Firefighters Change Old Tactics

[AFS1970 504]

The original article kind of makes it seem that the FD pulls up sends in a demo team and breaks whatever they can. This is not the way to do it. VES is all about venting the areas you are working in, which ultimately helps other areas also. I wonder what the difference between this 90 second cool down and what was being pushed as a "blitz" a few years ago is? They seem pretty similar.

As for the video that Cogs posted, what is in that magic milk crate they seem so concerned about?

[kinkchaser 352]

Did I understand correctly, these fire studies claimed ,introducing outside streams did not push the fire to other areas as much as one time thought ?. I guess they must be taking straight streams as fog streams would seem to make matters worse as far as pushing products of combustion.. Speaking as a guy who got a few facials when a opposing fog streams were introduced

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[FFPCogs 863]

As for the video that Cogs posted, what is in that magic milk crate they seem so concerned about?

The firefighting 101 handbook. Obviously someone moved it from the milk crate and didn't tell anyone.

Edited November 20, 2013 by FFPCogs

[16fire5 693]

Glad we are in agreement, 16fire5. Now let me ask about the 90 sec max you mentioned. That seems to me to be an awful long time to be working that outside line. I would picture maybe 30 sec at the most, watching the smoke's color and making sure you still have a vent. Could you comment on that?

I think you are in agreement with me on this, too. Before anyone uses new tactic (any new tactic)on the fireground several things have to be in place.

You have to be familiar with the tactic. That's the whole tactic, not the excerpts you chose to pick out. You have to know why you are deviating from the norm and what your tactic should be accomplishing, and what the fire looks like when things are going right or things are going wrong. For example, Opposing Streams is still a no-no. It is still a legitimate reason for the 2nd floor officer to swing a Halligan at your head because you pushed fire at him.

There must also be fireground discipline and communications on every job you get. If you don't have that, you're better off staying in the firehouse.

And a PS for the guys who want to throw the old out. VES is fairly new, so I guess you are allowed to use it, but remember it was an old guy who gave you that tidbit on door integrity. Stay safe

I threw the 90 secconds out there as a maximum amount of time I could comprehend and to drive home the fact everyone that no one is advocating doing it for long. So thirty seconds sounds much closer to what would be practicaly necessary. If we remember that we not trying to put it out but instead knock it down from the lawn. I don't think anyone is endorsing opposing streams.

Changing procedures for fireground ops is never easy. In the case of our recent changes to ventilation there was a month of drilling on it. We now have the ability to push out drill material on the computers which makes it a little easier to get a standard message out especially when you have over 10,000 members. The procedures then took effect on a predetermined date and time.

For those that want to sit down and hear/see it from the horses mouth I am providing the link to a UL self paced program that delves very deeply into these topics.

http://content.learnshare.com/courses/73/456883/story.html

from

http://ulfirefightersafety.com/training/