Lessons learned

We are coming into the fall season and fire related calls are already up, the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays usually bring a few more along with the cold winter months in general. Last week marked probably the only house fire in a couple of months. It happened to be near my house, so naturally I was first on the scene. At the time, I saw this as an opportunity to gain more experience on a pretty heavy housefire. Now that I think about it, I think I was more focused on trying to get that experience and move up the ladder than embracing my position and the job that goes along with it in a fire. Granted, even the Fire Chief said he was pleased with my role as incident commander, I think I sometimes I forget that gaining the inside experience that I have missed out on over the years for various reasons is just as important as being outside and calling the shots. Don't get me wrong, I have been in plenty of fires, but there is still some inside insight that I can gain as the line officer that I didn't get before. To any of you younger firemen that may be reading this, my advice to you is this.... get all of the inside experience that you can while you can, you're definitely going to need it when climbing the ladder. 

Being an experienced firefighter is not about the years that you have been in the fire service or the amount of training you have received on paper. Sometimes it's about having the knowledge and experience of past incidents and making good decisions on any incident you're on. Here's an example. While taking my daughter home just the other day, I was riding down the highway with my girlfriend and our kids. I happened to notice a group of cars and people ahead of me on the side of the road. There are always people breaking down or pulling off to the side of the road for one reason or another on the highways, so this thought never escaped my mind at first. As I got closer, the thought that this may be more than I expected began to grow. My thoughts were confirmed when I pulled up to one vehicle of a two vehicle crash that happened to be sitting out in one of the lanes of traffic. No sooner than I take two steps from my truck to see if everyone is alright and if help has been called, I am approached by several bystanders telling me that the car is on fire and that they need a fire extinguisher. I jump into emergency mode. My first thought was to get the driver away from the vehicle and make sure that the appropriate agencies have been called. I'll take this opportunity to say that if you are a 911 operator/dispatcher, when you call another 911 center to report an emergency...you will probably be the most accurate when it comes to judgement. Any civilian can say that a dispatcher did not appear to be doing that job when something didn't go their way, but an actual dispatcher can have a WTF moment when they get transferred to highway patrol after saying the vehicle is on fire. Thankfully a sheriffs deputy pulled up shortly after and provided me with a couple fire extinguishers so that I could try to contain the blaze before it got well out of hand. Three dry chemical fire extinguishers later, I was only really able to keep the fire temporarily at bay. It eventually made it's way past the firewall and into the cabin, but I'm confident that it would have made its way that far well before this period If I had not tried the extinguishers. Keep in mind that I am well outside of my area, so when the fire truck pulled up and I happened to recognize the driver, I felt a little better. He quickly gave me the okay to strap on an air tank and proceed with fire attack. I was quickly able to control the fire and preserves a few of the items left in the back compartment of his vehicle. I felt very good about my decisions to stop, to keep using the Fire extinguishers although I wasn't confident they would put the fire completely out, and be suited up for when the truck came. I truly believe that my actions saved some of this man's property, and possibly his life. 

You can have all the fire classes in the world without experience, but good decisions come from lessons learned. Learn your lessons well. Take mistakes as a lesson learned and always strive to do a good job. Keep fighting the good fight.