Are You?

I had a phone conversation with a Brother a few weeks back and he asked me, "Do you consider yourself a Warrior?"  I paused and considered it for a second and said that I did.  He said he didn't feel like he was because there were still holes in his game: he didn't know EVERY sprinkler hook up in his first due, things like that.  That conversation and a follow-up email got me thinking and I feel like I need to define more clearly just what it is to be a Fire Service Warrior.

I think being a Fire Service Warrior is a state of mind, a sense of purpose, rather than a piece of paper that hangs on the wall that says you have learned some defined set of technical skills.  Being a Fire Service Warrior is a living thing, you have to feed it an nurture it for it to continue.  Maybe you have reached an elite level of fitness and wear you SCBA all the time, but if you start to slack off you are not embracing the dedication that it take to be a Fire Service Warrior.

So, I think if you take an honest look at yourself and say, "I am doing my best everyday," then you are on that Warrior path.  We all falter at times.  We all have days were our get up and go has got up and went.  One of the challenges is when you are trying to follow a warrior lifestyle alone.  We are communal creatures.  We perform better when we are encouraged and validated by our peers, and ultimately we work harder when we don't want to let down another member of the team.  This is why its motivating to have a partner that you workout with or study with.  You push each other.

So, that brings me to the new project that we are undertaking through Spartan Concepts, Inc. The Fire Service Warrior Apprenticeship. 

The Fire Service Warrior Apprenticeship is an educational path that promotes and develops critical knowledge, skills, and abilities which improve the individual firefighter’s ability to thrive on the fireground.  The Apprenticeship program includes formal courses in fire service topics, development of elite levels of functional fitness, development of intuitive decision making and mindfulness skills, and development of resiliency and endurance for the physical, mental, and emotional challenges faced by the Fire Service Warrior.

Apprentices are guided in their training by the Ethos of the Fire Service Warrior.

·         Fire Service Warriors accept the duty to stand between their neighbors and unrestrained fire.

·         Fire Service Warriors acknowledge the dangers of their vocation and do everything possible to minimize those dangers except shirk our duty.

·         Fire Service Warriors believe that all human life has value and will do everything possible to save a human life.

·         Fire Service Warriors know that buildings do not spontaneously combust; if we aren't 100% sure the building is vacant WE SEARCH.

·         Fire Service Warriors acknowledge that to reduce the risk of Cardiac Compromise they will maintain an elite level of fitness.

·         Fire Service Warriors wear seat belts, helmet straps, SCBA, and all PPE.

·         Fire Service Warriors train EVERYDAY.

·         Fire Service Warriors own their responsibility to their Brothers and Sisters.

·         Fire Service Warriors honor our fallen by learning everything possible from their deaths and from the injuries and near misses of our compatriots.

·         Fire Service Warriors acknowledge the reputation of the fire service was earned by those who came before us, often at the cost of their lives, and strive to never tarnish that reputation.

The Apprenticeship includes daily fitness and self-study training, weekly group sessions for the presentation of topics and group physical training, open communication with Instructors and fellow students, and the Agoge.  The Agoge is a 52 hour workshop presented over a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday where Apprentices receive mentoring and are tested for the skills of physical, mental, and emotional resiliency and endurance.  The objective of the Agoge is to have each apprentice demonstrate the capacity to perform under simulated emergency response conditions for a 48-hour period.  Each Apprentice MUST successfully complete the Agoge to be eligible for graduation from the Apprenticeship and elevation to the Journeyman level.

Individuals interested in participating in the Apprenticeship:

1.     Must be an active member of a Fire Department

2.     Must be certified to the Firefighter II/Basic Operations Firefighter Level or equivalent

3.     Submit a written letter of interest to info@spartan-concepts.com including a current resume, list of all education and certifications held, and an essay describing your goals as a firefighter and your reason for wanting to attend the apprenticeship.

More information is available for those interested in participating in the Apprenticeship program.  The first Apprentice class will commence in the Fall of 2011.  Those interested should submit a resume and essay as required through Spartan Concepts.

See you at FDIC.

Grace Under Pressure

The fire service lost a great Officer, Instructor, and Warrior yesterday with the passing of Ray Hoff, retired Chicago Fire Department Battalion Chief, former Chief of the Topinabee (Michigan) Fire Department, and Field Staff Instructor for the Illinois Fire Service Institute.

Ray was a professional in every sense of the word, a Truckie to the core, and he set an example of grace under pressure.  Ray was the first Truck Officer on the scene of the Paxton Hotel Fire, March 23, 1993, as the Captain of Tower Ladder 10.  He directed the Rescue Triage of the building, he chose who would live and die.  I was an Instructor at some of the classes Ray was but I wont say I ever "Taught with him," I was as much a student as any of the candidates we had in those classes.

Ray's experience formed the basis of the "Paxton Drill" that I have participated in dozens of times.  Too many victims, too few rescuers: make decisions and execute.  At least 19 people perished at the Paxton Hotel (exact numbers are not available because some victims were believed to have been completely incinerated).

Rescues at the Paxton


Ray was also a very reflective man.  In my files someplace I have a couple of very short memoir like essays that he wrote about his experience in the City as a firefighter.  He speaks of his challenges and having to deal with the very real stress of working in communities with heavy fire duty and the fire deaths and injuries he dealt with.  While my philosophy of the Fire Service Warrior is drawn from many sources it is Ray Hoff who get's the credit for the phrase, "Controlling the Door" of your emotions.

My thoughts and prayers are with Ray's family.  His brother Bob is current Commissioner of the Chicago Fire Department, his nephew Andy is a fellow instructor and firefighter.  He was a great instrucotor and a good man.  I'm proud to have known him, and honored to have learned from him.  God Speed and Following Winds, Chief.

And now for something completely different...

We are moving the weekly video blog to Mondays!  I think that it will give each of us something to think about for the week, and to be honest it gives me some extra time to get everything put together.  Believe it or not shooting and editing these things takes time.  Hopefully when the new high-speed/low-drag laptop shows up this week I will be able to get it done a bit faster... but we will see.  For now, here is Episode 9 of the Video Blog.



One drill that I really like to use is the Line of Duty Death Book Report.  I learned this from my fellow instructors at the Illinois Fire Service Institute.  I have used it in classes and find it to be a good tool for learning lessons.  Simply chose a firefighter fatality and have a member or two from your crew research the LODD.  Have them put together s brief report and a 5-10 minute presentaion on what occured, and the lessons learned.  Try to attach the NAME of the fallen Brother or Sister to the report.  I think we take these reports more seriously when we can put a name and a face to it.  Honor our fallen by learning from the events that brought about their deaths.  Strive to be prepared every day for this job.

Cheers.

Speaking of Culture Change

So, because of some technical difficulties I did not get to shoot a FSW Video Blog this week.  Sorry, but I will be back with one next week (once my new Laptop arrives).

For today I thought I would take up the discussion of Culture Change we here so much about these days.  It is the first point in the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Life Safety Initiatives, we see blogs and articles demanding this need on a regular basis.  I've said before my issue with that statement is that it is vague.  It is an amorphous blob of an idea that can swallow up and tactic, technique, or procedure that people want to label as unsafe, hazardous, or inappropriate.  So I'm going to ask you the read, of the two following videos, which one shows a culture we should be changing in the American (the World?) fire service.

Option 1


Option 2



You be the judge.  I bet you can all guess which one I think needs changing.

Interesting first arriving video.



So, what's your size-up on this one?  Building Construction & Occupancy, Fire Location, Fire Development, Operating Mode.





Here's mine.

"Engine 1 is on the scene with a one story frame, 50 by 25, fire in the rear, possible exposure problem on the D side.  We are going into a transitional attack."

Now, I am not always a fan of transitional attacks but if we look at this scene we have obvious structural involvement, we have a lot of heat, and the attic space is charged.  IF I was told there was a victim inside I might go in a different direction (like fast attack with a primary search), but we have to consider that this building is a candidate for a ventilation controlled flashover. If we make entry through the front here we have to coordinate our ventilation and HAVE TO be able to get enough water on the seat of the fire in 60 seconds.  Why 60 seconds?  Look at the UL study Impact of Ventilation on Fire Behavior in Legacy and Contemporary Construction.  A compartmentalized building like this can see conditions become untenable in 70 seconds and flashover within another 30 seconds.

This is why I keep coming back to our Fireground Capacity.  Capacity is our ability to provide service on the fireground.  Some departments have the skills, abilities, and the manpower to execute an interior attack on a fire like this, most won't.  We need to understand the capacity of our department and our companies.

As a reminder the Fire Department Instructors Conference is right around the corner.  I will be presenting Situational Awareness on Monday from 1300 to 1700 in Rooms 109-110 and The Ready Position on Wednesday from 1330 to 1515 in Rooms 234-235.  Please come on by, check out the programs, and introduce yourself.  I plan on being at the ISFSI Event on Tuesday, the FOOLS Brotherhood Bash on Wednesday evening and will be running in the Courage & Valor run on Thursday.  I look forward to seeing you there.

Four Dimensional Firefighting

Since this is my 100th blog post I've decided to take up a bit of a heavier topic.  I'm going to ask you to indulge me.  Read the whole post.  Yes, some of the suggestions and ideas might strike you as "out there", others might be downright unbelievable.  This fact is true though, like all the other elements I have researched, explored, and studied; I have done my homework.

Warriors have a unique ability to understand their place on the battlefield with a depth that exceeds the typical combatant.  The combatant who has received a basic level of skill training will stand ready to go into combat and engage in battle with direct supervision and within very confined parameters.  Warriors have been seen as different from the ordinary combatant because of the Warrior's ability to think with greater independence and anticipate the unfolding battle.

In the fire service we have begun recognizing the importance of having that deeper understanding of the unfolding dynamic that is the fire ground.  The current buzz-words to find favor in describing this capacity is Situational Awareness.  Situational Awareness is an evolutionary step forward from what we have traditionally done with Size-Up.    If we look at how we have taught size-up it has involved a checklist of items to recognize.  Topics like Building Constructing and Occupancy have logically been examined together, and occasionally we have added in Fire Behavior.  We have not always done a good job of explaining how components like Auxiliary Systems and Fire Behavior are interrelated though.  Why not?

Size-up ignores a critical component of Situational Awareness - Prediction.  Situational Awareness is a three part cognitive process: Perceive, Comprehend, Predict.  It is Observing and Understanding conditions certainly, which can be seen as the underlying focus of Size-Up, however we must also have a deeper understanding of how the dynamic of the fireground will CHANGE.  It is only once we are able to predict what happens next that we can successfully use Dr. Klein's ideas of Recognition Primed Decision Making. 

Traditionally in the fire service it has required years of experience in fire ground operations to develop this capacity.  The reasons are simple: to be able to synthesize an understanding of the whole from disparate elements requires a deep level of intuitive understanding about what occurring on the fireground.  This requires the individual to process literally hundreds of observed and implied inputs each second.  For the new firefighter the mass of data is overwhelming.  For the experienced firefighter, or fire ground commander, who has been striving to amass the Patterns that Dr. Klein wrote about it becomes easier - they have experience; they have seen it before.

If we jump into the world of education for a moment we can refer to Bloom's Taxonomy, a classification of objectives in education based on the level (depth if you will)y of understanding.  We progress from the Basic Skills Application phase through more advanced applications of skills.  At the top of the affective domains is the ability to CREATE.  When we begin to really examine how to improve our cognition in the highly dynamic modern fireground we have to be able to CREATE (or Synthesize) an understanding of the whole of the fireground.

The Fire, The Building, Your Location and Situation, The Location and Impact of Others (everyone else on the fireground) on the Situation.

While Standard Operating Guidelines, Engine and Truck Company Policies and Procedures, and the ability to use fundamental skills is critical we must begin to go beyond these tasks.  The aforementioned elements, coupled with an understanding of the skill of maintaining Situational Awareness will give each of our firefighters a significantly improved chance of safely navigating the modern fireground.  However if we truly want to unlock the ability to be fully-developed, self-actualized, Fire Service Warriors we have to take another step.

Embracing the Fourth Dimension 
 A study of Warriors going back centuries will show that some of the best Warrior groups (the Spartans, the Samurai, etc.) in addition be being well trained combatants were also deeply spiritual and philosophical men.  It was with the exploration of non-combatant skills that the individual was able to attain previously unheard of levels of battlefield prowess and cognition.  It is time we begin teaching our Fire Service Warriors skills like meditation, visualization, and mindfulness.  This is a blog post and not a book, so I'm going to just touch on these ideas.  Go and try them, investigate, read, and see how these skills will work for you.

Mediation is a critical starting point.  Meditation is about finding serenity.  Serenity is being free from unpleasant change, being utterly calm and at unaffected by circumstances.  The quintessential example of the serene person is probably the image of the Buddhist monk, Thich Quang Duc, who sat without moving as he was immolated alive after lighting himself on fire during a protest in Saigon in 1963.

Photo Copyright Malcome Browne - from the interweb

The first question to ask oneself is, "How is this possible?"  How could someone be consumed by fire and not react?  Quang Duchad put himself into a deeply meditative state that allowed him to disconnect from the normal nervous system response.

This example is extreme.  It is NOT a state of detachment that most people would be capable of attaining.  However it is an example of what one can endure if his or her mind is at peace and a true and lasting Serenity has become the primary Personal Condition.

Take 10 minutes a day, 20 minutes a day, ideally an hour a day and meditate.  Find a place to sit or lie down comfortably.  Shut off the phone, the TV, ignore the day to day hustle and bustle.  Quiet your mind and focus on the sound of your breathing.  You will find serenity.  It doesn't happen overnight; it is not easy; however once you have developed the capacity to meditate you will find that it is infinitely easier to endure whatever life throws at you without becoming disturbed.

Visualization is a proactive ability to see in your mind how things will unfold.  Tiger Woods is in a slump right now because despite millions of perfect repetitions of swinging a golf club his ability to visualize success is not there.  Visualization becomes easier when you are in a state of Serenity.  Why? Simple: the mind likes to scream out, I'm bored! Pay attention to me! It fills the quiet times with distracting images and thoughts.  That's why when you are sitting in church you find you are suddenly thinking about your grocery list.  It isn't that you don't want to embrace the message of the celebrant it's that the Ego, the "I Want", piece of your consciousness hasn't been put in time out.

Once you have become adept at achieving a serene state through mediation begin to visualize the fireground, visualize your role, visualize what others will be doing.  Use a few minutes of that 10 or 20 minutes a day and visualize the act of pulling the line, masking up at the door, entering the building, and advancing to the seat of the fire.  Visualize how the smoke will behave, where the other first due companies on the fire ground will be operating, "feel" the heat, "hear" the radio transmissions and the sound of water striking the ceiling and floors, "see" how ventilation effects the path of the fire, the viability, and the heat conditions.  Regardless of the fireground role you are preparing for spend time visualizing what other companies will be doing. Visualization IS Mental Rehearsal.  

Mindfulness is the ability to bring a state of perpetual calm, a state of Serenity, on when you are actively engaged in combat.  Your capacity to operate on the fireground has been improved by the efforts into meditation and visualization that you have practiced.  It is a reality that many of our members have "accidentally" developed the ability to be mindful on the fireground.  They have done so through experience and recognition of the need to remain calm.  I've seen this ability in many of the firefighters I've worked with.  I know from spending time listening to them that it has come about because they litterally have THOUSANDS of fireground repetitions.   There was not choice but to become adept on the fireground or quit.  There is no member who will develop this capacity accidentally in the 21st century fire house.  Why not? We don't go to that many fires.  We wont see 50 working structure fires a year for twenty years.  We will not get the sets and reps for Mindfulness to be an accidental adaptation.

Practicing the skills of Meditation and Visualization can help in the quest to develop Mindfulness.  We must also develop our ability to Endure.  This requires learning how to detach the consciousness, the cognitive process, from the physical.  One way of developing the capacity to endure is through difficult physical fitness training.  It is a fact that if you are working out hard enough to develop maximal physical capacity that you are engaged in painful and difficult work.  Your mind will scream at you to Stop!  You develop your ability to endure by ignoring the voice that says Stop by not quitting when the work hurts.  On the fireground you will engage in physical tasks that hurt; your physical body will be tormented, you must be able to still synthesize the whole of the fireground operation even though you are taxed to the maximum level of physical performance.

While there are many contemporary Warriors around the globe using these ideas I think it is worth noting that I am not the first in the fire service to see the value of this concept.  The legendary Paddy Brown, Captain FDNY, who lost his life on 9/11 was a black belt in Karate and an avid practitioner of yoga, a discipline dedicated to achieving mindfulness. There is a video here where Paddy speaks about his Yoga.  Some stellar informatinon on this brave and thoughtful Warrior's life can be found at the website for the Captain Patrick K. Brown Memorial Foundation.  Paddy Brown first gained national fame for directing the rope rescue of a man from the burning building.  He lead his company, Ladder 3 up to the 40th floor of the North Tower on 9/11.  He was among the 343 brothers who perished that day.

The Next Steps
For some of you readers the idea behind meditating, visualizing, and achieving mindfulness may be new.  If you have a background in the martial arts, or have experienced a deeply spiritual experience maybe these ideas will be more familiar.  Go out and do some reading for yourself.  Look at things like The Intuitive Warrior by Michael Jaco, The Rhythm of Life by Matthew Kelly, The Art of Happiness by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Warrior Mindset by Dr.Michael Asken, Dave Grossman, and Loren Christensen, and  The Mental Edge - Revised by Loren Christensen.  Visit the SEALFit website and look at Mark Divine's ideas into Warrior Yoga.  Go watch the DVD or listen to the audio CD of Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, "The Hero's Journey", from The Power of Myth.

As for the work here at the Fire Service Warrior site... well I'm going to start delving into these ideas more.  I'm going to start talking about ways of achieving Mindfulness.  Don't worry, we will still spend time looking at the basics of improving our fireground capabilities and capacities; we will look at videos and talk about gaining experience from the actions of others; we will continue to develop the Fire Service Warrior ethos.  We will also talk about ways of developing ourselves into self-actualized Fire Service Warriors.  I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I do.

Here's Episode 8 of our Video Blog. 



Remember you can follow www.twitter.com/ChrisFSW and participate in the discussion of #FSWFitness and #FSWTraining.

This is my 99th post on here.  I'm not sure yet what post number 100 will bring, so if you have thoughts or suggestions please send them my way.  Also if you aren't already please "like" our Facebook page facebook.com/FireServiceWarrior

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".

The other day I added to our "Here's Why We Search" page with some information I got about a rescue that was made in Charlotte, North Carolina.  An 11 year-old boy was rescued from the second floor of his burning home by Charlotte Firefighters; his parents and older brother had escaped.  Kevin Boardman did what many other 11 year-olds would have done: when he realized that the house was on fire he went back in to try and save his animals.

Companies from the CFD arrived on scene and heard that Kevin was inside.  It was just before 5:30 in the morning; a family gathered on the front lawn telling the crews that their younger son was inside; the building was deteriorating rapidly.  The fire was burning up the basement stairs and spreading up the stairwell. The crew of a Rescue Company committed the search the second floor while an Engine Crew dug in the protect the stairwell.  Conditions were bad: visibility was close to zero; heat was banking down to the floor; the signs of rollover were present in the smoke pushing up the stairwell.  The firefighters searching knew that flashover was a real possibility.  The Engine crew knew that if they did not hold the fire in check for the searching members from the Rescue that things would go very badly.  The efforts of these warriors resulted in Kevin being pulled from the building.  He was injured, but alive.  He was rushed to the hospital and then flown to a burn center.

Kevin died from his injuries.  He fought for awhile: from early Thursday morning February 3rd, until the evening of Saturday the 5th Kevin (and a team of Doctors and Nurses) fought for life.  He ultimately succumbed to his injuries. My thoughts are with Kevin's family.

I bring this story up to continue the debate we started back with my post "%$#@ Victim Survivability Profiling... Do Your Primary Search."  Based on the criteria that Captain Marsar published in his Fire Engineering articles those crews should not have committed to the search.  The smoke conditions were such that CO and HCN were present in abundance.  The likelihood of a viable victim being rescued was slight based on the studies he has referenced.  However, the fact remains that the brave men and women of the Charlotte Fire Department committed to a very marginal set of conditions and managed to rescue a victim.  There are those who might say, "But he died," as if that were evidence that the choice to search bordered on reckless.

I will pose this question.  Would you have wanted another thirty hours with your 11 year-old before he died?  That's what those warriors did; they crawled into a hell that easily could have killed or maimed any of them and in doing so they gave those parents, and Kevin's older brother, the chance to see him, to say good bye.  To have a memory of holding his hand one last time, not one of a sudden and surreal loss.  When Kurt Vonnegut spoke of the Fire Engine and a symbol of man's humanity to man it was that kind of Courage and sense of Duty he was speaking of. 

What Did You Do Today?

So, first big news is that PennWell/Fire Engineering Books has made my book The Combat Position: Achieving Firefighter Readiness available for pre-order!  You can order it here for a mere $49.00.

Also, with today being Friday we have a new video blog.  Episode 7 - Training.


Like I said in the video you can follow me on Twitter www.twitter.com/ChrisFSW
If you want to participate in the conversation about fitness or fire training just including the hash-tags
#FSWFitness or
#FSWTraining

If I had a million dollars....

The Barenaked Ladies, a Canadian Music group, wrote a song "If I Had a Million Dollars".  It's a fun, poppy song whose lyrics focus on what you could do if you in fact has a million dollars.  I think it's an excellent question.  If you won ten million dollars... what would you do?

I got this email from Bill Simcox a career Engineer and reader.

"Had a thought a few weeks ago, about differentiating the mutts from the Warriors.  Most of the "kids" today are putting in applications at any department in the area, and would do our job for free if asked to.  A lot of them are volunteers at multiple departments.  Young kids, new to the job, have no clue.  You know the type.  Not enough time on the job to consider them Mutts, but how about Pups?  One of them (newly hired on my department) said something to the affect of "That if I hit the lottery for $10 million tomorrow, I would still do this."  I got to thinking about that, and learned something in the process that I thought I would share with you, and ask you to do the same, and see the feedback you get.

I honestly thought about that question.  What if I hit the lottery for $10 million tomorrow?  Would I be at the station the day after, with 20 years on the job?  My first thought was HELL NO.  But then I really thought about it.  I decided yes.  Yes I would be.  The people of my community depend on me and my brothers to protect them.  That is not a responsibility to be taken lightly.  They pay taxes, that are my salary, so that I am available on the worst day of their life.  I run into burning buildings for them, I let them puke, pee and bleed on me.   They hear sirens in the distance, and know that help is on the way.  Highly trained, High Performance, problem solvers will be here soon.  When the firetruck shows up, they expect, and deserve the best people to solve their problem.  Being a union firefighter is obviously not about the money.  Some guy throws a football for a living and makes $2 million for 18 GAMES. 

What we do is not a game. 

If the Dolphins lose, no one dies.  If you or I lose, someone may.  If we let fear take over, and forget about situational awareness, WE may die. Yet we do that for comparable salary to a school bus driver.

So I started asking "older" guys, firefighters that have been on the job for a while, that very same question.  I got a TON of "Hell No's."  But I did get a few Yes's! 

  

And then I got to thinking about the careers of the firefighters I asked.  Most of the people I asked that answered "NO", knew the SOP's, were waiting for the promotional test, looking for other avenues to stay in the job but not DO the job, inspector, dispatch etc.  Booksmart, but didn't spend much time at all thinking about the beast, or how to kill it.  Knew their first due area, but kinda of foggy on their second, and no clue on their third due.  A general knowledge of fireground basics, and also a general idea of what their immediate superior's job was.  Basically, just about how to advance their own careers.  Which is understandable, it's a dog eat dog world!  Warriors NEED dispatchers and inspectors too!  And good ones!  I'm NOT putting these people down in the least little bit.  Just sharing something I learned.

The firefighters I asked that same question to that answered YES, I would be at the station next shift after winning $10 Million, had peculiar personality similarities.  They also knew the SOP's and protocols, some better than others.  This group also told me where actual hydrants were located in their first due area.  They know sprinkler connections on their SECOND due locations.  They know their rig, they know their neighborhood demographics, they know the water supply systems, they know what the FIREMAN in the other seat is expected to do, and if he doesn't, they know how to pick up the slack.  The fundamental fireground operations are down pat.  Throw a curve ball at them, they also have that covered.  Pump failure, pump operator has health issues, whatever.  They have THOUGHT about it, and have it covered.  They also seem to take great pride in their particular shift/station's response time.  To them down time affords an opportunity to train.  To the Warrior, you can never know the job good enough, and this group thrives on that fact.  This group is on the road, in my opinion, to becoming THE FIRE SERVICE WARRIOR.    I can best describe them as highly trained, high performance firemen.

Anyways, didn't mean to get off on a rant, or write an article.  THAT'S YOUR job! Just wanted to share what I found out from one simple question."  

I'll give you my answer since I posed it to you:

1) I would stick plenty into investments to take care of my kid and my family.

2) I would invest a cool million into my company Spartan Concepts Inc. to fully develop our deliver of programs.

3) I would donate a million dollars to the American Cancer Society to fund research into Chondrosarcomas.  

4) I would NOT buy anyone a real green dress... That would be cruel.

Anatomy of a Book

So, for those of you who did not yet realize I have a book coming out this spring.  The Combat Position: Achieving Firefighter Readiness is being published by PennWell, under their Fire Engineering Books imprint.  As I write this I have signed off on everything that I have control of and it is now 100% on the publisher and my Editorial team to finish the project off and get it out to all you interested folks.

I thought it might be interesting to move away from the typical nature of this blog, for a moment, and give a little insight into the world of writing and publishing.  I know from emails, phone calls, and blog comments that many of you are writing or want to write.  While I am not a "professional" writer (this in no WAY pays my bills), I have written extensively and been published in magazines, online, and now have a textbook coming out... so I suppose that is some measure of consistency.

So, to answer the question that I have been asked dozens of times: How do I write?

The simple, yet true answer is that you sit down and start putting words on the page until you have some kind of intelligible essay.  Now while that is simple it is not always easy.

In the case of The Combat Position the process of developing, writing, and getting the book to the point that in a few short weeks it will be in people's hands took a solid three years.

I sketched out the original outline of the book back in the late Spring of 2007, with a working title of Igniting the Warrior Spirit.  I knew the book was going to touch on the idea of a Fire Service Warrior culture and a bit about what that would look like.  I started to write.  I tackled the subjects I had a really solid handle on first: the effects of anxiety on our cognitive processing; and the beginnings of Fireground Tactical Decision Making.  Those early drafts were turned into articles for Fire Engineering magazine and were selected by their Editorial Staff for eventual publication in the magazine.  I then got deeper into reading a researching things I had a sense of but not the deep bench of references: sleep deprivation; fitness; Stoicism.  I continued to write on Virtues and Values and Mission.  It took until the Spring of 2009 to have an outline and enough material that I felt confident submitting the book for publication.

I submitted my proposal and I waited, and waited, and I waited some more.  The wonderful thing about PennWell/Fire Engineering Books is that they attract a ton of submissions and many great authors.  The downside to submitting to PennWell is your proposal has to be read along with everyone else.  This understandably takes time.  I know having published a dozen articles by that point, including some on topics I was addressing in the book, helped, however the Editors still have to read and review everything that crosses their desk.  Finally in February of 2010 I got the phone call from the Editor who acquired my book that we had approval.  I signed my contract at FDIC 2010 at the PennWell Book Booth.  It was real.

Then the stark terror set in.  My Introduction and first two chapters were due the week after FDIC.  (I knew that going in).  I had an aggressive timeline to finish the book.  I wanted it to be on the shelf or ready to be ordered at FDIC 2011.  My final piece of manuscript went to my Editor July 28, 2010 - a full month ahead of schedule.

 What was that time like?

Crazy.  Pure and simple it was nuts.  I was writing a chapter at a time and researching for the next.  I would write for hours each day.  Some days were great, 2000 to 3000 words; others sucked. Some days I would spend hours staring at a computer screen, write 900 words and delete all of it before throwing in the towel.  Some Chapters were easy to write.  Chapter Four - The Fundamentals was pretty easy; it was all I had learned about firefighting over the course of 14 years.  Chapter Six - Making the Turn was torture; I had to figure out a way of conveying how EVERYTHING tied together.  I probably read each chapter a half dozen times while writing, and then again once my lovely wife had gone through and given it a first polishing edit.  (Side note, I am a horrible speller and have no sense of phonics.  Computers catch some stuff but it still takes a real person who knows the English language to help me out).  Then it was in the hands of the Editors.

Come the late fall I got the first Copy Edited version of the manuscript back.  Doing the copy edit review is interesting.  Basically you reread your entire book which is filled with both comments, and changes.  Not all of the changes are highlighted, so you keep a copy of the original handy and if something catches your eye that makes you say, "Why did I say that?!" you double check the original. Sometimes it was the editor changing something and sometimes you just wrote something that four months later reads terrible.  So you fix, and you polish, and you answer the Editor's comments and turn in what you hope is a better work than what you started with.

I have no idea how long a writer is supposed to take with that process but it took me exactly three and a half days.  I got the Chapters on a Monday afternoon and by Friday morning everything had been read, tweaked, reread, re-tweaked, and finally abandoned like any artistic work is.  I slept about three hours a night.  I wanted to keep on task and keep the process moving forward.  So once the files went back with me having stamped FINAL on all of them I figured it was wait for layout.  Alas, nothing in life is that simple.  The beginning of December brought a final round of Editorial comments, questions, and fixes.  Once again, the goal was to put as fine a polish as possible on the book.  Once a book hits layout it is very expensive and time consuming to make changes.  So you do it when it is still a manuscript.

So I sat down for a few more late nights of re-reading and re-working until finally the Editors and I felt like we had a good book.

It's interesting to see how you have to adjust some times to deal with a host of factors.  One thing that I feel very happy about is that at no time did the team at PennWell ever expect a change that we couldn't find a fix for.  Some of their suggestions (particularly Marla Paterson the head editor and Jerry Naylis my acquisitions editor) made really improved the overall quality of the book.  There were a few things where I dug my heels in and we found compromises.  All in all I think that the level of hard work and dedication turned out a quality piece of writing (and I hope you all like it too!).

So once the final Copyediting is finished the book goes to artists for layout.  That process takes some time.  Every piece of text has to be made to fit the final trim size of the book, all the photos, graphics, charts and tables have to be placed, and all of the captions have to be in the right spot.  The layout artists do a heck of a job creating something that is both attractive and readable.

Eventually you get back what looks like it might someday be a book... if someone feeds it, and waters it, and leaves it out in the sun a bit.  These are galleys.  It is what a book will look like in it's final format.  Guess what happens now?

Yep... you read the entire book, again.  When you read the galleys you are making sure nothing got messed up when it was moved from a manuscript format into a finished book format.  In my case that meant reading 277 pages of book, including front matter (all the stuff before Chapter 1), and making sure all the photos were right.  I forced myself to read the whole book in about 11 hours.  Every word (there are a little over 86,000 words in the book give or take).  This is the ABSOLUTE last chance to make sure everything is right.  So you go through and make sure that the quotes are quoted, and that text is in the right spot.  You do silly things like make sure all the end marks are there on sentences, and that there are no randomly mixed up sentences.  Then, when you are all done you wait a few hours (at least I did) and look at it one last time hoping that you caught everything and that it is well and truly the best work it can be.  Then you pat the large stack of paper and shoot an email to your production editor (in my case the very able Tony Quinn) saying that it's good to go.

There are other things that happen of course.  I changed the title a few times before we finally settled on The Combat Position.  You have to look at ideas for a cover, and review what the back cover will look like.  We tell out children, "Don't judge a book by it's cover," yet we all do.  So you want the best front and back cover you can come up with.  I think we did a nice job.

That's what it will look like folks.  The photos are by Dennis Walus, www.detroitfiregroundimages.com and he did a great job.  He hunted through his archives and found great shots that help tell the story of just how difficult the fireground is.

Dennis gets a couple of T-Shirts and more than a few Pints at FDIC this year.

So, right now the book is being indexed and then it is off to the printer.  The book won't make the selves at FDIC, but you can order it there.  We will have some advanced copies from what I hear, and I will be teaching two courses that week: Situational Awareness on Monday and The Ready Position on Wednesday and much of the class work derives right from the book research.  Also, very soon we will have links for folks to order the book directly from PennWell, or from Amazon or Barnes & Nobel online.

So, that is the slightly short version of what it takes to get a book in print.  For each one of you who has asked about it along the way this is what was going on.  For everyone who put up with me during the three years of researching and writing... Thanks.  I'm sure I was a million miles away some days.  Most of all, thanks to each one of you who visits this blog.  It gives me a lot of hope that the message is being heard, even if it's only by the members of the Choir.  Cheers.

Video Blog Episode 6

Here is this week's installment of the Fire Service Warrior Video Blog! Tell your friends.



Be sure to check back here Monday to see the cover and read a bit about my book The Combat Position.

A Dead German's View of Courage

I was getting ready to go to bed the other night and didn't have a book in particular that I wanted to read, so I went trolling the book shelves and pulled out Essays and Aphorisms a Penguin Classics edition of Arthur Schopenhauer's work.  Schopenhauer was a German (of Dutch decent) philosopher born in 1788.   (I know, I know, German philosophy and a taste for fine wine tends to confuse people when they hear I'm a fireman, but my life is equally filled with Jameson and Irish Rebel Music, get over it.)  Schopenhauer is best know for his work, The World as Will and Representation.

Essays and Aphorisms is a collection of shorter works of philosophy.  So, I grabbed it from the shelf and thumbed through the table of contents to find a piece I had not read before.  I chose, "On Ethics".  I was enjoying myself when I reached the Eureka! moment (which I seem to find in anything I read).

"Courage however implies that one is willing to face a present evil so as to prevent greater evil in the future, while cowardice does the reverse."

I suppose that may be a core supporting idea to the Fire Service Warrior concept.  We race into burning buildings because in doing so we prevent a greater evil... that of our neighbors suffering the loss of their lives or property.  Perhaps, even more so is that we prevent them losing their sense of humanity.  We race into those buildings because we have accepted as our duty to protect our neighbors from fire.  Kurt Vonnegut said, "I can think of no more stirring symbol of man's humanity to his fellow man than a fire Engine."  That attitude would not be there if we did not risk of ourselves to protect others.

Maybe it is off topic but firefighters and fire departments across the county have come under attack of late.  We are seen as being a drain on municipal resources.  We cost valuable dollars, but like an insurance policy we are not valued until we are needed.  The result has been lay-offs, and brownouts, and reductions in services across the country.  We saw the City of Camden layoff 70 firefighters, the City of Gary 40, and countless municipalities lay off line firefighters as a means of saving money.

At issue is the perception that we, the firefighters are to blame.  There is an effort on the part of politicians to cast us as overpaid dilettantes.  There is very little understanding about what we do.  There is zero acknowledgment of the risks we face.  I think every politician should watch the video of the Houston Fire Department Mayday from 2007.





The DVD of this MAYDAY is available from the guys over at The Bravest. It is a heck of a thing to listen to the sound of a brother taking what could have been his last breaths.

We must make it clear what we will and will not do.  That is my entire point about the importance of defining missions.

Just a few thoughts.  Cheers.

Take a second...

It used to be that firefighters wore 3/4 length boots and long coats.  When they stepped down from the rig they would have to bend over and pull-up their boots before they entered the fire building.  That act, pulling up their boots, gave them a second to look at the building and focus on what was going on with the fire and the condition of the building.

Today we pull-up in front of the fire building with our bunker gear on, our SCBA on our back, and we can run up to the building immediately as we alight from the rig.  We have to take that second and look at the building.

I am a proponent of Rapid Cognition, making decisions in the Blink of an eye so to speak.  I think that is what Recognition Primed Decision Making is all about.  It is why with training and skills building we can use a system like John Boyd's OODA Loop to make time sensitive decisions in a life or death moment.   

Blink is a book by Malcolm Gladwell that looks into how people make decisions in the "blink" of an eye.  I found it fascinating and think that anyone of you aspiring combat decision makers out there should give it a read.  My biggest take away from the book was that even a very good decision maker can start to become overwhelmed if there is TOO MUCH information.  That someone who has a set of procedures that tailor WHAT they are looking for is able to process information much more quickly.

I make this point in my book The Combat Position: Achieving Firefighter Readiness as well as in my lecture Situational Awareness & Fireground Tactical Decision Making.  I felt I was right when I wrote it and it's nice to stumble on validation.

So, give the book a read.  It will open your eyes to how and why you make decisions and the ways your decision making process can break down.  The second you finish Blink then pick up Robert Coram's book BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed The Art of War, and then go read Dave Grossman's book On Combat.  There... now you have homework.

Train for the Fight!

Okay, folks, here is Episode 5 of the Fire Service Warrior Video Blog.  This week we are talking about fitness!


In the comments section give us all an idea of what kind of fitness program you are following.

I'm going ahead at posting a bunch of links here for resources I like, folks I mentioned in the blog, and some I didn't.  Give them a look and see what works for you. 
SEALFit
CrossFit
Starting Strenght
Robb Wolf
Mobility WOD
SCFD7

If you are looking to buy fitness equipment I am a big supporter of Rogue Fitness.  We just got an S2 set-up and bumper plates for one of our stations, and I think their rings and bumpers are great.  Plus, all of their signature racks, stands, and weights are made in the USA!

They Say All Dogs Go To Heaven

Back in December the Chicago Fire Department suffered the loss of FF Ed Stringer and FF Corey Ankum when the building they were operating in collapsed.  19 other firefighters were injured.  At the time we did what those of our trade do: made sure the Class A uniforms were pressed and shoes polished, donned our formal uniforms, and went to pay our respects to two of our fallen.  

Having an Irish heritage I was raised in a grand tradition of attending wakes.  If you have not been to an Irish wake, it's a lot like a wedding, except the guest of honor isn't drinking. I think that Fire Service wakes bear much in common with the Irish Wakes that I've gone to over the years.  We gather together to celebrate the memory of one of our own.  Oftentimes we gather for someone we have never even met, have never heard of until he or she joined the roll of the fallen.  I think it's a way for us to acknowledge the dangers we all face and to acknowledged, in the words of Chief Crocker, "When a man becomes a fireman his greatest act of bravery has been accomplished."

So we stand in the parking lot of some funeral home and then walk past in a steady procession, saluting our fallen.  Then we disperse to pubs, restaurants, bowling alleys, homes, and dozens of other places and raise a glass and toast to the memory of our fallen and health to those who are in our company.

I think that we sometimes forget that there are folks at home who are dealing with this loss too.  Not the family members of the fallen Brother or Sister, but the folks who hold US near and dear.  We get to put on the dress uniform, salute, and have a pint afterwards.  Our spouses, children, partners, parents, and siblings sit at home and wait for us to return once again.  Their stress is a different kind, but it's real.  

An old friend, who I reconnected with through Facebook, sent me this conversation in the weeks after the funerals for Ed and Corey.  Her husband is a Chicago Fire Fighter, and they have two little ones at home.  She was out shopping with the oldest, and like many of our kids, he uses the time in the car with mom to ask questions.  Afterall everyone is strapped in a seat, unable to flee, and there are few Star Wars toys in the back seat of the average family roadster.  She gave me permission to reprint it here.

I'm proud and not at all hesitant to say that our four-year-old is sharp as a tack and a truly compassionate kid.  So when he asks me questions, I've never seen the point in dumbing things down past what I know he can handle.  Whether it's questions about his adoption, or questions about death, I'd rather stumble through it honestly than duck out of it easily.  So during the week between Christmas and New Years, Matt was gone way more than usual, as I'm sure all firefighters were.  It was a busy, stressful, awful week. 

Kevin and I were driving around on errands, on the day of one of the firefighters' funerals.  I'd asked our babysitter to take J.D. for a couple of hours, because errand-running with two little ones is an exercise in physical comedy.  Kevin is familiar enough with Matt's work routine that he noticed Matt hadn't come home that morning.  He'd gone straight to the south side to line up in formation before the service that day.  We have some of our best talks when he's strapped to his car seat.

"Where's Dad today?"

"He's at a funeral," I said, taking a breath and committing to the conversation.

"What's a funeral?"

"A funeral is when people get together after someone dies, to remember them.  They tell stories about them, and sometimes people are sad, and everybody honors the person who died."

"Who died?"

"Two firemen died."

"What happened?" he asked, seeming to truly grasp what I'd said.

"A building caught fire, and after they put the fire out, part of the building fell down.  A lot of guys got hurt, and two guys didn't make it.  They died."

"Did Dad know the firemen?"

"No, but all firemen go to another fireman's funeral, because every fireman is sad when another fireman dies.  The whole city gets sad."

"Are you sad?"

"Yeah, I'm sad, Kev.  But I'm okay."  I was starting to well up, and he noticed.  He's a good kid.

"So are the fireman at heaven?" 

"We think so, yes."

At this point, he lit up.  "Well, Sully and Goose will be SO EXCITED that there are firemen there to play with them!"  Sully and Goose were our two fabulous Boxers, whom we lost to old dog illnesses in 2008 and 2009, respectively.  Their deaths constitute Kevin's entire comprehension of death and an afterlife. 

So that's the point in the story where I lost it.  Driving and crying, and telling my four-year-old what a sweetheart he is, and assuring him that yes -- while I might not know exactly what heaven looks like, I can absolutely endorse a heaven where dogs and firemen run around playing together.

I read this and thought of the song Fiddler's Green.  If you haven't heard it it's an old sailor's song about what heaven would be like for a sailor after he's shuffled of the mortal coil.  There probably is a heaven when dogs and firefighters play together, napping the afternoons away, and playing fetch until neither the dog nor the firefighter know exactly who is entertaining who.

Take the time to remind yourself of the stress that our occupation causes our families.  Remember you get the excitement and satisfaction of crawling down that hallway and your spouse and kids are stuck with the worry that you might be hurt or killed.  Create a personal ritual to let those folks who are nearest and dearest to you know that you love them and appreciate their willingness to shoulder the burden of fear while you are off saving the world.  Most of all say "Thank You", because without their love and support doing this job is supremely hard.  

I'll leave you with a Wolfe Tone's version of "Fiddler's Green".  Enjoy.

The Art of the Nozzle Team

I keep a copy of Tom Brennan's Random Thoughts in close proximity when I find myself with some quick reading time.  For those who didn't read Fire Engineering before December of 2006 Tom Brennan (no relation), a retired FDNY Captain and former Editor-in-Chief of Fire Engineering, wrote a column that appeared just inside the back cover from January 1988 to December of 2006 called "Random Thoughts".  In 2007 PennWell, the publisher of Fire Engineering, collected those column's as a book titled... Tom Brennan's Random Thoughts.

I sat down with a few minutes to spare and opened to an article Tom had written originally for the April 2004 issue of Fire Engineering.  The article was titled "Safety On This Job?" and as I was reading I was struck by one point in particular.  "The use of nozzles dialed to a wide pattern inside fire buildings during interior firefighting operations causes injuries. Period. Sure, they make the nozzle team really comfortable, but who said the nozzle team has a right to be comfortable?"  Who said the nozzle team has a right to be comfortable?  May whatever God or gods look out for warriors and small animals help me, but I love it!

I believe deep in my soul that if we can put the fire out all of our other problems go away.  Putting the fire out is the job of the Nozzle Team.  It isn't always easy, and it is rarely comfortable.  I've talked before about the fact that the Nozzle Team MUST push through one of the most untenable places on the face of the earth when they advance down a hallway and have to Make the Turn to get water on the seat of the fire.  During that push you are crawling into the belly of a dragon (figuratively... you aren't literally crawling into a dragon unless you are in The Fantasy World of Firefighting).  You will have to push through heat, low or zero visibility conditions, and the immense desire to make like a sheep herder and get the flock out of there, to get water onto the seat of the fire.  We know this is a difficult process, but I think those of us who do not, or have not, had to do it often forget just how challenging it can be.  We aren't getting many Sets and Reps as members of a Nozzle Team unless we are on one of the handful of busy companies serving depressed, inner-city type neighborhoods. How many guys and gals actually are getting to do that?

So, what do we have to do?  We have to TRAIN to thrive in that environment.

I've been developing a Hands On Training (HOT) class called "The Art of the Nozzle" for about six months now.   The focus of the class is developing the skill, confidence, and competency of two and three member nozzle teams.  I define the nozzle team as the firefighter with the Nozzle (the Pipe in Chicagoese), the Back-Up Firefighter (Heel), and the Officer.  While staffing in cities like Chicago and New York may allow for the Door/Control position to be staffed as well, for most departments four person companies are a luxury and three person companies are the norm.  With that reality our training should be focused on getting water on the fire with a two or three person team (after all someone has to be outside running the pump panel).

"The Art of the Nozzle" is a 14 hour course that gives each student nine sets of live fire evolutions.  That's right, you get to crawl into a burning building... nine times.  You function as the Nozzle, the Back-Up, and the Officer.  You will be shown techniques for fires in dwellings at grade, above grade, and below grade.  Our bread and butter fire happens in 1000 to 2000 square foot homes and this class is geared to that operating environment.

There is a good chance that you will get more quality fireground evolutions in this class than most folks get in a year or more.  The best part, I think, is that we will be using helmet cams to record the evolutions and between stations you will go over the video with instructors to see what went well and what you can learn.

The pilot of the class is going to be run in this Spring and it will be available to take on the road starting this summer.  Contact info@spartan-concepts.com to look into booking the class.  Classes are limited to 15 students per session to maximize the  Hands-On experience for each student.

If you haven't been checking out the video blogs... START.  If you have, please shoot me a comment or an email and let me know what you think.  Please keep referring folks to the site and make sure you stop by and Visit me at FDIC in March.

Too Long for YouTube!

So I sat down and put together the fourth episode of the Fire Service Warrior Video Blog.  Problem is it was 5 minutes too long for YouTube.  So it is up on GoDaddy.

Hope you enjoy the discussion of points 3 and 4 in our Ethos Statement.


Make sure you check out Gabriel Angemi's blog for some great photos and discussion about inner-city firefighting.

Also, make sure you get registered for FDIC coming up in March.

Cheers and have a great weekend.

Achieving Relative Safety

Well, it comes to Friday and time for another video blog.  Today I tackle the second point in our ethos statement:  Fire Service Warriors acknowledge the dangers of their vocation and do everything possible to minimize those dangers except shirk our duty.

Check it out.  Check out the guys over at Forged Clothing (whose shirts I wear each week).  Tell your friends to visit us.