Some random thoughts this morning as I sit here trying to wake up.....
- What time do you show up for your shift? At work, the shift starts at 0700 and people show up at all kinds of different times. Some will show up around 0545 or 0600... most show up between 0615 and 0630... and some will come in with 2 minutes to spare (if they are lucky).
- When do you do your daily rig check? As soon as you get in? At shift change? After breakfast? After your first run?
Despite fighting the urge to want to curl up in a dark corner somewhere and go back to sleep, I check out the rigs every morning right at shift change. I usually get in around 0615 and will sit in the kitchen with the off going crew to find out what they had the other day, if any equipment is out of service, if any drug box tags were changed, etc.
I feel that getting the rig checked out first thing in the morning is imperative in our line of work. How many times have you had a call come in a few minutes after the start of your shift and you're not 100% sure as to whether or not everything is where it should be or if the equipment is there at all?
Some call it complacency, but I just think of it as laziness when people don't do their rig checks first thing in the morning. You can still drink your coffee, listen to the radio, and BS with the guys while checking the equipment.
A little about me... I have been around the fire service since I was born. My Dad was a Fireman for 34 years and I was actually taken straight to the firehouse from the hospital after being born rather than going home. I couldn't even begin to guess how many times I would hang out with my Dad and his crew on the weekends or during summer vacation. When I was about 8 and my Dad got a new rookie, he would send me out with the rookie to explain where the equipment was on the rig. So needless to say, I have always been pretty obsessed (for a lack of better words) with firefighting. Even in high school, as I played 2 varsity sports and was All-State in both, I was involved in a local fire explorer program. Even then, I would spend most of my free time reading firefighting magazines and websites trying to learn everything that I can. In the years since high school, I have become a volunteer paid-on-call firefighter in my hometown and a paid firefighter in another community not far from my home.
At work, I'm just your average private. I wear a black helmet, take orders, and spend most of the day cleaning and drilling. At the volunteer house, while just a private, I head up our Equipment, Technical Rescue, and Probationary Training committees and am a member on our Spec Committee. Over the past few years some drastic changes have been made for the better in our department through some pretty hard work by our committee members.
Some big things our committees are working on:
- Charge EMT Competency Exam - At present time, all someone has to do is get their EMT card and they are cleared to operate independently in the back of the ambulance. While this has not come back to bite us yet, we recognize the need for these members to be evaluated before being "turned loose" on our tax-paying citizens.
- Squad Technician Program- This will be an in-house certification program training people to technical rescue risks that we face in our area. Getting NFPA technician level certification in all technical rescue disciplines would not be practical for our department and we realize this so we will be looking at risks we have and how to adequately train our personnel for these. Topics included will be basic/advanced vehicle/machinery extrication, basic rope rescue (rappelling, pick offs, haul systems, litter rigging), Confined Space Rescue, Water/Ice Rescue, and we are considering Trench Rescue.
- Specing a New Ambulance- We have 3 ambulances with the newest being 3 years old with 35k miles and the oldest is 11 years old with 140k miles. We are looking to replace our oldest ambulance with a twin of our newest rig which has worked great for us. (Random note- my volunteer department is actually a combination department where we have 5 guys on a shift 3 on the engine and 2 on the medic unit) As I'm sure you all know, no matter how great a vehicle is, there are always small improvements that can be made here or there and you must evaluate new technology and standards that must be addressed on the new piece of apparatus.
- Probationary Training Program- We started this last year after signing some automatic mutual aid agreements with surrounding departments and realized that there were some basic deficiencies in the education that our new firefighters had. While they had enough book knowledge to pass the certification test, we were finding some deficiencies in their fireground operations skills. So we designed a curriculum and pick 1 Saturday a month where we get our probationaries and invite the surrounding departments to send their rookies to practice basic skills such as pulling lines, throwing ladders, doing searches, etc. Our Feb drill will be a new topic for us, MVA Operations. Alot of these new firefighters, despite having a Fire card, really don't have much direction on accident scenes and if they aren't under the watchful eye of a senior firefighter or officer, they tend to just stand around.
Well, as of now that's all I've got but depending on how slow we are today at work, I may try to think of some new ideas for posts on here. Hope you enjoyed the first post and cut me a little slack, this is my first time in the world of blogging!
Stay safe.
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