Tag Archives: firefighter deaths

I learned of the fire via a post on our Facebook Group, CFD Members Past & Present, and I have to be honest in that my first thought was “Oh, no!” Why such a reaction—which happened before I opened the link to the news story about the fire—to this fire? Because I’d seen it before.

We have to be able to seamlessly move from firefighter rescue to firefighter patient care. And that will entail additional training and practice on the part of both firefighters and the EMS providers — who may not be firefighters. Why? Because in addition to a firefighter who may be in need of life-saving medical intervention, such an event is also a workplace injury site if the firefighter survives, or the site of a line-of-duty death if resuscitation efforts are unsuccessful or the firefighter later succumbs to his injuries.

As the number of residential fire sprinkler systems in the country continues to grow, fire service leaders need to ensure that our fire officers and firefighters have the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities to work with these systems to effectively ensure extinguishment of the fire and effectively address property conservation, the third incident priority.

The company officer (first-line supervisor) is the toughest "gig" in any fire department, but too many of those officers make it harder than it needs to be by not wanting "to be the bad guy", i.e., the officer who follows policy and procedure and makes everyone else follow them as well.

Each year on the weekend that closes National Fire Prevention Week in the United States, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation conducts activities and ceremonies that honor the brave men and women who lost their lives in the fight against fire in the 365 days since last year's ceremonies. This year both the Candlelight Vigil and the Memorial Ceremony will be live streamed across the Internet and available for satellite download by cable TV providers in local communities.

Today, the public scrutiny is almost instantaneous because the Internet and social media platforms give anyone with a device and access an outlet to this "new" court of public opinion. And in this "court" there is no judge and no jury of your peers--only millions of people with Internet access and their own oft-times "half-baked" opinions.

Sound rather harsh? Sound unrealistic? So does closing fire stations and laying off firefighters. So does continuing to expose firefighters to increasing levels of risk of injury or death because of negligence on the part of building occupants, developers, and builders. So does continuing to increase the fiscal burden to local taxpayers to pay for an antiquated fire protection model that is reactive rather than proactive.

In contrast, nearly 95 percent of the firefighters who have attended the class have made personal behavioral changes in their tactical approaches to fireground operations. While it’s a great feat to see individual firefighters taking note of the education, it’s disappointing that the majority of departments are not immediately taking action to protect the lives of their firefighters.

We’ve not had a significant impact on preventable fires with our current methodologies. To paraphrase a popular management mantra for change these days, “What got you here, won’t get you there.”

This brings to question, are fireground officers and today’s firefighters receiving adequate training? The question remains, are proper size-ups being conducted to allow for a decision regarding whether it is an offensive or defensive fire attack [situation]? It all comes down to decision making capability and fire ground safety. We simply need to focus on the basic fundamentals of fire fighting.