Transcendent moments of grace

I have been quite busy at work and at home the past few days - but not so busy as to escape the constant drumbeat of (very) bad news from Afghanistan, Libya and Japan.  Afghanistan and Libya seem to be horrifying cesspools of human cruelty. and I despair that the conditions for the common people in those countries will ever get better.  By contrast, the Japanese seem to be displaying amazing patience and strength of character - but that is about all you can say that is positive about the situation that they are in.

At my job, my union has been faced with the usual back stabbing from the politicians and it appears that all of us will be taking about a 8% pay cut this year due to changes in health care cost sharing and pension contributions.  While, as usual, I am trying to keep a public professional face on; inside I am seething.  But it can't be helped and I have little choice but to take it; it's not like I can afford to retire soon.

Against this backdrop of gloom, it was nice to go to church today and witness my daughter's having their first communion.  Kneeling at the altar and watching Banshee and Entropy receive the Eucharist from the pastor was really special.  It was a moment in time that enabled me to marvel on how beautiful and miraculous my daughters are.  Sometimes I am too tired to go to church but this parish has been responsible for quite a few such moments; including both daughter's baptisms and watching Banshee play an angel on Christmas eve when she was three.

So moments like this are good because they help me remember all that I have to be appreciative of:  wonderful and healthy kids, a loving wife, a nice house, and living in a country where I am left relatively alone by my government and neighbors.

Thanks for reading,

A grateful Schmuckalooski

It's all about plumbing.......

I worked yesterday and we were busy.  My head wasn't quite in the game.  Although I was feeling ok, I was recovering from the stomach flu from the day before - with all of its attendant lower body complications.  Eating light and Immodium saved the day.  I had been feeling proud of myself; the kids and the wife have been fighting off colds and the flu all winter - and I have been perfectly healthy - until Thursday or D-Day as I like to call it.

In any case, it was a typical day.  We ran a small fire in the morning; a couple of undocumented (in all senses of the word) plumbers had caused fire in a wall cavity while sweating pipes.  They were gamely fighting the fire with a garden hose as we arrived but gratefully allowed themselves to be shooed out.  Some quick overhaul and a soaking with compressed air foam allowed us to go back in service quickly.  

In the afternoon we did some pump training and caused some unintentional alarm.  Our technical rescue team was practicing confined space rescue in the storm water vaults to the rear of the station; my feeble brain didn't connect this with the effects of pouring gallons of water into the drains to the front of the station.  I thought that the drains connected with the storm water system downstream of where the fellas were practicing - turns out I was wrong.  Other than being alarmed by the sounds of gushing water and then getting their ankles wet the technical rescue guys were fortunately ok.  I like to think I taught them a valuable lesson in the necessity for lock out / tag out.  

The decline of the volunteer fire service

The above video is a humorous take on American volunteer fire departments and the people who are likely to show up to your emergency should you be lucky enough to live or work in an area without a paid fire department.   The video shows a homeowner with a nice new house who has called 911 apparently for an activated smoke detector.  He is nonplused when his call is answered by two Bobby Blue Lights (technical term from my Pennsylvania brothers) in their private cars and no fire truck shows up.  One of the firefighters drives in at mach 5 and runs over the citizen's flowers.  He questions them on the perceived lack of service and gets answered with lots of technical jargon and references to firefighter heroism.    They then ask him for a donation and to use his bathroom.

Yes the video is a bit over the top.  But a lot of the themes are right on the money.  Consider:

VFDs all over America are reporting declining membership due to increased family and job commitments.  Thus it is not uncommon for members to show up in their private vehicles and for only a few members to show up at all.

Training demands are up.  Most states mandate basic levels of training for a firefighter to be able to engage in interior operations.  For a VFD that provides medical aide and firefighting it is not uncommon for it to take a couple of years for the volunteer to complete what would be considered entry level training.  Studies show that the average "career" of an active volunteer is about three years.  This means that there is a huge retention issue for trained personnel.

Take the two factors I have mentioned above and what that means is that at any volunteer fire house you are likely to find a large pool of enthusiastic, but minimally trained, young members; and a few "lifers" who are the ones that largely make sure that there are drivers for the trucks and fill other vital roles.  The young members have no positive role models in the middle management ranks and are usually not attuned to customer service.

Now let's take the citizen who is outraged at his service.  Bottom line is you get what you pay for.  When you move out to the exurb and marvel at how much house you can buy and how low the taxes are compared to the big nasty city or suburb well guess what - the taxes are low because there are no paid firemen.  Trash collection is provided by a dude with a pick up that you pay yourself once a quarter.  At night there is 1 cop on duty for the entire township.  There is one library and one park.  You get the idea.    In other words there is no free lunch.

If you want to assess the health of your local VFD walk in and ask a few questions:

• What are your response time goals?  (Most "with-it" departments try to meet the NFPA standard of within 4 - 8 minutes to a fire 90% of the time).  
• What is your average response time?  
• What is your average crew size?  
• How many members of that crew are certified Firefighter 2s?
• If your department provides medical services ask how many members of the ambulance crew are certified EMTs?

If you find any waffling or blank stares when you ask these questions make sure you up your fire insurance and install lots of smoke detectors in your house.  "With it" departments are proud of their accomplishments and will be happy to answer your questions.

Now as to why career firefighters dislike volunteers its simple - they give us a bad name.  As an example if you visit any online media that remotely criticizes the local firemen you will be appalled at the language that comes back at the author.  Attempts to call the local VFD to account will be answered with "hope you never need us" and other such unprofessional answers.  Volunteers routinely threaten to quit when the local politicians try to reign in the excesses.  Volunteers are disproportionately more likely to commit arson.  Volunteer companies are usually poorly managed financially and are easy prey for leaders with sticky fingers.  

I call myself a firefighter.  I have thousands of hours in formal training and experience on actual calls.  It chaps my butt (technical term) to have some Bobby Bluelight who just turned in his application to call himself the same thing and to pretend to have the same technical competence as I have.  In the medical world it would be like a candy striper being confused with a cardiac surgeon.

I recognize that there are some volunteer departments that are out there that do have standards, that do meet their service goals and provide great service to the public that they serve.  My hat is off to them.  However, they are not the norm.

In the interests of disclosure I have personal experience as a career firefighter in two jurisdictions and have volunteered in three others.  I have traveled the country providing training to some great volunteer FDs that were hungry to get better.  So I know a little bit of what I speak.

Thanks for reading,

A disheartened Schmuckalooski

Addendum:
My initial reasons for writing the post were my reactions to the video and some disturbing conduct at one of our local VFDs.  I tarred with a very broad brush in an immature reaction.  I don't dislike volunteers, in fact I used to be one and probably will be one again at some point.  I do dislike people who don't take their profession (whether they are paid for it or not) and their responsibilities to themselves and the public seriously.  I owe a big apology to those volunteers and volunteer departments who are serious and who do provide great service; and do so often times on a shoe string budget.

Part of this blog writing process has been pretty humbling.  I am finding that I don't write or express myself nearly as well as I think and I am in awe of the many bloggers who can.  I am rapidly trying to improve.

One of the best posts I have seen on this video and topic is by Bill Carey at Backstep Firefighter.  Here is the link:
http://backstepfirefighter.com/2011/02/13/youre-offendedvideo-shared-by-statter911-reveals-some-of-you-have-a-high-opinion-of-yourselves/

Thanks for reading,

A rueful Schmuckalooski

When time outs don't work......

Entropy's latest literary effort

  This resulted after she decided to viciously elbow Banshee in the back for no apparent reason.  I was spanked as a child and as I recall I was pretty well behaved; or at least I wasn't stupid enough to get beat for the same sin twice.  The Wife decreed that our children would never be spanked.  Says it just teaches them to act with violence.  There is probably some truth to that.  Time outs do work - they are just more work for the parent because they require more repetition to get the small child to get the point.  Today I just decided to get more creative with the punishment - thus the time out and the writing.  Entropy needs to practice her writing and spelling anyway so we were able to kill two birds with one stone.

Thanks for reading....

This is why we can't have nice things......

So Banshee and Entropy got home from school today and after doing their homework were sent upstairs to clean up their rooms.  (That's what's on the weekly activity schedule for Wednesdays in the Schmuckalooski household.)  I guess I should have know that something was going on by how quiet they were - as any parent can tell you quiet is generally a harbinger of doom - or at least a sign that your little miracles (technical term) are up to something.  So anyway, I go upstairs to find out that Entropy has peed in a cup in her room - just to see if she could - and then spilled it on the carpet.

 

 Banshee then decided to clean it up with baby wipes and epsom salt.  There was epsom salt everywhere in their rooms.  It was a mess.  Fortunately the builders of our house used high quality carpet (i.e. they scotchguarded the hell out of it) and I was able to clean up the pee pretty easily.  The salt I will probably be vacuuming up for a week.

You can't make this stuff up.

Thanks for reading,

A bewildered Schmuckalooski.

Leadership & Communication...

So last month the BCFD (as were a lot of East Coast FDs) was hit with unusually severe snow storms.  The storm hit our particular area right before the afternoon rush hour and Joe and Josephine Taxpayer got stuck trying to get home.  And I mean stuck to the point where entrances to subdivisions became impromptu parking lots and you had to slalom your way down the main roads.  Our area wasn't unique in this - some Washington D.C. area commuters were stuck over night on the road.  And I mean stuck in the cars, not forced to take shelter in a nearby hotel in Spartanburg S.C. like Old Red did on a trip to Florida one year for Spring Break.  I wish FDs gave a Spring Break.  Why do college students need a Spring Break anyway?  But I digress...

  In any case, a truck company from our department responded to a gentleman having a heart attack.  No ambulances were available or likely to be available soon due to the traffic/snow/shitty (technical term) conditions.  The patient was truly critical and circling the bowl (technical term).  The truck officer made the decision to transport the patient in the truck to the hospital - which fortunately was pretty close.   The ER doc stated that they made the right call and saved this man's life.

So do you think I heard about this great example of decision making and customer service internally???  No - I had to read about it in our local media.  Unfricking believable.

I'll be the first to admit that I am not the world's greatest supervisor but one of my mentors taught me that any time your subordinates do something extraordinary you should circulate it.  I always copy thank you letters to the District Commander, our County-wide Shift Chief and anyone else I think needs to know about the employee.  It has always had a motivational and cumulative effect on the guys and girls on my shift.

Thanks for reading,

A peeved Schmuckalooski

Super Bowl

So in a couple of hours I will be sitting down on my tush cush (technical term) to watch the annual gridiron classic.  I will be rooting for "los" (more on this later) Green Bay Packers.  I have no animus against the Steelers and would indeed root for them if they were playing some other team.  However, my bleeding liberal heart has a special spot for the only publicly owned team in the NFL.

The last time I watched the Pack play in the Super Bowl was memorable.  The local cable operator some how got the wrong feed and thus my wife and I watched the first three quarters listening to the Spanish feed.  Commentary, commercials, etc. etc. - all in Spanish.  The only recognizable language was "touchdown los packers!!!" which I remember hearing a lot.  They won.

Super Bowl days at the fire house are usually fun.  Everyone usually brings in a dish of munchables, sometimes the spouse and kids come to enjoy, and the call load is usually pretty light to non-existent during the game (the public doesn't want to interrupt the game either).  After the game is over however, wow!  Calls are off the charts.  Not a good time to be driving.  However, the only post game incident Red ever had was hitting a doe.  Stupid animal ran into the side of my car despite my best attempts to avoid it.  She must have been on the way back from a party where she had too much Bu(ck)weiser.  Hah!

Here is an amusing list of Super Bowl legends from Snopes including the hoary old chestnut that claims that mass toilet usage after the Super Bowl has caused havoc with sewer pipes (not true).  Enjoy!  www.snopes.com/sports/football/superbowl.asp

Sick Leave

So I am sitting at home using up some of my sick leave.  I recently got surgery and so will have to be out of action at the BCFD for a while.  I was reading an article this morning about how some Clark County, NV FFs apparently scammed their system by taking over 1000 hours of sick leave and then working 1000 hours of overtime in a year's time.  I don't see how this is possible without some type of management collusion bearing in mind that on our usual 24/48 shift schedule we work just under 3000 hours a year.  (You would have to really be hustling to make another 1000 hours.)  At the BCFD we are required to submit a note after 4 separate shifts off; and three shifts off in a row earns you a trip to our medical clinic for a review by our fire surgeon.  I suspect that as usual the press has left out some salient details.   Here is the link for those that want to read it.  www.lvrj.com/news/firefighters-sick-leave-theater-makes-you-laugh-until-you-cry-115171014.html

Public Sector pensions

There has been a lot of vitriol in the press lately about "bloated" public pensions.  Indeed, one Washington DC based fish wrapper has a column called "Pension Pig Out" by one Mark Hemingway.  (His pic makes him look a little like old Rush Limbaugh - overfed, self satisfied etc. etc.)  So every week this Hemingway cat lists the name of a public employee that is collecting a pension that Mr. Hemingway deems excessive.  Normally the poor slob he is picking on lives in California.  One wonders what pensions in California has to do with pensions in the Washington D.C. area.  In any case, only the annual pension amount is listed.  There is no mention of how many years the employee worked, no mention of what his annual salary was before he retired - in other words no background information that would allow you to figure out for yourself whether this is an overly generous pension or not.

When I started working for the Big County Fire Department, defined benefit pensions were the norm for the corporate and public sectors.  Pretty quickly after I got hired, the corporate world starting axing their pension plans in favor of self funded 401ks etc.  Everyone at the time hailed this as part of the new corporate flexibility where employees and employers could be hired and laid off as business conditions required.  There were glowing articles in the business press how employees could now expect to have 8 or more employers in their working lifetimes - so it made sense to have a portable pension.

During the go-go 90's and early 2000s. the BCFD suffered in its recruiting.  Even with our "bloated" benefits and pensions - we could not find people to hire.  There was too much money to be made in the private sector.

Now flash foward to 2011.  Things are good for corporations - making more money than ever before.  Labor is cheap and plentiful.  However, whether willful or not, there has been a sustained assault on the midde class - it is shrinking and hurting.  It is easier to shift people's attention and blame to another closer target (i.e. public servants) than the impersonal forces of globalization.

My point with the last two paragraphs is that I went in to the FD knowing I wasn't going to get rich.  My salary, up until the last couple of years, has lagged way behind those of my college classmates.  However, I did expect a certain amount of job security in return for my dedication and service.

I am pushing 50.  My employer made a contract with me at time of hire that I would contribute x amount to my pension and that they would contribute the rest.  I have to work 30 years to collect 60% of my salary.  I keep my health care benefits (of which I will have to pay 20% of) for an additional year for every year that I worked.  Yes in today's world these are great terms - but again, this was the norm when I started my working life.  In the 8 or 9 years that I have left working for the BCFD, how am I supposed to now save up enough money to switch to a self funded 401K?  Do people realize that the average firefighter drops over dead about 10 years after retirement?  Do people understand that the reason a lot of pension systems are in trouble is because the politicians didn't fund them sufficiently?  How is this my fault?

I'm just saying......

Discipline..........

Yesterday I worked my shift at the Big County Fire Department.  I had interesting separate conversations with two of my crew members about accountability.  I thought this was an interesting coincidence.   Both are highly motivated employees but at widely separated points in their careers.  FF Mouth was raised in a firefighting family and can drive just about every vehicle in our department.  FF Xenia came to us later in her professional life and is just now going through engineer training - however their values and concerns are similar.

The BCFD provides a full spectrum of emergency services, including EMS.  FF Mouth made the point that when providing EMS, that there was plenty of oversight and correction from the BCFD and the State EMS agency.  Record keeping is electronic so the feedback cycle is pretty immediate.  Although our department is fairly well known for the quality of its care, we all know examples of those that have made mistakes - and suffered the consequences.  FF Mouth also made the point that it is the relatively junior members of our department who are in a position to make these mistakes and are therefore affected by the sanctions.  He contrasted this with the officers of the department.  His viewpoint is that we have a fairly weak officer corps and that officers are allowed to make mistake after mistake on fire calls without correction.

I tend to agree with him.  In my district there are two other captains that I regard as peers, and three others that I believe need some help.  Yesterday we ran a rural house fire (our county includes a little bit of every kind of land density) and the first due engine officer could barely identify a fill site for our water tenders.  He utterly failed to articulate a location for a water dump site for the folding tanks and so forth that are necessary for a successful rural firefighting operation.  All of this is mandated by our SOGs.  Myself and one of the other captains worked it out via radio between ourselves - so it was pretty obvious what had happened - and fortunately the rest of the call ran smoothly.  However, I don't think there will be any consequences to this officer.  Our District Commander was on another incident and the fill in officer covering the next district didn't even come in to the scene to talk to the first in officer.

I talked about the call later with FF Xenia who was interested to learn about the water supply considerations.  She then brought up Captain Homes (the first in officer) and what would be done about his lack of actions.  I replied honestly.  She contrasted the probable lack of action with her experience in the corporate world.  I couldn't disagree with her.

Hopefully, our District Commander will hear about the call and take some actions.  Its not really my issue, other than I need to be on my toes to come up with a plan B the next time I respond to a call involving Captain Homes.

Thanks for reading.

Firefighter Philosophy

It has been a rough couple of months for the fire service.  Two firefighters were recently killed in Chicago while battling a vacant warehouse fire.  Last week a Baltimore County (MD) firefighter lost his life after rescuing a resident at a garden apartment fire.  The Big County FD has not suffered any Line of Duty Deaths (LODD) in a quite of while; though of course it is not due to lack of effort.  I say that because our service (like the fire service as a whole) seems to be irrevocably split between those that would rush foolhardily into any building that was on fire and those that tend to be more analytical in the name of safety.  And as there are no shortage of egos amongst my brothers, at times the debate gets rather heated.

Witness the recent deaths in Chicago; within days there was an editorial on the website of a respected trade journal vehemently questioning the wisdom of having firefighters go into a reportedly vacant building.  A short time later, the editorial was pulled with an explanation from the senior editor that its too soon for hard questions in chicago.  Other media sources have suggested that there was clear evidence that the building was occupied by vagrants and that the building collapse wasn't clearly foreseeable.

So where do I stand on this issue?

Some food for thought:

• The old mantra that Big Water + Big Balls = Fire Goes Out is usually true (in my experience).  

• The USMC has a tactical philosophy that a 80% plan executed rapidly usually succeeds better than a perfect plan that is delayed.  

• A young firefighter was killed a couple of years ago in Prince William County, VA due to his officer's failure to circle the building and realize that the fire was burning up the rear exterior of the house.  

• Also in my experience if you put the fire out a lot of problems go away.  As an example I once ran a fire in a garden apartment where one of the basement apartments was blazing away.  The door to the apartment had failed filling the stairwell with thick smoke and trapping the residents upstairs.   There were three people hanging out on different balconies calling for help as I arrived.  There were four of us to start operations.  Normal firefighting doctrine places rescues first so according to doctrine I should have ignored the fire and used my personnel to throw ladders to the balcony.  However, I realized that while the apartment door had failed so had the windows and most of the fire, smoke, & heat was venting to the outside.  This meant that the people on the balconies were not in immediate danger.  We stretched a line to the apartment and put the fire out within minutes - and the people on the balcony were able to walk themselves out of the building.   

So after a few years of doing this job, my view that it is sometimes inherently dangerous.  We make the best decisions we can on the basis of experience and quick judgements.  Sometimes that is not enough and firefighters get hurt or die.  I am suspicious of those that rush into danger based on sheer bravado; I am also suspicious of those that fail to ever go into danger because of safety reasons.  On this (as in politics) I am a pragmatic moderate.  We serve to protect life, sometimes we must risk ours to do that, but there is no law that says we must do so foolishly.  

Thanks for reading.  

Yeah, they are burning

Today's topic is hemorroids.  I've got them and you don't want them.  As a younger officer, I used to be amused by Technician Crusty, who frequently drove me on the ladder truck.  Crusty could spend a half hour in the bathroom stall and could talk longer about his various backdoor ailments.  I have to confess though that I wasn't real sympathetic.  Now that I am older and have experienced some, I owe Crusty an apology.  I think I owe them mostly to the year I spent as a temporary District Commander - much too much time spent sitting behind the desk or behind the wheel of the command buggy and eating a low fiber diet to match.  Now that I am back to my permanent rank, I spend more time being active, which helps - but apparently once you have hemorroids you got them for life.  Thank goodness for baby wipes.

Little monsters.....

So yesterday I went to work.  Although it had its own set of issues, it was a welcome respite from the Banshee and Entropy.  Today it was back to full time child care as they both had off school and their mother Da Queen was off visiting her mom.  While I was cleaning house, they decided to create a typewriter out of an old shoe box, pipe cleaners, fake flowers and pens.  I have to admire their creative spirit.  What I don't admire is their attempts to keep playing with it after lights out.  I don't mind giving them my full time and attention during the day; but after bedtime is my time to relax - and I guard it jealously.  What made it even worse is DQ got home very grumpy and tired and immediately went to bed.  I asked the kids to be especially good to be considerate to their mother - do you think it mattered?  NO.  I keep telling myself that this is just a phase and I will look back on these days with nostalgia - but I am having a hard time seeing it.  

Thanks for reading.

Social Justice.....

A normal Sunday.  I took the Banshee and Entropy to church.  We belong to the local parish of one of the so-called "mainline" protestant denominations.  Our church is small and friendly and fortunately has been spared from the wrenching debates regarding homosexuality engaging our national church in recent years.  Our church does engage in a lot of community ministry to help the less fortunate; which is probably a better use of our time and money than worrying about sexual deviancy.

Glen Beck has opined that if you hear your church use the term social justice Glen Beck audio that you should run away. This bothers me.  I think it is evident from the gospels that Jesus had a special concern for those that were down and out.  I think that God does expect us to treat everyone as our brother.  I think it is a Christian imperative to work for social conditions that would enable everyone to have equal opportunities for success.  And in a country where it is ok to spend tax payer dollars to bail out mega banks - just so that a year later they can go back to giving kabillion dollar bonuses to their executives - I'm glad someone is standing up for the little guys.  Talk about your moral hazards....

I'm just saying.......

Numero Uno.......

Hi.

My name is Red Schmuckalooski.  You can call me Red, or Captain, or Cap or just that idiot who writes that blog.  I don't really care.

This blog is simply to allow me to vent; a form of therapy if you will.  It's a lot cheaper seeing than a shrink or buying a six pack of Olympia every day.

I work for a fire department on the east coast where I hold the position of a station Captain.  We will just call it Big County Fire Department (BCFD).  That way nobody gets their feelings hurt.

I have been working for 21 years and married to the same wonderful woman for 15 of those.  We have two daughters - the Banshee and Entropy - 7 & 5 respectively.  Living with them is sometimes challenging but never boring.

Thanks for reading.