Friday, April 30, 2010

The FSW Logbook


When I first found out I was going to be starting as a full-time firefighter I sat down to have a drink with a friend, fellow Instructor, and mentor, a retired Deputy District Chief of the Chicago Fire Department. He said, "Tim, Keep a journal." (At the time the Chief thought my name was Tim, which has since become a running joke. When he asked me why I didn't correct him I said, "Chief, I'm just honored to be having a beer with you, you can call me anything you want.") I did that intermittently in the form of writing about significant fires and blogging occasionally. In 2009 I finally decided to start keeping a log of the fires I go to every year. It is a great tool.


 

If you workout seriously you keep a log. You record your sets and reps and weight loads, or you keep track of mileage and time. The idea is to measure progress. The Fire Service Warrior can gain the same kind of advantage from recording the fires and significant incidents he responds to. The FSW Log Book can be a spiral notebook, a binder with loose-leaf sheets, or on a computer. I record my runs on an Excel spreadsheet.



My agency responds to an average of 111.5 Structure Fires per year (in the time I've worked there). I respond to an average of 25. In those responses I may be on the pipe, I may be driving the Truck, I maybe the Engineer of the Still Engine. The Log book helps me keep track of these experiences and learn from them.

Most of us fulfill multiple roles on any fireground, and change positions from shift to shift, or call to call. How many sets and reps are you getting on the Nozzle? How many as the Engineer? How many as the Outside Vent? If you are shifting assignments regularly keeping a log book gives you something you can reference back to; a tool to remember the lessons and learn from them.

At a minimum record the date, address, construction, and your basic observations. How detailed you are depends on what matters for you. This isn't for public consumption, it's your lessons learned. Some folks will need to record more information. I record just some basic memory joggers. Hope this can be one more tool in the toolbox. Cheers!

  





Wednesday, April 28, 2010

NIST Staffing Study

So I have had a chance to read most of the NIST Staffing Study that was released today (I have not spent a lot of time reviewing all the appendices yet) and I have some initial thoughts.

Nothing in this report will come as a surprise to anyone in the fire service. The quick recap is that if you meet NFPA 1710 Standard for four-person companies and 15 people on scene you will be able to effectivly and efficently control a fire in a 2000 square foot, two story residence.

The two most important pieces of data collected (in my opinion) are the "Time to Water on Fire" and "Primary Search".  Getting water on the fire is what makes or breaks the fireground operation.  Primary Search is our best chance of finding savable victims inside the building. 

The results documented by NIST show us that it takes 0:10:16 (h:mm:ss) for a 2 person crew to get water on the fire, 0:09:15 for a three person crew, 0:08:41 for a four person crew, and 0:08:01 for a five person crew.  That is a 10% greater efficiency for 3 people than for 2 and 16% more effective for 4 people than for 2.  Those are interesting numbers, but the time savings becomes critical when we think about flashover.  Fire doubles in size every minute.  If we can cut two minutes off of our time to get water on the fire we have kept the fire from quadrupling in size.  A two minute difference in fire development is the difference between a 25 square foot fire (the corner of a bedroom) and a fully-involved floor.  That is huge!

A three person crew can start a primary search 25% faster than a  2 person crew (0:12:16 for a two person crew vs. 0:09:10 for a three person crew) and a 4 person crew can start 30% faster (0:12:16 for two vs. 0:08:47 for a four person crew).  Once again let's look at the time though.  A four person crew is able to start a primary roughly 3 and a half minutes faster than a two person crew.  If we start taking about the effects on the brain of hypoxia any chance of finding a victim more 3 minutes faster means the difference between a rescue and a removal.

There are plenty of Municipal Officials and Fire Chiefs who will dismiss these results as being "unscientific" because they don't want to say to their population, "Your kids and your house are not worth what it would cost to put four people on a rig.  Good luck."  It's time for elected officials and those sycophant Chiefs who see it as their job to save their own jobs to own up and acknowledge the facts.  If you under staff your Fire Companies you are saying that you do not value the lives of your citizens or your firefighters more than your pet projects and hiring your cronies.

It's a damn shame that none of those bottom feeders will even read this report, and that the media will gloss over it in favor of reporting exactly what one of Tiger Wood's mistresses is having for dinner.  Take care of yourselves Brothers and Sisters.

Staffing Study Released

The NIST Staffing Study has been released.  You can find it HERE!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

More Decision Making Thoughts

A structure fire is a dynamic microcosm; a world in and of itself, where the properties of Chemistry and Physics develop by consuming the structure. As Fire Service Warriors it is our Duty to quench this unrestrained chemical chain reaction. The fireground is a chaotic environment and we must make critical tactical decisions to bring it under control. If we are going to be effective in suppression fires in a manner that saves lives, and conserves property, we need to understand on an intuitive level what exactly is occurring in the building. We need to look at the fireground as a system. Systems are defined as, "an assemblage or combination of things or parts forming a complex or unitary whole" A structure fire is a system where the combination of: the chemistry of fire behavior; the physics of heat transfer and the movement of gasses in a container; gravity; and the type and quality of the construction of the building, all play a factor in how a fire will develop. In fighting the fire we are attempting to disrupt the natural chemical chain reaction that allows the development of fire, but in doing this we must consider the effects the other components of the system have on our ability, and the effect we have on each component of the system individually and as a whole.

This idea is nothing new. Fire Departments have recognized for many years how interdependent all of these factors are. We teach our folks the importance of coordinated fireground operations and the impact we can have on the whole operation if we do something at the wrong time. A mistimed horizontal ventilation opening in a building that is super heated but oxygen deficient can lead to a Backdraft; if we begin flowing water onto the seat of a well developed fire prior to opening the building up we can force steam down on our people and any victims that may be inside; if we have a basement fire in a building with a large open cockloft we need to make sure that the fire isn't running the cockloft unnoticed.

The difficultly we face in this day and age is that developing a deep understanding of all of these interrelated factors takes experience, and experience takes time to develop. Statistics show us that we are seeing less structure fires. While less fires is a WONDERFUL thing for the communities we serve it has a negative impact on the ability for our Fire Service Warriors to gain the experience they need to synthesize all of this information into a usable whole. Firemen have a trade in the same way Electricians, Carpenters, and Plumbers do. We perform physical tasks to complete a job. This is blue collar work; we use tools and get dirty. We need to consider for a moment that it takes five years of being an Apprentice before an Electrician is considered skilled enough to be trusted on his own, and become a Journeyman. How many 90° Bends will an Apprentice Electrician make in that time; how many 2"x4" Studs will the Apprentice Carpenter nail in place; how many copper joints will the Apprentice Plumber sweat? Each of these tradesmen will likely perform these skills thousands of times during their Apprenticeship, while being supervised and counseled along the way. They will be shown the skill in school and have to demonstrate competency before they are allowed in the field. Then, every year they will return to the schoolhouse to continue to develop their knowledge base and expand their understanding of how an Electrical "System" or a Plumbing "System" or a Framing "System" works. They will be measured and tested and have to demonstrate their abilities both on the job and in written tests. Sound familiar?

There are some key differences in the job of a construction tradesman and a Fire Service Warrior that we have to consider. How many structure fires will the average Apprentice Firefighter fight? How many times will you get to be the Nozzleman, the Outside Vent Man, or the Irons? Will your performance be discussed and critiqued in a way that allows you to learn not only from your experiences, but from the experience of the senior members of your department? In 2009 I personally responded to 25 working fires (I keep a log). That's really not a whole lot when you think about it. Everything we do comes down to the weight lifting concept of sets and repetitions. The more perfect practices of a particular "rep" the better our form gets and the more intuitive the process becomes. How many fireground sets and reps are you getting? In those 25 fires I served in a variety of roles from Engineer to Nozzleman to Search Team to Ventilation Team. How many fires are you responding too? I know in my area that there are entire Departments that aren't seeing 25 fires in a year. We simply do not spend time "in combat" on a regular basis to develop our experience base. What are you doing to make the most of the fires you are getting? Are you recording your lessons learned and thinking about how you can improve your fireground decision making and performance? As a department are you conducting drills and scenario driven training? We have to consider that with a reduction in working structure fires, unless we are spending significant time on the drill ground, and studying their trade, our Fire Service Warriors are not getting the opportunity to practice their skills, synthesize their experiences, and develop the confidence needed to make timely decisions.

In this Chapter I will use the words synthesis and synthesizing quite a bit. Synthesis is, "the combining of the constituent elements of separate material or abstract entities into a single or unified entity (opposed to analysis)." Synthesis, stated another way, is when we create something new out of a collection of ideas, images, signs, or symbols. Conversely analysis is, "the separating of any material or abstract entity into its constituent elements (opposed to synthesis)." So, synthesis can be thought of as assembling a whole while analysis is breaking something down into parts. Think of a jigsaw puzzle. You start with a collection of pieces in a box. Individually the pieces have little or no meaning. As you begin to assemble the pieces however a new "whole" begins to emerge in the assembled image. Most people who assemble puzzles however engage in analysis as well. They study the picture on the front of the box so that they know what the whole is supposed to look like. In this way they are able to recognize patterns as they emerge and place them in relatively "correct" positions while finding more parts. When we are synthesizing into a new whole all the individual images on the fireground it is as if we are trying to assemble a puzzle where there is no top of the box picture, and even if there is some concept of what the finished product will look like, someone keeps cutting pieces into different shapes while we are looking at them.

It is obvious that the fireground is a dynamic environment. We cannot rely on a single mental image of conditions, or on one boilerplate plan for every fire. In order to make reasonably well informed decisions, we need to understand the role that Situational Awareness plays in our ability to stay safe on the fireground. We must recognize the role our personal condition plays in our capacity to make decisions. While it seems obvious to say, we need to develop a dynamic thought process that is an aid when we are analyzing the incomplete and imperfect information that is available on the fireground. In order to think in a dynamic fashion we need to have a solid foundation in our basic skills, the "Fundamentals" we discussed in Chapter Four. Without those "Fundamentals" we cannot have a reasonable Self-Confidence. As well known survival skill instructor Bruce Siddle has said, "Confidence implies a mental state which is void of fear, anxiety or self doubt." If you do not have confidence in your skills and capability on the fireground you are more likely to be overwhelmed on the fireground. Being overwhelmed leads to the dreaded "paralysis of analysis". Our decisions have real-world, life or limb threatening consequences. If you make a bad decision it can kill you or put you in a burn unit. That doesn't include the likelihood of a bad decision resulting in the death of one of our "customers" or the unneeded destruction of property. For some people this very real factor inhibits their decision making ability. They worry about making the wrong decision and in the end delay or avoid making a decision all together. The United States Marine Corps, in their doctrinal publication Warfighting (MCDP-1), address this very real concern.

If we fail to make a decision out of lack of will, we have willingly surrendered the initiative to our foe. If we consciously postpone taking action for some reason, that is a decision. Thus, as a basis for action, any decision is generally better than no decision.


 

This same concept hold true on the fireground. Fire is our foe; it is our enemy. Our enemy has the capacity to seize the initiative if we allow it to through our inaction or delay. We need to acknowledge that decision making is a skill set that comes naturally to some and not to others. This is a realization of the wide variety of individual personal traits, not a value judgment. Just because you do not naturally make a quick decision doesn't make you a bad person, or even a bad firefighter.

My wife hates the fact that I make decisions in 30 seconds or less. She thinks about options, analyzes, I would say agonizes, and in general hates to be rushed to judgment. When we first met she did not understand how, if I was presented with a list of three options, I would pick something before she even finished reading the list. I finally explained it to her like this: In my job I have to make decisions in a fraction of a second, and I have to trust my life with those decisions. When you look at life that way it tends to stream line the thought process. My wife is a First Grade Teacher. Unlike the world we operate in there is rarely an event that has to be handled instantly to avoid disastrous consequences. She cannot make a quick decision that fails to consider what the long term effects may be on a particular student. Her attitude is that she is there as much to teach her kids how to be students as much as it is to teach them phonics. With that understanding she cautiously evaluates options to see how they will impact the learning environment over the course of years. Our two styles are the difference between Strategic Planning and Emergency Operations. When we are developing long-range strategic plans, such as capital investment, or a potential reduction in service, we need to slow down the thought process and ensure that all options have be weighed and measured for their downstream effects. Conversely when we are focused on emergency operations, we will have to make decisions without 100% of the data, and do it in a timely manner. The 60% correct answer right now is often more effective than the 100% right answer two minutes too late.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Apparatus Positioning

The embedded video from Sacramento Fire is a textbook example of Apparatus Placement.

This works because the Engine Company is able to stretch off the rear.  If they had pulled a cross-lay the Truck would not have had the front of the building.

Be Safe.


Saturday, April 24, 2010

Line of Duty Death Reports

NIOSH has recently released their report of the Houston Fire Department Line of Duty Deaths that occurred on April 12, 2009.  The report can be found here: NIOSH LODD F2009-11
The Texas State Fire Marshal's report can be found here: Texas Fire Marshal Report

Some interesting points are made about the rapid changes in conditions that can occur because of wind driven fires.

Honor our fallen brothers by learning the lessons from their loss.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Interesting Training Video


Find more videos like this on firevideo.net

This is an excellent video to work on your size-up skills.
What is the building construction?
How big is the building?
Where is the fire?

Now, as the fire unfolds think about your assignment on the fireground and what you would be/should be doing based on conditions.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Progress Report

Just a quick update on conditions.

Progress on the book is moving forward steadily.  I have sent my introduction, Chapter 1 and 2 to some of my inside crew for review and I am working on selecting photos for those Chapters.  Thanks to Dennis Walus of Detroit Fireground Images for his additions!  I am in the middle of a big rewrite on Chapter 3 to incorporate a bunch of research.

I've developed a 3 hour version of the Fireground Tactical Decision Making class and have presented the core class to over 120 participants.

Be Safe.