BY ALAN BRUNACINI
This month, I thought I would offer some one-liners about firefighting and life.
- Now, everything is electronically recorded and reported at nanosecond speed. There are no secrets.
- Be careful of it becoming too late to do the right thing.
- If you’re not keeping score, it’s just practice.
- If you keep doing what you did, you will keep getting what you got.
- Don’t mistake being lucky with being special.
- Tell me, “I forget/show me; I remember/involve me; I understand.”
- Be careful of reaching the point where you will either control the fire or the fire will control you.
- A firefighter without a hoseline/tool is just a spectator.
- Always remember: It will take at least the same amount of time to get out that it took to get in (or longer).
- If the sprinkler system has not put out most of the fire, neither will you.
- Buildings designed to keep air in don’t know the difference between conditioned air and the products of combustion.
- Don’t let the same dog bite you twice.
- You can only deal with the conditions you inherit.
- You can’t make up for the time it took you to get to the incident.
- A basic law of fireground conservation: Leave with everything (and everybody) you came with.
- The incident commander (IC) must separate and react to when the fire arrived and when the firefighters arrived. The difference can be huge.
- Quickly evict the fire before it gets settled. Young conditions are easier to confront and control (and in some cases retreat from) than old ones.
- The basic structural firefighting plan is
- Find the fire.
- Cut it off.
- Put it out.
- The very worst fireground plan is no plan. The next worst plan is two competing plans.
- Don’t ever think the fire is getting tired just because you are.
- A little force in the beginning can eliminate the need for a lot of force at the end.
- It’s better to get out five minutes too soon than five seconds too late.
- Respect defensive conditions—the buildings God doesn’t want to burn are sprinklered.
- In both life and firefighting, there are bold dogs and old dogs. There are not many bold, old dogs.
- In fire command and tax preparation, don’t let your inclination to gamble outperform your fear.
- Don’t give anyone more direction than they need.
- Firefighting tools: wooden sticks with metal attached to the end (my wife’s definition).
- A fault you never lose is the one for which you will be most punished.
- Basic fireground reality: The fun (pleasure) meter is hooked directly to the consequence (pain) meter. The higher the fun, the more it hurts when it goes wrong.
- Firefighting and poker: You will not know for sure until you turn over the last card.
- Be very careful of running toward anything on the fireground (it’s difficult to evaluate when running). Only run away from danger. Always move with a “controlled hustle.”
- Don’t think you are Napoleon when you are really Custer.
- Do not go anyplace you can’t come back from.
- Safety: Build it from the bottom; drive it from the top.
- The only people who plan on attending a fire today are the fire department members.
- An engine without a supply line is just a 500-gallon tanker.
- Do a common set of things uncommonly well.
- If you can’t stand the ghosts, stay out of the haunted house.
- The mother and father of disaster are too little and too late.
- When we put the fire out, everything gets better.
- Scar tissue has a long memory.
- When there is no doubt, there is doubt. (ICs, please reread).
- Whiners play alone.
- You can’t buy back the past. The only thing you can do is pay for it.
- Cooperate with the inevitable.
- Bad news does not improve with age.
- It is easier to set rules than to set an example.
- If you get in enough gunfights, you will eventually get shot.
- To be old and wise, you must first be young and dumb.
- We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act; it is a habit.
- Be careful of making stupid a habit. Don’t get stuck on stupid.
- Don’t “live around” risks and become accustomed to them—they will beat you up and eventually will kill you.
- Don’t expect the devil to show you the way to heaven.
- Basic firefighting reality: You may not get everything you pay for, but you will pay for everything you get.
- Laughing leads to listening.
- Progress and pain are inseparable.
- If you have a tool in your hand, you probably are not in command.
- “Son, I’ve been to a fire, and this ain’t one.”
- Be very careful of starting “your own avalanche.”
- Don’t be fooled: You can have a hard fire on Easy Street.
- We were fighting a fire at the corner of Flashover and Collapse.
- Lightweight construction kills you when it falls on you. It is not light at all.
Retired Chief ALAN BRUNACINI is a fire service author and speaker. He and his sons own the fire service Web site bshifter.com.
