By John F. “Skip” Coleman, Technical Editor
For most of my career, the procedure for tornadoes was to pull the apparatus on the approach to the engine house and turn on the sirens. As for the firefighters, some older stations had basements; the newer stations did not. I never saw a policy whereby the house captain designated a place where the firefighters were to go to protect themselves during the tornado. Some departments have policies that state firefighters immediately get on the apparatus after the storm passes and survey their district for damage and then report problem areas to the dispatch center.
This month’s Roundtable question is, Does your department have a tornado policy and, if so, does it call for protecting the firefighters and also contain a post-storm component of what to do immediately after the storm passes? You will find the Roundtable question and instructions on answering it on the Fire Engineering homepage at http://emberly.fireengineering.com.
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| PHOTO OF THE DAY: Members of the Warwick (RI) Fire Department responded to a reported fire and explosion in a commercial building. Crews stretched a 21⁄2-inch line to a loading dock and knocked down the main body of fire from the outside. A forklift caught fire, and the flames impinged on the forklift’s propane fuel source, causing an explosion. The explosion caused the roof in the immediate area to collapse and damaged the exterior wall. (Photo by Tom Carmody, www.northeastfirephotos.smugmug.com.) Send submissions for Photo of the Day to Pete Prochilo (peterp@pennwell.com). |
TRAINING MINUTES
A new season of Training Minutes is underway. Steve White hosts a new series on heavy vehicle extrication, based on his popular hands-on training (H.O.T.) class at FDIC. The instructors and editors of the Urban Essentials H.O.T. class and Urban Firefighter magazine share tips and techniques for urban and suburban firefighters. Leigh Hollins highlights unique and multifunctional training props at a Florida training facility.
TALK RADIO
Have you listened in to Fire Engineering‘s live talk radio? Tune in to http://emberly.fireengineering.com/index/blogs/fireengineeringtalkradio.html on weekdays at 7:30 p.m. EST to hear live radio shows such as “Politics and Tactics” with Frank Ricci; “ISFSI” with Eddie Buchanan; “Roundtable Radio,” which I host; “Internationally Speaking” with Peter McBride; and “Back Step Boys” with Ron Kanterman, Billy Goldfeder, and Jack Murphy.
FIRE LIFE
What’s cooking in your fire station? Send cooking columnist Craig Nelson your favorite recipe along with its origin and a photo of the finished dish. Read Nelson’s column on wild game handling and preparation. Try Rip Esselstyn’s Kale, Lemon, and Cilantro sandwich (pictured) on your crew members.
In “What Every Firefighter’s Spouse Should Know,” Anne Gagliano continues her series on sex and the firefighter with “Sex: the Need, the Mandate, the Solution.” She details ways to transform your marriage into a passionate, lifelong love affair.
FEATURED ARTICLES
Mark J. Cotter continues his series on managing fires with limited resources with an article on the acronym “PEAK,” which stands for Preparing, Equipping, Assigning, and Knowing—a framework for understanding your department’s capabilities. “Following these guidelines will allow us to take the qualities of plans designed for multiple companies and scale them down to one that can be followed by a small team. While unavoidably sacrificing efficiency, limitations can be minimized through this approach,” Cotter says.
David DeStefano writes on “Reporting Your LCAN.” LCAN—short for Location, Conditions, Actions, Needs—covers the basic information required for a situational report (sit-rep): “Command may request a sit-rep from companies when he is in question as to any of the variables that LCAN represents. Typically, the IC may want to check on the progress of the task to which he has assigned a company or group or may want to verify that members are still operating in the location in which they were initially assigned in the event of a Mayday transmission or catastrophic fireground event.”
In “Tailboard Chat #4: Root Cause Analysis,” Craig Nelson and Dane Carley write that too many departments simply blame and punish someone for a near miss incident: “True root cause analysis involves looking into both near-miss and actual incidents to find the multiple real causes, not just saying someone is bad and punishing them. Root cause analysis works by working back through a near-miss or actual incident using a step-by-step systematic methodology. Beginning at the incident, we look at all the factors involved. Some of these are human factors and some are environmental.”
COMMUNITY MEMBER OF THE MONTH
Name: Rommie L. Duckworth.
Department: Ridgefield (CT) Fire Department.
Title/rank: Lieutenant.
Years of public service: 21.
Agency structure: Combination department.
Top issues in your department: Fire service leadership, best practices in advanced life support.
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