So, you finally made it to the right front seat, either by promotion, because of your seniority status, or the boss just likes you. Awesome, right? But are you sure your prepared for whatever may come your way during your tour?
I’d like to take a three-part look into thenew company officer‘s position and some of the main areas needed to help ensure you are ascombat readyas possible.
What training did you take to help make yourself ready to be anewleader of your department?
有某种测试过程吗？你是每天委托的吗officer, or do you行动起来in the role from time to time? Are you a part-time or volunteer firefighter who may be in the role because you make a lot of calls and drills or work a lot of shifts? Did you get the job because no one else wanted it?
我要说的是：我们是否在指导我们的年轻，有前途的消防员方面做得很好？
The first time you are “in charge” of a crew at any type of incident should not be the first time you are dealing with chaos! You need to get out and gain this experiencebeforethe call comes in. If your department isn’t sending you, then you must seek this knowledge on your own, maybe even at your own expense. Crazy notion, huh? It is your duty to have more experience or training than the members of your crew. Remember, they are going to look to you for answers on incidents. As the boss, you need to have them.
Arguably, the first-inofficeris the most important person on the fireground. His decisions in the first five to 10 minutes will set the tone for the duration of the incident.
As I am just passing my 20th year in the fire service, I am told I get the dubious honor of being called one of thenewold guys. A lot of the experienced members and leaders of many fire departments are hitting the retirement age and “pulling the plug” while they still can. As those guys and girls head off into the retirement sunset they so very much deserve, they take with them their experience and knowledge. Did we do enough to pick their brains clean of every piece of knowledge and experience they had before they left? If not, that information is forever lost, never to be gained again.
So again I ask: are we doingallwe can to prepare our rising stars for their turn at the decision-making role on the rig?
There are lots of ways to cover this subject, different avenues to go down, and great in-depth classes to take and books to read, but I want to keep it very simple. I would like to look at it fromThe Bay Door to the Front Door.
There are a lot of topics that will assist the new officer in preparing for their role. I want to cover a few that I feel can the most beneficial, if not the most important.
SMOKE AND BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
我们的公关each an emphasis onreading smoke？尽管不是一门精确的科学，但它是在计划攻击之后在计划攻击时使用的绝佳工具。
Thisskill可以帮助在decisi吗on-making process of telling you what is burning and where. It can help you determine what size line to bring and where to enter with that line for the best angle of attack. Or it can tell you when we should maybe darken it down from the outside and then enter.
Our fires are burning hotter and moving faster than ever before. Knowing what the抽烟is telling you is a very important addition to your initial actions and tactic plan.
Black/dark smoke being read as contents and brown/tan smoke being read structure is a good rule of thumb. But by being able to understand what the colors, pressure, velocity, volume, and density of the抽烟you are seeing means, hopefully you’ll be able to make the best decisions possible for your safety and your crews.
One of the most obvious topics should bebuilding construction. There are some new products coming out that are very nice for the construction industry, but they will adversely affect the way heat and fire react in and on our structures.
有些问题是
- new and highly flammable wall and ceiling insulation
- floor joists that don’t need nails
- 要安装到位的毛刺或胶水
- pre-fab buildings
- 高层与低层
- underground vaults and subways
- multi- family and single family
- 真正的砖和块和贴面
The list seems to go on forever. Are you getting out seeing what is in your town and in your auto- and mutual-aid towns as well? Do you respond to lightweight wood和metal construction? How much heavy timber is around you, or is your response area just stick-built construction? How does each of the above mentioned building types and styles react under fire conditions?
We already said that, for the most part, brownish smoke coming from a structure on fireusuallymeans the structure itself is burning, whereas black smoke is contents. But does a hot, warping lightweight metal stud or roof rafter give off a color? Can we maybe get a false read if metal construction is burning? How long does it take this style to fail under heat and flame impingement?
We shouldn’t just be sitting in the station reading books and watching videos on these subjects. We must get out on the street to see what is going up around us, and how to recognize the types of structures being built.
Are you also looking at your auto- and mutual-aid response areas as well? If there is a chance you may go to a fire in it, you should be trying to get the best information you can on how it might react when it is under demolition because of fire.
Do you respond to houses with knee walls, and, if so, do you know the hazards that can hide there?
额外的building constructionconcerns are:
- Balloon framevs.平台框架与砖和砖贴面。
- Asphalt shingle wood roofs or clay tile.
- The stucco construction in the West
- 东方的排屋
Here in the Chicagoland area, we are seeing an increase in the number of metal roofs being built not only on commercial structures but also on single-family homes. How do you think this type of roof will affect your firefighting tactics? What if it is covered with snow, or wet from rain?
Let’s not forget those I like to call “the weekend warriors,” people who do crazy things to their houses in order to提升what they already have. This type of person keeps us on our toes; we cannot become complacent. We may respond to structures that are all modeled the same, but one added wall or the creation of one room in an attic or basement will throw us off since the structure’s layout has been changed. They also may not have done all the work up according to your building codes, or even the proper way, creating an even more dangerous atmosphere for us.
As an officer, it is your responsibility to have a very good handle on what you may have to face–not only during your tour, but over the course of your entire career–to keep your crew safe.
Joe McClellandis a firefighter with the Midlothian (IL) Fire Department. He was previously a part-time firefighter with the North Palos (IL) Fire Protection District and is a field instructor for the University of Illinois Fire Service Institute’s Cornerstone Program.
