BY ALAN BRUNACINI
WHEN I DEAL WITH YOUNG firefighters during my travels, I continually hear their concern about the challenge of understanding and learning how to effectively and safely operate at fire situations. They tell me (I’m a lot like their grandfather) that today there are fewer fires and the fires that do occur are more dangerous and unforgiving because modern material now burns faster and hotter also, lightweight construction that is burning is ready to fall down just about when they are pulling attack lines into the fire area. Many of the old 20minute tactics in the books no longer apply to the fiveminute collapse world we now live in.
They also lament that many of the more experienced officers are retiring and the department loses the wisdom of their experience when they “go out the door.” They also are concerned that firefighting skill training and prefire planning must now compete with all the other department training and certification programs like EMS, hazmat, special operations, Occupational Safety and Health Administration mandates, public/community education, homeland defense, and so on.
I always enjoy the time I get to spend with these young firefighters. I can relate to their concern about learning the business before the business kills them, because I can remember having those same (long ago) feelings when I was at their career stage. I find them typically to be energetic, smart, and interested in our business. As I interact with them, I think I learn more from them than they do from me. They can explain the current version of modern cultural and society reality to me because they have been raised in the middle of today’s youngsterdriven pop culture and nanosecond electronic information management. My generation at their age worked hard to deal with a dial phone, an AMFM radio, and a blackandwhite TV complete with rabbit ears.
They can (and do) simultaneously multitask with multiple computer chipdriven devices and can obtain almost any piece of information by hitting three buttons on their pocketsize cell phone/ computer/text message/intergalactic whiz bang gizmo. It seems to me that they can instantly and routinely Google the “great encyclopedia in the sky” and access every piece of information ever known. My level of electronic capability is reflected by my grandchildren’s still putting new phone numbers into my cell phone.
The problem these young firefighters face is not that they lack basic intelligence (just the opposite). It is that, at the current stage of their career, they lack operational experience. As one adviceseeking young man told me, “Chief, I’m getting old as fast as I can!” Their challenge is simply that they have not yet been in and around very many burning buildings. They realize that there is a personal capability that can be developed only by applying everything they have been taught and what they have studied to an actual tactical situation. That actual application of their preparation will test their ability to effectively operate in the real world, where they must confront the “real” !re up close and personal. Until that “meeting” occurs, they will not really know how they will react.
During our conversations, I try to make the following major points that young !re!ghters must understand and adapt to.
RESPECT THE FIRE
Fire is a timeless, awesome, natural process. It occurs in a manner that is selfsustained after ignition. It grows (uncontrolled) at an exponential, sometimes explosive rate and will radiate, convect, and conduct itself onto anything and anybody (including you). There is very little that is natural or manmade that can withstand direct thermal/toxic insult. You must study, learn, reflect, and re!ne your knowledge of !re behavior so you understand the enemy, because your success in surviving the !ght with that enemy depends on that understanding.
You have signed up to respond to and !ght any !re that is causing a problem for a customer or the community. You make a promise (by signing up) to physically put your “non!reresistive” body between the problem (i.e., !re) and Mrs. Smith when she calls us for help. Many times this is a very dangerous position. This is a very unusual worker/customer/ work relationship.
You must always operate with a basic understanding that your role is to sometimes risk your life to save a life within a highly calculated safety system and a highly structured (big risk/little risk/no risk) risk management plan. You must develop an understanding of how to use the standard tactical safety system to effectively survive operating on the !reground. We have discussed the application of that basic safety system in recent columns. You must become operationally familiar with both the details of that safety system and the dynamics of incident hazards. This understanding becomes the basis of how you !t into the various parts of that system while you operate with your !re company on the task level.
Developing a genuine respect for toxic and thermal !re hazards becomes the foundation of an effective, safe, and realistic approach to !re!ghting. You must be able to operate on a scale that ranges from bold and active in offensive situations to cautious and wellplaced around defensive conditions. Being able to effectively apply the standard safety system adequate personnel, safety, standard operating procedures, personal protective equipment, hardware/water, and incident command system creates the ability to determine the appropriate (and survivable) position and the functional tactical approach.
“Functional tactical” means, in very simple terms, being in the right place at the correct time doing the effective action. That action most often involves drowning the fire. Don’t ever take fires lightly. Don’t try to “hold” the fire, no fancy footwork, and don’t do recreational firefighting. Keep your basic firefighting routine short and sweet. As quickly as possible, put as much water on the fire as you can until the fire goes out. Hold the fire’s head underwater until the red devil is conclusively dead. When the fire goes out, everything gets better.
The ability to effectively connect your level of aggression to the tactical conditions present should produce a natural and effective level of caution on the fireground and displace being timid, which is a really dangerous way to operate. Do not be seduced by the historic and very romantic cultural value of a mindless and almost automatic level of absolute fire attack aggression. You must consciously select a level of forward activity (aggression) that matches the situation. You will be effective and ultimately will survive based on your ability to combine brains with muscle; doing the job right absolutely requires both. You will displace aggressive actions with intentional actions the longer you study the work and do the work correctly.
You must always be suspicious of the fire and skeptical that fire control has been achieved. You must develop the approach of being pessimistic of any incident hazard and make the situation prove to you that the hazard is under control. It is always better to keep your guard up longer and later.
As you go to more fires, develop a more and more clinical awareness of how firefighting operations are actually conducted. Pay attention to the process of covering critical tactical positions and how the direction of attack controls the fire. Also be aware of the effectiveness of the size of attack. Our basic tactical approach is to find the fire, cut it off, and then put it out; the incident commander (IC) must coordinate the assignment of fire companies to perform those basic tasklevel rescue and firefighting functions.
You must become aware of your tasklevel role in the fire attack process and how you and your company fit into the overall fireground plan. You must continually study how effective and safe firefighting is conducted to continually improve your perspective of how you and your company fit into the overall incident operation; as you improve your tactical perspective (and orientation), you will become a more effective company member.
The longer you engage in firefighting, the more you will understand how the operational and command system displaces chaos with tactical control simply, the IC covers critical positions with operating fire companies and uses adequate water application and support to make the fire go away in those spots until there is no more fire. You must learn, apply, and continually improve how to play your role in that water vs. fire displacement process.
Retired Chief ALAN BRUNACINI is a fire service author and speaker. He and his sons own the quarterly fire service magazine BSHIFTER.com and the Blue Card hazard zone training and certification system. He can be reached at alanbrunacini@cox.net.
