We’ve all seen those B horror movies. We’ve all heard the “dum-dum-dum” spooky music build to a crescendo just as the villain reaches out from the shadows and decapitates the lovely unsuspecting cheerleader.
We all sit on the edge of our seats (at least the first time) shouting to the heroine, “Don’t go down there! He’s behind the furnace! Can’t you hear that music? Something bad is about to happen to you or one of your fraternity friends.”
It’s to no avail. We shout, whoop, and holler, and the bad guy gets his way!
Why don’t we firefighters hear that same music? It’s playing all around us all the time-all of our peers and friends are sitting on the edges of their seats shouting at us. The music begins slowly as you climb into the apparatus cab. DUM DUM. It gets a bit louder as you start the rig without buckling your seat belt. DUM DUM. It builds louder and faster as you pull out into the street. It is louder and louder now as you approach the intersection. Then, out of the shadows darts the dark sedan, and BAM, the music reaches its climax. The bad guy has reached out and has gotten his way again. Why can’t you hear the music?
It plays for all of us, all the time, everywhere. It seems to follow the inexperienced and probie more closely, as well as those of us who feel we no longer need to train or drill. DUM DUM!
Can’t pump from draft? DUM DUM!
Haven’t thrown a ladder since your last house fire three months ago? DUM DUM!
Ridiculed the last general order, an attempt to get you to wear your darn seat belt? DUM DUM.
The music’s playing, and you don’t (or won’t) listen to it. The bad guy is going to have a field day with you. You will become immortal; your name will forever be on a stone-cold tablet, commemorating the day your music hit its crescendo.
Wouldn’t it be nice if that movie music were audible in real life? Would we still be killing more than 100 firefighters a year? Or, do you think that perhaps some may have heard the music and made that critical last-minute decision that changed the outcome for the better?
Listen carefully-that music is audible. It’s coming from your dedicated training and company officers who care about their people. It’s coming from the training conferences and seminars-played loud for all to hear at the Fire Department Instructors Conference, The Redmond Symposium, and other training events whose instructors care about us as firefighters. It’s playing in the articles and books by our own peers, resounding the themes of pride and ownership, tactics and command, and all the tools of the trade. We need to hear and listen to that music and hear the warning shouts from the audience on the edge of their seats. They’ve been there, done that, and have the scars to prove it!
Listen to the music! There will be monsters out there!
Author’s note: Thanks to Chief Rob Schnepp of the Alameda County (CA) Fire Department, who at an FDIC board meeting, asked, “Why can’t they hear the music?” I took it from there.
RICHARD A. FRITZ, an active member of the fire service since 1977, is a battalion chief assigned to the chief’s office in High Point, North Carolina. He has served with various career and volunteer fire departments in Muscatine and Davenport, IA; Hampton, IL; Carlisle, PA; and Williamsport, MD. He served in the Illinois Air National Guard. He was director of fire training for the Illinois Fire Service Institute in Champaign, IL, and taught fire science and haz mat technology at Scott Community College in Bettendorf, IA, and the Harrisburg (PA) Area Community College. He is an adjunct instructor at Guilford Community College (NC). He has served on the NFPA 1001 committee. He is the author of Tools of the Trade: Firefighting Hand Tools and Their Use (Fire Engineering/Pennwell Publications, 1997) and four supporting training videos on firefighting hand tools.
