A Sad Review

This drill may take longer than the one night or one session in your station but I cannot think of a more timely activity at this point in time.

So that our brothers who have just died in Coos Bay Oregon have not died in vain, complete and review the following tasks for you and your personnel.

Go to the Firehouse.com website and print out and distribute each article about the Coos Bay Tragedy.

Go to the NIOSH site or any other website and get the information on the Hackensack New Jersey Fire and pass that out to your members.

Immediately this week go out and identify any auto body and auto parts facility in your response district.

Complete a total pre-fire planning inspection including diagram of the structure.

Include the hours of operation and number of people exposed and how much water supply and manpower you will need to fight the fire based upon the NFA fire flow formula.

Review the Building Construction features or weaknesses.

Inventory all hazardous materials that may be found there.

Gather MSDS sheets for all products found there.

Review the hazardous materials data and MSDS sheets and look up the materials ahead of time in the DOT Guidebook and any other references you might have.

Go to the local town hall to the Tax Assessor's office and retrieve the record card for that building which shows age, construction and any other modifications to the building.

Review and summarize all of the data collected and prepare it for a training session for the department so all members know as much about that building as you do.

Have your fire prevention division conduct a complete code enforcement informational inspection in an attempt to prevent and fire from occurring.

Even if the code does not mandate it, make copies of the articles of this tragedy, and mail a letter to the owner suggesting increased detection and early warning in the building even in the void spaces.

Review the points of size-up that I have referenced on this website several times. Look for other sources on size-up such as John Norman's Book of Tactics and many others.

Size - up is used to make decisions upon. It is not some stand alone topic that you perform and then follow normal operating procedures. Make your fireground decisions based upon what you see.

Let us stop talking about these tragedies and start doing something about it. These steps above will not guarantee success but it sure beats a bunch of people sitting around the firehouse table talking about getting their dress blue uniform ready for the next fireground fatality.

Take positive actions now in your department.