BITS AND PIECES
BY BILL MANNING
Battalion Chief Robert Hoff of the Chicago Fire Department was returning to quarters from a run in the early morning hours of November 23, 1997, when he noticed a working fire in an apartment building not far away. The dwelling was well-involved and pushing smoke. Residents at the front of the building told him there were two children still inside on the second floor. He radioed for help, then ran into the fire building for the children. Shortly thereafter, Hoff emerged from the smoke- and heat-charged house-with two children under his arms, both of whom suffered from smoke inhalation but survived.
These two children and their family should consider themselves very fortunate indeed that Hoff has not forgotten where he came from or why the fire department responds to fires. Let him be an example not just for his selfless courage, but for those advocates of “progressiveness” who are trying to sanitize the mission out of what is a tough, dirty business. How white is your helmet?
In October, the federal “cooperative purchasing” law, an onerous piece of legislation that would have Big Brother-ized the purchasing of your fire equipment (see “Editor`s Opinion,” October, 1997) was repealed. Congratulations to the National Emergency Equipment Dealers Association, which pushed hard against it. But the bureaucrats are still pursuing this issue, and Pat Griffin, president of NEEDA, predicts another fight this spring.
Language in a congressional bill supporting the cellular phone industry at the expense of legitimate scanner use by firefighters for public safety purposes (see “Editor`s Opinion,” November, 1997) was changed in our favor. Congratulations to the National Volunteer Fire Council for its vigilant efforts on this issue.
We all can rest easy now that the Chicago City Council vindicated Mrs. O`Leary`s cow from wrongdoing in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The fire actually was started by Daniel “Pegleg” Sullivan, accidentally, in the O`Leary barn. Whew!
A short time ago I was fortunate enough to be invited to sit in on a very informal chat between two fire service masters. One was from an eastern city, the other a western city. The West Coast chief turns to the East Coast chief and says, “You guys are the Green Berets of structure firefighting. We are the Green Berets of auto extrication.” I thought, Why are the Green Berets of auto extrication setting the standard of firefighting for the rest of the country? Why are the departments who don`t fight all that many fires seizing the national leadership vacuum in the United States?
Can`t account for firefighters in the building? Have people freelancing? Don`t make better fire officers, don`t instill line personnel with the training/empowerment to accept greater personal accountability, don`t imbue line chiefs with the internal tools to exact greater accountability from their officers! That`s too much work when you can buy accountability in a “tag”-type “passport” system. I ask you: a passport to what? To a rapidly extending fire where the hazards have not been adequately addressed because we`re still setting up the incident management system outside, where the first-in company officer is a five-year “veteran” or was voted most popular guy in the firehouse and doesn`t have adequate control of his members, where there aren`t enough members, and where there`s nobody venting?
Why does the rest of the country have to ask Long Island`s permission to pass a fire service standard?
I may have let “slip” a few times in a few places words to the effect of “EMS is killing the fire service.” When I say “EMS is killing the fire service,” you have to take it in the proper context. I`m talking in abstract terms; I have nothing against EMS, and if a fire department wants to send its members in a 20 ton piece of apparatus to defibrillate a customer, that`s its business. When I say “EMS is killing the fire service,” what I mean is not “EMS is killing the fire service” per se, but, rather, “Not having a handle on the core mission is killing the fire service.” “Not having a handle on the core mission” can be blamed on many things, but most glaringly on the switchover from “fire department” to “EMS department that sometimes responds to fires.” Unfortunately, this often occurs at the expense of fire skills learned through fire training and experience. So A (“EMS-izing” the fire service) approximately equals B (losing sight of the core mission) and, therefore, “EMS is killing the fire service, approximately.” Darn! I`ve said it again, approximately!
The NFPA estimates that the overall number of firefighter injuries on the fireground in 1996 declined by about nine percent. The rate of fireground injuries per 1,000 fires also decreased. That`s great news. However, Michael J. Karter, Jr., and Paul R. LeBlanc, who compiled the report, published in NFPA Journal, write, “The rate of injuries per 1,000 fires [since 1977] shows no consistent pattern and-except for 1996-has stayed near the same level, since the number of fires decreased at a rate similar to the decrease in the number of fireground injuries.”
Ninety-four firefighters died in the line of duty in 1996. Sixty-six of the fatalities were volunteer firefighters. Twenty-nine of the volunteers died when responding to and returning from alarms. Drive safely, and live!
Has there ever been a fire with a fire injury in which we can say our prevention or protection technology efforts were sufficient? Hey, we`re failing at life safety.
The process for the soon-to-be-best-selling conglomeration of the one-size-fits-all model building and fire codes is in full swing. Yep, it`s so much better to “reinvent” codes instead of focusing on construction and fixed protection deficiencies and the lack of code enforcement, all of which kill firefighters. Let`s sell the hell out the international, reinvented codes and continue to tell firefighters, “How stupid of you to try to do your duty and put yourself in harm`s way of a structure that we allowed to be poorly built, and unprotected! You are a dangerous firefighter!”
It`s big, big news in the fire service if Rural Metro displaces 20 firefighters. If two million automatic fire sprinklers are in serious doubt, few care.
Have a happy and safe New Year.
