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Yes; it could mean the amount of time needed to evacuate a structure when conditions inside become untenable, but for the purposes of this blog, it simply ponders that issue that faces every firefighter or EMT when we ask ourselves “Is it time to get out of the service?”
I get frustrated when the discussion boards lack discussion; meaningful discussion, that is. Oh; there is the same old chatter from the squirrels, but the good information that is coming out in a host of blogs…if they are getting read, they certainly aren’t being discussed to any great degree.
Are we THAT busy in our lives that we can’t take a moment and check in to see what’s shakin’ in our little world of the fire service? Then, if we have a few minutes but don’t take the time, are we disconnected or disinterested?
In case you didn’t know, the winds of discontent are blowing…or sucking, depending on your perspective.
As I learned from listening to a recent podcast on www.firefighternetcast.com, our people in fire/EMS are not all that happy and in some cases are getting burnt out and burn out leads to GETTING out.
We cannot afford to let that happen, so what do we do?
Bear with me as I share my thoughts with you. Maybe you should go and get that beverage now.
Where is it written that WE must shoulder the weight of the world just because we want to help our communities in their times of need?
Who says that we have to internalize and otherwise hide/mask all of the ugly junk that we see that defies any plausible explanation or description?
Why do we continue to believe that, if we don’t do it, no one else will? Can’t you feel the sheer desperation of having no alternatives that effectively forces someone to commit?
And finally; why do we watch our brothers and sisters succumb to the pressures of giving our best efforts, failing to change the outcome and believing that it’s failure nonetheless?
Well, I am here to tell you that you lost touch with reality on the day that you thought your fire certifications and EMT licenses was going to fix everything!
We continue to set the bar high which, in and of itself is a good thing, but when we don’t have a net to catch the ones who barely miss reaching the bar, we set ourselves up to fail. We must keep everyone engaged, improve our leadership, training and expand the knowledge base in everyone who chooses to be a firefighter/EMT.
Besides; what are we really measuring our success against anyway?
From cheating death?
From cheating all of those external forces that we cannot control, but manage to survive in while it kills others and taking our guilt from it with us?
And along with that guilt, a sense of failure that washes over us with such pervasive force that we forget our love for what we do?
We become so emotionally invested with every, single incident-we become so singular of purpose-that we let the outcome define us going forward. Each time a building falls or a patient dies, a little bit more of our desire to do the job leaves us until we have no more desire to do it.
We should not measure ourselves and what we do by the outcome of one incident. Instead, we should look at incidents-one by one-as lessons learned, pay compliments to those involved, share a light moment and get ready for the next one, because, in the end; it is the volume of work and we are adding the chapters; some bad, but many that are good or even great.
We hear a lot about pain thresholds. How much pain can we take before it becomes too much?
And though it largely refers to physical pain, I have to believe that the same holds true for mental pain.
I know someone who used a staple gun to pierce their ear and laughed about it as they did it, but when they saw the blood, they immediately passed out!
On the other side, I have friends who will go to the emergency room if they get a bug in their eye, but can deal with the most complex, multi-agency response incidents that I have seen. So, one type of pain threshold isn’t necessarily indicative of the other.
As we know, firefighters need both mental and physical toughness to weather the beatings that we will take from an incident. We have to take something positive from EVERY incident. There ARE positives even if there is a negative outcome and we have to talk it to that point where we all agree that, had we not been there, the situation would have been worse, regardless of the outcome.
Veteran firefighters hold the secrets to their longevity of service. They could be invaluable to the ones who are struggling with the emotional aspects of a call. Veterans could take the broken pieces of someone’s spirit and help to put it back together, if only they were asked.
See; veterans know the protocol. Veterans won’t invite themselves to the party. Veterans don’t take shots at those who have just seen grotesquely mutilated metal and flesh. They remember their first few times and they know all too well that you have to process it. It’s something that you don’t joke about…until you have had time to get better, that is.
Veterans play a pivotal role in helping others process what they do, see and hear at an incident and especially if it is having a negative impact. Were it not for the veterans, our turnover rate in the fire service would be 100 percent plus. They remind us that each of us are uniquely different, but with similar stories and it’s the telling of those stories to each other that gets us back to our love for what we do!
I got by because I treated calls as if they fell somewhere between “I haven’t seen the worst one yet” to “I have seen worse”.
Roll that one around for a bit, but it makes perfect sense to me. They are on opposite ends of the spectrum, so every call will fit somewhere between them. That is how I managed to truly love every minute of my 22 active years of running calls. I have a couple of scrapbooks that I visit from time to time and I know that many of you have your scrapbooks in the memories of your minds.
Today, I have plenty to be concerned with. I am still active in making sure that our fire department is ready for emergencies.
Though I am dismayed by some of what I am reading about scumbags in the fire service, I take something positive away EVERY day; whether it is a story of a good save, a baby born on the way to the hospital, a near miss with a happy ending, a story on a friend’s promotion, an article from a friend’s keynote address, or a book written by an old friend from his Illinois days. That’s right; Illinois claims Chief Rick Lasky.
People in the service like Rick, Tiger, Dave, Gonzo, Rhett, John, Mick, Ted, Jason, Chris, Mike, Steve, CJ and many others help to keep my compass needle pointing in the right direction.
I will offer you this piece of advice: you will miss opportunities if the only times that you dream is when you sleep.
Take something positive from the job and end the day with good thoughts.
TCSS.
The article is protected by federal copyright law under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella. It is written and submitted by Art Goodrich a.k.a. ChiefReason. This article or any other article submitted under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella cannot be reproduced in ANY form without the expressed, written permission of the author. Violations are punishable by applicable laws.
Please visit: www.fireemsblogs.com and my blog www.chiefreasonart.com.
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Do you hear that?
That is the sound of despair, hopelessness and fear. It is your victim.
They can’t get out without your help. The few minutes that have passed has emptied them of any hope that they will get out alive.
Blinding smoke, searing heat…what they are drowning in is what we flourish in; it ignites us and excites us, not because we want it to, but because Fire forces so many conditioned responses and extraordinary actions and tests our most primal instincts. We must rescue our fellow humans AND survive while doing it.
There is no “fight or flight”. It is more like “stay and pray”.
Your victim doesn’t want to die alone, but they don’t want anyone else to die like that, either. They are hoping that, if they are not rescued in time, then at least, in their final moments, they will hear the soothing voice of their God whispering forgiveness into their ear and then open the gate to their eternal peace.
You will move swiftly, stopping for a split second to gauge your own mortality and then push forward, because you have seen the face of your victim. You have looked into their eyes; the windows into their soul and the pain and anguish that you see is the fuel that you use to give you strength.
Their face could be your face or the face of someone that you know. It matters not, because they are a victim. You HAVE to get to them in time. Otherwise; you can only hope that they slip into an unconsciousness that will numb their senses to the horrific effects that only Fire can produce.
You cannot bear that thought. You have made your decision. You have committed your team. You have not only trained for this moment, but you have lived for this moment; a moment in which you could die!
You may hear the roar of the fire over the pounding of your heart. You will hear the water shooting from the nozzle and splashing against the walls and ceiling with terrific force. If you close your eyes, it almost sounds like you’re taking your car through the automatic spray carwash.
You will hear every step, every breath, the sound of the vent saw, a ladder hitting the side of the house, the sound of glass breaking and the radio chatter over the PA speaker on the engine.
There could be several endings to this, but one thing is certain; risk a lot to save a life is in our mission.
This is a scenario that has played out in our heads and in our communities for decades.
No nobler profession than that of firefighter!
The desperation, contemplation, exhilaration, extrication, celebration; it’s a roller coaster ride of emotion for victim and rescuer.
So, my question to you is this: why would you risk it all on an abandoned, unoccupied, vacant, dilapidated, dangerous piece of property that has no soul, no heart, no gratitude and only hate and contempt for those who dare to enter? See: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire/reports/face200837.html.
Or would you?
TCSS.
The article is protected by federal copyright law under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella. It is written and submitted by Art Goodrich a.k.a. ChiefReason. This article or any other article submitted under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella cannot be reproduced in ANY form without the expressed, written permission of the author. Violations are punishable by applicable laws.
Please visit: www.fireemsblogs.com and my blog www.chiefreasonart.com.
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Or so the Fire Service Reputation Management White Paper Report (https://myfirecompanies.com/download.php?f=4383_orig.pdf&fc=whitepaper2010highres-Final%20for%20publication%203-8-2010.pdf) would lead us to believe.
But, it comes off as if sounding an alarm to a recent fire service revelation.
And the truth is that many of us have been discussing many of the areas of concern for some time. I can tell you that the hot topic of firefighter arson has been on the discussion boards since at least 2001 and USFA released a report on it here: http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/tr-141.pdf
Am I to believe that people who apply for firefighter positions have to be reminded that, as firefighters, they will be held to higher moral and ethical standards?
Unless they recently crawled out of a cave, I would think that, if nothing else in the job description is known, “held in the public’s trust” would be a tacit thought at the very least.
What fire departments have to do is to screen out the candidates who might have an ulterior motive for joining a fire department, which is to use the position of trust to commit crimes. (See http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_b988d898-0962-11df-879a-001cc4c03286.html).
When departments are making poor decisions to recruit and retain members, why would we expect that same department to make GOOD decisions when a firefighter has been caught committing a serious criminal act?
Fire departments keep their dirty little secrets “internal” for one of two reasons: either they honestly believe that they have the wherewithal to appropriately deal with it or they are hiding and hoping; that is, hiding it from the public and hoping that it will go away on its own.
The Fire Service Reputation Management White Paper Report was delivered with an almost wide-eyed astonishment. No disrespect is intended, but, in my mind, it was never a question of whether our lofty moral and ethical characters were taking a hit with each new firefighter arrest, but when, as a nation of firefighters, we were going to collectively do something about it.
I resent that, once again, “lack of leadership” is being credited with this growing blight in the fire service, because in today’s society of Google search, scientific calculators, Garmin GPS, computerized cash registers and instant gratification from pass/fail and “ nobody gets cut and everyone gets a trophy for participating”, we have essentially lowered the bar, because the process where we are taught how to learn is no longer practiced. Leaders are being expected to lead people who will not take personal responsibility and if they are the future leaders, then isn’t it likely that they will invoke excuses that has become a part of their modus operandi ?
Honest, hard work to succeed has been displaced by “whatever it takes” and unfortunately, that includes cheating and breaking the law.
A few years ago, here in Illinois, a department was caught cheating on an EMT test, so instead of disciplining the individuals involved and changing the order and wording on the test questions, the entire state exam was scrapped and a new one written. It took over two years and God knows how much money and in the meantime, Illinois was without a state EMT test. Anyone who was in class at the time had to pay for and take the National Registry test. New EMT classes weren’t started because of the test issues. Look at all the trouble a few selfish cheaters caused, but what was done to them? We never heard. I would have terminated them had they been on my department.
Maybe, instead of investing money in “competitive” grants, some of that money should go to every department in the country for conducting thorough background checks, psychological testing and education programs to recognize criminal behavior in their members. We might see some positive results.
We also know that self policing, whether it be with regards to drinking/drugs, computer use, harassment claims or department assets, simply doesn’t work. Once again, we find ourselves legislating common sense and this should not be the case if we have hired reasonable people with above average intelligence.
If departments still believe that they want to police themselves, then good for them, but if that were the case and I made decisions on federal funding, then any department found guilty of any of the crimes cited in the white paper would NOT receive any federal money for the duration of length of the individual’s sentence. Sentences of probation would cost a department one year of eligibility for federal grants.
A code of ethics has always been there. Unfortunately, it took a back seat to money and manpower discussions. And it’s ironic, but ethics has everything to do with money and manpower.
Sometimes we can’t see the forest through the trees.
TCSS.
This article is protected by federal copyright laws. It cannot be reproduced in any form without the expressed written permission of the author, Art Goodrich aka ChiefReason.
Please visit: www.fireemsblogs.com and my blog at: www.chiefreasonart.com.
The Fire Critic is sponsoring The First Due Blog Carnival (http://firecritic.com/blog-carnival/) and it is the first-ever blog carnival for firefighting. All bloggers are welcomed to submit a blog by no later than March 22, 2010 and the topic for the first installment is:
I AM A Firefighter Because…
I grew up believing that firefighters were the bravest, most honorable and unselfish people that walked the Earth.
I took this belief that I held of firefighters and put it into practice by becoming one.
It was necessary that I did this for ME. That may appear to be selfish, but please allow me to explain.
Quite simply; I would have most likely died a rebellious, young man had I not embraced the ideals of a firefighter.
I realize that this swims against the tide of the usual “to help someone in need” crowd, but at the time, I was the one in need of help and in some respects, it DID involve a fire; but it was the fire that was burning inside of me and about to flash over.
I also credit my participation in team sports while growing up for helping me to return to the right path. I believe that firefighting is the ultimate team for the extreme.
You see; because of my radical, rebellious behavior as a young adult, I destroyed my relationship with my parents.
A simple “I’m sorry” wasn’t going to fix the damage that I inflicted upon them
No; this was going to have to be a visible, spiritual change in me-one that they could see and feel and to know that it was genuine.
So, I joined the local fire department and the rest, as they say, is history.
I carried my mother’s compassion, because she was always the one who cooked and cleaned for us, got us safely to wherever we needed to go and took care of us when we were sick. They were perfect attributes for my time with the ambulance service.
Dad was a veteran of the Great Depression and World War II. He educated himself by reading whatever he could get his hands on, had a keen aptitude for taking things apart to discover what made them work, wasn’t afraid to work hard and get dirty, used colorful language if the situation called for it and was the most honest person that I have ever known. He would have been a GREAT firefighter.
To apologize to them and to honor them, I took the values that they had instilled in me as a youngster, misplaced as a young adult and re-discovered some years later and became a firefighter; someone who was more like them/someone that they could be proud of.
And though they never told me, they never had to tell me that they were proud of me. Others that they had told were telling me!
Mom always told me that when our tones dropped, Dad would not leave the scanner until we had completed our call. What she didn’t tell me was that SHE was sitting right next to Dad. How cool is that?
They are both gone now, but are still with me every day, reminding me of why I became a firefighter and why I still love the fire service.
Because, even though I became a firefighter for them and for me, I also learned from them that helping in a time of need is an innately, uniquely, precious commodity that is more valuable than the rarest diamond. You could NEVER buy the kind of hope and support that we provide to our neighbors in need or the pride that it brings to us as ones who are able to affect the outcome!
Yeah; I’m still telling Mom and Dad that I’m sorry, but I’m not sorry for the sacrifices that my family and I have made so that I could be a better person-a better firefighter.
And those ideals that I found in firefighters?
They were right there in front of me; in my parents all along and passed on to me.
It’s funny how Life can take your journey full circle!
TCSS.
Art
Please visit: www.fireemsblogs.com and my blog at: www.chiefreasonart.com
The subject of this blog was a news story that was posted here: http://www.firefighternation.com/forum/topics/florida-volunteers-upset-over.
The focus of this story has always been on the volunteer fire department’s reaction to the ordinance, when in fact; it should have been on the city manager and her appetite for control.
A quick history lesson of Davenport, Florida city politics finds a community with money that sits just 10 miles from Walt Disney World. Now; I say “with money”, because they have a Commissioner-Manager form of government, 6 paid firefighters and 2 part-time firefighters that is headed by a “part time regular” Fire Administrator. Then, you have the City Manager running things. This is a position that, when it was created, took at least 17 months to fill by the city council. One can only speculate as to why it took so long. Yes; there is a mayor, but apparently, he just runs the meetings and cuts ribbons. Amy Arrington, the city manager rules the city.
Amy Arrington had not held a city manager’s position until Davenport, Florida. She had previously served as assistant city manager for Haines City, Florida. She was hired in Davenport as assistant city manager. When the city manager resigned, Arrington was named interim city manager at a salary of $65,000 a year. The previous city manager, Ryan Taylor, was making $66,950 when he left.
According to my notes, the city and Arrington entered into negotiations for her to take over as city manager, but could not agree on salary and benefits. Arrington showed her team spirit by demanding $76,000 a year in salary, 15 paid leave days and two weeks vacation. Demonstrating the art of compromise, she “settled” for $75,000 a year in salary, no paid leave days, but THREE weeks vacation. I would think that there would also be the standard insurance benefits, retirement, per diems, continuing education and car or car allowance benefits as well.
And, apparently, though she was officially hired on 12/3/07 to the city manager’s position, her start date was adjusted to 8/6/07. My guess is that this is the date when she took over as interim city manager, so there was almost four months of retro pay. Let’s call it a “signing bonus” of sorts.
What does this have to do with the volunteer fire department? PLENTY.
In Florida, county fire departments are common. Davenport, Florida was being serviced by a volunteer fire department and had for about 86 years. Then, after the hurricane season in 2004, the city hired six full time firefighters and supplemented them with the volunteers. I could find no acrimonious articles on any rifts between the full time and volunteer firefighters.
Then, Arrington was tasked with hiring a fire administrator for the purpose of bringing the full time and volunteer firefighters under one leader and resisting the advances of Polk County Fire Service, who had proposed in early 2009 to take over fire service for Davenport. Residents had made it clear that they wanted a local fire department
Arrington’s first hire lasted TWO, whole days. Hmmm; that’s a red flag.
On October 16, 2009, Arrington announced that she had hired Stuart McCutcheon as her “part time regular” fire administrator. His part time salary was set at $25,500 a year. McCutcheon finished work on an AAS degree in fire science on April 12, 2006 from Daytona Beach Community College. I did an exhaustive search and that is all I could find on him (However; I did find a press release from March 3, 2010 by the State of Florida Commission on Ethics that dismissed a charge against Stuart McCutcheon for “no legal sufficiency”).
So, with someone in place that Arrington could control, the wheels were in motion to gain control of the volunteers.
Many of the fire service websites have been discussing this fire department from the perspective that it is because of the ordinance requiring the volunteers to apply for the “auxiliary” positions under the new “regime” (http://theledger.com/article/20100121/NEWS/1215083).
But, in my opinion, it started months before when the volunteer chief, Don Pelt, was suspended on November 16, 2009 by Stuart McCutcheon, the newly minted fire administrator for responding to a medical call in Davenport. Note that the date is exactly one month after the fire administrator was hired. And consider too, that, the city council, by not voting a show of support for their chief, was showing support for the city manager and the fire administrator (http://www.theledger.com/article/20091123/NEWS/911235073).
Then, city manager extraordinaire Amy Arrington was instructed by the council to get the matter with the fire department resolved, but the council was leaving it to Arrington to solve.
At the next city council meeting and over objections by the crowd that filled the chambers, the council passed on first reading the new ordinance. (http://www.theledger.com/article/20100126/NEWS/1265034). With the distinct possibility that the volunteer department was out of service, the mayor asked the city manager to meet with them, but Arrington made it very clear that she would, but that she supported the ordinance.
This led to the question by the mayor if Davenport could afford full time fire services. (http://www.theledger.com/article/20100209/news/2095917). If you look at savings in salaries alone, it amounted to approximately $190,000. I’d be curious to know what Polk County Fire Services quoted them for protection. Plus, because the salaries of the full time firefighters were much lower than surrounding departments, they could be easily lured away by higher pay. Without a volunteer department to supplement, you would be increasing the possibilities of overtime, hiring more full time or part time, longer response times, injuries and relying on mutual aid for coverage.
As I said from the beginning, this was never about fire service delivery, but rather, control; a controlling city manager who controls the city council, who controls the fire administrator, who now controls the much smaller fire department. (http://www.theledger.com/article/20100223/NEWS/2235073).
Don’t believe me? Here is a quote from the news article: “The purpose of the ordinance, they (Arrington/McCutcheon) have said, is to give the city full control of the department and a single chain of command with Arrington and McCutcheon at the top.
And THAT is where I have my biggest problem with the whole mess.
Can someone please explain to me how a city manager becomes the top of the ladder in a fire department, in broad daylight and in full view of a city council?
TCSS.
This article is protected by federal copyright laws and published under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella. It cannot be reproduced in any form without the expressed written permission of the author.
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The website article can be read here: http://www.firefighternation.com/forum/topics/niosh-investigation-report-26
I just finished reading the NIOSH report on the February 23, 2008 apparatus rollover that took the life of 33 year-old Shane Stewart of the Ault-Pierce, Colorado Fire Protection District. The NIOSH report can be read here: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire/reports/face200805.html.
The report states that Captain Shane Stewart died after being ejected from the cab and was then rolled over by the apparatus. He was declared dead from multiple traumatic injuries at the scene.
Though it is true that the failure to wear the seat belt was front and center stage in this report, it also raised an issue that I had not seen or even considered before I read this report. There was an issue with the cab compartment “layout”.
It appears that the driver of this unit could NOT reach the mobile radio unit from the drivers’ seat with the seatbelt on! If this were common knowledge, then the experienced driver might not bother to put the seatbelt on at all and the less experienced might attempt to unbelt while enroot to the scene, if he wanted to talk on the unit’s mobile radio. (It should be noted that investigators conducted several tests, using several different drivers to reach these conclusions.)
When going to an incident scene, an apparatus driver should just drive; right?
The second person in the cab should be operating the radio; right?
How many departments have ever called back to the station to request another rig, knowing that it would come with just a driver, even though your SOP may state “a minimum of two per unit” or whatever that minimum is?
A straight stretch of road in good weather conditions and travelling at approximately 45 mph in a tanker is NOT a recipe for an accident.
In this incident, it appears that things went terribly wrong when the driver attempted to reach towards the radio to change to the fire ground frequency. Even with a hands-free system, changing channels would require the radio operator to reach.
So, the location of the mobile radio in the cab becomes very important.
Anything that distracts the driver from his primary duty of driving is cause for concern, but, as the sole occupant as in this case, you still need to communicate.
Could the driver have used Dispatch as a relay to the fire ground, which, in this case, was a medical call requesting a landing zone set up for a med-evac helicopter, instead of attempting to change channels while enroot?
I don’t have the answer for that.
Could the driver have used a portable radio with lapel mike instead of the mobile radio? I don’t know what type of radio system they have, so I can’t answer it.
Does driving and shifting gears with a floor-mounted shifter create a distraction that is different than driving and changing channels or even talking on a radio? The report would lead us to believe that a second person in the cab should handle all non-driving tasks.
So, if some believe that a driver should keep both hands on the steering wheels at all times, then all trucks will have to be built with automatic transmissions.
Would a hard-fast SOP that requires two persons minimum per rig be a solution? I would have to say “yes”, because, if you have a driver who is driving AND shifting gears; then add to that, the radio tasks, then I believe that the drivers’ focus would be diminished.
Would you locate the radio in closer proximity to the driver? Would you have it done professionally or would you do it yourselves to save money? Are you aware that even though you do the work that you must still be in compliance with NFPA 1901?
Would you consider hands-free, voice activated headsets with a radio frequency protocol that allows for apparatus drivers to communicate without switching channels while driving?
My final point is that we have to make sure that apparatus drivers are trained and tested at least twice a year in the apparatus that they will be expected to operate and done in accordance with NFPA 1002, 1451, 1500 and 1901.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration exempts the occupants of fire trucks and rescue vehicles from wearing seatbelts when moving and I believe that this goes back to the days when we could ride on the tailboards and in open cabs, so that law needs changed so that it parallels the many initiatives by our national organizations to get everyone to buckle up.
Everyone who spoke of Captain Shane Stewart said that he wore his seatbelt religiously. See news article here: http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20080223/NEWS/866066115.
He left behind a wife and two small children.
Let’s honor him and his family by learning from him.
TCSS.
This article is protected by federal copyright laws and cannot be reproduced in any form without the expressed permission of the author or his legal representative.
Please visit: www.fireemsblogs.com and my blog at: www.chiefreasonart.com.
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