Last month, in Part 1, we described the converting “information into intelligence” process. Here, we look at how one “master” handled this “conversion” on the fireground.
As a young firefighter, I was honored to work for a company officer (captain) who was the 1959 Phoenix Fire Department version of Tom Brennan. He was a smart, tough, very experienced, cool-headed (somewhat stoic) former Marine. We were a very busy (responded on all working fires in the city) downtown, six-firefighter(!) squad company. The captain was basically a quiet guy who didn’t say much. His body language was always the same-completely under control and calm. On the fireground, he tended to gesture rather than speak. When we arrived at a fire, the team had a standard routine. We got off the rig and looked at him. If he moved his head toward the fire (about 1/64 inch), we would attack the fire with preconnected lines like a pack of madmen (all men then). This was very fun and what we mostly did.
Once in awhile, we would be in the starting blocks, and he would shake his head (1/16 inch-like shouting for him), and he would send a clear “NO ATTACK” message. He had such stature that when he shook no, it was a definite, no-discussion, the heck with your attack actualization needs NO! In most cases when he would send a “no go” message, the building would collapse, the fire would blow up, or (to a very young firefighter) something like a meteor would strike the fire and destroy the zip code. These unplanned events would generally happen right in the attack position where we would have been.
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