This refers to Michael Ciampo’s “Smells Like Food” (On Fire, November 2009). Things go wrong. It happens. Way to use it as a teaching point! I am certain that anyone who reads this column will take food on the stove more seriously next time.
Samuel Hittle
Firefighter
Wichita (KS) Fire Department
I have just finished reading Michael Ciampo’s “It’s More than Fires” (On Fire, December 2009). WOW! I want to thank him for jarring our memories and making us think about what is really most important to all of us—it is, after all, about the kids! It’s about the little kids and the little kid that remains in all of us. No little kid ever wants to be a lawyer when he is 10 years old, but all kids want to be firefighters. His column was very timely and inspiring. It will be hanging in our firehouse. He reminded all of us of why we are in this crazy business.
Paul T. Dansbach
Fire Official
Rutherford, New Jersey
November Editor’s Opinion
I enjoyed Bobby Halton’s “The ‘How’s’ Are Local” (Editor’s Opinion, November 2009). I have argued this topic in the past. I began my career in suburban Chicago. While there, we had fires, and it seemed that nothing would get done until the incident commander (IC) came on-scene. The first-arriving company officer would size up and theoretically take command, but he would then lead his company into the building. The next-arriving companies would be slow to go to work because they were not certain of what to do next. I argued that the department needed to create standard operating procedures/guidelines that would direct the first four companies arriving on the scene.
The command staff said they were not a “big city” department (something I was accustomed to since my dad was a Chicago firefighter), and they needed the flexibility. I have heard the same rationale from other departments. I contend that just the opposite is true: Big city departments, like my present department, have variables that smaller departments don’t have. The first variable is staffing. Our engines and trucks are staffed by five firefighters. Many, if not most, smaller departments are understaffed; they have only three firefighters. There is no flexibility possible when all of your personnel are needed to perform one task. A minimum of two is needed to adequately lead out a hoseline, throw a ladder, or do a primary search.
The second variable is equipment. Big city departments have many rigs. When we need help, we get it, and we get it quickly. Smaller departments, again, don’t have this. I know there is automatic mutual aid, but we all know that automatic is not always automatic. I remember, while still a firefighter in the suburbs, waiting long periods of time for additional equipment. This doesn’t happen in big city departments. The thing I find most interesting—and something that was noted in the column—is that most large departments have preestablished assignments. Large departments have the resources to be flexible; they aren’t. Small departments don’t have the resources to be flexible, yet they try to be.
All departments should use predetermined assignments and get the personnel they have on-scene working. The best thing about predetermined assignments is that the IC can change them once he gets there.
Patrick Brown
Firefighter/Paramedic
Chicago (IL) Fire Department
Regarding Bobby Halton’s November Editor’s Opinion, the officer and the company members should absolutely remain together. We have seen it time and time again in fire departments that the first-due company officer takes command and then sends the crew in and he remains outside. Now, who is in charge inside? Who has the experience? Who has the training? Who provides the leadership to ensure that the interior crew is taken care of? The answer is that none of this is there.
In some fire departments, there is a huge possibility that a good, solid, well-trained, and experienced company officer will arrive with a crew of one- or two-year firefighters. If the officer then stays out to run the command but sends the one- and two-year firefighters inside, now what? It’s predictable.
William Goldfeder
Deputy Chief
Loveland-Symmes (OH) Fire Department
I just read the Editor’s Opinion in the November issue. All I can say is “ditto.” That’s the way we are teaching it and preaching it here.
Sean Stumbaugh
Battalion Chief
Cosumnes (CA) Fire Department
Be prepared for ethanol and biodiesel incidents
I am writing in reference to “Ethanol-Blended Fuels: The Basics” by Greg Hayes and “Biodiesels: The Preplan” by A.K. Rosenhan (November 2009). Our fire department has had two separate incidents that pertain to the biodiesel and ethanol fires. The first one occurred in January 2008. We have a biodiesel plant in our city. At 3:10 p.m., the transfer building at the plant blew up. We had three seriously injured workers and a major fire on our hands. We were able to rescue the workers while we struggled to battle the fire. However, once we were able to focus our resources and the mutual aid for which we had called, we were able to bring the fire under control in less than an hour. The end result was that we worked with the company to upgrade its equipment and label all of its tanks, valves, and the other buildings, to provide us with more knowledge of the products and the processing in case of another incident.
The second incident occurred in January 2009. Just after shift change, we were called to a train derailment. While en route, we were informed of a railcar that had exploded and was on fire. Prior to our arrival, the state patrol notified us that the fire had self-extinguished, but we were dealing with several similar tank cars in the derailment. It turned out that the tank cars, all 12 of them, were empty ethanol tank cars. That meant that each of the cars had a residue of 100 gallons or less.
We established a water supply and set up two unstaffed ground monitors as a precaution. Once railroad officials arrived on-scene, they told us to be prepared but that they would handle the incident. The incident went extremely well. CSX worked well with us, and we were able to get some excellent experience and some subsequent training in how to handle another incident of this type if it were to occur. The railroad transports hundreds of ethanol cars through our city on a daily basis.
These two incidents happened to us, a city of 18,000 and a fire department of 23 full-time and 14 part-paid firefighters. We weren’t prepared and probably should have been. There are other fire departments across the United States in the same situation. I hope firefighters take a serious look at these articles and start preparing for these types of incidents. Many don’t think such incidents are going to happen to them.
Edward Bohn
Captain, Defiance (OH) Fire Department
Critical information
The Fire Department of New York (FDNY) has used the signal 5-5-5-5 to announce the death of a member of the department. Many of those lost were victims of circumstances beyond their control, but there have been cases where institutional arrogance, the inability to heed the warnings of civilians or other nondepartment persons, overcame someone’s need to know all of the facts before placing himself or his subordinates in harm’s way.
I retired to a farm in a bucolic town in upstate New York and recently had the pleasure of watching the local department make a great stop when a neighbor’s hay/beefer barn caught fire. Since I was the first to spot and report the fire, I was on-scene before the responders.
The structure was part post and beam construction; it housed 28 beef cattle. There was hay storage above and a pole addition with five or six thousand more bales. The fire was in the addition and was threatening the old section when the companies arrived. Using 58,000 gallons of water from a frozen stream a half-mile away, the members of the department made a brilliant stop and saved the old part of the barn and all 28 cattle.
I had bought and loaded hay from the burning barn, so as the first unit made its way through the barnyard, I hailed the lieutenant and reminded him of the open manure slurry tank (8 feet wide × 10 feet deep × 16 feet long) that was covered with several loose sheets of plywood and located between the pole barn and the old section. He told me that they drilled there and he knew all about it, and then he failed to mention it to his firefighters. When I told the chief about the tank, he exclaimed, “Oh, I’ve worked here and completely forgot about it!” Then he ran to the area and warned everyone he could see.
My career in communications for FDNY spanned four decades, and throughout the prime directive was, “Never be the last one to receive critical information. Get rid of it!” If you pass it on, they are the ones who failed to notify someone of something that can save/cost lives. For dispatchers, it’s an intangible, but it’s where the rubber meets the road for the people in the field. If there’s one thing that you can do, it’s to burn that message indelibly into the brains of everyone in the emergency services.
Rick Otto
Borough Supervisor (Ret.), Communications
Fire Department of New York
Anthrax and mercury
Todd McKee’s “Prepare for ‘Unusual’ Hazmat Incidents” (Hazmat: On the Line, November 2009) was very informative. I just heard a presentation on anthrax the day before I read it. I experienced the “white powder” responses in Memphis, Tennessee. When the incidents began, we had 57 the first day. I called our local Federal Bureau of Investigation office and told personnel they had responsibility; they didn’t know what I was talking about. We put an extra unit in service with two people to investigate first; then we call the hazmat team, if needed. Chalk between pallets was a major problem. Mail with rotten food from the Caribbean caused a full hazmat setup and closure of the main post office, and a thunderstorm blew through and knocked over our decon setup.
We have learned so much since then, especially that the white powder is not anthrax but a medium for spread of the spores. I think before the attack on the World Trade Center, 20 years had passed with no known deaths related to anthrax. With the attack on NBC and Tom Brokaw, we lost a few people. Statistics will show that only about five deaths have been documented as anthrax fatalities.
The information on mercury in the article was great, especially the shaving cream application, which I will remember to use, if necessary. It’s funny how life has changed because of information gained.
Steve Raney
Division Chief
Merced City (CA) Fire Department
New boss, new rules
I have been a subscriber to Fire Engineering for a few months and have found it worthwhile reading. Bobby Halton’s Editor’s Opinion “New Boss, New Rules” (August 2009) was very informative and straightforward.
Fire is very complex. Fire Engineering provides a lot of information to make it easier to understand and is very helpful.
A.K. Babhale
Sub Officer, Fire Service of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd.
