Success Stories The airline industry did this many years ago, and there is some statistic that shows a significant decrease in problems. But... In my continuing quest to put Chief Goldfeder out of business....(That's a joke, I don't want hate mail from Bill, although I think he would agree with the concept....) I am suggesting that this plan is somewhat flawed and I am now going to go searching out far and wide the success stories where there was no close call, where there was no media coverage, and the tragedy was not reported in the big magazines and trade journals. The reason there was no incident was that the IC was ahead of the incident, called for enough resources ahead of time, regardless of where he got them, had enough scene discipline to enforce safety on the scene, and that before any incident, training was conducted with the troops. There really needs to be a compilation of existing best practices that we can all follow. Let's face it we have been reading the NIOSH reports, and I as well as most fire service folks read Chief Goldfeder's column in Firehouse, and visit his website, (right AFTER this one I hope!) we know what the issue is, and I am not sure anyone is paying attention. WE keep talking about lessons learned except nobody is learning them we are merely repeating them. I also believe there are still some small minority of the fire service that is "fascinated" and almost secretly "wants to have a close call", so that it will give them bragging rights in the station and "make them a real firefighter in the eyes of their peers". Look around your department and I am sure there is one or more of these folks around, whether you choose to admit it or deal with it remains to be seen. Let's go to a seminar or a class on the incidents where nothing went wrong. I have learned so very much from all of the "lessons learned" programs I have gone to, but I truly believe we need to learn about and hear how the correctly handled incidents were made successful. Now I intend to collect these articles and "success stories" and present them in a positive workshop soon. This workshop will be about "The Successful Incidents - The untold Stories of Safety & Survival" I am asking the folks here to help me out and put me in contact with, or send in your own stories that were handled quite well and I don;t care how minor and routine they were, but I am considering setting up a section of this website just for success stories, even if they are simple one-liners or short paragraphs as long as they have a positive spin and there were no close calls. I am looking for folks from the following communities if anyone can help me so I can get further correct information. I am looking for information from Jersey City about the Cold Storage warehouse fire near the tunnel, folks from Cape Cod Mass at the Centerville Osterville Marston Mills District about a large scale marina fire, and someone from the Wakefield Mass fire department for an incident involving a truss roof situation where positive decisions were made, as well as an incident in Chelsea Mass where a Thermal imager was used early on in a truss roof or floor incident. These are just for starters, so please if anyone can help let me know. These positive incidents once collected and shared, combined with the on going initiative of Chief Goldfeder and the new initiative of the IAFC will hopefully make a difference. The fire service is a dangerous business and we will never eliminate deaths and injuries but I think I saw it best on one of the firehouse forums with a quote that said something like....Don't knock on death's door....just ring the bell and run away he hates that! Let's do what we have to do on scene but let's not knock too long, you don't know who might answer the door. Send your comments, thoughts or items you would like to see published here to info@petelamb.com. or pete@petelamb.com Your opinion matters! (To us anyway) |
