Dave P. said "Once there's a fire in a building there is another completely real life hazard in play - the responding emergency personnel. Some may enter the building and be very close to harm's way and others may respond and have ancillary functions - traffic control, EMS, crowds etc."
As an 18 year now retired veteran FF I will play the other side. Once everyone is out should the FD still be in full attack mode? Really why are they in a building very close to harms way at that point? How often have you done the hero TV thing (with no lives except your own at stake) only to have the bulldozer arrive the next day? Anyone that has attainted the rank of Chief should be able to immediately know where the incident is going from the time they arrive and change tactics accordingly. Unfortunately, we are an optimistic bunch and some how convince ourselves there is something to save or worth saving. I cherish the stuff in my house including the irreplaceables but there is nothing in a home or business worth risking FF's after the life question is resolved. And most of the time the life question is resolved before the first company arrives. Now lets also divide up the death and injuries between fires and not. Engaged in the actual fire fight is a rather rare way to die. Failing hearts are a common cause, many (but not all) are preventable through not being very close to harm's way for property and medical screening. Driving - there is no reason to drive as fast as we do and often lights and sirens are just stupid. The 15th engine to a fire with no life risk probably shouldn't have them on (and if you are the 15th engine due the life risk most likely has resolved itself on way or the other). Why do we send a full alarm assignment lights and sirens to a water flow alarm? Why do we send any one to a smoke alarm? Ok many that's a little bit of a stretch but really when the smoke alarm is the only indication of a problem how often is there really a need for the FD? I bet just about never. Why do we have 60 yo overweight, beer swilling, couch potatoes still in the service? Why do we have 70 yo FF? Why do we have 40 yo that have never had a physical and risk assessments for heart and strokes? Don't tell me we don't have the money when I see departments with all new SCBA's and a couple new $300,000 fire trucks added over the past few years that on average see one house fire a year all funded by the stupid federal grant program. The 1970's hand me down was just fine. Us last few taxpayers are a stupid bunch but fear not the republicrats will save us. FF's are in full control of the risk they take. And quite frankly far too often take too many for nothing gained. They don't use their head enough and that accounts for a lot of the problems. The above accounts for the 99.9%. There is, of course, the very rare exceptions but not enough to base our entire system of FF'ing on. But as usual I have no opinion on the matter. Chris Cahill, P.E. Fire Protection Engineer Sentry Fire Protection, Inc. 763-658-4483 763-658-4921 fax Email: [email protected] Mail: P.O. Box 69 Waverly, MN 55390 Location: 4439 Hwy 12 SW Waverly, MN 55390 _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
