It was standing room only at John Salka (left) and Rick Lasky’s (center right) FDIC 2011 workshop on fireground scenarios. Salka, a battalion chief with the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), and Lasky, chief of the Lewisville (TX) Fire Department, are well known for dynamic dual-presentations such as Five-Alarm Leadership, and this presentation did not disappoint.
Salka and Lasky showed a number of photos showing various fireground situations–house fire, commercial fire, office fire, etc.–and brought up different tactical concerns and considerations for each. Then they asked students how their departments would operate in each scenario.
“The ability to make a decision, the right decision, when arriving at a structure fire will dictate whether you are there for today or for days!” said Lasky. “A fireground officer without a plan is a fireground officer without tactics and strategy. The time of responding to a fire and hoping what happens for the right reasons is gone. To win the battle and ultimately the war, you have to be prepared, understand what it means to be logistically sound, and every bit of it starts in the classroom!”
“If you aren’t getting a lot of experience commanding fires in building, the next best activity you can be involved with is realistic scenario training using photos, videos, and radio recordings,” Salka said. “When it comes to fighting fires, and commanding fires in particular, there is almost never just one way or one right way to do it. You should always be initially inclined to get your firefighters in there, and with each minute that passes grow more cautious of the growing danger that your crews are facing.”
Lasky and Salka are both renowned fire service speakers and instructors and contributors to the major fire service magazines, including Fire Engineering. Chief Lasky hosts the podcast Pride & Ownership on fireengineering.com, and Chief Salka is a contributor to the new Fire Engineering Blog Network.
