Chief Smokes Cigarette While Watching Firefighters Fail To Put On Masks At Working Fire

[LineCapt 134]

C'mon guys! Put your masks on! I don't like "Monday Morning Quarterbacking", but this is pretty blatent. The Chief is also just standing there and watching it. One guy is even using his hood as a "filter". These guys could probably saves thousands of dollars by not buying SCBA equipment they aren't going to use, and just use their filter hoods instead.

[Viper 139]

The Chief is also just standing there and watching it.

To be fair, the Chief does appear to be busy smoking a cigarette at the 1:15 minute mark

[Quickness 7]

In an ideal world everybody wears their mask. In the real world these guys are working from the outside so you're going to suck smoke. Can't wear a mask all the time. Good job knocking it down with a can.

[AirOne 6]

Why even put on the pack to begin with?

[Newburgher 241]

In an ideal world everybody wears their mask. In the real world these guys are working from the outside so you're going to suck smoke. Can't wear a mask all the time. Good job knocking it down with a can.

I agree working outside, you will get a little. But once you go inside, when it's still banked down to the floor and snotty, put it on. It takes seconds. What's the sense in wearing the pack and not using it when you need it? We wear airpacks at car fires, in less smoke.

[FireMedic049 597]

In an ideal world everybody wears their mask. In the real world these guys are working from the outside so you're going to suck smoke. Can't wear a mask all the time. Good job knocking it down with a can.

In the real world these guys had the ability to utilize their respiratory PPE (aka SCBA) while working in close proximity to smoke and in some cases inside the smoke filled building and chose not to.

Yes, there will be instances where you have to take immediate action and may take in some smoke doing it, but this was clearly not the case in this situation.

With what we now know about the link between the products of combustion and firefighter cancer, there's pretty much no excuse to not use your SCBA these days.

[CaptainCharisma 34]

That Chief needs to step down. Immediately. He obviously doesn't care about his firefighters health or well being.

[dwcfireman 656]

Ummm...Where is the hoseline?

[Dinosaur 844]

He didn't have a fiddle...

[M' Ave 1,466]

3:30.....no one has stretched a line. No one seems to have completed a primary of the original fire occupancy, some dude is cutting like hell to open a Bilco door and another guy has his hood up under his helmet.....no face piece on....

This is confusing me....and looks terrible

[x635 4,066]

This is pure gross negligence. What I wonder is if a few years down the line, these guys get cancer, who's fault is will it be? God forbid, and I hope this is not and never the case, will it be considered an "LODD"? Are the same taxpayers who funded the SCBA's to prevent this also going to have to pick up the tab for the consequences of not using them? Sure, there's lots of other ways firefighters can get cancer, but any way we have to lower the risk, we should utilize.

The Chief smoking a cigarette while watching his guys do this, that is just horrible. Aside from no discernable sequence of the actions, how can you just stand there, smoke a poison stick, while watching your mostly young guys clearly suck toxic smoke? It appears to be a hair salon in a taxpayer, who knows what kind of chemicals are in that smoke? I agree, he needs to be held accountable for that, and his leadership needs to be seriously questioned before more lives are put in danger by this gross negligence.

[PHIL78 129]

Hoseline anyone hoseline.....buhler ... buhler .....buhler...............?

[Dinosaur 844]

This is pure gross negligence. What I wonder is if a few years down the line, these guys get cancer, who's fault is will it be? God forbid, and I hope this is not and never the case, will it be considered an "LODD"? Are the same taxpayers who funded the SCBA's to prevent this also going to have to pick up the tab for the consequences of not using them? Sure, there's lots of other ways firefighters can get cancer, but any way we have to lower the risk, we should utilize.

The Chief smoking a cigarette while watching his guys do this, that is just horrible. Aside from no discernable sequence of the actions, how can you just stand there, smoke a poison stick, while watching your mostly young guys clearly suck toxic smoke? It appears to be a hair salon in a taxpayer, who knows what kind of chemicals are in that smoke? I agree, he needs to be held accountable for that, and his leadership needs to be seriously questioned before more lives are put in danger by this gross negligence.

It goes to show how organization is becoming a more and more rare phenomenon. If these guys had riding positions and knew the job and their tools of the trade, there wouldn't be so much back and forth and wasted time and effort. Why didn't someone have the can as soon as they got off the truck? Where's the primary search beyond the doorway of the store?

I'm guessing that this was a truck company and that's why there was no hose line but the tactics were weak at best and the leadership/organization was abysmal. Of course, this is just from a short YouTube video so take it for what it's worth...

[Flashpoint 94]

The best and largest fire department in the world just put out a GARBAGE TRUCK FIRE without even having SCBA's on their back, just yesterday!

Photo from: http://www.silive.com/northshore/index.ssf/2015/12/garbage_truck_fire_at_west_bri.html

[Dinosaur 844]

The best and largest fire department in the world just put out a GARBAGE TRUCK FIRE without even having SCBA's on their back, just yesterday!

Photo from: http://www.silive.com/northshore/index.ssf/2015/12/garbage_truck_fire_at_west_bri.html

garbagetruck.jpg

Your point? Does their doing it wrong somehow excuse the prior performance by the neighboring department?

[M' Ave 1,466]

The best and largest fire department in the world just put out a GARBAGE TRUCK FIRE without even having

A garbage truck is not a structure fire. Its also not comparable to a structure fire. Personally, i didnt have a problem with FPFD not wearing their masks. If they felt comfortable taking a dash for a peak inside, fine. Save your air for when its absolutely necessary...personal choice about how much you expose yoirself to toxins.

Organization, process and tactics were the more glaring issue for me.

[FireMedic049 597]

This is pure gross negligence. What I wonder is if a few years down the line, these guys get cancer, who's fault is will it be? God forbid, and I hope this is not and never the case, will it be considered an "LODD"? Are the same taxpayers who funded the SCBA's to prevent this also going to have to pick up the tab for the consequences of not using them? Sure, there's lots of other ways firefighters can get cancer, but any way we have to lower the risk, we should utilize.

Those are tough questions to answer in general since it's often impossible to pinpoint an exact cause for any specific cancer. Outside of something like 9/11, it's more likely that the cause of cancer is going to be the result of multiple minor exposures over a career rather than a specific exposure. Cancer doesn't show up until well down the road unlike the broken leg after falling thru a floor or off the building.

This is why it is so imperative for firefighters to be covered by some sort of presumptive cancer legislation that acknowledges our significantly higher risk for certain types of cancer vs the general public, removes the burden from our shoulders to find the proverbial "needle in a haystack" to prove it's job related and provides us with the care and benefits due to us for an occupational illness.

That said, it's imperative that we (individually or organizationally) actively work to reduce our risks by limiting exposures as much as possible and ideally not doing things that could potentially be used to disqualify oneself from that presumptive benefit, like tobacco usage for instance.

[firstdue 37]

First, no hoseline because the Truck company arrived first and no Engine was on scene yet in the video. Secondly, as "M' Ave" pointed out they took a dash inside, save your air for when you need it. I don't have a issue with what they did (as far as masks) if they felt they were good to go in then so be it whats it matter to the rest of us? Personal choice.

[Jared1979 19]

that's not good leadership

[jd783 64]

The best and largest fire department in the world just put out a GARBAGE TRUCK FIRE without even having SCBA's on their back, just yesterday!

Yes they did they did, but what they did not do is run around it with a couple of hooks and a can, and then have the camera man tell them to use a can.

If you want to blow smoke up there ass and call it a good aggressive job go right ahead. they looked like s*** to me from what I seen. Im sure there is more to the video and the fire did go out, but I would like to suggest to all limited manpower or Volley departments the 1st or at least the 2nd rig to man and get out should be a engine. the public expects us to put the fire out no matter what we show up in. I do hear (not see) a 2nd rig pull up in the video, but when the guys come into view on camera more NY hooks lol

[on the job 68]

I think the best part of this whole video is.......the fact there is four to five firefighters and one chief in front of this burning store front and the camera guy has to tell the guys to get a "can" to put the fire out !!!!!

I just don't get it ??

[SilentShadow 32]

Personally, i didnt have a problem with FPFD not wearing their masks. If they felt comfortable taking a dash for a peak inside, fine. Save your air for when its absolutely necessary...personal choice about how much you expose yoirself to toxins.

So you'd subject your family and friends to watching you go through a painful and devastating disease or other illness you could have possibly prevented? It's not a personal choice, it's the law.

[oldschool 12]

[Ladder44 73]

http://www.firstonscenephotos.com/FDNY/Queens/Queens-2015-2016/122815-Floral-Park-Nassau-Coun/i-5tRNjnz/A

[antiquefirelt 994]

So you'd subject your family and friends to watching you go through a painful and devastating disease or other illness you could have possibly prevented? It's not a personal choice, it's the law.

That's a pretty harsh view to take. We all take risks every day, some more than others. Would your family rather you not come home someday due to an apparatus accident? Or should we all travel with the flow of traffic? You can get yourself so worked up over the law and your own safety that the difference between a firefighter and a mailman is the uniform.

How about using common sense about when to breathe air. So don't mask up, but stay out of the smoke plume, maybe put the mask up to your face to take that quick peek, even mask up if you have to crawl in. But let's be realistic about air use. I'd bet some/many/mot subject themselves to greater risk dying from an OJI from failure to train than contracting cancer from limited smoke sxposure. Of course we cannot pinpoint cancer causes, so I guess proof would be hard to come by. Presumption of cancer is somewhat tough when we got guys like the chief here, smoking? Who'll prove which smoke caused his cancer?

We take risks, we should minimize risks wherever we can without sacrificing the principles of the job. While I'm with M'Ave, in not condemning these guys for lack of masks, I think they could have been better.

[x635 4,066]

Anybody who is minimalizing or brushing off cancer risks needs to read this paper:

http://firefightercancersupport.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Taking-Action-against-Cancer-in-the-Fire-Service.pdf

Of course, there's no way to avoid everything, but with what's burning in modern day society, we need to do everything to limit or prevent exposure. Especially when it comes to bringing those carcinogens home to our families.

[kinkchaser 352]

What would have happened if a photo of firemen as they were called then, a generation or so ago, was published of guys visibly beat sitting on the back step after a "good feed" smoking either a Lucky or Camel, if neither were available an dry, the filter would be ripped off and the cigarette smoked backwards.

Often the guy running the "job" would have the stub of a White Owl, Ben Franklin or DiNobli stuck in the corner of his mouth giving unintelligible orders.

Of course most of these guys are dead today.

[firecapt32 282]

first of all we all have to remember--the public is always watching and the camera is always there. Second--good practice(training)makes good firefighters--I am not saying that these aren't good Ff's just that training make you do things the same way. How many noticed that most if not all that did have pacs on did not ware them properly-- masks have waist straps for a reason--to take the weight off your shoulders and on to you hips. good officers will reinforce theses things at training sessions.

Cancer and firefighters--we just are not getting the message or we think it wont happen to us... lets get real in the fire service--its there its happening and will continue to happen as long as we make bad decisions.

the Chief smoking??--- lets call it stress relief

just my thoughts