Four Brave Men

BY BOBBY HALTON

From our earliest counterparts, the Vigils, founded in Rome in 8 A.D. and who were armed only with primitive pike poles to tear down adjoining structures in the case of a fire, we have inherited much. They were charged by the Emperor Augustus with the responsibility of looking over the welfare and safety of the early Roman communities—hence, the name the Vigils and our earliest motto “ever vigilant.” Our mission has remained constant; our methods, though, have evolved dramatically.

The early Vigils were organized in a basic army model with companies and battalions much like we are. Our Roman forebears struggled with advances in building construction and the changing lifestyles of their day, and we continue that struggle. We grapple every day with how to adapt our service delivery models to new challenges. We are constantly developing tactics and strategies to meet today’s fire dynamics, and our communities continue to rely on us to be experts at managing today’s technological failures.

Today’s firefighters could find themselves faced with a fire in a wind-turbine generating station, a facility that up to five years ago was virtually nonexistent on the landscape of America and yet which today is commonplace. We have aerospace technicians aboard orbiting space stations who are certified fire behavior and suppression specialists.

We have computerized fire-detection and smoke-detection equipment built into highly developed building support systems engineered for a vast array of possibilities. These systems transmit data to computerized message boards inside of highly sophisticated suppression apparatus designed with an array of extinguishment tools.

But what makes us successful is what made the original Vigils successful: a firm reliance on and continuous development of the basic element of fire response since 8 A.D.—the collection of firefighters we call “the company.” The fire service has continued to outpace its challenges by embracing and focusing on the capabilities achieved by coordinating companies to multiply the power of the individual.

The fire service at its core is that individual responding company designed to accomplish a specific set of tasks. Early on, man discovered that no one man could do everything and that if we were to have any evolution whatsoever, we needed to rely on the skills of others. The only way that society evolved was through the exchange of specializations to improve the general conditions for all. By specializing, each one of us is given the opportunity to excel at that which we are most proficient. The lack of specialization equals a lack of evolution and advancement.

The importance of understanding specialization and using it to overcome otherwise insurmountable obstacles, I believe, was explained best by French General Ardant du Picq, who said this regarding small unit operations:

“Four brave men who do not know each other will not dare to attack a lion. Four less brave, but knowing each other well, sure of their reliability and consequently of mutual aid, will attack resolutely.” 

What that means is that having intimate knowledge of each other’s strengths and capabilities and understanding the specific tasks that each one of those individuals brings to the firefight makes firefighting manageable. Our deployment models are predicated on this very simple concept. To be successful, we must first know our jobs well and each other well. That is why we drill together constantly. We must be sure not only of our own skills but also of those of everyone on whom we rely.

By extension, then, we must also recognize and appreciate the individual skills and capabilities of every other company. We must be able to work together synergistically to accomplish the work; we have to be confident of their dependability to attack resolutely. Each company must demonstrate that it is competent, focused, and reliable to succeed consistently at the tasks for which it is equipped, positioned, and trained.

Company specialization is determined by function and is managed at the local level. A truck company in Collinsville, Oklahoma, is not going to have the same skill sets and capabilities as a truck company in New York City. They will both have developed procedures and skills to meet the truck issues and challenges that they have locally. It may help us to picture them as an army unit, a sergeant and three privates, on a patrol: Where they are and who they are fighting determine what they need. They are four brave men facing a lion.

When a company encounters the enemy, they have a decision to make—whether or not their resources can make a difference in the conflict. They know their strengths and abilities because they have drilled extensively together. When they engage the enemy, they are mutually assured of each other’s reliability. If the lion is large and strong, these four brave men will rely on other small units for their support and assistance. They must also have confidence in the capabilities and reliability of the specialties of other companies. This confidence comes from training and discipline.

The first-due engine tasked with locating the fire and beginning the fight must be confident that a backup line is being stretched to support their efforts and that ventilation is being accomplished correctly to draw the fire away from, not toward, them. They must have the same faith and trust in the other responding companies as they have in one another.

The specialization that has made the fire service so successful is also what allows it to adapt and adjust to best suit the community it serves. The methods and style of one community may not fit or be compatible with those of another far away. How we fight the lion is always a local issue, but the necessity for building trust and confidence in ourselves and one another is universal.