FE Volume 143 Issue 1

FIRE SERVICE MANAGERS operate a high-risk public service in a highly litigious society. While it takes some period of time to develop an efficient investigation unit, there is much to be said for having the fire investigation process under the supervision of those who should know the most about how fire behaves—the fire service itself.

You CANNOT LEARN HOW TO SURVIVE the dangers of firefighting by going to college. You may learn most of the important skills you need to be a good firefighter, but you can’t learn firefighting survival in school. You can only learn it by working with other experienced firefighters, by observing other firefighters in action, or, unfortunately, by suffering an injury during a fire. Safe firefighting procedures are passed along from veteran firefighter to rookie firefighter by example at a fire and by conversation and explanation in the firehouse.

One of the reasons we are unable to make advances in manning levels within the paid sector is that the budgeteer has little or no understanding of the value of the functions performed on the foreground. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the sometimes criminal manning levels of our aerial devices.

THIS IS THE SEASON for rescues from cold and ice-covered waterways. We have heard of rescue victims who survived after being submerged for up to an hour in icy waters. Last year in Fargo, North Dakota, a young boy completely recovered after being rescued from a lake in which he had been submerged for more than 30 minutes.