Commentary

 

I am not nearly as famous as the other folks that are doing this but there were a number of different issues that were troubling me this week, so excuse me while I ramble. Some folks call their columns "Random Thoughts", I am not sure if these are thought or comments so for this week it will be called a LAMB-O-GRAM!

 

(Heck, 50% of you will call it something I can't even print here!)

 

* Is anybody else sick of the on-going "ladder bail" debate being held nationally and in Fire Engineering magazine? Everybody has a right to their opinions, let's respect that and move on. ust this month a proponent of the training wrote in and stated he jumped headfirst out a window many years ago before this technique was in vogue and it saved him and his partner. (Hmmm, how the hell did he do that, he wasn't even trained to do it yet !) Everyone who knows me knows my feeling and I think I have summed it up correctly....two things will drive you out of the window, your previous fireground experience and exposure, and the amount of heat in the room. You will go out head-first, feet-first or ass-first if there is a ladder there or not, so let's move on there are more important issues in the fire service to be dealt with.

 

* Speaking of trendy, does anybody else notice that the "newness" and novelty of the thermal imaging devices is dying down? Now the manufacturers are giving us "color" ones......Now there is a good investment why didn't I think of that?

 

* Buy me something cool with great technology, ...That will save me no matter how I personally act or behave on the fireground.

 

* It scares me to think that some fire equipment dealers and salespeople are smarter than the chiefs they are talking to.

 

* Is the chief really a failure or is the selection process that picks chiefs being driven by folks who really may not know what is best for them. Qualified people are being randomly culled down by arbitrary methods before they ever sit for an assessment center or testing process. Are the right people always sitting at the table?

 

* How many times do your folks repeat their training evolutions. Sure everyone gets bored with doing the same thing over and over, but repetition done with some variation is really what we need in this business. How much time did you spend under breathing air last month? Not a lot , eh? We all could probably use as much varied experience as we can get. Don't go to a training session just once and expect to rely on that training 3 years from then or even three months from then and think you have got it. Repetitive basic training is still needed and must be delivered in continually different and interesting forms.

 

* Next time you are in a station and the normal "trashing of the other shift" or trashing of the captain is happening, divert the conversation and ask the question....." What can we as individuals do to reduce the 100 firefighter fatalities each year"? I bet it gets a whole lot quieter in there.

 

* Is it only me but in the last two weeks we have lost about 6 - 8 more firefighters in a variety of LODDs. Take a minute and think of them and their families. CDF pilots, helicopter pilots, apparatus accidents and all.

 

* Drive just a little bit slower to your next call and use your seatbelt !

 

* If you are an officer, it is sometimes very uncomfortable to do the right thing. Accept that uncomfortable feeling, take measures to make yourself feel comfortable, do not back down and take the easy way out. Being an officer is difficult hard work.

 

* Insurance companies, and most city governments don't really care about what we do and they think if we get killed or injured it was"part of our job" Think about that at your next worker.

 

* If you were invited to someone's house that you didn't know, would you wear a tee shirt? Put your damn uniform shirt back on and look respectable, you never know where you are going to be invited next !

 

* 1st it was Haz Mat, then confined space, then high angle, then thermal imaging, then rapid intervention with terrorism sprinkled in......OK, I am waiting what will be the next big buzz that we will all fall over ourselves about?

 

* Just because it is a big fire department doesn't make them smarter you know. Small departments have great ideas too!

 

* If you correctly complete something 16 times you can begin to feel proficient about doing it. Hmmm, complete, correctly, and 16 times.....boy that sure makes a lot of the "experts" I know get trimmed down a bit.

 

Thanks for letting me vent a bit, and I hope I made you think a little, because that was my intent. If you have a favorite one line "bitch" use the form below and send it in, let's share it with the others.