Where Is the Focus?

By Capt. Joe Bruni
The following commentary is an article reprinted from Fire Connection the newspaper of the City of St. Petersburg Fire and Rescue Department, with the author's permission. All rights reserved.

It has been six months since the tragic loss of six of our brothers in Worcester and the sting and impact from that incident lingers on. I have to stop and wonder if we, as a fire service, have learned anything from this incident. There are some in this line of work who are still questioning if those brave, unselfish firefighters should have entered and searched a vacant structure for any signs of human beings. Some in our line of work refer to the people living in that structure as vagrants or the homeless. Plain and simple, they were human beings in need of help and possible rescue. It troubles me when I hear some in our profession say those brave firefighters should have never went into that vacant structure to search for the homeless or those vagrants, as if we have the right to make such statements. It troubles me even more we have people in this great profession who feel they have a right to put a price on human life based on how people choose or have been forced to live. It troubles me when I hear company officers say this job should be as simple and non-thinking as possible for the firefighter. This is not what the fire service is all about. The firefighters in Worcester did not question the value of those human lives that night; the firefighters did not concern themselves with questions about whether their struggles were going to take too much thinking or effort on their part.

There is no doubt, this tragic incident will give some in our service the ammunition, and open a new debate on whether firefighters should enter a vacant structure involved in fire. There are those who will always be in the wings waiting to point the finger of judgement, and say the fire departments in this great country should no longer risk the lives of its firefighters by sending them into a vacant structure on fire. To those, I would suggest they have never recognized or understood the reason why heroic, unselfish firefighters are sent into vacant buildings day-after-day to search for trapped human beings. It isn't a question of whether the structure is vacant or occupied; it is a question of risk verses benefit. I have to stop and wonder, where is the focus of our strong profession headed in the year 2000?

This line of work is about duty, service excellence, strong values, and morals; I hope these will never fade from the front lines of why we exist. It is not about questioning a person's net worth before we make the decision to go in and do battle. This profession is also not about blanket or excessive policies restricting our duty to service and excellence to our fellow man. It is becoming more and more common to hear managers in this profession talk of the restriction of firefighters in the performance of their service and duties. This type of thinking is born in the minds of fire service managers, not leaders. This is the thinking of the risk manager and we certainly need management at all levels of the fire service. However, at times it is not managers we need in this dangerous line of work; it is strong leadership that is needed. Leadership at all levels. Leaders at the administration level; leaders at the training level; leaders at the company officer level; leaders at the union level; and leaders at the firefighter level.

What are we as leaders doing about the real safety problems facing firefighters today? The vacant building issue and lightweight shoddy construction methods used today in our cities are not often addressed by any of us so called leaders. We are not fighting hard enough for our own safety and well-being. How beneficial it would be to our safety and welfare to come up with, through legislation, a building hazard marking system. This is possible through our strong efforts, leadership, and the lobbying of lawmakers. Instead we get hung up on silly things such as which hose load is easier to load with the least amount of thought, effort, and work involved. Things like T-shirts, shorts, or white socks become primary issues. Shame on us! Let me let you in on a little secret. It isn't hose loads that are the primary important issue with hose. With hose, it is effective deployment and proper hose work. Proper and effective hose work is seldom accomplished anymore, and even though we have the training materials and videos available, I see little to no training done at the company level along these lines. Many firefighters no longer recognize that hose work is a two-step process: the stretching of hoselines is the first step; handling the charged hoseline is the second. No where is the ease of loading a primary and important factor here! So, I have to stop and wonder, where is the leadership and the focus?

The number of structure fires are down, yet line-of-duty injuries and fireground deaths have remained constant for the past number of years. Our fireground response and training efforts are tragically deficient across the nation. What are we doing to address these problems? These problems will not go away until we invest in our people and their training. The fire service has always been, and always will be about people. At times we lose the battle on the fireground or encounter problems which were not common to us a few short years ago, and we have the gall to point the finger of judgement at each other's strategies and tactics. So, I have to wonder, where is the focus? Could the problem be we no longer have the proper number of well trained personnel, equipment, and information about the building? It takes well trained people to reverse the encountered tragedy and problems of the emergency scene. Please don't tell me we are missing these simple points because they have become too simple.

The fire service has been conducting a twenty-year experiment which has created a fresh new image for the fire service, but at what price? Do more with less, customer service, and be all things to all people are the common mind-sets in the fire service today, but what are we doing about the problems plaguing us as emergency workers? Our company level training efforts are commendable, but at times we water them down or eliminated certain ones completely. Our programs and education efforts are much needed and testimonial efforts of everyone's part; however, we continue to expose our members to great harm if there is a serious lack of training, lack of personnel, and lack of information available to us on the fireground. We don't get fires anymore has become the common nation-wide mind-set. This has become a dangerous mind-set. So, I have to wonder, where is the focus?

Since the tragic incident in Worcester, I have seen little to nothing done to improve things for the firefighter, except talk of restrictive policies and standard operating procedures. We can start by encouraging the company officers to increase their training and building detection efforts. This includes hazard identification for the first-due districts. There is another real tragedy that occurred in Worcester that night; it was the fire department's lack of information about the building's hazards, contents, and occupants. This lack of information, or training if you will, is what started the snowball and avalanche effect that dreadful night. That night in Worcester, more information about hazards would have made the risk verses benefit equation much clearer to firefighters and the Incident Commander. True, firefighters at the grass roots level will never question the decision to conduct building searches for human life. This is why the fire service was created and it is what it is all about. The items that need changing in our profession are not the policies and mission; the changes need to occur in our attitudes, hearts, and minds. So, six months later I have to stop and wonder; where is the focus; what have we learned, and as leaders, what are we going to do about it?