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Individual Responsibility of an Officer

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Fire officers have a wide variety of responsibilities. They range from in house duties to on scence duties. Everything from making sure that the reports get completed, to crew training and cleaning to making sure that a crew stretches the appropriate attack line properly as ordered, to commanding the scene just to name a few. Most officers, especially in a volunteer system, have other responsibilities such as meetings and committees that fall on days other than their duty. If an officer fails to attend one of these meetings they miss out on the opportunity to gain insight to new happenings, potential changes in SOPs or protocols, or they miss out on training that they can’t get another way. I very recently had a subordinate officer make a remark on a social networking site about the lack of a reminder for a meeting he was supposed to be in attendence for. When did the fire service begin being a hand-holding service?

My parents raised me to be responsible for my activities.  Track, Cross Country, working part time, Firefighter and EMT classes…. all were activities that I took part in while in high school. I was responsible to know where I was supposed to be and when. If I missed something, or there was a conflict – I had to be responsible for making the appropriate notifications to my boss, coach or instructor that I couldn’t be present and explain why. Now that I’m a “boss” I’m responsible for being on time for meetings, duty, training classes and committee meetings. If I can’t be present I HAVE to make other arrangements, whether that means getting someone else to cover for me, or rescheduling.

Are there any others having issues with officers not being responsible for themselves and their time? Does anyone have any advice on how to approach this issue? Because my parents taught me, I’m at a loss at how to approach this. What I’m afraid of is that this attitude of “Oh well” will begin to permeate through the ranks of the members and then there will be problems of no one taking responsibility for anything.

Posted by on March 15, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, EMS Health & Safety, EMS Topics, Fire Prevention & Education, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Funding & Staffing, Training, Training & Development, Uncategorized

Daily Equipment Checks

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The importance equipment checks is stressed to every new firefighter from the day they join/start the academy. Officers and instructors stress that the new firefighter know their PPE, and the equipment on the rig; and know that it works. In order to know that your equipment works you have to check it off. Do you have a policy dictating how you check your PPE, or how often you check it? Do you have a policy or a checkoff sheet for the equipment on the rig?   My department does not currently have a policy in place for PPE checks or checking off the rig. We have a truck check off sheet that was designed a few years ago by a previous officer. This was met with a great deal of resistance because quite a few members did not feel that they should be required to perform these extra tasks. Being a part of a volunteer department people feel as if their only responsibility is to run calls. This mentality leads to shortcomings when on those calls. I have personally made it a habit of my own, as well as a rule for anyone on my crew to check their PPE, the fire truck, and the ambulance. It was during a PPE check a few weeks ago that I found my face mask to be broken.  I’ve been using the same face mask since I was in the academy, and I checked it regularly. Below are a few pictures I took of my mask.

This picture shows the where the hard plastic piece that holds the whole mask together is broken at.

This is a close up and includes the piece that was broken off.

This one shows a slightly different angle with the broken piece beside the mask.

I recently read an article about PPE and the advances that have been made, yet our face masks remain the most vulnerable piece of our ensemble. This piece alone enables us to breathe in places that would surely kill us in minutes otherwise. While I do not know that the broken piece would have caused a compromise, why risk my life, or that of a Brother who may have to rescue me.

Complacency places everyone at risk. The thoughts of ‘I checked my gear yesterday’ or ‘The last shift checked off the truck’ will cause you to miss something important – a half filled SCBA bottle, an empty fuel tank on the extrication generator, or a broken SCBA regulator. These are all things that my crew has found during their daily checks in the last month. All of which will cause issues when those tones drop.

Career, volunteer, combination – we all have a job to do. It’s the same job and the public has expectations of us as firefighters. One of these expectations is that we are ALWAYS prepared for whatever we are called to. To quote Traditions Training, are you Combat Ready?

Posted by on January 24, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, Technology & Communications, Training, Training & Development, Uncategorized

A Long Weekend

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This past weekend I had a 36 hour duty crew at the station. The Friday shift was short an operator for the engine, and I had my 24 hour crew on Saturday, so I decided to give them a hand and stay over night (mostly so I didn’t have to get up at 6am to be at duty at 7). Friday was uneventful with the only thing going on was some training.

Saturday evening we held our annual officer installation dinner. This year it was decided to keep it a little more “low-key” and hold the dinner at the station allowing us to remain available for calls. This was beneficial due to the fact that one of the other departments in our area was having their installation dinner the same evening. I’d like to welcome Lieutenant Davies into the ranks of being an officer this year. He’s been with the department for about 3 years now, and has been progressing in levels of responsibility. I wish him the best of luck as he takes over being our EMS officer.

 

Saturday evening continued without anything going on. Sunday morning, however, is a slightly different story. Curly woke me up at about 0415am wanting to know “did you hear that call that just went out?” No, I was sleeping. As it turned out one of our neighboring stations in Botetourt had a fire at a gas station/convenience store. Thankfully no one was inside at the time. Due to the amount of fire and type construction, the IC called for additional manpower which added our Wagon crew to the call. The fire was knocked down by the time we got there, but we were assigned to division two to take out some ceiling and wall to extinguish any hidden fire. About a year ago I purchased a New York roof hook from Leatherhead Tools and had endured ribbing for doing so, but this tool proved its worth on this fire by tearing through the lathe and plaster faster and easier than all the other pike poles and axes on the floor. I’d also bought some products from MN8 (FoxFire Illumination) that were in use by me and FF Thompson (AKA – D.D.) on this fire, however I wasn’t able to get any “action” photos. Both companies products worked as expected, and then some. Unfortunately for the hook, it experienced a failure of the tube, but after talking to the company today they are going to look into why it failed and work on replacing it. I’ve always been of the opinion that as long as a tool is being used “properly” and it breaks then it’s just a cost of doing the job. Rob with Leatherhead Tools was very helpful and understanding. The FoxFire Tets on D.D.’s helmet helped me keep up with his location on the line, and in the rooms with me, even for the smoke and steam. I love their products, and so do all the guys at my station who I’ve shared the helmet Tets with. Clean up was quick and easy for us since we were called only for manpower. Topped off air bottles, washed the packs, tools and gear and packed it up for the next call.

 

I was told by a Captain on scene that the original parts of the building were something like 150 years old… built sometime around the 1860′s. I’m not sure how accurate this information is, but if it’s really that old, I’m very humbled. A building even 100 years old in as good of condition as it seemed to be to me.. wow.

I hope the owners/employees are able to get back on their feet quickly from this, and I’m again thankful no one was inside when the fire broke out and none of my Brother firefighters were injured.

 

Posted by on January 19, 2012 • Filed under: Command & Leadership, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, News, Uncategorized

Experience based training

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The best training come from experience. Experiences in the fire service need to be shared from one fireman to another. The only thing better than receiving this shared knowledge is to experience the basis for it first hand.  As my department’s current training officer, I’m responsible for making sure that everyone gets the appropriate training they need. In the case of this evening, that’d be some SCBA familiarization and “confidence” training. It is rare in the academies that my department’s personnel go to, to experience a sucking face mask from running out of air, let alone what it’s like for the vibralert to go off. I do not condone spending so much time in an IDLH environment that you run out of air, but you need to know what it’s like so you can train on what your actions will be before you run out.

 

This evening I took 2 of our younger guys who know the basics about the air packs, but don’t have any real experience in their use, and I got them just that… some experience. We started off with “2-minute” drills where they are supposed to put on all their gear (and SCBA) properly in 2 minutes or less. These drills help get the mind set of putting the gear on fast, and right the first time. Unfortunately, even though they both were familiar with their gear, they couldn’t hit the 2 minute benchmark. Since they were geared up, I figured now would be a good time for them to gain experience using the SCBA while “in motion”. We have a fairly sizeable parking lot here, so I was able to set them out (as a team) and walk/jog around the lot. They had a few questions, like how to hook up the EBBS and how that part of the system worked. So, myself and the Lieutenant showed them and explained it to them. Since the question was raised, they got to see what it was like to “share” a bottle. They were impressed by the amount of time they were able to continue jogging and still have air.

 

Learning about the EBBS

 

They were both eager to learn and were actually disappointed when the bottle went dry and they had to stop. They both have potential. They just need to stay focused. Now that all the equipment has been placed back in service, and we haven’t had a run since early this afternoon when our part-time medic crew was on, it’s time to wind down so I can get ready for a long day ahead of me, 24 more hours (7am – 7am) of providing Fire and Rescue (EMS) services to the community.

Posted by on January 14, 2012 • Filed under: Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Technology & Communications, Training, Training & Development, Uncategorized

Let’s get started….

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New firefighters and EMTs start on the job with a career or volunteer department almost daily. Some of these people breeze into the job and right back out. Others stick around and love the job for what it is – helping others in their time of need.

I started on the job seven and a half years ago as a volunteer at my local fire/rescue department. I was 16 at the time and was not planning on anything more than some volunteer service to look good on a college application. Not being familiar with the traditions or the Brotherhood of the fire service, I wasn’t prepared for the years to come. There comes a time in every person’s life where they find their niche. The one thing that makes them happy, where they feel at ease and they enjoy going to “work”. Firefighting is my niche. It doesn’t pay my bills, but it helps others.

I am beginning my second year as an operational officer at my department. I’ve been Deputy Chief (3rd in command) for just over 9 months now, after previously holding the rank of Lieutenant. As these “promotions” have been thrust upon me, I’ve had to do a lot of adjusting and learning. There are things as a firefighter that you just never think of until you’re place in a position of leadership. These past months have been challenging, and I feel as though the next year will be even more so as I embark on both recruiting new members and retaining the ones we have already brought on, as well as trying to change the training and readiness mindset of my department.

In my short (and long) 7.5 years on the job I have had both the pleasure and displeasure of incidents that will be branded into my mind forever. As the new year turned over, I decided that it was time for me to begin a form of a record of some of incidents, how they affect me, my crews and my family. For those out there contemplating getting into the fire service, I want to share these experiences as straight forward as possible to help them know what they are getting into. I also want to share what I’ve learned as a young officer, so that hopefully others that are in similar positions as myself can learn from my mistakes. Above all else though, all of my opinions belong to me and me alone.

Posted by on January 13, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, EMS Health & Safety, Fire Dispatch, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, Funding & Staffing, Training, Training & Development, Wildland