Coming VERY, VERY soon to the West Point (VA) Volunteer Fire Department Traditions Training (www.traditionstraining.com) will be offering there 16 hour Forcible Entry Academy!
This is sure to be some excellent hands on training with top-level instructors that teach al over the country and work in some fo the nations busiest fire departments. If you can make it, you should sign up today as time is running out to learn things like this…
I will not be able to make it due to being on shift, but fear not Traditions will be making a return trip on February 9th to teach there 8 hour “Combat Ready” class! So while not a lot of hand on the mind-set of combat ready is very important and is something missing from todays fire service. That makes this a MUST ATTEND CLASS! The combat ready class will be held in Mechanicsville Va (my home town).
Your just cleaning up from lunch, when the tones drop. Engine 1, Engine 2, Ladder 1, Squad 1, Medic 1 and Battalion 1 for the residential fire 1345 West St.
You drop what you’re doing you head to the rig you get all your gear on you jump on the engine, you buckle up and begin putting your pack on. The engine pulls out of the station your officer sees a column of smoke in the sky, you’re going to work!
You arrive and you hop off the rig and pull your hand line to the front door, you may be on the porch landing, you may be right in front of the door but your close, no one is getting a line on this fire before you. You drop to your knees and begin to don your SCBA face peice….then this happens
Now I am not going to quote a bunch of statistics, to you because frankly I do not even know if someone has studied this phenomenon. What i do know is that I have been to enough fires, seen enough videos, and heard enough stories to know that this stuff happens. Hostile fire events come out of open doors and windows, and even under enough pressure can open closed windows and doors or for lack of better term possible vent openings.
Take a look at this video:
Not only is the danger of a hostile fire event possible from masking up so close to the structure, but these firefighters are already in an IDLH atmosphere. That smoke the are “eating” is no different from the smoke inside the structure. It contains the aggregates, and cancer producing abilities just the same as any other smoke it makes no difference that it is outside. It is also super heated and could damage your airway.
Now everyone knows I am a big fan of masking up in the rig. However if this is not your style then perhaps you should not mask up so close, to the structure. One approach would be to treat it like a Haz-Mat situation creating Hot, Warm, and Cold zones. Cold zones no PPE required, Warm zone PPE donned, Hot zone all PPE required. This would minimize the risk of the hostile fire event and unneeded smoke intake, that is quite frankly killing us slowly. I do not care how in shape you are the damage the smoke does to your lungs and airway can never be repaired. It may not affect you now but eventually it will, what you do today will minimize its impact.
I am reminded of a story that happened a few years ago on a fire. We arrived and fire was through the roof and it was decided that we would go into defensive operations. My brother on the truck company masked up, was pulling the soffit from side A in order for our hose streams to make access to the attic space. When he inserted his NY Roof Hook and pulled tar from the shingles that had melted and pooled in the soffit space shot out and splattered all over his face piece. Had he been “mask less” because this was a defensive operation that super heated tar would have burned him, and possible gotten into is eyes, and mouth. This could have ended his fire service career! However because he wa a mask up in the truck kinda guy he came off ready to work, and was uninjured.
So whether you are in the mask up in the truck camp or masking up in the yard camp try to be aware of your surroundings and keep away from masking up in front of possible vent openings and in the smoke being produced by the fire.
As usual thanks for reading, spread the word, and STAY SAFE!
I have been teasing it for a while but today is the day that Ryan Pennington and Robby Owens (www.viewsfromthejumpseat.com , Averagejake Firefighter) took the next step in spreading our message of firefighting and fire service excellence!
This podcast will be THE place for the firefighter perspective and will be expanding over the coming months to include guests and hitting the hard topics. Please take a listen and send us some feedback on the site, our individual blogs or over twitter.
Thanks to Firehouse.com, Peter Mathews editor of Firehouse.com, Ryan Pennington for including me, my wife and kids, and each and every one of you who take a little bit of time each day to read this blog, or follow me on twitter. Without anyone listening or reading my musings I would have packed this in years ago. So without getting to mushy thanks and I hope you enjoy what you’re going to see out of this blog and the podcast.
As usual thanks for reading, spread the word, and STAY SAFE!
Thanksgiving may be a few days away but this week it feels like Christmas has come early! I have had the chance to get some really neat stuff and experience some very cool things.
First my brother-in-law Adam has recently just returned from his military deployment aboard the USS Enterprise. Adam is a Ship Board Firefighter in the United States Navy and this was the last deployment of the USS Enterprise. On top of that being cool enough they had to ride through Super Storm Sandy! Well Adam brought back a gift for me here it is
HOW COOL IS THAT it is the Challenge coin for the Enterprise Firefighters, and no offense to The Fire Critic and Ironfiremen but this goes to the front of the list for the coolest Challenge coin I have ever received. I can’t thank Adam enough and I hope that once his military service is over that he gets to realize his dream of becoming a career firefighter.
Second I got an email the other day from Brian Brush over at Fireservicewarrior.com. He said he wanted to send me a copy of the new Fire Service Warrior Foundations book, and a little something extra for helping spread the FSW message. So today I got this in the mail.
I got a copy of the book, and a Colorado 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb Shirt! I am very humbled that Brian and the other guys over at Fire Service Warrior thought to send me these things. I plan on putting myself though the foundations program and giving a full review on the blog. Thanks a bunch guys and I will see you in INDY!
Lastly today I got to participate in my first official podcast with Ryan Pennington from www.viewsfromthejumpseat.com . Our Podcast “Average Jakes Views From The Jumpseat” will be a monthly podcast on Firehouse.com and will be a street level podcast for the and from the firefighter perspective. To say I am excited would be an understatement. This has been the culmination of a lot of skyping, meeting, hard work, and conversation, and I think the finished product will be one that everyone will be able to enjoy. I want to thank Ryan for involving me on this venture as we have never met in person only through texting,email, skype and twitter. He took a chance on a complete stranger and we have even become friends throughout this process. Another big thanks goes out to Peter Mathews the editor of Firehouse.com for the chance to do this. So stay tuned every month to Firehouse.com for the show and please send a TON of feedback.
Well that is all for tonight. As usual thanks for reading, spread the word, and STAY SAFE!
Like I said in the last post it is that time of year again. The weather is getting colder, and people are finding creative ways to heat their home. In order to properly meet this increase in chance that we may go to a fire in these months we have to understand how frequent these fires occur and become familiar with the types of fires we can be faced with, as each are different and dynamic.
Here are two documents put out by the United States Fire Administration that are worth the read:
An average of 50,000 heating fires occur in residential buildings each year in the United States.
These fires peak in January and decrease in the Summer months.
Confined Fires (Chimney, wood stove) accounted for 87% of these fires.
30% of the non confined fires occurred due to combustibles being to close to the heating source.
The rubber meets the road in that we have no idea how people are going to heat their homes. They could maintain their chimneys and fire places, or they could be using several space heaters, we simply do not know. Yet we have to be ready to respond and react to all of these varying types fo fires, in a dynamic environment. Like everything we do preparation is key.
This time of year more than ever when we get invited into homes for the hundreds and thousands of EMS runs we respond to, take a minuet to take a look around. Is there a fire in the fire-place? What material are they burning? Space Heaters? Kerosene Heaters? Level of contents in the structure? (more stuff in the house, more stuff to burn, bigger fire) If you are in an apartment complex or neighborhood, you can probably guess that if this family is heating their home a certain way then other families in the area are doing the same, and it can give you a clue as to what you may encounter if going to a fire in these buildings.
Additionally do some reading on the types of space heaters, and other ancillary heating devices available. A simple trip to your local hardware store will give you an idea on why types of heaters you will be facing. The people who work there may even be able to give you some valuable information.
Just like with anything else we have to consider the tactical changes we must anticipate during this time of year and involving fires like the aforementioned. Most people do not heat rooms they do not live in, so space heaters typically reside in bedrooms, and other living spaces. That makes these high target areas for victims, but also for heavy fire conditions. Like I mentioned before the amount and type of contents inside a structure has a direct correlation with the possibility to have a fire (contents to close to heating element). You can not ignore the attic either as in cases of chimney fires the chimney insulation may not be adaquet to keep the heat from igniting the attic contents. If you attic is anything like mine then you know how major a fire that can be! Newer chimneys are more susceptible to this as the construction has changed, and usually instead of true masonry chimneys you have metal pipes with masonry facade to give you the classic look but not the classic insulation.
There is a lot of information to cover, and adjustments to make during this season, make sure you take the time to set your engine company up for success and focus your drills on topics like this, and other similar topics.
As usual thanks for reading, spread the word, and STAY SAFE!
It is just about that time! The air is cold, the days are shorter, and you can smell the wood burning in the air. That is right folks WINTER IS BACK! Around here we refer to winter as fire season, as the chances of going to a fire are significantly increased by people using a variety of methods to heat their homes.
I have seen everything from your standard wood stove/fireplace, to people leaving their oven door open to heat there homes and apartments. These creative methods of heating can create a huge increase in call loads, and cal types for us from chimney fires, to burn patients.
It takes a ton of extra preparation on our end to be ready for these responses here are a few older posts where I outline some tips on how to survive the winter:
Those above posts point out just a few things to put into play before you try to tackle winter fireground operations.
Bottom line is the winter makes everything we do that much tougher, its cold, dark more hours of the day than light, and did I mention it is cold? Well then we add snow, ice, freezing rain, wind and the stakes of the game just got upped! It is hard enough for some people to pull a hoseline on a normal day, now add in a few inches of snow or a slippery surface and this task just west from tough to dangerous. Many a fireman have been put out of the job, or on the light duty shelf during the winter time.
Also take into account what we know about response times, building construction, and fire behavior. Fires are going to burn at the same rate during this time yet, during times of precipitation our response times, and deployment of resources (companies, people, hoselines) is slowed to a crawl. With everything going slower yet our enemy moving at the same rate of speed, we have to adjust our tactics, let me say that again, WE HAVE TO ADJUST OUR TACTICS! We can not go about these fires the same when our response and deployment times are doubled and even tripled in some cases.
We have to overcome these factors with increased training, and planning. Instead of just pulling hoselines on flat land during your training, pull them up a hill. I know some places even have restrictions on training in poor weather conditions, but if we are expected to fight in these conditions I feel like we should embrace them. Im not saying do 3 hour drills in the snow, but if it snows maybe pull a line and then pack it back, go out in the dark and pull some lines, or at minimum go outside with your turnout gear and walk around to see how difficult it is to walk around in the snow and how much you have to adjust. Just doing these small things could make the difference in someone’s life, or the building becoming a parking lot.
So now is the time to get geared up and ready, because this winter has already been bad for some, and it could be a rough one after the mild one we had in my area last year.
As usual thanks for reading, spread the word, STAY SAFE, and STAY WARM!
As i have said many many times on this blog, I hate working out. I flat-out hate it, every mile I run, every weight I lift none of it is fun for me. I do it because the job requires a high level of fitness, and I want to be the best I can be for my family, the people I work with, their families, and of course the citizens we serve. I would never be able to live with my self if my fitness level was the reason someone died. There are many factors we can not control on the fireground, but your physical fitness is one of them, if you are not in shape you have no one to blame but you.
With that being said I do love competition, and accomplishment and today I got to experience both of those.
This morning at 7:45 am I stepped off on my very first Half Marathon. This madness started as a part of my wifes brilliant idea to run a full marathon at Disney World in January of 2013. I didn’t want to run a full without ever running a half so we did some reasearch and found one that fit our schedule.
It was a long, hard, chilly, yet satisfying. Most of my training runs at this distance had been in 2 hour 15min range, so I had tempered expectations. However for some reason my pace was a lot faster than the training runs, and at the end of the day I finished with a time of 1hour 59mins and 9 secs!!!! While it was not by much I ran a sub 2 hour Half Marathon! This was a major accomplishment for me, and I was very happy to do so well. Even better about 28mins later my wife crossed the finish line and I was glad I got to see her and cheer for her while she finished up.
Here are a few pics.
All in all it was a good day. Like I said in the beginning this is not fun for me, I didn’t enjoy it. I do not get this euphoric feeling from working out or running races. However it is important, if firefighting is a house then fitness is the foundation of that house. Even if you do not care about yourself do it for the guys you work with, the citizens you serve, your family, your co workers family find some reason to get into shape. Your goal doesn’t have to be getting on a pin-up calender, or even running a personal best race. It should be for fireground performance, and to be healthy enough at the end of your career to enjoy the retirement you earned. It is never to late to start, SO START TODAY!
As usual thanks for reading, spread the word, and STAY SAFE!
Average Jake Firefighter Blog 
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