BY BOBBY HALTON
Brothers and Sisters, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! January is the beginning of the New Year-the time for resolutions and commitments to improve our personal and professional lives. I like this time of year, when we take stock of our blessings and good fortune. It is important to always plan to be better, to do better. One of the best things about commitment to improvement is, although you may fall short of your goal, you have raised the awareness and the importance of the issue in your life.
I always enjoy hearing firefighters say how much they love this job and how lucky we are to have it. That makes it even more important for us as firefighters to reflect on what we have been given and how well we are caring for that gift. Every year at this time, we all decide we are going to lose weight, stop smoking, stop being late, stop this, and stop that. I have a suggestion for all of us: This year, we all commit to stop running out of air.
This might seem like an overly dramatic leap toward the obvious but, unfortunately, it is not. There are few things worse than running out of air in the hazard zone. Today, operating without air for even a few minutes in a structure fire is deadly. So why do we continue to see firefighters exiting structure fires with low-air alerts sounding? Why is it that PASS devices are routinely ignored, as if someone is just spacing out, standing still, with no call to action to determine who is in trouble?
We have several ways to look at SCBA air. It is a tool to get us in to do what we are dedicated to doing-protecting lives and property. Air is also the tool we need to protect ourselves from the toxic and fatal environment in which our work is done. We also need to recognize SCBA air as the tool we need to get ourselves out. It is easy to get firefighters into a burning building; if we put catapults in hosebeds, they would launch from a block away. It’s just tough to get them out sometimes.
Those of us in our 50s represent the first generation of firefighters during whose entire careers we have routinely functioned on the fireground with SCBAs. The generation before us saw only the sporadic use, and generally only in really bad situations. Our generation is the first to use “masks” at everything. Although we had some interesting blind spots like car fires and trash container fires, by and large we used them most of the time.
Twenty-five years ago, occasionally a smoke eater would pull a rookie into a fire without a mask to show him what it was like. After the experience, the good-intentioned old salt would say, “I just want you to experience it so you won’t panic when you run out of air. Now don’t ever let me see you near a fire without a mask on again!” These seasoned veterans were not trying to hurt anyone; they knew how terrifying running out of air could be and hoped the experience would somehow steer the rookie against panic should the worst ever happen.
To see someone operating in a structure fire today without being masked up should warrant a call to the crisis hotline for a suicide intervention. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to understand how bad the toxic chemical products in today’s smoke are. The individual who thinks it is somehow a mark of strength or ability to take it is foolish, dangerous, and-most of all-irresponsible. If the thunder (superheated air and gases) doesn’t get them, the lighting (cancer, emphysema) will.
The National Fire Protection Association has provided us with some chilling statistics on asphyxiation. During a 10-year study, asphyxiation was found to be responsible for 63 percent of fireground fatalities, and inhalation-related injuries were responsible for 21 percent of the injuries. How many other respiratory injuries have gone unreported? How many firefighters have contracted cancer from smoke inhalation related to their jobs? We have no idea because of poor data collection, but you and I know the number is huge and growing.
So why aren’t we doing a better job of saving our own with good air management? The subject of air management is not new; it is, however, unfortunately routinely ignored. We have other issues to attend to on the fireground, so the management of one’s air often becomes solely the individual’s responsibility. Obviously, this is where air management begins. After all, running out of air is going to affect you the most directly.
If you’re not aware of your situation and the consequences of bad air management, you will get yourself and your crew into trouble eventually. The firefighter who becomes incapacitated or overcome after running out of air will require others to assist him. That assistance can involve anything from helping him to get to an exit to a Mayday/search and rescue operation-either of which can become a high-risk activity for the rescuers.
The solution strategically seems to lie in timed rotations into and out of the fire. A command officer, chief’s aide, or entry control officer could, if available, record entry and notify a crew when a predetermined time frame has been reached, and rotate the crew out. This is not practical in most locations and not available in the early minutes of the fire, when high-risk, first-arriving crews are going in.
This concept also does not account for the differences in consumption rates. It is important during training and on our jobs to develop a sense of how long you can work until you have reached 50 percent or 25 percent of your air. You may have a heads-up display in your mask. Don’t become dependent on the technology, though; you need to use all your senses.
Some solid training programs focus on crews being aware and working together to monitor air consumption. This is where being your brother’s keeper is put to the test. This is workable in most situations unless smoke and other environmental conditions prevent crews from being able to read gauges.
These steps together will begin to answer the problem, but more is needed. More from you and me, a commitment to never run out of air. Not in a residential fire, not at a car fire, not at a commercial fire, not anywhere. Remember, what is a survivable residential mistake can be a fatal mistake in a commercial setting.
The final question is, when is it OK to be in the interior at a working fire and intentionally run out of air? Never, period. If you call yourself a brother or a sister, why would you put the rest of us at risk like that? If you think you’re that indispensable to the operation, then call for a relief or pull everyone out with you. We want you around for a long time. Your family wants you around, too.
This year, vow to do a better job of air management at every level. After all, you are your brother’s keeper.
