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".