firemoose827

Its tough enough to get people to take a break in normal conditions but now you need to look out for hypothermia and frost bite. Rotate crews often and have some dry gloves and hoods on hand. Check in your area for rehab tents that have heaters and showers and what not, this helps to warm a big group of people up in a hurry. Nozzles and hose freezing up, pumps freezing. Ice from run-off water. Ice on ladders and other surfaces from misting hose lines. It was mentioned earlier about having to wade through 2 and 3 feet of snow to stretch a line or place a ladder, this will take that crew out of service for a few minutes due to exhaustion, especially if its the wet heavy snow that takes extra effort to walk in even when its just a few inches. Placing ladders will be dangerous, and may not even be possible due to the snow which hampers egress and FAST operations. A key factor that I think was not mentioned yet is the hidden dangers that the snow will cover up, like in ground pools and wells and other dangers that we can fall into. You haven't had a winter fire until you have a Schoharie County Winter Fire!

Happy Birthday EMTBravo and many more.

Nice pics. How much damage was done to the building overall? Looks like it was in the upper floors or the attick?

Rest In Peace brothers, you have answered your final alarm... My thoughts and prayers to the families, around the hollidays just makes it worse. To the injured brothers may you recover and return to the station to honor the fallen.

This is a good point and one I thought of myself but here is the thing; even in small counties like mine we have 4 channels to use, the main channel and 3 fireground frequencies, plus Law frequencies and EMS frequencies. In a large incident such as a structure, we are all instructed to switch to fireground 2 for all transmitions and channel one is for IC use only. If there are multiple incidents at once we use the 2nd and third channels as well. So if you keep the chatter to a minimum and only transmit what is necessary you can achieve both without problem. Dont get on the radio and spout the gettysburgh address...make it short and sweet and to the point "On scene, working fire in a 2 1/2 story wood frame, occupants safe, assuming command." I would also like to see some of the terminology used more often such as saying "Urgent" or "Priority" to make everyone listen and stay off the air until your transmition is complete or to make the urgency of your situation known. Like "Urgent, attack to command there has been a collapse of second floor ceiling and floor is sagging, backing out for further orders." At the least I would like to hear what I am responding to like a working fire, fully involved fire, or just food on a stove. Good points.

This has been one of the best topics I have read in a long time. I just had a few questions for all of the seasoned officers in these forums if I could please; I just got elected as Captain in my volunteer dept and I want to be a good officer. Reading these posts has given a wealth of information, and knowing the reputations of some of the members posting here, I would love to ask all of you for any advice you may have that has not been posted here already. I have 1 year experience as Lieutenant also but for another department. Thanks in advance and I look forward to being every bit of officer that most of you are now, and have a lot of respect for you all. Moose

This reminded me of the time I responded to a dumpster fire with a new dept I had just recently joined. I was only in for about a few months when we had the call. It was a dumpster near a strip mall in the village, nothing big, just a Subway, bank, excercise place and offices. We rolled up in the first due engine and when we got out I was the only one in FULL PPE including mask. I grabbed the nozzle and went towards the fire to see a captain and a chief in street clothes peering over the edge of the dumpster to see what was in it. When I approached they looked at me like I had lobsters coming out of my ears and said a few smart a** comments about being masked up. I looked at my captain and asked if he knew what was in every dumpster? He just looked at me. I sincerely hope that since that fire they have become smarter in their tactics and training and realise the importance of using full PPE at every call regardless of the type. My condolences to the fallen brother and his family and I hope the injured have all recovered 100% since the incident. Everyone stay safe and keep your eyes and ears open.

Thats one of my favorites as well, like they expect an extra nitro boost from the engine if they say "Expedite" or there will be a sudden change in traffic patterns that allow units to respond faster. But you still hear it all the time, lol. What I meant to say by using the "Rural" reference, and anyone who responds in a rural setting will agree with me, it takes a longer time to get members from home to station, than station to scene with response times of up to 15-20 minutes total from home to scene. Im lucky enough to live only 30 seconds from our station and usualy am the first one there. But there are some that live 4-5 minutes away from station. We have one dept in our county that covers multiple small hamlets and towns with response times of up to 20 minutes from their station. Mostly farms and large properties, but if we get a large barn fire in one of these areas it could take the first engine 15-20 minutes to get on scene let alone get water on the fire. But yet hardly a handful of the officers use size-up reports at all, they call on scene and you hear nothing else from them. It makes you wonder sometimes if there is even any officer on scene at all. Good points though, it realy shouldnt matter if its rural or urban, there should always be ongoing sizeups and progress reports given.

No apology needed from you seth, but congratulations from us. This does only prove how fast EMTBravo is growing and how many members you have. Maybe the future of the site will read "EMTBravo National"??? Happy Hollidays to all. Stay Safe

In my area, mostly rural, initial size-ups and progress reports should be a must. There are too many incidents that have some departments responding from long distances and could take 10 to 15 minutes to arrive on scene in this rural area. Progress reports could advise them to "Dial down" the response to avoid careless accidents in bad weather. They can also help the responding firefighters prepare, both mentally and physically for what they may need to do once they arrive. I for one never liked to be riding on the engine or rescue to a mutual aid call and not know what is going on because there is just no reports at all, and no size-up. Id like to know what Im grabbing when I get off the rig, what tools, fans, salvage covers, saw, ladders...what do they need us to do???? The other big problem is arriving on scene and having no clue who the IC is and what they want you to do because there is no clear designation and there are white and red hats running all around the scene...but thats another topic all together! I myself will be giving clear and concise scene size-ups and progress reports until the incident is under control.

Best of luck to you in retirement, I wish you the best of everything.

Great stuff. I will pass this on to our chief and see about using it for some of our drills as well. Good for officer development. Thanks for sharing.

Congrats on the promotion Chief. Best of luck to you.

Looks like cause and origin has a nice easy one too! Good stop.

Hello everyone. I have been a little non-existent on the forums here lately but for good reasons. I have had a lot of personal matters to address and some old wounds to heal, which is why I am posting this now, to share some good news with my firefighting family. We had our elections the other night and I was voted in as the departments first captain. There are two captains and I won over another member who was the old second assistant chief of the department so it feels kind of good to know that all of the training and hard work has finaly paid off. I take office as of January 1st and look forward to serving my department and community even more. I Also look forward to getting back into the forums again and see what I have missed with the discussions. There used to be some whoppers. Stay safe everyone. Moose

Thanks brother, and thanks for the responses. Things are starting to get better than they were, thats for sure.

I guess it all depends on the size of the department and the call volume, as well as the hazards located in the district, manpower, and budget. Class "A" foam has proven to be very effective against some structural fires but it is expensive, and unless you use it alot (CAFS I mean) it will start to cause more problems than solve them. You need to maintain those systems quite regularly and to be honest; around me I dont see too many departments properly maintaining their HANDTOOLS let alone any CAFS or other power equipment. You hear it all too often in this county where a department goes out on a call only to have one or even TWO of its rigs call out of service for repair, because they dont use them or service them enough. For any class "B" spill or fire the use of 5 gallon pails and self educting foam nozzles is just as quick and efficient as long as you train on their use regularly. That includes firefighters, pump operators and officers, everyone needs to know how to use foam and its many appliances in order for it to be effective. We just carry 8 5-gallon pails of AFFF, both a self-educting nozzle and an in-line eductor on our engines and it works for us.

Nice looking rig. Looks realy functional and the use of space was well planned. When do I get my ride along??

Congratulations to you Chris, all the best of luck to you in your new post.

Rest in Peace brother. All my thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.

I didnt read everyones post (Got tired of the needless age old arguments and pointless bashes) but did anyone notice the first firefighter to relieve the cop on the line?? His helmet was on BACKWARDS Than shortly after you see him turning it around...Hes either a construction worker FT or he just got confused as to which uniform he was putting on!!

Nice pics. Its looking good so far. Hope the old truck doesnt cause any more problems for you guys.

RIP brother. All my prayers and thoughts to his family and friends.

I used to be a Volunteer, I work a FT job, go to school FT nights, and have a wife and 3 year old daughter at home. Its simple for me...1- Family 2- Work 3- Firehouse. My boss allows those who are volunteers to leave for fires and get paid (Untill you reach the end of your shift) BUT...it needs to be am actual fire and you may be requested to provide proof like a letter from your chief that there was a fire. If I were to leave for the alarms, or smell of smoke calls, or CO alarm calls and abuse that priviledge given to me by my boss I could loose my job and my lifeline for my families survival. Maybe thats why most fail to respond on the initial tone but show up upon receipt of a working fire. If I was home it was never a question...I respond when I am available no matter what the call.

Exactly...someone got it, thanks brother!