The Combat Ready Company Officer – Player and a Coach

By:  Brian Brush

With the roll out of the Fire Service Warrior fitness program and the presentation of our belief that firefighters are industrial athletes I see an opportunity to make some connections.

A professional football team follows a general preparation plan for competition. They start with a preseason program of strength and conditioning; they study of general strategies of offense, defense, and special teams, and do countless drills in practice. This program then becomes more refined as the season approaches and further focused upon the start of the season to specific prep for each week’s opponent. The focused week planning is what I want to draw on since it best reflects our profession and our continuous season.

The Company Officer is both a player and a coach therefore he or she must both prepare and plan. In the week prior to a game the head coach is hitting it hard. Players will be practicing and conducting workouts, the head coach is also spending extra hours pouring over game films, reworking play books, and planning specific strategies to counter the talents and exploit weaknesses of the opponent. I think that this is an excellent model of planning for the company officer and can provide you a quick example.

In my firehouse my assignment is not fixed; I rotate between the engine and the truck. We work a 48 on 96 off schedule. The 48 is called a set and the 96 a four day. I will work 6 sets on the engine then 6 sets on the truck which is roughly a month. So as an example, it is my last set for my rotation on the engine. In the morning I will go on four day to return to start my month on the truck. I want to apply that head coach planning to my preparation for the change in assignment.

Take a good look at the rosters and the match-ups:

• Take your staffing and match it to your expectations on scene. Preassignments are not always so cut and dry. The true talents of an individual may be more important than what seat they are in.

 Study the films:

• There is no shortage of video today, gain experience from others. Watch each video from different angles of thought or duty, take notes, develop plans and ideas then share.
• Flat roof training review- A short video I made based on the flat roof portion of my ventilation class paired with an idea for a flat roof prop and plan for a drill - http://youtu.be/OXmoRLOfoBk
• 7,9,8 Cut video- A real time representation of proper flat roof cut procedure and saw handling technique - http://youtu.be/rIBMAURz4h0
• Helmet camera footage of a peaked ventilation operation on an actual incident. If you aren’t getting these experiences first hand this might be the next best thing -http://youtu.be/NniLmq3sIp0

 Prepare and review the playbook:

• The 40 yard line with 2 minutes left is too late for planning and the fireground is even less forgiving. Get your plan on paper then put it in practice, this is a two step process. You must test your plan with your people before you will know if it works.

Alright now it is game time and I am heading in to work to start my shift on the truck. I got my mind prepared for truck company roles and responsibilities. I have my line up set with the best people in the best spots. Once we are done with our truck check we can sit down and discuss some assignments maybe even watch a few videos as a crew, then we are going to do a few drills before lunch. Eventually the time will come where this model is tested and because of your preparation you will be successful and start chalking up the wins. Will the guys give you a hard time because you think you are Lieutenant Ditka? No, because this is just a thought process and a planning model. No one but you needs to know what your approach is they just need to see it through on game day.

©2011 Brian Brush (Text and Images) - All rights reserved

Something Doesn't Look Right Here....

Interesting Size-Up Video



I came upon this video and thought it was worth a discussion.  We don't often get video of before the fire department arrives.  I have a question here, and if someone sees something I don't please tell me.

I see a four story apartment building, at least 8 units, with a free burning vented fire on the first floor.  There are occupied apartments on the upper floors (we can see the lights are on).  I see a main entrance door in the middle of the building.  One would expect that there are scissor stairs (or possibly straight run stairs if there are two apartments to a side) that run all the way up.  What I don't understand is why we attack this fire from the front porch.

The responsibility of the first line is to protect the interior exposures and secure the stairwell.  There very well may be occupants above this fire.  Knocking it down from the front porch MAY lead to a quick darkening down, but it still neglects a major tactical point of protecting the stairs.

I'm seriously wondering if I'm missing something here, so if you see anything please chime in.

Cheers

Video Blog Episode 11

Video Blog Episode 11

Did you hear something?

Here's a video I found the other day on YouTube.  Give it a watch and see if you can pick up on the one major thing that is not being properly addressed.






What do you think?





If you said the activated PASS device with no attention... you are 100% correct.  I don't do too much criticizing of a department's activities or response for a few reasons 1) I probably was not at the fire and 2) I recognize that a video posted on the internet only shows a glimpse of the overall operation.  This one is easy to pick apart though.

The point of a PASS device is to let us know one of our own in trouble.  If an SCBA is left on the bumper of a rig or the curb of a building with a PASS activating and no one reacting to it then quickly ANY PASS activation begins to be treated like a car alarm.  It is ignored; it is an annoyance; it is no longer effective as a sign of an Emergency.  Just like the problem building with a fire alarm system that activates four times a week lulls us into complacency so to do life safety devices (like the PASS) that are treated in a careless manner.  What if a firefighter in the structure had an emergency?  Would anyone have payed attention to another PASS sounding on the fireground.  Probably not in a timely manner.

So your lesson for today brothers and sisters is to make sure those PASS devices are emergency devices.  If yours goes off, secure it.  If a brother or sister allows theirs to activate needlessly, remind them to secure it. Make sure that device is a call to alarm, and doesn't turn into the "Boy Who Cried Wolf".

Bread and Butter Fire Attack

Pretty decent little fire attack.


Okay, this really is a bread and butter fire attack for every fire department in the country.  One story, frame, occupied, probably 25' by 30'.  The front room is involved, but the smoke doesn't look ugly from what you can see on the video.  The nozzleman does a reasonable job of leading out, and the fire is knocked quickly.  I like the entry through the front door.  It's faster than trying to get around to the rear (did you see the fence?) and also makes sure your Engine is doing a primary of the likely escape route if there was someone inside.

They get up and open the roof fairly quickly.  To my way of thinking that is a two person roof job but I know some departments prefer to send a larger crew.  All in all a nice little video of what happens when we get water on the fire.

Think about what you would do if things were different.
Mental Rehearsal number 1: Let's say you pull up as the first Engine.  You are the experienced nozzleman  and your officer is a bit of a worrier.  As you step off the rig and take a look you go to stretch and the officer says, "Hit it from the window first."  Does that sound like a good idea?  Is this a fire that needs a defensive to offensive mode of operation to make it safe?  No.  Be ready to step up and say, "If we put the line in the window we are going to push fire into the house. We can get this one boss."

Mental Rehearsal number 2:  What would you do as the Truck if you were first on scene and there was someone standing on the front lawn saying, "The baby is in the back room!"  Are you waiting for the Engine?  Obviously not waiting for water will put you in a situation that could become untenable quickly.  Waiting for water could mean the kid dies.  I think this is one of those situations where you do some RECON and see if you can make the grab.  You have 600 square feet tops here.  Based on the smoke the door to the fireroom may be closed.  If not, you may be able to scurry down the hall with a can and get control of the door.  Even a hollow-core door will buy you a few minutes to do a primary back towards the front of the house.

My only "do better" on this video is that I hate to see people getting off the rig with their SCBA Facepiece on.  I know MSA has the ability to let you breathe ambient air,  but the mask limits your peripherial vision and makes it much harder to take in the big picture.  Look at the guy running up to the door with the axe.  Running on the fireground should only be away from the building, otherwise you are moving forward faster than you can visually process.  Take the second to don your mask prior to making entry, that way you can slow down and "pull your boots up" the way generations of folks did.  It gives you that second to get a sense of the whole scene and prepare for the job.

Again, just my two cents.  Cheers!

Training Video Time, Kids!

Watch what happens at roughly the :45sec mark.


This is why we don't vent behind the Engine!  By the 1:18 mark you can see that there was an Engine Company inside making what was probably a very difficult push to the seat of the fire.  Even with the failed window in the fire room there was still a tremendous amount of heat in the front.  Read the smoke!  It's pushing out under pressure from the front of the building.  This is one of those times we have to open the roof!

Most departments out there are operating at a deficit when it comes to responding manpower.  There aren't enough people to go around.  Regardless we have to figure out a deployment that allows us to open the building up properly.  You'll see once they are outside and choose a defensive attack (any attack made from outside the building is defensive) it takes roughly :10sec of water to get a knock on the fire room that was causing the problem.

Once one interior room has flashed over the rate of heat transfer to the rest of the house skyrockets.  Think of it like your oven.  Until the thing heats up you can set potatoes in there bare handed all day long.  Once it is 400 degrees though it gets warm just standing in front of the open door.  The interior of the fire building is the same way, just that room that flashed is radiating 1500 degrees or more into the rest of the house.

Back to the embed video.  About the 4:00 mark you see two guys head to the roof and then hear the saw running.  We can see that the D side still has a well seated fire.  At 5:02 we see a member venting the front gable window of the 1/2 story (which is probably occupied living space).  There is probably the same window in the rear.  These windows aren't the best for "vertical" ventilation, but they do pop the cap and start to relieve some of the pressure.  They may be better than not having any kind of top side opening.  The primary concern has to be not dragging the fire into unburned areas where victims may still be.  However given the level of fire development there is little chance that without venting those windows anyone on the second floor would live long.  We have to control the environment!

As you continue to watch the video there are some questionable choices made.  Why?  Lack of Situational Awareness!  Do we perceive, comprehend and predict what is going on? This is one of those videos to sit down and have a shift drill with.  Talk about what is going on and then how you would handle the fire if it was in your town.

As always it is easy to Monday morning quarterback someone's fire and pick out things that could have gone differently.  However only by looking at these things do we have the opportunity to learn from the experiences of others.  How many fires have you been to this month, or even this year?  These videos, and hopefully my blog, are the mental rehearsal opportunities I keep talking about.  Make the most of every fire you can watch and review.  It's no different that a professional athlete watching game video!  Make the most of every fire you see.

Just some thoughts and a good video. Cheers and be safe.

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.