maisela

Extra Man on Truck

Seth, Count me in for 4

Forks Township (PA) did 564 calls (give or take). Up from 491 in 2006 and the first time over 500 calls.

While we don't have a physical ability testing for entry level firefighters, here in PA we issue skills certification cards to firefighters every year. There is one card for interior firefighter qualification (black stripe) and one for vehicle rescue (blue stripe). Each card contains roughly 20 skills that need to be signed off by an officer before the end of the year or the firefighter's qualifications are revoked. Firefighters are expected to demostrate skills either at drills or calls and are only signed off by their direct supervisors. Additionally, for both black and blue stripes there are required prerequisite courses: PA Firefighter 1 (or equivalent) and PA DOH Vehicle Rescue Technician (or equivalent). The system has its fair share of drawbacks. One of those is little accountability for the line officers, who are also issued cards. The other is that the system is casually enforced and most skills evaluations are crammed into a drill night towards the end of the year. I am a firm believer in physical ability standards and testing for volunteers. Unfortunately, most chief and line officers are elected and are afraid of taking on such a cause for fear of losing votes from the less progressive types. Kudos to anyone with the guts to take on a predominantly unpopular yet extremely essential program.

Always in my POV. Within the past few months, I've been making a conscious effort to wear my seatbelt in the rigs at all times. With our new apparatus, easy access to seatbelts makes life easy. On our older trucks, however, it's easier said than done. Our out-of-town engine has seatbelts that can barely be accessed once in SCBA and our recently required spare engine has one working seatbelt in the crew area. These are things I mentioned to my Chief and Fire Captain and is something I think will be addressed. I've noticed that anytime we roll to a confirmed dwelling or structure fire, the seatbelts are the first thing guys forget about. I think we all need to take a deep breath (including myself) and realize that buckling up doesn't cause for lost time on the fireground. On a more positive note, I've seen that just the mere act of putting my own seatbelt on has caused other guys in the cab to do the same. It's really not just the driver and officer's responsibility, it's everyone's.

We try to offer two drills a month (typically one fire and one vehicle rescue) and optional Saturday drills. When it gets too cold to play outside, indoor walkthroughs are great, especially for jurisdictions with large businesses and industries. From pre-planning businesses, I've found quite a few are more than happy to host a walkthrough of their facility. Search drills are great, especially if you have an acquired structure. I proctored a drill with some of our juniors and probationary firefighters focusing on primary search and used it to set benchmark times for use in later drills. Life-sized baby dolls are a good investment for such drills and they're cheaper than Rescue Randy.

I used to use Shelby's structural glove for firefighting but picked up a pair of Fireman's Shield three weeks ago because the dexterity was much better. As for extrication, my first pair of Ringers didn't hold up well (seams came apart) so I went to Shelby.

Here in PA, we have two Panasonic Toughbooks; one on our first-due engine and one soon to be mounted in our out-of-town engine. We used RAM Toughdocks for the mounts. They also charge the laptop as well. As for data, our chief has designed incident management software tailored specifically for our department. It allows us to keep track of personnel, apparatus, assigned tasks, PAR, etc. The software time-stamps everything and the report can be printed out when the incident is closed. We also have a wireless network set up in the bays. When a call is dispatched, County sends out an email with the address and incident description. It gets sent to our server and the address is plugged into Google Maps. When guys arrive at station, map directions are up on a wall mounted computer and the apparatus laptops. We also have the DOT guidebook, building preplans and CAMEO/MARPLOT/ALOHA on the computers as well.

Generally, I think that extrication competitions reinforce objectives we strive to complete at real-world extrication scenes: rapid patient contact (without putting first responders or the patient at risk), thorough stabilization and mitigation of hazards, a large path of egress and a rapid extrication time (without compromising the condition of the patient or the safety of first responders and the public).

A full structural response to an AFA may or may not be necessary, but certain conditions may warrant it. I understand the increased risk with putting additional apparatus on the road responding lights and sirens. One idea that's been tossed around my department is a hot/ cold response. The first out apparatus will respond lights and sirens, while second and third due pieces respond either at a reduced speed or non-emergency. With a 12+ square mile district operating out of one station, having the ladder and second engine halfway to the scene is great, espcecially if updates confirm something more dire than an AFA.

I can understand where some people see the unrealistic side of extrication competitions. At York, PA and Tri-County, NJ (the last two competitions I've attended), there were some scenarios that tended to be on the unrealistic side. However, to completely dismiss these competitions is ridiculous. I'm sure most people on this forum have pulled up on wrecks where you can do nothing but scratch your head and say "How the f%@# did that happen?! Being exposed to incidents that are outside the realm of "run of the mill," especially in a training environment such as extrication competitions allows you to prepare for the unexpected. We're all familiar with Murphy's Law. My thought is that if an extrication scenario can be imagined, chances are it has occurred in real world ops or will happen. I know some teams get rubbed the wrong way and think that the judges have unrealistic sets of standards (some of them do) but at the end of the day the benefits of these competitions from a training perspective outweigh the negatives.

I think AFAs tend to get a mixed response from people in the fire service. They tend to become real nuisance alarms (especially "repeat offenders"). I have been to automatic alarms that have turned into confirmed structure fires, so personally I try not to become complacent or take these calls lightly. What kills me is hearing from some fellow firefighters that they choose not to respond to the BS calls (including fire alarms). My personal opinion is that all automatic fire alarms should receive at least a one engine/one ladder response (two engines for departments without aerials) and perhaps more apparatus depending on the circumstances (limited water source, high occupancy, etc.) Apparatus can always be cancelled based on updates or confirmation from chief officers on scene.

Typically, what's done in competition reflects real world operations. However, their are some things that are done for show. Our team has a team member proficient in the air chisel, though we hardly use it on rescue scenes because not many of our guys are as comfortable with it as she is. I guess the best way to compare it would be to the Firefighter Combat Challenge. Though the stations mimic real-world skills, it's a competition environment, though extrication competitions seem to mimic real world scenarios more often than not. As for expediting the time between setup and competition, the events I've been to typically do 2 pits: Limited and Unlimited. The Limited allows you an air chisel, two Sawz-Alls (one battery, one corded) and one Port-A-Power type tool. The Unlimited includes all that's in the Limited plus a full set of hydraulic tools (manfacturer chosen by each respective team). Usually one pit is prepped immediately after the last team is finished in the other pit. There's only about 20 minutes of down-time.

My NY department typically runs 1-2 engines for vehicle fires, 2 engines and the ladder for MVF with exposure. As for PA, the rescue rolls out first (onboard pump, 500 gallon tank), typically followed by an engine with Class B foam. Personally, I like the rescue running vehicle fires in case it the call requires some sort of extrication. I agree with having more than one apparatus respond, especially on highways. You can always cancel them.

als: I think witnessing the good, bad and the ugly is what makes it a great training resource. Seeing new concepts and tactics is as educational as seeing what not to do? It's not very often that we as firefighters have the chance to watch someone else's incident from start to finish and critique it in an open forum. It's also not very often that we're able to try out new techniques in a (relatively) safe environment without putting patients at risk. Granted, there are many things that are done in rescue competitions that are not meant for real world ops. I do, however think the benefits outweigh the negatives. The competitions that I've attended focused their judging heavily on the IC's plan of action, vehicle stabilization and patient contact. Having the opportunity to try out new extrication tools is also another added perk.