Gordon Graham here, and thanks again for taking the time to visit my little corner of this great site – and thanks to Ted and Paul for all the work necessary to keep this flow of information moving.  I love the name of the site – particularly the “Nuggets” component.  It is important that we constantly seek out “Nuggets” of information, either through personal experience, learning from the experiences of others – or through reading and thinking about what we read. These “Nuggets” become “memory markers” and a combination of “memory markers” becomes a “behavioral script” – and when you get involved in a task, incident or event in the complex world of fire service operations – these “behavioral scripts” may make the difference.

So with this background, what “Nugget” of information can I provide to you today that will make your visit to my little corner of the website valuable to you – and perhaps to the people you work with. Here is the focus of this brief piece – one word – in fact the “F” word:

FATIGUE

I will start off with this thought – and I posed this question at a conference recently and while not surprised with the answer – it was a powerful response.  The question was: “How many of you have darn- near killed yourself at work by falling asleep?”  Now I have posed that question before, but usually to a “single” agency or a group of agencies in close geographic proximity – people who know each other – and I get the occasional person with the guts to put their hand up in the audience.

When I posed this query to this mixed group from around the world – people who did not know each other and thus we remove the “embarrassment” component, nearly every one in the group of close to one thousand people had their hand up! And then I posed a second question: “How many of you have darn- near killed yourself on the way home because you fell asleep while driving?” ... and even more hands went up.

Dear Readers of the Fire Nuggets site: FATIGUE is a serious issue in public safety, and sadly I think we as a group are failing to recognize this “risk.” I wonder how many tragedies that befall us (you in the fire service and me formerly on the cop side) have as a “root cause” FATIGUE.

Here are some facts for you to consider.  FATIGUE impacts decision-making. FATIGUE impacts critical thinking skills. FATIGUE impacts judgment.  FATIGUE impacts coordination and balance. FATIGUE impacts disposition.  FATIGUE is a huge issue, and I am convinced that we are either ignorant of this fact or we are in complete denial – and please don’t give me the old “but I have never been to Egypt line”; I am too tired right now to listen to that.

Here is a general rule. If you are not getting seven hours of uninterrupted sleep every night. you are suffering from some form of FATIGUE. And please do not give me that nonsense that somehow firefighters are “exempt” from FATIGUE. I used to hear that baloney about your “leather lungs” and how smoke did not impact (I was going to use the word effect but I get effect and affect mixed up, so I did the easy thing and switched words) firefighters. That was proven time and time again to be malarkey. FATIGUE impacts you and me and everyone in between.

In the last year or so, FATIGUE is getting more and more international attention. I read a piece last week about the commercial pilots in Hawaii last year who both fell asleep on an inter-island flight – and we know how long those flights are. Both of them fell asleep and overshot their island by quite a bit. And speaking of air tragedies, the Colgan Air crash in Buffalo in February appears to have a link to FATIGUE – apparently both pilots, especially the co-pilot, who had some major sleep deprivation issues.

In September of last year, we had the idiot train operator in L.A. on the PDA texting while driving a train; and he missed a couple of lights and hit a freight train head on and killed twenty-five. And while the “texting” issue is getting all the attention, stand by for the final report on this one. I have just a bit of information that FATIGUE was also related in this event, and I await the details on this. 

In my former profession, in April of last year, we had a deputy sheriff in Northern California fall asleep on duty and take out three bike riders, and killed two of them. His first comment to the investigating officer was, “I fell asleep.”

And in your business, I have a bit of first hand knowledge re this issue.  Over the years I have done some work with the USFS – Forest Service people. They are good people, but every couple of years we see a van loaded with equipment and eight or so wildland firefighters making a cross- country run at night and the classic run- off- the- road, over- correct- and- flip-the- van- and- kill- everyone- on- board. And then you check the activities of the driver over the last three or so days and the “F” word pops up again – FATIGUE.

Eight years ago in Washington State we lost four firefighters on the Thirtymile Fire, and while there were a lot of issues present, check out the final report (or the great book by John Maclean on this event) and FATIGUE seems to be present again – and not just by the on- scene personnel, but some of the decision- makers way far away.

To get real personal on this, I used to enjoy working a speed beat – I-5 in downtown LA; and my favorite ramp when I was a motorcop was Zoo Drive onto S/B 5. What a beautiful onramp that one was! I would regularly nail a 90+ speed, and when the stop was made it would be a firefighter in route to work in L.A. City. He (it was always a man) would get a piece of my mind but no ticket, and then 26 hours later I would stop the same vehicle (and, not to stereotype, but usually a large pickup truck) with the same FF headed home. Speed was not the issue then – it was gross impairment, weaving all over the road like a .25 BAC drunk – but not a drop to drink – just gross FATIGUE. I would go back to my bike and call for transport, and more than once the FF fell asleep leaning against his truck while I was on the radio!

You want me to go on and on and on re this issue? I could, but I won’t. Each of you reading this piece have made a commitment to improving the quality of your personal performance and your profession. The mere fact that you are on this site, taking a look at the “Nuggets” present here, tells me a lot about your character and your desire to get things done right and always looking for the “next best way.” So today, leave with this “Nugget”:  FATIGUE is a big deal; and it is killing firefighters and EMS personnel. All too often it is ignored as a cause for the given tragedy.  But you and I know in our heart of hearts that FATIGUE is an issue.

So let’s put together some “control measures” to address this issue.  Recognize that “days off” are there for a reason, and if you are working constantly on these “days off,” you are setting yourself up. Long commutes are another issue. I know a lot of people in your business who have enormous commute times, and they are tired by the time they get to work. Let’s be smart on this issue also.  Overtime!  I did it. You do it. We can always use a couple of extra bucks.  But when does this “extra cash” start to negatively impact performance and disposition and home life and health and all of the other issues that occur when you get tired?

I will leave you with this thought, which is guaranteed to get you either very angry ( my personal email is gordongraham@earthlink.net so you can vent directly), or it will make you think just a bit. Here is a hypothetical situation for you – purely hypothetical.  Let’s say you roll out at 0300 from your fire station to the interstate to work a big rig fatal. The driver of an eighteen- wheeler ran off the road at 0245 and struck a VW bus that was parked on the shoulder (kids on vacation who had a flat tire), and the big rig slams into the VW and it blows up and eight kids are dead. That would be a big deal, and in my career of working the freeways in SoCal. I went to several of these events. So you are there also, cleaning up the aftermath and securing the scene and all of the other things you do, You go home and your significant other asks if anything interesting happened on your shift, and you relate the death of these eight kids and that is the end of it.  Well, anyhow, that is the end of it for you on the fire side.

I guarantee you that the investigating officers from the CHP (or other LE agency) will commence a massive investigation to learn what really “caused” this collision.  Oh yes, “ran off road” is the proximate cause; but what was the “root cause”? The cops will take this trucker's life apart, studying the log books, the cell phone records, computer use records, motel records, movie rental records and all of the “paper trail” that cops look for. In a week there will be a news conference, and “FATIGUE” will be the topic of discussion. There will be a hue and cry about FATIGUE in big rig operations and great concern amongst the population about this terrible tragedy.

So let me change gears.  A firefighter driving a “big rig” (like a fire truck or engine or whatever you call those big red things) runs off the road and overturns ( I read these all too often – and what the heck is up with these overturned tankers?) and kills himself – another tragedy indeed.  Does anyone take the firefighter's life apart after the fact to see how little sleep she/he had in the preceding three days?  Does anyone talk to the decedent’s spouse after the fact and make an inquiry into sleep deprivation?  Do we check the e-mail records and on-line activity records of the firefighter to see how little sleep he had in the preceding three days?

You and I both know the answer to these queries. We don’t check these records or ask those difficult questions.  This firefighter (or cop) died in the “line of duty,” and that was that. The job is so risky that people are going to die, and there is nothing we can do about it.

That is nonsense, and I am getting angry regarding this issue of FATIGUE – and so should you. So be the risk manager you need to be – and take this “Nugget” of information back to the table in the kitchen of the station. Sit around for a bit and talk about this, and, more importantly, what “control measures” can we have in place to prevent this from ever happening to you or any of your personnel?

You are the best “risk manager” your department has.  So behave like a risk manager, and let’s address this issue now. Let us never have to be in the position after the tragedy where we sit around and ponder what we could have done differently to prevent this death from occurring. 

Anyhow, I must go and get a nap. All this thinking has made me tired. Again, thanks for all your great work. And thanks to Paul and Ted for all the great work in collecting some “Nuggets” and sharing them with the rest of the fire profession.

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