WTC investigation
As a 31-year fire service veteran, I have long appreciated Fire Engineering and especially Bill Manning’s Editor’s Opinions. I know of no one, personally or professionally, who expresses my same sentiments so boldly and so honestly.
I, too, have been frustrated by our nation’s weak reaction to the World Trade Center, and now I’m equally appalled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Fire Protection Association, and the fire service for their inappropriate and inadequate response.
For years, I have been ashamed of our lack of residential fire sprinklers; now, I am deeply saddened by these latest revelations. God forgive us.
Michael Quinton
Captain
University of California
Santa Cruz Fire Department
Training for our “game day”
Every day the fire service loses valuable resources to retirement. Firefighters and fire officers with years of real-time experience in burning buildings and a myriad of other emergencies are hanging up their helmets for the last time. The reigns of the new American fire service are being handed to a new generation that has less fire experience, is more medically oriented, and is better equipped than the previous generation.
Fortunately, I was one of the lucky ones when it came to learning from the previous generation. I entered the fire service 15 years ago with the attitude that I wanted to learn. Little tricks of the trade prepared me for the job. I graduated from the Massachusetts Fire Academy 10 years ago; my instructors were all seasoned veterans with hundreds of years of combined firefighting experience.
From them I learned how to secure a door with a wedge (carried in a strip of rubber on our helmets) and why we secure it in a particular way. From them I learned why we wear hitch pants, why we wear NomexT hoods, and the limitations of the new fire gear. From them I just plain learned.
The fact is, though, that the fire service in general considers training to be of little importance. Look at your department. After firefighters complete recruit training, how passionate are they about furthering their education and practicing? How receptive are they when a training class is held?
We look at firefighting as our profession. Let’s compare ourselves to professional and even semiprofessional sports teams. Do they practice to get ready for game day? Yes!
How can we call ourselves professionals if we do not want to practice for “game day”? What would happen if sports teams did not want to practice? What would happen to us if “game day” arrived and we lost because we were unprepared?
We’ve all heard and read the motivational mantras. When it comes to training, just do it. Little things can make a huge impact. Besides keeping our skills fresh, training serves to help us reduce injuries and fatalities. Let’s educate each other. Nobody can be an expert on everything. Firefighters with experiences in different trades can cross train other firefighters.
Whenever the opportunity arises to learn and teach, do so. Take what you have been shown and learn from it. And most importantly, take what you have learned and pass it on.
Timothy E. Choate
Training Coordinator
Sudbury (MA) Fire Department
Recruit Instructor
Massachusetts Firefighting Academy
Refuting the truss industry
In his excellent article “Become an Advocate for Safer Buildings” (March 2002), Joseph F. Russo paraphrased a quote from Kirk Grundahl, an apologist for the truss industry, that the firefighters have emotion on their side but the truss industry has the facts.
About 11 years ago, I was invited by Joe Piscione of Truss Joist MacMillan to address a meeting of truss people in Salt Lake City. I showed a slide of an attractive three-story wooden office building. Then I “undressed” the building, a mass of trusses. I explained that in a fire, firefighters would get on top of this burning pile of kindling to cut a hole in the roof to let the smoke out so other firefighters could get into the building. Collectively, the audience gasped.
Shortly thereafter, the USDA Forest Products Laboratory started work on finding ways to make trusses safer. The report noted that the work was in response to my concerns. The final result is that to make a truss capable of passing the weak ASTM E 119 test, the truss would have to be entirely sheathed in gypsum board (I saw such trusses in Alexandria, Virginia, many years ago). The report suggested that since trusses collapse suddenly while sawn joists sag, it might be possible to design trusses with one part weaker so that the truss would sag before failure, thus warning firefighters.
Piscione spent his company’s money to attend the International Association of Fire Chiefs conference in Anaheim in 1992 and the additional fee for my preconference seminar.
His letter appears below. I suggest you save this for when you are presented with arguments such as Grundahl’s. Note that Piscione bought a copy of my book Building Construction for the Fire Service, Third Edition. I never received any correspondence from him or anybody else in his company arguing that anything in the book was wrong.
“Dear Mr. Brannigan:
I appreciated the opportunity to attend your presentation in Anaheim. It gives me a better understanding of the fireman’s perspective when preparing to fight fires in various building types.
As a whole, I believe your comments on wood trusses, wood I-joists, and connections were fairly stated.
If your objective was to provide a better basis for tactical considerations for fighting fires under various structural conditions, then I believe you were successful. Particularly, I think your advice about pulling out of the building when the structure becomes involved in fire is sound advice. Firefighters need this kind of direction from a recognized authority.
One thing I wanted to do was to order a copy of your new edition of Building Construction for the Fire Service.
If I can ever be of assistance, please don’t hesitate to give me a call.
Sincerely,
Joseph R. Piscione, P.E.
Manager of Product Acceptance”
Francis L. Brannigan, SFPE
