“Close Calls”

Every department, large AND small, paid and volunteer, experiences "close calls." I've been involved in a few over my career not only as a firefighter and fire officer but in the role of incident commander. Too often these close calls seem to "die" on the fireground, or, worse, float throughout the department gathering steam and a few exaggerated facts along the way. That's the sad part. We who lived the experience tend to suppress the incident because of the potential of humiliation, fear, or some other silly emotion. Most of us consider ourselves "good firefighters," and if we can get ourselves into predicaments that culminate in a "close call," then who or what will prevent the rest of the firefighters from making the same mistakes? It is our obligation to discuss and review these "near misses" for the sake of the rest of the fire service. If we can shed light on our own experiences that "almost" killed or seriously injured us, then perhaps others will avoid or be more cognizant of similar situations.

In December 2001, we responded to a house fire on Toledo's east side. The engine pulled up and reported smoke showing from a single-family dwelling. As a rookie firefighter and the acting officer pulled a line to the side door, the driver started his pump work. The recruit firefighter donned her SCBA and started the advance on the fire in the dining room of the house. She took the nozzle and believed the acting officer was behind her. The acting officer realized he had forgotten his facepiece, fed some hoseline, and then went back to the engine. He failed to verbalize that he was going back to the engine. As the recruit crawled into the dining room, the floor began to sag and fail, and she quickly slid into the crawl space of the house. As she fell, the dining room table flipped and fell on top of her. Her first instinct was to activate her PASS device. She did so; within a few seconds, the truck crew heard the alarm and moved to her location. A firefighter grabbed the nozzle and began to douse flames that were burning in the carpet and flooring around and below her, the lieutenant from the heavy squad jumped into the crawl space and pushed her up, and the remaining members pulled her out of the hole and to the outside of the building. She was taken to the hospital and treated for second-degree burns to her legs.

事件后几天我们批判了火灾。这次火力加强了消防员必须经常练习激活其通过警报。当人们掌握压力的情况时，他们恢复了习惯和常规的。作为招聘，她习惯于她激活她的通过警报。这是一个没有“记住”这一行动的较旧的消防员，也许结果将被大幅不同。