With the new year upon us, new opportunities will be
presented to us and each of us has the potential to make 2014 better than
2013. Folks, myself included, often make
New Year’s Resolutions that sound great but never actually come to fruition.
Having been guilty of this, I understand how and why this happens. Fortunately
I have also been able to follow through on a couple New Year’s Resolutions to
include eating healthier/exercising and utilizing my SCBA waist straps. The only reason I was able to follow through
on these items is because I truly committed to following through on them. I
didn’t do it because someone else wanted me to do it. I did it because I
realized the importance of these things and because I wanted to. There are lots of things that happen in the
fire service that we do not have direct control over. However, there are also
plenty of things in the fire service that we have complete control over. Unfortunately, the fire service often falls
short in our quest for excellence due to matters that we have complete control
over. If we commit, and I mean truly
commit, to overcoming some of these matters in 2014, than the fire service will
be moving in a forward direction. It won’t be easy and it won’t always be fun,
but it will always be for the betterment of the fire service.
1. Eat Healthier and Exercise
We all know that firemen love good food and, in many
instances, this good food is not very healthy. We also know that heart attacks are the leading
cause of firefighter deaths. With that
said, it would help if we paid better attention to the food we eat and it’s
effects on our health. I’m not advocating eating grass! I’m merely stating that
we should be cognizant of the fact that some food can be detrimental to our
health, especially when consumed regularly. I love a good, greasy burger as
much as anyone. However, I will not eat burgers 4 or 5 times a week! Learn how
to read food labels. Learn how your body uses or stores the various foods you
eat and develop a diet that is heart-healthy, doesn’t put you at risk for
diabetes, maintains a healthy body-weight, and supports your lifestyle. In addition to eating healthy, regular
exercise activity is extremely beneficial to firemen. Firemen need strength AND endurance to
maximize their effectiveness. While any exercise is better than no exercise,
functional fitness is extremely beneficial to firemen. Functional fitness
simply means doing exercises that are related to the tasks we perform. If we
develop the muscles and perform the motions that are used to do our job, we
will likely better perform our job. Simply put, while not a 100% guarantee, being healthy will likely allow you to perform more efficiently on the fireground.
2. Wear Seatbelts
I’ll be the first person to admit that I am not the “safety
police”.
If you want to classify me as something, I’d be flattered with the title
of the “do your job police”. I’d like to think that’s what I am, as that’s
where my focus is. With that said, there
isn’t a legitimate excuse for not wearing your seatbelt on the rig. When I
joined the fire service I never wore my seatbelt, mostly because none of my
idols were wearing theirs. As I’ve
become older I’ve realized that getting tossed out of a rig because you weren’t
wearing your seatbelt is a “chump” way to go out. I don’t mean any disrespect
to those who have been killed due to the lack of a seatbelt. I simply mean that
in comparison with all of the legitimate risks I take, not wearing a seatbelt
is just plain silly. I’m not okay with my kids growing up without Daddy because
he failed to wear a seatbelt on the rig. Not wearing your seatbelt doesn’t make
you any more aggressive or better of a fireman than the next guy. It just makes
you a little more ignorant than the next guy.
3. Wear and Use SCBA
Again, I’ll revert to my above comment about being the
“safety police”. I am not that guy. We know that firemen are much more likely
to develop cancer than the general population.
One of, if not the, greatest fire service innovations is the SCBA. SCBA allows us to operate in otherwise
untenable areas while protecting our respiratory system. When operating in an IDLH we need to be
wearing our face piece and breathing air, plain and simple. Again, like the
seatbelts, there is no good reason not to be wearing and using your SCBA in an
IDLH area. This includes auto fires and on a roof directly over an area
involved in fire. If you’re going to put the SCBA on your back in these
instances, you might as well breathe the free air in the cylinder. Otherwise
don’t exert the extra energy wearing it on your back.
4. Train Everyday
It’s pretty self-explanatory. When you’re at the firehouse,
some part of your day needs to be spent drilling. This develops skills and
thinking that will be used on the street, It’s not a matter of “if” but a
matter of “when”. Second to runs, training is the best way to become good at
what we do. I might take it a little to
the extreme but as long as you do some kind of training everyday, then you’re
doing the right thing.
5. Use Size-Up To Make Tactical Decisions
In today’s fire service too many folks are using assumptions
or blanket statements to drive their tactical decisions. We need to stop this
and use the information gathered during our size-up to make decisions. We need
to transform information gathered into intelligence and make decisions. This is
the only way to maximize our effectiveness. We need to breed a generation of
thinking, performing firefighters. Using our size-up to guide our actions will
aid in this.
6. Do Your Job and Be Prepared
Put your gear on. Position your apparatus. Lay supply lines.
Pull attack lines. Place ladders.
Regardless of what’s showing or what you may assume. If you’re
dispatched to an incident, it is that incident and more until proven otherwise
by us. If it turns out to be a good
intent or less than what it was dispatched as, it was good practice. If it turns out to be what it was dispatched
as or more, than you will be prepared.
If you adopt this mindset, you won’t find yourself playing catch-up,
you’ll be able to easily work through problems, and you’ll be better at your
job.
7. **For The Executive Fire Service Leaders: Realize
That Organizations Are All-Hazards, Individuals Are Not!!!
The disturbing trend of ineffectiveness and mediocrity that
stems from the “everyone does everything” mindset has got to stop!
Organizations are comprised of many people with varying skill sets. All of
these skill sets come together to form the organization. That said, everyone
has a place in the organization. That’s what makes the all-hazards organization
effective. One person doesn’t do it all!
Let people succeed and place their focus in the areas where they will
succeed, don’t force or mislead them into areas where they’re mediocre,
ineffective, or unsuccessful. Those who are good, and I mean truly good, at
everything are the exception rather than the rule. It’s time for the fire service to regain the
standard of excellence that once was the expectation of all those that entered
into our great calling, instead of rolling the dice on the law of probability
with mediocrity.
As I said above, it won’t always be easy but we need to
commit to making the fire service better in 2014. We need to take ownership and control over
the things we can. It only takes one
person to inspire and influence others to do the right thing. Will it be you or are you going to be the one
who is okay with remaining stagnant, just “getting by”, or doing things that
take away focus from our operational service delivery? I know which group of folks I want on the rig
with me or responding to my emergency.
Have a Happy New Year and keep the fire service focused and moving in
the right direction.
