I can't believe this

Everyone has their opinion, I'm just sharing mine, and I respect that of others.. We can all agree and disagree, that's what is so great about this country.

When someone dies in a fire, the people who are in charge of that rescue are damaged 'inside' for life. They failed. But that's not a judgement from someone else, that is their judgement on themselves. Speaking for myself, as a firefighter, even if everything is done, every possible effort is made, I still felt like a failure. Losing an elderly woman to a fire probably shaved more off my life than losing a child in the back of the rig. In EMS, we have tools and technology that works for us, and can pull someone back from beyond. But in a fire, the work is done with tradition, and technology discovered a hundred years ago.. and most of the time, resuscitation would be a horriffic, and unforgiving task.

Every 60 seconds fire doubles in size, it gets hotter, bigger, eats more oxygen, and gives off more toxins. Survival rate after sixty seconds in that enviroment is less than 10%. The biggest enemy during a fire is time.
 
Speaking as a Firefighter with quite a few years/experience/training to back it up, I think Alex has best summed up everything quite well. I really don't think I could add much more other than to say I seriously agree with Alex.
TTLWHKR said:
Everyone has their opinion, I'm just sharing mine, and I respect that of others.. We can all agree and disagree, that's what is so great about this country.

When someone dies in a fire, the people who are in charge of that rescue are damaged 'inside' for life. They failed. But that's not a judgement from someone else, that is their judgement on themselves. Speaking for myself, as a firefighter, even if everything is done, every possible effort is made, I still felt like a failure. Losing an elderly woman to a fire probably shaved more off my life than losing a child in the back of the rig. In EMS, we have tools and technology that works for us, and can pull someone back from beyond. But in a fire, the work is done with tradition, and technology discovered a hundred years ago.. and most of the time, resuscitation would be a horriffic, and unforgiving task.

Every 60 seconds fire doubles in size, it gets hotter, bigger, eats more oxygen, and gives off more toxins. Survival rate after sixty seconds in that enviroment is less than 10%. The biggest enemy during a fire is time.
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TTLWHKR said:
If only two showed up in a rig, you must consider one was driving. And one was wearing just bunker pants.. and it is very difficult to drive an apparatus with a standard transmission, while wearing full turnout gear. And not all firefighters are there for entry. Someone has to stay with the apparatus, and operate the pump...

I can't drive a standard with a coat or gloves on, and some rigs have such small petals, you can't wear boots either. Are they going to check into that? Blame the fire apparatus mfg too? :rolleyes:

I think the media blew this way out of proportion, and made the dept. look bad.. Therefore they couldn't just sit around and try to explain how they do their operations.. Someone had to take the fall.

Also.. You can't go in w/ out SCBA.. and NFPA forbids the driver seat from being equipped with n SCBA unit, as many quint or quad cab rigs have.
Therefore, the driver will hop out, and not have full TOG or an SCBA on.
This person should not leave the rig, if they are planning on using it to fight the fire. And if they are planning on going in, someone has to lay LDH to a water source, i.e. another pumper at a fill site, or a hydrant. Someone has to hook that hose to either a manifold or a wye to direct water to both apparatus, someone has to direct attack lines.. This small hose they talk about, was an inch & three quarter, a standard hose size in all of the world. 1 3/4" & 2 1/2" - Attack; 3" - Blitz; 4" & 5" Supply; 6" Hard Suction.

And you can't just run up and go in.. Even if laws throw out the two in, two out rule; that doesn't count in a rescue. But it's still not safe. Someone should do a safety walk around.. Look for downed power lines, fuel leaks, propane and nat. gas tanks or pipes, victims, etc.

I don't see that anything was done wrong, b/c >WE< don't know their SOP, plan of attack, the training of the two personnel, who was in charge, etc. Someone is just blaming the firemen b/c their family could not escape.

I still want to know the cause, what time was it, was the home equipped with working smoke alarms, was the fire investigated by an arson team, etc.. More details.
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I am quoting this post in its entirety simply because it was very good. Well said!!! This makes me feel a bit idiotic as I would have liked to have said the same thing but could not put anything together. To all of you out there who are very eager to convict and condem, it is my opinion that having not been there you are a bit offline. Who knows what happened before the video started rolling, what was said among those onscene, what actions the vidoe did not capture.

I would also like to point out, again, being in EMS we are ALL expected to perform perfectly, all the time. If we do not the general public is more than willing to crucify us. We in EMS should not be willing to do this to our own as willingly.
 
Just as a side note, a nearby department purchased a new KME truck late last year and if you hook it up to a hydrant that has a good commercial water supply the truck will pump itself, if it runs out of water it shifts to the booster on its own, and if the booster goes below 1/4 the horn blows, and when the pump runs dry it will automatically shut itself down, take the truck out of pump gear and place the pto into neutral. This truck cost them $450,00 mind you, but for a small town witha small member combo dept it was worth the $$ to be able to make an attack with 2 people on scene first, or to do a quick rescue with those 2 people, and when more ff's show up they can run the truck. I know that this truck will do all this because I program radios for this dept and have several close friends who work there, and I got the free tour of this truck and got to play with it some. It very cool, being a ff and all I love it. For my dept I am the master pump operator, but thats because I can figure out most anything mechanical in less than 5 minutes. Guess I have a gift. But thats my 2 cents on that.
 
After investigating further, and hearing so many differing opinions, I am quite convinced that the one firefighter should be reinstated (no gear). However, the second firefighter should be suspended or terminated. The officer in charge of the scene was the real culprit in this entire situation though, making countless mistakes and not effectively leading fireground operations. Mabye no more lives would have been saved, but the operations should have and could have been affected more succesfully.
 
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