FE Volume 163 Issue 5

I was amazed at the responses to last month’s Roundtable question concerning the treatment and handling of morbidly obese patients. Technology has again stepped up to assist us in the delivery of our service.

Pulling up to the three-story isolated wood-frame flat-roof dwelling with fire showing from the third-floor windows, the first-due engine and truck put their standard operating attack tactics into service. The engine stretched a 13⁄4-inch attack line, the truck raised the aerial to the roof for ventilation operations and threw portable ladders, and the engine chauffeur secured a water supply. As we reached the front door to the structure, we saw three doorbells and mailboxes, indicating that each floor was most likely a separate occupancy. The stretch went well, the roof vent was timed perfectly, and the fire was quickly knocked down.

Albert Einstein once said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” This article is a hybrid of information from various comprehensive sources on structural firefighting operations that the “Average Joe” firefighter can find useful.

At the Everyone Goes Home Summit 2010, someone asked if the culture of extinguishment conflicted with the culture of safety. It does not. Both so-called “cultures” are not cultures at all but rather mind-sets or approaches that reflect a value statement about how one approaches our mission. Culture is defined by our institutions, artifacts, and values. In fact, these two mind-sets are not separate at all; rather, they are but two aspects of the path to mastery. The question was eerily resonant of a question asked of Captain Al Haynes of United Airlines. On July 19, 1989, Haynes and his crew were able to fly a DC 10 airplane for 45 minutes after the fan blades from the engine separated, tore through the plane, and severed all hydraulic systems. This has never been known to have happened before.