Editor in Chief Bobby Halton’s “A Good Sign, the Maltese Cross” (Editor’s Opinion, September 2008) was great. We, as a service, have to pay more attention to codeseven firefighters on the line. All too often, we assume that it’s only for the prevention firefighters.
I am curious. Did the building identification Maltese symbol provision pass at the convention?
Chris H. Wessels
Assistant Chief
Atlanta (GA) Fire Rescue
Jack Murphy, Fire Engineering Advisory Board Member, responds: The F75 IFC Part 1 and IBC Part 2 code proposal for a national building identification sign did not pass. The ICC committee could not be overridden from the floor. Efforts will be made to modify the proposal and reintroduce it at the next code cycle.
“Old” and “new” firefighters must share the challenges
Editor in Chief Bobby Halton’s “NASCAR and Elephants” (Editor’s Opinion, Fire Engineering, August 2008) was very moving and, as always, thought provoking.
For what it is worth, I see much of the same. As “older” firefighters, we share, by our actions, what we think is important. I do not see any less “leaning into” our work in the generations that follow us. I see those folks as far more adaptive and flexible and smart than I ever thought I could be.
I’m a 9⁄16-inch wrench, and a fair one. They are that and computers and cell phones and texting and so much moreand largely with a large, strong, hard-working, and happy heart.
Our work, to me, is challenging in many regards. We as a culture are a people of challenge. Challenge defines us. If we’re happy with our newer firefighters, perhaps we’re sharing “the challenge” or at least our take on the challenge. If we are not happy with “them,” maybe we’re not doing our “old guy” and “old girl” part in sharing the challenge.
The challenge speaks for itself, and it demands, of all things, sacrifice of something greater than we are. I have heard that great people are not average people with something added but average people with nothing taken away. So, our challenge as “older firefighters” is to make certain that the first thing we do is not to take anything away from these folks.
Maybe our disappointment should be with ourselves. Thanks for challenging us to make sure we’re in the right place and for challenging us to take nothing away.
Brian Crandell
Assistant Chief
Central Valley Fire District
Gallatin County, Montana
How high-rise experts evolve
I would like to comment on the great article “High-Rise Firefighting Perils: Veterans’ Perspectives” by Jeff Crow in the October 2008 issue.
Every decade or so, a veteran fire chief is assigned to a downtown high-rise district in a major city, as I was 20 years ago, and is shocked and amazed to discover the potential major disaster of high-rise fires. This chief quickly starts to ask questions of every veteran chief, past and present, who ever responded to a high-rise fire. Then he devours every article and book about high-rise firefighting, begins to closely observe high-rise construction, thinks about every high-rise operation response, and adds some unique experience to the body of accumulated knowledge about high-rise firefighting. Into this mental mix comes worst-case scenarios“what ifs” such as uncontrolled fire spreading from floor to floor; hundreds of people trapped in the buildings; fires that spread 10 or 20 floors; billowing smoke over the skies of the city for several days; and, finally, high-rise buildings collapsing into the streets and nearby buildings.
Next, the chief starts to talk about the problem to anyone who will listen and finds not many listeners outside of the high-rise district. If lucky, he begins to lecture and teach high-rise tactics and strategy and finally writes about the problem in an article or a book, as Jeff Crow has done so well.
I would like to call attention to the fact that I am the author of the following four books, published by Fire Engineering: Safety and Survival on the Fireground (1992), Strategy of Firefighting (2007), Command and Control of Fires and Emergencies (1999), and Collapse of Burning Buildings (1988). Command and Control of Fires and Emergencies includes the most information about high-rise firefighting.
The October issue is great.
Vincent Dunn
Deputy Chief (Ret.)
Fire Department of New York
