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.