NASCAR HAS COME BACK TO RICHMOND!!!

Well folks it is that time of year again, the NASCAR Nationwide, and Sprint Cup series have come back for yet another race here in good ole Richmond Va. As usual I will be attending the races which means tomorrow morning I will be off to the track to secure a spot for my Dad’s camper (and my two uncles) We will be there from Thursday until they run the races (in case of inclement weather).

One of the interesting things about NASCAR is that they do not have dedicated track safety teams, so local firefighters work the pits, crash trucks, ambulances, and outside track safety. Since the track is actually in Henrico County the Henrico Division of Fire takes the lead on providing Fire and EMS response to the track on a daily basis and during special events. The Division of course leans on other local organizations to full some other critical roles as the track becomes like its own little city so having to manage that and the regular demands of the county can be daunting at best. One of the most important things the firefighters do is work in the pits, and staff the “Crash Trucks” that respond on the track during any incident. These roles are vital to driver, and fan safety.

As a fan of NASCAR I have gotten to do and see some pretty amazing stuff working the inside and outside of the track. You do not know what MCI really is until you have worked a seizure or cardiac arrest in the 40th row, in the middle of a lead change. Below in the video is one of the most televised rescues performed by some of my coworkers. Make no mistake about it Jerry Naduea is alive today because of those guys.

So the next time you are out a sporting event take the time to thank the guys and girls working out at the venue for keeping you safe so that you can have a good time.

While I will not be working the event this year (I enjoy going more than working) as I said earlier I will be out there from tomorrow until the run the races, so while blogging may be a bit light I still have the ability to post from my phone and tweet, so if something is blog worthy then I will surely put it up. The best way to keep track is to follow along with me on twitter www.twitter.com/averagejakeff

As usual thanks for reading, spread the word, and STAY SAFE! oh and special for this week GENTLEMEN START YOUR ENGINES!!!!

NASCAR, posted with vodpod

Still Want to Break The Glass?

In the previous post here http://averagejakeff.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/quick-forcible-entry-scenario/ we discussed and showed examples of why taking the glass of a residential door in order to force entry may not be the best way to go, but what about commercial doors.

You know the big all glass store from doors typical in strip store fronts and in a lot of big box stores. They are made of all class with metal frames and usually held with a commercial grade dead bolt that make them usually unable to be forced via conventional means. A lot of fireman approach this door with the same “break the glass” mentality when in reality this method usually creates more harm than good.

Take a look at the video below and see for your self, a well-trained forcible entry team can gain entry faster, and provide a safe, large opening. Not to mention the ability to relock the door after the fire, or if you were checking adjacent stores for smoke.

You often hear talk of improving safety by being trained to do things the right way, and then carrying them out the right way the first time, well that example is full-blown in this video.

Don’t forget to follow us on twitter www.twitter.com/averagejakeff, as usual thanks for reading, spread the word, and STAY SAFE!

Still Want to Break The Glass?, posted with vodpod

VA Firefighter Memorial Service

Below is a quick video promoting the Virginia Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service. This is a yearly service that happens every year honoring the fallen firefighters in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

This years service is June 4th 2011, at noon in the Old Dominion building of the Richmond International Raceway complex. Unfortunately this year I am on shift that day and can not attend (unless the FD lets us go out of service) but I want to encourage of all my Virginia readers, and even the out-of-state ones to go and even participate in the service. They need apparatus, honor guards, and lots of other help. Here is the flyer with all of the information you will need http://www.vafire.com/upcoming_events/2011MemorialServiceFlyer.pdf

So again please come out an honor the fallen, events like these assist us in never forgetting, and keeping that promise that we will learn from the sacrifices of others.

As usual thanks for reading, spread the word, and STAY SAFE!

VA FF Memorial Service, posted with vodpod

Quick Forcible Entry Scenario

Just wanted to expand a little on a point I made in the post here: http://averagejakeff.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/learning-lessons-from-others/ 

In it I described a scenario that firefighters are often faced with and the problems with the solution people often offer.

In the above picture you will see a standard residential door with window panes, and the standard key in knob lock, along with the dead bolt. Most firefighters when faced with this think that breaking the window and reaching in to unlock the door is the way to go.

 

As you can see with these pictures that this is a double keyed deadbolt. So in order to unlock the door you would need the key on the other side. As you can see the key is absent in this picture. So by breaking the window we have lost the integrity of our door, and have allowed an unrestricted air flow into the fire building. Oh and we are still staring at a locked door. Now what seemed like simple forcible entry job, is taking longer all while the fire is growing.

When we approach a door we simply do not know if the dead bolt is doubled keyed or not, the best course of action is to force these doors conventionally (with the irons) in order to ensure the job gets done right the first time.

Don’t forget to follow us on twitter www.twitter.com/averagejakeff

As usual thanks for reading, spread the word, and STAY SAFE!

Survivability Profiling

Tonites episode of Firefighter Net Cast is sure to be a great one! Captain Stephen Marsar from FDNY Engine 8 will be a guest of Chris Naum on his show “Taking it to the Streets”.

Captain Marsar had become world-famous for his “Survivability Profiling” technique based on his Executive Fire Officer (EFO) paper that he has submitted to the National Fire Academy (NFA) during his EFO candidate process. Never heard of it? Check out both of the published articles http://www.fireengineering.com/index/articles/display/5854199752/articles/fire-engineering/volume-163/Issue_7/Features/Survivability_Profiling_How_Long_Can_Victims_Survive_in_a_Fire.html and http://www.fireengineering.com/index/articles/display/1153940879/articles/fire-engineering/survival-zone/2009/12/survivability-profiling.html

I will wait here while you read them……You back? Good!

Now Captain Marsar brings about some pretty good points, especially his facts on how the human body reacts to fire and its by products. I can say that in my personal experiences with pulling people out of fires that smoke kills long before fire ever gets to them. All of the victims I have ever located or seen located in a fire all died from smoke, and had ZERO burns to their skin, they were also all in remote areas away from the fire room.

Another good points is about the amount of firefighters who died in the line of duty, where no citizens died. Now some might argue that this is because firefighters went in aggressively and rescued those victims, which is probably for the most part true. However any trip down YouTube lane or even in your own department will produce results of people getting hurt or killed for structures that were already gone, with no life hazard.

Now I have read both articles and have even seen the live version at FDIC 2010, and I have to say that I think this is something we are already doing, however for some reason the phrase “Survivability Profiling” has people up in arms. We have been doing “Risk vs Benefit” analysis in my department since before I was hired on, I was first exposed to it in an ICS class in the late 90′s. When I sat through Dave Dodson’s “Art of Reading Smoke” in 2006 he even spoke about “Rescue Profile” and gave several examples of “No Go” scenarios with the smoke and subsequent fire being so great that a rescue would not be warranted in that room or structure.

What I think people have to understand is that there are “No Go” scenarios and while somethings will be the same for everyone (amount of fire, or derelict building conditions) that keep us out, some things will be different. In my full-time department we have 3 man staffing on every suppression apparatus, and 2 man staffing on every ambulance, we have 20 stations, dedicated truck and squad companies etc. Our ability to make a rescue is better than my part-time gig where they have 4 people (2 per station) a shift, and that’s if one of the stations is not out on an EMS run or previous call. The City of Richmond FD that has 4 person staffing on the Quint companies, and 5-6 person staffing on the three Rescue companies is in an even better position to make a rescue. So each of these departments all within 30 mins of each other all have different times when we have to say “this is a No Go”.

Bottom line for me is that occupancy type means a lot. Single and Multi family dwellings, should be searched if conditions (building, and fire) allow it. commercial buildings such as warehouses big box stores and the like should be dealt with EXTREME caution. Keep your searches to the egress, and exit points and do not penetrate the building very far, especially in after hour situations, and abandoned/vacant buildings. If it is an occupied store (still in business) chances are no one is there after hours and if they are they are doing stock unload which would typically place them in egress and exit points (loading dock) and they are probably awake, so they can evacuate in an emergency. Also a little known fact is that all of the big box chains (Wal-Mart, Target etc.) budget for stores to be destroyed, no matter how much of it you save they are going to knock it down and build another one. Typically in these fires with occupants in them if they can evacuate they do, if they don’t then they are already gone, and initiating a large area search through rack storage, in hostile smoke conditions is going to be about as succesful as that needle in the haystack you are always hearing about.

That brings me to one final point, the “luck” factor. Face it no matter how well-trained you are luck still plays a HUGE role in the difference between succesful outcomes, and the less succesful ones. We train,read, and workout in order to increase our success factor but at the end of the day sometimes we get lucky. I was lucky that I did not get hit by that tractor-trailer the other day, it had very little to do with skill. Most firefighter who make succesful rescues are seconds away from success, or failure. Firefighter Peter Demontreux from FDNY who received the 2011 Ray Downey Courage and Valor award at FDIC this year made one of the bravest, and heroic rescues in the history of the FDNY. Because he was succesful he was rewarded, but lets say he tripped over a chair on the way back to that window and perished in that fire, the FDNY would probably be dealing with ridicule on there over aggressive tactics. Demontreux was literally on fire trying to make that rescue, and received several burns what if one of those burns became infected? What if the gear had failed? This is no way trying to down play this rescue or this mans courage, he deserves every accolade being bestowed upon him, but as good and as brave as he is, he was equally as lucky that day. Like Patty Brown said “You can do everything right on this job, and still get killed”, not to down play that phrase but basically that’s the difference between being lucky and unlucky.

So I hope you all tune in tonite and listen to the netcast, if you never have then you are missing out. Here is the link http://www.firefighternetcast.com/2011/04/survivability-profiling-live-on-taking-it-to-the-street/ The show starts at 9 and on the blog talk radio page there is a chat room, and you will have the ability to call in and ask questions to the host (the number will be on the show page). Again tune in tonight and form your own opinions, and ask questions to the man himself.

Be sure to follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/averagejakeff

While you’re pondering all of this take a peek at the video below and think about the “rescue/survivability” profile in it. Compare your company operations to it and see what your plan of action would be. Is this Go or No Go for you? Leave some feedback about it in the comments section.

As usual thanks for reading, spread the word, and STAY SAFE!

Fully Involved, posted with vodpod

Learning Lessons from others

As we all know fires are less and less, so we have to get experience in other ways. Sometimes we watch videos for pure entertainment, but others we can gain a lot of information. Typically we can learn something from everything we do, even if it is not how we want to do it (confirming our beliefs that the way that is shown or viewed is not the way we want to do it)

This video and one of the comments on the YouTube page gives us a lot of things to learn from.

1. Water Supply: I am in the crowd of people who like to lay into a scene. I personally think it is a more efficient way of doing business and keeps the clogging of apparatus at the scene down to a minimum. However there is a lot of people out there who like the second due to bring them their water. If your going to do that then I think the example shown here is how to do it. The second due engine comes to the scene and reverse lays out to the hydrant. This makes sure the scene is clear for a special service company, and it leaves an engine on the hydrant in case its a long lay, or more water is needed.

2. Forcible entry: It seemed like they were having a difficult time forcing the door. Now we do not know why this is, but it did take them a little time to get in. Some of the Youtubers out there noticed this as well and wanted to know why they did not take the window in the door and reach in to unlock it. As with any short cut this method does have some success, however usually at the detriment of other things. The big question is what type of lock is holding this door in place? What if it is a double keyed dead bolt? If it is a double keyed dead bolt then the other key must be present on the interior for the door to be unlocked. If it is not present you now have a uncontrolled vent opening feeding the fire, and a still LOCKED door. Not to mention if the fire conditions are heavy enough you can even be burned through turnout gear (a lesson I learned first hand). The better play is to force the door as you normally would and avoid taking windows.

That’s not al the lessons but i want you to figure some out for yourself, and share them in the comments section. Do not forget to follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/averagejakeff

As usual thanks for reading, spread the word, and STAY SAFE!

1st collector for Fire
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How is Your MAYDAY

The below video is radio traffic from a Fairfax County Va MAYDAY during a basement fire. During firefighting operations a firefighter becomes disoriented and issues a MAYDAY. The mayday call happens at 4:09 of the video if you just want to skip to that point.

Having never had to call a MAYDAY I am always fascinated and intrigued with how people call MAYDAY, and what they say. It is important to have a procedure to follow in this situation and train with it over an over again until you can not get it wrong. There are several acronyms out there detailing the point needed to hit during a MAYDAY. While a lot of them hit on the radio traffic portion they seldom offer recommended actions to take. Personally I like this model:

1. Activate PASS: If you hear a pass alarm on the fireground you should assume someone is in trouble, if you activate your pass then someone may come to your aide before you put the MAYDAY out on the radio.

2. Activate EMERGENCY button on portable radio (if applicable): This does a couple of things, it lets the dispatcher know there is a problem so they can notify the IC if they miss it, and in some systems once the EMERGENCY button is activated that radio will trump all others once the transmit button is hit. This means no matter who is talking they will not talk over you, so your message will get heard.

3. Give your MAYDAY: Again I like to keep it simple. Who I am, Where I was and my assignment, Whats my problem, and as good a description of my current location as I can.

Example: MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY Engine 8 Bravo, Firefighter Owens. I was operating a hose line on the second floor, and am now lost and low on air, I’m currently in a room with tile flooring.

That lets them know who is in trouble, what my problem is, and gives them clues as to where I might be. Especially in a single family dwelling, were clues like tile floors can give major clues. Think about your house your tile floors are typically in the bathroom and kitchen, carpeting is usually in bedrooms, living rooms, and dens. The same goes for apartment buildings. It’s not 100% but it can give the RIT clues on how to prioritize their search. The most important question to ask is, when you give your MAYDAY will what you say get you the help you need? If your MAYDAY sounded like the one in the video would you get what you needed? If the answer is yes then that is great, if it is no then what can you do to make it better?

In my opinion hands on training is the best way to learn this, however Chris Brennan over at www.fireservicewarrior.com has come up with a unique way to train your mind to handle a MAYDAY situation take a look at it here: http://www.fireservicewarrior.com/2011/04/video-blog-episode-13.html

It is important to dust off this skill frequently,as tomorrow may be the day you have to put it to use.

Don’t forget to follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/averagejakeff.

As usual thanks for reading, spread the word, and STAY SAFE!

Mayday, posted with vodpod

Basment Rescue

Attached is another great video from Dale Pekel, it demonstrates some drills you can use in your station simulating removing down firefighters from basement windows. I know the guys at my old shift just built a bailout simulator, and the prop in this video is the same with just a few add ons (the smaller window insert).

This just shows how much ingenuity, and creativeness are critical factors in firefighter training. Thanks to Dale Pekel for putting this stuff out there for people to learn.

The prop itself is not very expensive especially if all your shift members chip in, and does not take a carpentry expert, to complete it.

Please share any training tips, and drill you’re doing at your station. If you send some pictures along, I will feature them on the website. Do not forget to follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/averagejakeff

As usual thanks for reading, spread the word, and STAY SAFE!

Basment Rescue, posted with vodpod

 

Another Put The Fire Out!

Just wanted to put up a quick video that is already getting a lot of play and discussion over at www.statter911.com.

We have an advanced fire that has taken hold of the structure. I know I have posted about this before and there has been a ton of debate, but this in my opinion is the perfect time for an exterior fire attack with a large-caliber line. This fire has already taken hold of the structure, a small line is not going to put this out, and interior attack time is already limited due to the lightweight construction, and advanced fire.

Remember “exterior fire attack” is not defensive operations. Exterior attack is attacking an advanced fire, with the intentions of knocking it down, and then transitioning to interior attack to finish it off. Utilizing straight or solid streams prevents pushing fire into unburned areas, and hitting the fire right now accomplishes life safety, property conservation, and incident stabilization.  It may not be the most “sexy”, or ego satisfying tactic, but it is effective, and can provide a margin of survivability for any victims, and the structure as well as providing a margin of safety for us.

Take a look at the video and see what you think. Most importantly show it to your crew, and discuss how you would attack this fire. Don’t forget to follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/averagejakeff

As usual thanks for reading, spread the word,and STAY SAFE!

House fire, posted with vodpod

 

DCFD Mayday

Below is the audio from the recent DCFD Mayday that injured several firefighters in a collapse of an abandoned building, that was thought to have “squatters” still inside.

The goal is not to critique these incidents but to learn from them, in hopes that history will not repeat itself. These are some of the initial lessons I have gathered from just listening to the audio.

1. I have said this before, but it is worth saying again we can not treat “abandoned” or “derelict” buildings the same as occupied structures. Sure we have an obligation to search if we think someone might be inside, that goes without saying. However before we commit interior crews we have to ensure that we have ways out in case things go bad. This is not as simple as just busting a window or forcing a door, since most of these structures are boarded up, or have metal vacant property shutters. Additionally these structures can at times be in various states of dissary and already compromised BEFORE challenged by fire. Rushing into them without assessing the structural integrity is a recipe for disaster. The best practice is to get out and identify these structures prior to the incident, however with the growing number this can be difficult, so take a few extra seconds on scene to ensure that this building is safe for interior operations.

2. RIT is a must on just about any incident. We have our second engine as an IRIT (2 people) then our third engine picks up the RIT duties when they arrive (with all 3 people) and the IRIT becomes the second handline in the building. However you do it, or whoever is doing it for you, get the people there ASAP, make sure they have whatever they need, and make sure they are ready to work.

3. Command needs to be on scene. If you listen to the tape it sounds like the initial chief on the run is giving orders to the companies while still responding to the incident (I heard a siren in the back ground that did not sound like it was one approaching the scene). In my opinion this is why we have company officers, especially in a department running with several other members that can complete the critical tasks. Even in my department where we have 3 on every rig our company officers will establish a “combat command” until the arrival of the chief. We also have “tactical templates” and pre arrival instructions given enroute to minimize on scene radio traffic, allowing the company officer to participate at the task level (which our man power situation is needed).

4. You will here on the tape that one of the engines is on the wrong channel. Make sure your on the right channel so that critical messages are not missed.

5. Communications should be clear and concise. If no one can understand you, or your orders are so complex that it takes a dictionary and a panel discussion then efficiency, and effectiveness are decreased. Even during the worst possible time we have to take a breath, and speak clearly, and calmly while transmitting understandable messages. This is something that takes a lot of practice, and experience, but can be mastered. it is something I have struggled with, not because of nervousness, but excitement of going to a fire. I have been on hundreds of fires, and every time I still get the excited feeling of getting to do the job I love so much. This sometimes gets transferred into my voice during radio traffic, so I always try to put on my “radio voice” before I push the transmit button.

6. Lastly accountability is key. Wether you use tags, passports, riding assignments, or a combination to account for you and your crew the best form of accountability is knowing who your supposed to be working with, and were your supposed to be working. Then you verify that constantly either out loud or in your mind (Im supposed to be doing fire attack on the second floor with Mike, we are on the second floor side A, and I see Mike) That is true accountability, situational awareness, and fireground orientation. If you know all of those things if you do get in trouble you will be able to give a detailed MAYDAY report so that the RIT will be able to find you faster, or you will not have to call them in the first place.

Again this is not to critique but to try to learn something from someone elses fires, in order to get better. Lets make sure we keep the injured firefighters in our thoughts as they begin the road to recovery.

Take a listen yourself and see what lessons you take away from this fire. Do not forget to follow us on twitter www.twitter.com/averagejakeff 

As usual thanks for reading, spread the word, and STAY SAFE!

DCFD Mayday, posted with vodpod