By John F. "Skip" Coleman, Technical Editor
A few months back, I wrote a blog on fireengineering.com and received a lot of negative feedback. My intent was to take a national problem that has plagued the fire service for more than 100 years and attempt to simplify it into very understandable and direct terms. Many departments and organizations have attempted to reduce firefighter fatalities. Some efforts are very parochial, while some organizations have written many pages on the subject, intended to culturally change the fire service as a whole in its tradition-laden practices. My blog provided three things that I believe a firefighter could do to lessen the chances of being killed while on the job: (1) drive your apparatus or personal vehicle as if your kids were riding with you; (2) develop and use a way to determine if the atmosphere you are in is getting too hot (especially too quickly); and (3) try to stay in shape physically.
This month's Roundtable question is, What is the one best thing an individual firefighter can do to keep from getting killed on the job? You will find the Roundtable question and instructions on answering it on the Fire Engineering homepage at//www.sacthai.com.
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