I learned a phrase from a captain after we extinguished a working structure fire and were going back to the station. He would always say, “Good job, boys-the fire went out and no one got hurt.” This saying has been passed down in my department over the years-you’ll still hear it today when crews return from a structure fire. We all want to go home to our families after the shift, and we all seem to have different ideas of how to keep on doing that.
WHAT MAKES A “SAFE” FIREFIGHTER?
Over the past month or so, I’ve been putting firefighters and company and training officers on the spot by asking them a simple question, “What makes a safe firefighter?” From the answers I have received, I realize that we have some very different perceptions of what makes a safe firefighter.
Most of the chiefs and training officers responded that a safe firefighter “is prepared,” “wears all his gear,” “is cautious,” or “follows orders”-pretty much the answers I expected from the training staff and chiefs. After all, it’s their job to write the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and offer the training that makes us safe firefighters, right?
But some of the most surprising answers that I didn’t expect or want to hear came from the majority of firefighters who answered that a safe firefighter is one who “is scared to go in,” “is nonaggressive,” “won’t put his life on the line,” and a few other responses that probably are better left out of print.
I’ve always considered myself a safe firefighter, but I never thought any of the things these firefighters associated with being safe.
I realize that there are perceptual differences among the ranks and that we all want to go home at the end of our call shift, but we have different ideas about how to get there. Many of my coworkers tell me that I’m obsessed with the job and spend too much time reading about incidents and I’m on my soapbox about things that will never happen. Occasionally, someone will say, “Get a life!” I know they mean a life outside the fire service, but that is exactly why I train and read fire articles-to keep my life! Not just mine but those of my other crew members as well as the civilians we are supposed to be protecting.
Sometimes being safe is knowing when you need to get into the structure to make a quick knockdown of the fire before starting a search or removing the bars from the windows of an upper story at which firefighters will be operating before pulling a second or third handline. Sometimes it’s knowing that no matter how many people are screaming and crying in the front yard about a person trapped inside, you and your crew should not try to make entry until you have the necessary resources. Being safe means being able to recognize when interior conditions have deteriorated and it’s time to bail, or you and your crew may be bagged.
S-A-F-E
“Safe” is now one of the dreaded four-letter words of the fire service: Its current definition is quite different from that held by many of us. When I think of being safe on the fireground, I have a different vision:
Size up: Do it at every incident, no matter how big or small.
Attack: Accomplish your assignment quickly and efficiently.
Feedback: Communicate with your crew and the incident commander.
Escape: Know when it’s time to go and take your crew with you.
STAYING SAFE
Here are a few things you can do to be safe while getting ready for “the big one.”
Read the various fire service training magazines and newsletters. Most of the articles are written by firefighters who have “been there” and “done that” before we encounter a particular fire situation, so we have a starting point. These writers share their passion, experience, and research on topics such as training, tactics, strategy, and fireground safety. Some of them are willing to share their insights and experiences one-on-one with other firefighters by phone or e-mail just to keep their brothers and sisters safe.
Log in to the firefighter Web sites where you can get an honest, no-nonsense account of what happened when it first occurred. Time lets us forget how foolishly we can act when we ignore our past mistakes and the lessons we learned. Learn the latest and greatest ways of getting the job done and how to keep personnel motivated. Although a picture is worth a thousand words, a video of a close call is an entire book in itself.
Educate yourself. Learn about fire behavior and how to read smoke. We’ve all talked about getting back to the basics at some point or another, but how often do we actually do it? What is the bread and butter of our jobs on a fire scene? What’s happening in the structure while we are bailing in a window to search an upper level for victims? Know the effects of ventilation and how it will affect your search or fire attack.
Take fire service classes. A degree is a great thing to have-it helps you in your job. If you don’t have the time or motivation to get a fire-related degree, get into a firefighter safety and survival, RIT, or engine operations class to find out the current level of your skills and at which level they should be.
Drill. Participate in department training drills. Skills are developed over time, but they don’t become second nature until they become reflexes-when we can act without having to be told how, where, when, and why to do it. Practice throwing the ladders, pulling hoselines with water flowing, and continuously striving to get better at the basics. It’s rare that everything goes perfectly on the fireground, so work to eliminate those little inadequacies in training before encountering the real deal. There is nothing like being on the end of a hoseline inside a structure when it’s got 20 kinks outside! Practice low-air drills, removing victims, or large area searches in a structure with which you aren’t familiar. Mix it up a little to keep it interesting.
Talk with your brothers and sisters. One of the pitfalls of the fire service is that we are fighting fewer structure fires but are still killing more than 100 firefighters each year. We have lost a lot of the experience over the years and the knowledge that came with responding to a greater number of fires.
Sit around the table after a fire and pick the brain of the firefighter with 20 or more years of experience to find out what made him turn left instead of right to find the seat of a fire. On the other side of this table, the older experienced firefighters should be telling the stories and experiences of what they have been through over the years. It’s not just a war story if we can learn something from it and keep other firefighters safe.
I’m not preaching anything that hasn’t been said by a hundred, if not a thousand, firefighters before me. Staying SAFE is what keeps us alive to fight another day. It doesn’t mean that you have lost your aggressiveness or are scared to do your job. Imagine that you are the one who has to talk with the spouse after a firefighter’s death. Would you be able to look the spouse in the eye and say that everything was done before and during the incident to keep the loved one safe? I would like to think that that day will never come for me or anyone on my crew. However, we have to ask ourselves: What have we done to prepare to go home at the end of our shift?
BRIAN ARNOLD is a 20-year veteran of the fire service and a lieutenant with the Oklahoma City (OK) Fire Department. Since 1999, he has served at the Fire Training Center at the EOC Technology Center in Choctaw as a lead instructor and is head of curriculum development. He is an International Fire Service Accreditation Congress-certified firefighter II, and firefighter instructor 1, an NREMT-P, and an EMT educator for the State of Oklahoma.
