Planning Your Area Training Weekend: A Satirical Guide...

A chief was tasked by his areas mutual aid association with obtaining course information from two of the myriad private training companies out there to put on a weekend program. He sent me the email string resulting. It’s entertaining.  Especially since everyone kept hitting “reply all.”  I have edited names to protect the guilty. 
 

From: RuralChief@ Heatmail.net

Gentlemen, our local association has settled on your two companies as the finalists to provide our first annual Hot Dogs and Hydrants Training Weekend training, which we hope will become the region’s top event. We know it will cost us a few bucks a head, but think it will be worth bringing your experts in. If you could provide some information on the programs you’d propose and your instructors, it would be appreciated.   

From: ______@heavyfireshowingtraining.org

Our kick ass hands on programs are second to none.  For your folks we’re thinking one of our heavy duty firefighter survival classes would be helpful. Our experienced staff which includes retired captains and lieutenants from busy departments across the country, including the requisite FDNY officer all training companies are required to have.  We’ll teach your personnel sixteen ways to bail out of windows including the head first ladder slide with half gainer. No one else in the industry knows these techniques. For only $450 per head it’s a great value.  

 

From ______@throughtherooffiretraining.com

The firefighter survival stuff is so yesterday. You need a company like ours who can give you the latest in research based suppression. We’ll teach you how to use drones to read the smoke and determine the fire flow path (our drones—which we can provide to your departments for only $8500 per unit plus shipping and handling) are painted LaFrance red and use infrared technology.  Our instructors have adopted every new bit of terminology which will enhance your student experience. For example, we’ll teach your personnel to say “transitional attack” instead of “hit it hard from the yard” like you have for 40 years and much more.  We’ll use our ‘Hefti-house’ to model live fire behavior at small scale in your parking lot.  We even have mini firefighters and ladders. Our program runs only $400 per student, a fantastic value.

 

From: _____@heavyfireshowingtraining.org  

We know you don’t want any of that doll house crap the other guys are selling. Our instructors are all highly experienced. Each one of them has burned up at least three leather helmets in local burn buildings. They all have the standard large droopy mustache or Fu Manchu; mandatory for tough firefighters.

 

From: ______@throughtherooffiretraining.com

How about tattoos? Our guys all have at least half sleeves with flames and Maltese crosses. Nothing says excellence in fire instruction like tattoos. By the way, how about an occupancy based session?  We offer the only program in the country on Mosque firefighting. Our head instructor, Captain Don “Hydrant” Outlet is highly experienced with this occupancy having run over four automatic alarms at one. Only $350 per head. 

 

From: _____@heavyfireshowingtraining.org  

Our guys and gals (we offer female instructors) have tats and mustaches. I bet there isn’t a Mosque within a hundred miles of your area. You want specialized occupancy, can do. We do the only program in the country on backyard gazebo fires.  Only $300 per head. Talk about a challenging building type. The flow path characteristics are like no other.  If you get on scene before it has collapsed, our training will give you the tactics needed for an aggressive interior attack at this tough, challenging, building type. 

 

From: ______@throughtherooffiretraining.com

Do they teach sheds too? You want specialized and unique?  We got it. Garbage trucks. These bad boys are incredibly dangerous and require a full haz-mat assignment, particularly for decontamination afterward. The disposable diaper residue commonly present is highly toxic and needs careful handling and our training gives you the tools. We’ll teach the use of CAFS for vapor suppression and will do this as an add on to our Mosque program for only an additional $50 per head. 

 From: RuralChief@heatmail.net

Gentlemen, thanks for the information and proposals. Since our budget is only $15 per head, after careful consideration, we’ve decided we’re just going to run a fire police class.  One of our local guys, Charlie, will teach it if we feed him lunch.  Charlie weighs in at around 375, so lunch for him won’t be cheap. Perhaps when our budget is bigger or somebody builds a Mosque or we have a major increase in gazebo fires, we’ll get back in touch….

Traditionalists Take Note

There are a lot of good things one can say about being considered a traditionalist.  Stability, solid values, and steadiness are among them.  Not all the traits ascribed to this term, however, are considered positive.   Skeptics, intellectuals, and those who think outside the box, are commonly at odds with traditionalists.  The challenge is to combine the best of these worlds. 

In the current environment when many of our communities have decided that they can and will pay only X amount for fire protection; we can do one of two things.  We can take the traditional route and rationalize that our citizens don’t care or understand our needs (it’s all about us, right?) and complain that we can’t provide adequate service and will be endangering firefighter and civilian lives.  Or, we can understand the fiscal realities and explore alternatives in delivery of service, methodologies, staffing, multi-community alliances, on down to tactical changes.  Thinking outside the conventional system to allow us to provide the best and safest services possible within the inherent financial limits imposed by our citizens may result in some positive surprises. 

We need to be open to some “unpleasant” and mind challenging alternatives.  One area is the research and testing completed and still to be conducted on the many hard fast rules of strategic and tactical operations (attack modes, ventilation priorities and methods, etc.) may upset many traditionalists.  We learned these methods through historic experience and development and “know” the correctness of them.  Examining the validity of these “known” truths using scientific and engineering principles won’t change anything; after all, we’ve been successful for years this way.  Some folks may not like these results. 

Care in evaluating the validity of the test protocols and methodology used is vitally important.  After all, a test can be designed to prove almost anything.  But when care is taken to design testing to be as free of bias as possible, we need to give attention to the results, even if they were not what we expected (or hoped) to see. 

Reading a great book about the culture of U.S. Army leadership since World War II (The Generals by Thomas Ricks) got me thinking about much of this, especially after coming across a great quote.  Colonel Paul Yingling, who unfortunately retired after battles with Army traditionalists, noted that “Intellectuals are most valued when the dominant paradigm begins to break down.  In this moment of crisis, the heretics become heroes, as they have already constructed alternative paradigms that others haven’t considered.”  He closed with “…the challenge is to keep the skeptics from becoming extinct.” 

I don’t believe the fire service has reached that point, and hopefully never will.  Abandoning our past and traditions simply for the sake of change is a bad idea, but we all could take a lesson from this and try to remain open and intellectually curious.   Our fellow firefighters and the citizens we protect deserve nothing less. 

From the Archives: Ryman's Rules-A Chief's Philosophy

With "election" season upon us for many volunteer departments, I thought a revisit might be timely.

There are rules, and then there are rules. Here are some I've tried, not always successfully, to follow.

Ryman’s Rules: A Volunteer Chief’s Philosophy


1. You are responsible. You are responsible 365 days a year, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. If you are there or 3,000 miles away. You are responsible. You can delegate authority, but not responsibility.

2. The chief is always right. Invite input, debate, etc. from the officers. However, once the decision is made, that’s it. In public, the officers must show solidarity.

3. The officers are always right. If an officer makes a decision you disagree with, in public or with the other firefighters, that decision was right. You talk about what you would have done differently in private.

4. Delegate, delegate, and delegate. You can’t be involved in every activity, nor should you be. Give the junior officers responsibilities and hold them accountable. If they follow through, give them more and more. If they don’t, let them know about it and don’t give them any additional work.

5. Try to develop a command presence. Your presence at an emergency should send a message to the firefighters that everything is going to be okay. Regardless of how badly something is going, try to maintain a calm exterior. Motivate your people. This is done differently for each individual. If you give an order or tell them to get into a building, they should totally believe that you believe they can do it. Never tell a firefighter to do something you wouldn’t or couldn’t do yourself. Chiefs give orders on incomplete information regularly. Even if you have doubts about it, give the order as if you are 100% confident about it. Your confidence is a force multiplier.

6. Let them have fun. Nobody is getting paid for this. The younger guys have to enjoy themselves. At the same time, know when to pull in the reins, and when you do, jerk them hard. They still have to be professionals. You can’t be their buddy anymore. You are the man, and they have to recognize it as such.

7. Pace of change. Keep them sullen but not mutinous. The pace of change has to be fast enough that the young guys see progress, but not so fast that the dinosaurs get riled up. As long as both groups are slightly unhappy, you’re doing fine.

8. Don’t be afraid to piss somebody off. If you’re not pissing somebody off once in a while, you’re not doing your job.

9. Encourage training certifications. Push the guys to get their Firefighter 1 and other certificates. The time is fast coming when what you are able to do, and what positions you can hold in a fire department virtually anywhere will be determined by these certificates. At the same time, work to keep things in perspective. Firefighter 1 or 2 does not equal “super firefighter”.

10. Develop junior officers. The greatest legacy a chief can have is by the officers he leaves behind.

The Demise of "Hearse" Ambulances and Other Good Things

Anyone who ever watched Emergency when originally on network television or later in syndication understands how far EMS, among other things, has come in the fire service.  With few exceptions, medical responses have long ago taken the lead over fire calls.  Some contend the name fire department is no longer accurate.  While I understand these arguments, I’m not prepared to go that far—yet. However, if you’re a firefighter today, particularly a young one, you better learn to “like” EMS, or consider another profession, because it isn’t going away. 

The development of ALS while the most prominent and recognized improvement is far from the only change.  Ambulance services run by funeral directors with a red light tossed onto the roof of a hearse have, thankfully, gone the way of the horses.    Overall availability has improved as well. 

How much?  A lot.  When I was six or seven years old, some buddies and I were playing in the woods, jumping in piles of leaves and generally doing the things young boys did back then when no one had to be worried about us being kidnapped if we went ten minutes from the house.  One boy jumped into a pile over a bank and hit something hidden beneath the leaves, breaking his femur.  His screams of pain frightened the living hell out of the rest of us.  There was no thought of moving him, not because we knew not to, but because of fear.  Practically as one, we all started running for our respective homes for one thing; to get our mothers—it was the 60s, they were home. 

The group of mothers followed us back, and mine, being a nurse, promptly recognized the fracture for what it was.  An ambulance was called, but it wasn’t quite as simple as today.  The first due fire department where Dad was a member had no ambulance or any medical capabilities at all.  No help there.  The neighboring department had an ambulance, but they only responded outside of their first due area on nights and weekends.  Monday through Friday, eight to four, they didn’t leave the district.  In the next village over, the police department ran the ambulance.  They didn’t leave their town at all, regardless of time or day.  The only unit available was operated by the county Sheriff’s department.  The road patrol deputy had to respond to get the ambulance from wherever he happened to be, and then across half the county to where we were waiting.    This wasn’t a rural area either; the suburban town had a population in the tens of thousands. 

Almost an hour later, it arrived to transport the boy.  Luckily the break hadn’t hit the artery or he’d have been dead long before the unit arrived.  After an extended convalescence; most of a school year, he recovered. 

Good?  No, but normal back then, so yes, things other than just ALS have changed a lot.  As much as almost no one wants to be on the ambulance every shift,  I think everyone would agree things are better now.   

 

Some Stories From the "Old Man"

With the approaching of Dad’s 77^th birthday, some of the amusing stories about him from Fire Men come to mind.

His first actual fire call changed him for life, but not in the dramatic way some might think.  In the middle of the night, he woke up to the siren wailing in the distance, down over the hill.  He quickly got out of bed and dressed, racing to the car.  He sped toward the station, less than a mile from the house, impressed with his reaction time and rapid response to the emergency call. 

When he got to the station, he found he was a bit behind the curve.  Numerous cars were already there, and all of the fire apparatus—two pumpers and a squad truck—were already gone.  Luckily, the call was only right down the street; he could see the flashing lights at the nearby bank.  Driving the short distance, he saw the apparatus positioned around the building and ground ladders raised to the roof.  The fire was minor in nature, but he quickly figured out he needed to pick up the pace if he ever hoped to make it onto one of the fire trucks. 

After that, Dad became an efficiency expert’s dream.  Clothes were carefully laid out on the bureau each night before bedtime.  Keys, glasses, and cigarettes were strategically positioned.  The most radical idea was yet to come: an automatic garage door opener.  Those were unheard of in our neighborhood, but Dad took it to the next level.  Most garage door openers, even today, have the button that activates them in the garage next to the car.  That wasn’t enough for Dad.   He put an additional button in the closet in the bedroom which allowed him to hit the button while getting dressed.  The garage door would already be open when he reached the garage, saving a good five seconds.  A NASCAR pit crew would be impressed with his speed out of the house. When I was about 11 years old, we moved to a new house in a nearby neighborhood.  One of the first things wired in was the activation button for the garage door opener in the closet of the master bedroom. 

 

In the mid-1960s, a massive technological advancement happened—Plectrons became available.  Plectrons were tone-activated radio receivers manufactured by the Plectron Corporation.  As far as firemen were concerned, they were the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Now they knew exactly where and what type of fire they were going to.  The name Plectron for a tone-alerted receiver became the fire service equivalent of Xerox for copiers. 

The original models weren’t even solid state, instead they used tubes.  The warmth from the tubes made them attractive to animals.  My cat loved to sleep on top of the Plectron because of the heat it emitted. The cat loved it until the high pitched squealing tone alert went off at full volume.  Then he would jump simultaneously up from the radio and off of the top of the refrigerator upon which it sat.  It was a sight to behold. 

 Because of all this, as a young boy, the importance of speed out the door was ingrained in me.  When relatives visited, I knew to advise them of safety measures I had developed out of necessity.  If the tones went off, I would yell “quick, Grandma, get in a chair!  He’ll trample you.”  This came from the experience of being treated as a track hurdle while playing with toys on the floor when a fire call happened to come in. 

 

To say that Dad could be a little bit anal about equipment organization would be putting it mildly.  I think it was the ex-Marine in him coming out. 

Our engines varied in vintage from 1957 to 1975 back when he was a chief in the 1970s and 80s.  What didn’t vary is where things were located.  You could open any compartment on any of the four engines (three first line and one reserve) and each piece of hardware, nozzle, appliance, wye, gate valve, etc., would be found in exactly the same spot on every piece. 

Hose was a pet peeve of his.  We had a spare load of hose for each engine stored in doughnut rolls on hose racks in the rear of the building.  I would catch him regularly rearranging the hose on the racks so the end butt of each roll was in perfect alignment. 

If he saw you put a roll of hose on the racks and not line up the butt with the adjacent ones, you would hear about it instantly.  This was not one of his saner practices.  

 Dad was terrible with names.  Guys in the department upwards of five years were “hey you.”  If he did know your name in less time, it was not necessarily a good thing as there was likely a bad reason why he remembered it.  At least when I joined, he had no excuse not to know my name. 

 

A Firefighter Who Won't Quit

I recently saw a marvelous story by Firefighter Matt Miles from CentralPABravest that I had to share. 

Matt writes. “Yesterday while at a FireFighter-Fit workout session in the Village of Muir, Station 650 Schuylkill County, PA I was lucky enough to meet a man that re-inspired me in many ways. He was such an inspiration I asked him if I could share his awesome story on our websites www.CentralPABravest.com and www.FireFighter-Fit.com

Mark was diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis at the young age of 14 after not being able to get out of bed one morning for school, Transverse Myelitis is a viral infection that inflamed Mark’s spinal cord and landed him in a wheel chair for life. This did not stop Marks curiosity of becoming a firefighter at the young age of 15, only one year after being confined to a wheel chair. Mark did so well and enjoyed the work we do so much he ended up holding the positions of President, Vice President and his current position on the House Committee.

Mark also takes an important position on the fireground with Accountability, Safety and changing SCBA cylinders out. It was also reported to me that Marks Brothers chocked his wheels at a working fire and he was able to flow a line and knock down some fire at a defensive operation!!

Along with taking physical fitness very seriously Mark is also a huge advocate of education in the fire service and holds numerous certifications. But Mark has a request for the State Fire Commissioner Edward Mann. Mark has a serious desire to be able to obtain the Certification of Firefighter 1. Mark understands he is limited due to his disability and will go to any lengths to work for his practical portion of the certification. Mark wants this for personal and one other reason, to hold other firefighters accountable on getting their FF1 and set an example that anyone can do it!

Thanks for your dedication to the Fire Service Mark, I am sure you will Motivate and Inspire MANY!”

Thanks to Matt for sharing this great story.