk Aversion

by Lawrence Schultz
from www.fireengineering.com

At every teaching opportunity, I make it a point to spend plenty of time talking about risk assessment and risk management. For the sake of discussion lets focus strictly on fireground operations.
 
My concern is and continues to be a growing and unashamed trending towards total risk aversion.  I have theorized that there are many reasons for the rapid expansion in “risk avoider” cliques, some of which includes: wanting to be “progressive” fire department, a desire to be a “great fire service leader”, an inability to manage your members, ineffective at making your point through discussion and dialogue with others equally as intelligent as you are, fear of what other “great fire service leaders” might think of you if you don't join the club and last but not least an inability to strategically and logically think through all aspects of the complexities of fire suppression and fireground management.  If you get where I am going, this list could go on forever.
 
To be clear, my issue is not with defensive operations my stance on that is clear. We must always operate in the correct strategy (Offensive or Defensive), 100% of the time, once a PROPER risk assessment is completed (which needs to occur throughout the incident not just at the beginning). My issue is that many have gotten caught up in the emotions of death and injuries, causing them to lose their abilities to detach themselves from the feelings; long enough to have a discussion(s) based on logic, contemplative thought, competing believes, debate and yes even science. Some are even being dishonest brokers, using emotional warfare as a tool to cover for an inability to manage people and organizations.