Q&A 1: Drinking on the Job

Q&A 2: High-rise Fires

Question: Can you please help me? I am a fire chief for a small rural fire department. As much as I am ashamed to admit it, some of the board members still think it is all right to have a few drinks and respond to calls and DRIVE the firetrucks. What I am looking for is an article or articles dealing with situations in which this has happened and describing the outcome. I want to use such articles for some ammunition to make my case, because if the insurance company would find out, we would be done; and I surely don't want to be sued and lose everything I have. PLEASE can you help me?

Answer: Dear Chief, I have 40 years in and around the fire service, both in the paid sector of New York City and in the volunteer sector of Long Island. I have also been a chief of department in a municipal department in the northeast with a $20 million budget. So with all that said I have certainly been “exposed” to the dilemma that you are expressing.

You don’t say if the department is a volunteer department or not. For response purposes, it should make no difference in policy; but 85 percent of 1.2 million firefighters are volunteers and the lure of the social climate of the “family” is not only a tradition but one of the “perks” of enrollment and retention.

I have seen everything that you have seen and probably worse. Today’s fire chief is truly exposed to ramifications of the department’s individual behavior while on duty. Yesterday’s problem was more observable and controllable because the behavior of the member would change gradually and the alert officer could impact that behavior and stimulus (get it?). But today is different. The “things” of choice of a social nature will change a behavior pattern of any individual in an instant. In one minute, you could be talking rationally and the next the individual is blown out of his socks. So with all that said, what is the answer?

1. You need to have a policy for the entire department that covers the behavior of firefighters that may be alternately influenced in their behavior and judgment. It must be a strong policy and enlist the responsibility of all the subordinate ranks at or above the incident including the member. In short, discovery of a problem should have happened at the lowest supervisory rank or each in turn will be judged guilty of violation of rules and regulations or policy or whatever.

2. It has to be supported by all, including the “board” to which you allude. If you can’t get them to comply, have them put their ideas of “little drinks = little danger” in writing and have them be responsible for it. That should change that.

3. In the volunteer sector, it is extremely hard to be unpopular in favor of responsible policy. If the rank-and-file members don’t “see” it, the career path of the individual officer usually gets altered . But so be it.

4. Make no mistake about it, you will be responsible! The idiot board members with their closed-door jargon will be on the steps of the hearing room that you are in. In today's litigious society, the tendency is to sue everyone, not just those with “deep pockets.” Supervisors in this job have tumbled personally and economically for mistakes like you are sitting on.

5. If yours is a paid department, the policy must be strong and explicit, defining responsibility and degree of seriousness of any infraction. All levels of supervision who are under the supervisor finding the infraction will tumble.

6. The policy should require the paid firefighter to report for duty without any adverse influences from his/her off-duty lifestyle. This policy should extend to the volunteer who is permitted to respond.

You are the chief. Everyone wants to give you advice, and most of it is usually not in the interest of the department and is in a negative direction. You will always be remembered as a great chief if you just “Do The Right Thing.” Actually it is easy, and you will be surprised how many of the silent ones will scurry to your side with stories of support for your stance.

Solve the problem immediately, and move on to the fun part.

Question: After reading your Photo Lesson on high rise fires, I was interested in your opinion regarding one of my department's SOG's for multi-floor residences.  Our department will send two engines (four men each) and one or sometimes two ladders (one man each) to a fire in an apartment building. This would be a total of 9-10 men on the initial alarm. Our community has a lot of 3½-story apartments with a center-hallway design. That's four stories with the main floor half in the ground to sidestep the municipal bylaw that requires sprinklers for four stories and more. A common tactic that we use for fires above the ground  floor and no standpipes is to send the engine company (officer and two nozzle men) to the fire floor with 150 feet of 1½-inch hose. They will go to a window or balcony of a safe apartment and drop the female end of the line down to the ground to where the engine driver has stretched a preconnected 2½-inch line with a gated wye. The driver connects the attack line to the wye and waits for the call for water. The attack team can pull up as much hose as possible and tie it off on the balcony to give them a sufficient length to reach into the involved unit.  If the fire has extended into the hallway, the hose will be stretched up the stairwell or a stairwell window is removed and the same procedure is applied. After securing a water supply for the first engine, the second engine will split into two two-man teams to horizontally vent the fire apartment and evacuate and search. The ladder operators will either set up to assist or be RIT, search or redeployed as command directs them. On the confirmation of a fire, paid and volunteer members will be called from home and/or a third engine will respond. This is the fastest way we have found to get water to the fire floor. Ground ladders aren't immediately needed for access and with limited manpower, there is only so much a first assignment can do.

Answer: Dear Canadian Neighbor and Brother,
In reading your letter, I am stymied as to where to begin. Being that the word random is kind of associated with me, here goes some streaming thoughts.

First, if you or your department members do not suffer rollovers — or worst, flashovers — on a regular basis I am surprised. Next is that you are always leaving your exit path from the fire compartment (the stair to the street) unprotected. You mention 3½-story structures as “typical” in your district. These are combustible structures, and most standpipes are installed in much taller buildings — at least by most fire codes. No matter where the fire is in these structures, the most you have to stretch is two stories (the first floor is NO stories, etc.)

Stretch from the pumper to the fire floor by way of the interior stair. You protect that for yourself and for the occupants escaping by themselves! Next is to request the purchase of at least 1¾-inch hose as the first line for structure fires. You will begin to get adequate water initially instead of not enough from the hose you are using now.

If you want to stretch a line from above in a structure on the outside of the building, use some cheap rope! Get to the opening or area you want the hose to reach and drop a rope that has been stored in a “cut away” bleach bottle. You and your team should find this much simpler and certainly faster than taking roll-ups and dropping them. Simply hold the end of the rope and toss the bottle out the window to the awaiting crew. If you have to ask me what kind of knot to tie, you are in more trouble than I thought.

Next are the trucks. What is the difference if you bring 10 trucks to the scene with only one person assigned? They are useless from the time that they start their motors. It is impossible for one firefighter to safely move an aerial apparatus from the location of storage to the fire building without putting the neighborhood and other automobiles (parked and moving) at risk. Three-quarters of the right side of the truck is always in trouble, and how do you back the unit up? I always said that if there is only one firefighter to operate the aerial device, it is better for the department if he would take a bus to the fire location.

Now back to firefighting. The workplace for the firefighter is the inside the fire building. That is the area to make safe for the worker (Department of Labor, OSHA, or whatever Canadian worker protection agency is in place). With a fire burning within a closed structure, all the phenomena that are associated with burned and injured firefighters are allowed to build unchecked. The people that we are looking for within the structure have no time for us to find them . I am talking here about prompt and adequate and timely ventilation techniques. Other than putting the fire out, it is probably the next most effective rescue tool for those trapped within the building.

I can’t even go on from here to Alternate Entry, Search, Removal and Ventilate. Nor talk about the Inside/Outside Teams that are so effective in these dwellings. Most of our victims that are in the most risk are on the other side of the fire — the side you are aiming your nozzle at. How do you get to them? How do you do it before water starts?

So, the solution to this problem from my perspective is to study hard for promotion and get to the top of the department and educate the public and those that hold the purse strings and make a difference. You and your department are only awaiting some serious consequences fighting occupied structure fires in the offensive mode with only these tactics available.

You don’t even mention attaining a sustainable water supply!

Sorry brother.

* * * * *

Write if you agree or don’t agree or on anything. Tbrennan@firenuggets.com

BACK TO Q & A TABLE OF CONTENTS

© Copyright Firenuggets.com 2002 • Click here for Terms and Conditions of Use