In the fire protection service the prime objective is to save lives and to preserve property form fire. This is done through initial and intense training at the fire school with follow-up training in the field once assigned. Fire fighters learn to do the job as a fire fighter by being prepared. Having worked in the fire protection career for awhile now it has been and always will be keeping to the basics. Also staying “360 Safe” when on the fire ground. The old fire fighting saying is “We all go home at the end of our shift” after doing what needs to be done to accomplish the objective.
For the career fire fighter, who may be a civil servant, volunteer, or military, over the years of service it’s about keeping up-to-date and current with ones fire knowledge. This can be as simple as attending training classes, performing in training drills, or walking in the station each day or shift checking equipment that could be used off the fire trucks. It needs to be done daily.
A pre-fire plan of a potential incident is also part of the basics. To know before hand weather there could be a chance of a primary search or not is an advantage to the fire fighter. The initial seconds/minutes at the scene of a working fire are critical and important and lives may depend on actions taken. Knowing pertinent information about the fire ground such as facility lay out, weather there’s a sprinkler system or not, location of fire hydrants, and other hazards can make or break any fire fighting operation.
In the following YouTube video is actual footage of a fire and emergency response effort on the USS Forrestal in 1967 of a devastating fire. Lessons can be learned from a film such as this and should help re-focus ones prospective on how important it is to know the basics as well as team work within the fire service. Lives may very well depend on it…
The entire 19 minutes film is available at the Fedflix site on the internet archives at http://www.archive.org/details/gov.ntis.ava19833vnb1
The film showed that a worse case scenario of specially trained fire fighters being taken out on the initial ordinance blasts. Though the remaining crew may have had some sort of basic fire fighting training in the past upon enter the service, it was evident no formal follow up fire fighting training was present. With many fire fighting tools at hand the general crew was not trained in their use and were unable to use them correctly.
Fire fighting crew can not work against each other on the efforts to extinguishment on the fire ground. Fire fighters can not perform on the job training on how equipment works at a fire incident. Most important and always at the fore front “Life & Death” rescue decisions can not be made without considering what the potential hazard is to the fire fighter. Remember “We all go home at the end of our shift.” The daily life of a fire fighter is to know the basics of the job. By knowing the basics there will be no room for any form of “Complacency.”
(The usual disclaimers: I am not a journalist; This is a blog that expresses an outlook and is not conclusive in any shape or manner.)
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