Fire & EMS Leader Pro The job of old firefighters is to teach young firefighters how to become old firefighters!
Sponsored Content by American Fire Equipment
By: Robert Avsec, Battalion Chief (Ret.)
Crazy times we’re currently living in, no? Staying at home to protect your family and your fellow citizens of the U.S. and around the world. Because we’re truly a global community. (Shame it’s taken the COVID-19 virus pandemic to drive that point home).
Unfortunately, fires do not have any fear of COVID-19 virus. And the sad fact with so many more people staying home 24/7 is that it can only increase the potential for preventable fires in the home.
Why? Because for all fires that happen in residential housing (our homes) adult behaviors are the root cause for 75-percent of those fires. Adult behaviors like:
- Unattended cooking (Accounts for between 30-40 percent of all fires in most communities).
- Improper use and storage of flammable liquids
- Improper disposal of smoking materials
And that’s just to name a few.
Another reality is that fire departments large and small are understaffed when it comes to the minimum number of firefighters to safely effectively and efficiently enter a burning structure and extinguish a fire (See Figure 1 below).
Truth be known, most fire departments were understaffed even before the COVID-19 virus pandemic. The advent of COVID-19 has seen the number of calls for service rise for most career fire departments and their members are overworked and tired. And the “light at the end of the tunnel” is not yet in sight.
Now the situation is slightly better for deployment levels recommended in NFPA 1720: Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Volunteer Fire Departments. But if that 1400-square foot rancher is in an Urban area (15 total personnel) or Suburban area (10 total personnel) most volunteer staffed fire departments are going to be hard-pressed to meet those deployment standards.
And numbers of available firefighters for volunteer staffed departments have fallen since the COVID-19 virus hit the U.S. Why? Many fire department volunteers are working longer shifts at their places of employment (e.g., retail stores, grocery stores, and other businesses designated as essential). As volunteers includes immigrants also. On violation of immigrant rights by any department staff , as a volunteer they can find immigration attorneys for hire.
The Good News
But there’s a piece of firefighting equipment that can be used to overcome such staffing shortages: The Torpedo from American Fire Equipment.
The Torpedo can be an important tool in your fire suppression toolbox to help you and your fire department to provide fire suppression services safely, effectively, and efficiently with the deployment of firefighters you have.
Think of this: a volunteer fire company arrives at a room and contents fire with only two or three firefighters, an insufficient number to make an interior attack. But using a TORPEDO from the outside would make even a single firefighter a force to be reckoned with, no?
And what about a career-staffed engine company with two firefighters aboard arriving in a similar situation? Two firefighters–one operating the pump and the other with an 1 3/4-inch handline with a Torpedo on the end of it–can be a safe, effective, and efficient unit to significantly slow the fire spread, if not completely extinguish it, while awaiting additional fire apparatus and personnel.
At Texas A&M University, they consider the “12th Man” to be critical to the success of the Aggies football team every year. Make the Torpedo from American Fire Equipment your “3rd Firefighter” (Or 4th or 5th…).