Many of us have either seen firsthand or heard about the Pride and Ownership series by Chief Rick Lasky of the Lewisville (TX) Fire Department so I won't give you a synopsis but rather use it as a building block to talk about some related issues.
Like I have posted before, do you check the rigs first thing in the morning? Do you get your chores done and then ask the officer what more needs to be done? And if he doesn't have anything else for you, do you find something to do for a bit or do you just plop on the couch and channel surf?
Not to talk myself up, but I am always one to do the rig check first in the morning, get chores done, and find more that needs to be done around the firehouse. If I can't find anything, it never hurts to go over the bathrooms again in more detail. But after that, I try to do a little training. Rarely is anyone else at the house interested in what I'm doing, but I try to learn something new everyday or at least reinforce and sharpen my skills.
Somedays this will mean doing a full work up on the saws and other days it might be throwing ladders. If the weather is less than favorable, I might go through the RIT pack, polish some brass, and paint tools. Some say that its easy to see I haven't been on the job for an extended period of time because you "eventually grow out of that stage and just come to work and want to go home."
Quite frankly I believe that's a load of BS. We have some GREAT firefighters at work and I would take a booster line to the gates of hell with these guys, but we also have quite a few guys that want to do as little work as possible and as much sleeping as they can squeeze out of 24 hours.
On our shift we have multiple guys qualified as drivers so we rotate day to day who's turn it is to drive. Some days the engine driver will check out the rig.... other days they will blow it off. When I'm driving, I consider the Engine "MY" truck. For the day it doesn't belong to the taxpayers or the chief, it belongs to ME. I take better care of it than I do my own belongings. I strive to go above and beyond our basic check out that is spelled out for us in our morning checksheet that must be completed every day. I don't care if the saws were just run yesterday, I want to know that they are fueled up and ready to go. I don't care if the ladders were just pulled out and cleaned two shifts ago, I want to make sure that the halyards are tied correctly and that the fly section isn't going to get caught up by any debris. I know how it is, you run a job in the middle of the night, you get back to the firehouse and think I can squeeze and hour of sleep in before the shift is over... the guys tomorrow will clean it up, I'll just let em know in the morning.
Well, when at 0725 we catch a first due house fire and you're still sleeping and failed to mention that there were equipment issues, we might have some problems on the fireground. I want to know for DAMN sure that all MY equipment on MY truck is in working order for the day. I want to know that when MY crews pull something off MY truck that it will work properly the first time, without any troubleshooting or swearing.
Today we had a relief captain at our station and he was dumbfounded when he came out on the apron at 0710 and I had saws and fans running, the pump in gear, and ladders thrown. He asked me point blank "What the hell are you doing?" I said, "Cap, just checking my equipment." He kind of looked at me for a minute, shrugged his shoulders and went back into his office.
Not only am I making sure all my equipment works during this check, I'm learning my equipment better every day and I'm training. I know that our chainsaw will take two pulls on full choke, and after one at half choke it starts. EVERYTIME. Throwing a 24 footer singlehandedly is like brushing my teeth.
(Disclaimer: Like I said before, this isn't to puff out my chest and say LOOK AT ME!)
If I do get a chance to sit down in front of the TV or in the kitchen and catch my breath for a few minutes, chances are that ESPN will be on in the background and you could find me with my nose in a Fire Engineering magazine or on my laptop looking at any various Fire/EMS blog or on some sort of firefighting forums.
A few months after getting hired on, a lot of the guys labeled all of us rookies as money hogs. They said we were just here for the money and could care less about the community as none of us probies grew up in this city and most of the old timers have lived here for years. Well, I know for a fact that it didn't take long for their opinion of me to be changed for the reasons described above. I took better care of the rigs than the guys who paid for them!
At the volunteer house it's the same way. I'm always trying to wash and wax a truck, check equipment, etc. I'm actually part time at the vollie house too, so if I'm working a shift (combination department) I am rarely in front of the TV playing XBOX, dozing off in a recliner, or minding my own business in my room. I am really into all aspects of technical rescue, whether its extrication, ropes, trench, collapse, confined space, or water rescue, count me in! Now even though my tax dollars have paid for these trucks, I don't take care of them any better than the rigs at work. I don't know how it would be possible to take any better care of them! Some of the older guys that really don't know why they are still on the roster, but still hang around and contribute their 2 cents at the most inopportune time give us younger guys tons of crap. Most of them give me crap about our Rescue Squad being "Jake's Truck."
And you know what? I'm totally cool with that!
I love that truck and drive it every chance I get. If I respond from home for a call, I'll run through the Rescue Squad real quick just to make sure everything is there and nothing is out of place or broken.
Well.... after rambling on about how great I am, I guess I just have one question for you....
Are you at work or at the firehouse?
