Tactical Tidbits

BY ALAN BRUNACINI

This month, I thought I would offer some one-liners about firefighting and life.

• Now, everything is electronically recorded and reported at nanosecond speed. There are no secrets.
• Be careful of it becoming too late to do the right thing.
• If you’re not keeping score, it’s just practice.
• If you keep doing what you did, you will keep getting what you got.
• Don’t mistake being lucky with being special.
• Tell me, “I forget/show me; I remember/involve me; I understand.”
• Be careful of reaching the point where you will either control the fire or the fire will control you.
• A firefighter without a hoseline/tool is just a spectator.
• Always remember: It will take at least the same amount of time to get out that it took to get in (or longer).
• If the sprinkler system has not put out most of the fire, neither will you.
• Buildings designed to keep air in don’t know the difference between conditioned air and the products of combustion.
• Don’t let the same dog bite you twice.
• You can only deal with the conditions you inherit.
• You can’t make up for the time it took you to get to the incident.
• A basic law of fireground conservation: Leave with everything (and everybody) you came with.
• The incident commander (IC) must separate and react to when the fire arrived and when the firefighters arrived. The difference can be huge.
• Quickly evict the fire before it gets settled. Young conditions are easier to confront and control (and in some cases retreat from) than old ones.
• The basic structural firefighting plan is
  Find the fire.
  Cut it off.
  Put it out.

• The very worst fireground plan is no plan. The next worst plan is two competing plans.
• Don’t ever think the fire is getting tired just because you are.
• A little force in the beginning can eliminate the need for a lot of force at the end.
• It’s better to get out five minutes too soon than five seconds too late.
• Respect defensive conditions—the buildings God doesn’t want to burn are sprinklered.
• In both life and firefighting, there are bold dogs and old dogs. There are not many bold, old dogs.
• In fire command and tax preparation, don’t let your inclination to gamble outperform your fear.
• Don’t give anyone more direction than they need.
• Firefighting tools: wooden sticks with metal attached to the end (my wife’s definition).
• A fault you never lose is the one for which you will be most punished.
• Basic fireground reality: The fun (pleasure) meter is hooked directly to the consequence (pain) meter. The higher the fun, the more it hurts when it goes wrong.
• Firefighting and poker: You will not know for sure until you turn over the last card.
• Be very careful of running toward anything on the fireground (it’s difficult to evaluate when running). Only run away from danger. Always move with a “controlled hustle.”
• Don’t think you are Napoleon when you are really Custer.
• Do not go anyplace you can’t come back from.
• Safety: Build it from the bottom; drive it from the top.
• The only people who plan on attending a fire today are the fire department members.
• An engine without a supply line is just a 500-gallon tanker.
• Do a common set of things uncommonly well.
• If you can’t stand the ghosts, stay out of the haunted house.
• The mother and father of disaster are too little and too late.
• When we put the fire out, everything gets better.
• Scar tissue has a long memory.
• When there is no doubt, there is doubt. (ICs, please reread).
• Whiners play alone.
• You can’t buy back the past. The only thing you can do is pay for it.
• Cooperate with the inevitable.
• Bad news does not improve with age.
• It is easier to set rules than to set an example.
• If you get in enough gunfights, you will eventually get shot.
• To be old and wise, you must first be young and dumb.
• We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act; it is a habit.
• Be careful of making stupid a habit. Don’t get stuck on stupid.
• Don’t “live around” risks and become accustomed to them—they will beat you up and eventually will kill you.
• Don’t expect the devil to show you the way to heaven.
• Basic firefighting reality: You may not get everything you pay for, but you will pay for everything you get.
• Laughing leads to listening.
• Progress and pain are inseparable.
• If you have a tool in your hand, you probably are not in command.
• “Son, I’ve been to a fire, and this ain’t one.”
• Be very careful of starting “your own avalanche.”
• Don’t be fooled: You can have a hard fire on Easy Street.
• We were fighting a fire at the corner of Flashover and Collapse.
• Lightweight construction kills you when it falls on you. It is not light at all.

Retired Chief ALAN BRUNACINI is a fire service author and speaker. He and his sons own the fire service Web site bshifter.com.