I started writing about firefighter safety many years ago. In the mid to late 70’s, the area where I lived and worked experienced several horrific LODD’s-and those losses stuck.
Safety? It is really about survival – the survival of those who call us for help that they needed 10 minutes ago and our ability to survive while helping them. That is not to say that we should not take risks – this is a predictably risky job. If you’re looking for a job with assured safety, consider pottery.
When the current so-called safety/survival movement and awareness (as we know it today) started about 30 years ago, initially and aggressively by the IAFF (along with NFPA and IAFC), it was because many of those who have gone before you/me/us died because they didn’t know what they didn’t know.
We didn’t have the information, knowledge, technology or science we have today. Incidents such as the Waldbaum’s fire in New York City, the Hackensack Ford fire in New Jersey and many other fires that took firefighters’ lives would almost assuredly not have the same outcome today. We have evolved to some extent, and we are arguably better prepared than those before us – because of their sacrifice and because we took time to learn from those tragedies.
Fireground survival … and search … and rescue are not mutually exclusive propositions. They require risk/benefit analysis, sometimes within split seconds. And what one firefighter, fire company or fire department can accomplish given their experience, training and resources may differ from another firefighter, company or department just a few miles away … or thousands of miles away. As we know, if you’ve seen one fire department, you’ve only seen one fire department. It doesn’t make one better or worse, just different – and most firefighters or company officers cannot affect experience and resources, just training. Training for them.
The goal is to have everyone go home with our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for those who need us at that moment. The civilians who need us when trapped. And the firefighters who need us when we get jammed up. “THEM” is anyone who needs us at that moment. We have and must always do whatever we need to do for “THEM” – civilians and our own.
Sometimes we cannot help them – and we hate that. Sometimes we cannot “get in there” no matter how badly we want to. Sometimes at your rank, you are ordered by a higher rank to back down. Sometimes it impacts us for a little while, sometimes for a lifetime. It is in our DNA to help whomever, whenever, so when we can’t, it’s usually a bad day for both them and us.
When we cannot get that civilian out but gave it our all.
When we cannot get our own out but gave it our all.
Be it civilians trapped in fire on Main Street America or the Worcester firefighters trapped in the Cold Storage and Warehouse in 1999, when District Chief Mike McNamee made the excruciating but correct decision to not allow any more firefighters in the building.
He did it for them.
This is some real-world no-BS stuff. It is when everything you have done (training at every rank and position) up until that moment comes into play. And not just you. You are not alone when it comes to “them” – it’s you, your company officer, your crew, the IC, everyone, in making those split-second decisions. All of the “them’s” …
Continued HERE:
https://www.firerescue1.com/firefighter-safety-stand-down/standing-down-for-all-of-them
