Regrets, I’ve Had A Few
But then again, too few to mention…
Vehicle fire training was on the dance card last Thursday at the station. We had two pickup trucks to practice on. One was a crash victim provided by Brown’s Towing and the other was Park Force One. Park Force One was the old rusty Village Public Works pickup that we kept as a utility vehicle for parks and admin rather than sell for $1,000. Park Force One died in its sleep a month or so ago, and the Village Board donated it to the Fire Department for fire training purposes.
PF One put up a good fight at the end of the training session, with multiple explosions and twenty foot tall flames roaring in the darkness. Its replacement for utility admin and parks work is a retired Explorer police squad, with an interior only slightly less shagged out than the (post fire) old pickup. If you’ve never seen the inside of a well-used squad car, that is probably for the better. They are horror shows.
Back to the training. Park Force One was the real deal, full Viking funeral to end the night.
The Brown’s donation was a simulation for three evolutions, with the fire represented as a flare set off in the bed of the pickup.
The training was bread and butter stuff – suit up, get to the fire, establish command, scene safety and comms, two firefighters on the hose, one chocking tires, engineer / operator flowing water and officer coordinating everything. Been there, done that (well, the hose part) multiple times.
First evolution goes reasonably well, with one or two small things to improve on. Me and James were bystanders on that one. Second evolution has me and James and Pete in back, with Alan at the wheel and Captain 2 Zach in command. James, Pete, Alan and Zach all do excellent work, and I don’t screw up anything too badly, as back-up on hose. James is just an inch or so shorter than me and, at eighteen years old, is plenty fit, so being back-up on hose with James on the nozzle at a car fire is relatively easy. Because we’re essentially the same height, we can throw the hose onto our shoulders and get an excellent angle into a vehicle.
Second evolution was complicated a bit, just for me though, as I was informed prior to the second evolution that the third evolution would have me in command. Theory being, there are times when it is possible that I would be pressed into service in the officer’s seat on daytime calls. It has happened before. It will likely happen again, whether I want it to (I don’t really) or not.
My friend, I’ll say it clear. I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain.
There’s no point in municipal service for anything less than honesty. So here it is. I have had enough responsibility in my life that I don’t need any more. Being responsible for more than a thousand employees, including more than three hundred police officers and firefighters, for more than a decade in Davenport, had me being responsible for more than enough things that could go completely wrong. So, I rather enjoy just jumping out of the back of the fire rig and going to work. Probably, too much.
But there are times when there might only be two, three or four people available to get out the door and to the scene in time to make a difference. So, if that is happening and I either have to drive or be in the officer’s role for a run or - more likely - the first part of the run, I need to be competent at it.
Fair enough. And thanks for telling me I was going to be officer on evolution three before evolution two so I could watch Zach during evo 2. Which I did. Intently.
Evo 3 starts with a complication. The back parking lot of the fire station is now Interstate 90, and the truck on fire is in westbound lane one. Which I get. A daytime call could happen with exactly that scenario. Any work we do on the Interstate is dangerous by nature. Big piles of metal death screaming past at 70 miles per hour makes scene safety Priority #1.
I’ve traveled each and every highway.
The back corner of the fire station parking lot is now Interstate 90. Got it. Evo starts and we’re doing good. Pete, James and Aldofo in back and Lt. 2 Alan at the wheel. Captain 1 Brandon riding along as observer. Everyone one else watching. I have some radio problems, but everyone else on the team is doing fine, except one of our firefighters gets clotheslined by the seatbelt exiting the rig. That slows our line advancement and I divert from my 360 task for a few seconds to help out (wondering as I do it if I should be doing it).
An actual car fire, where the problem is visible and the traffic is visible rather than imagined and the firefighters doing the work are the only firefighters on scene, can be easier than a simulation. What everyone is imagining in a simulation is - by nature of imagination – going to be a little different. This is where the Crash Davis at the plate scenes in Bull Durham really make the movie. Don’t let the internal dialogue in your head get in the way of the task at hand.
You are the officer. See the big picture. Don’t do their work. Keep your firefighters safe. That’s your job. Complete a 360 of the truck fire, looking for victims or hazards. Ok, you’ve seen all his pitches. Bring it. Bring it.
Chief 2 (in the role of County Dispatch) brings it.
“Poynette command from County dispatch.” “Go dispatch.” “Sheriff advises unable to assist with lane closure”. “Copy that, dispatch.” (head on a swivel for a half second while thinking) Stop progress? Regroup? Wait? No. Alan has the engine blocking the lane we are working in. And just imagine (because nobody said I couldn’t) that Squad 39 has arrived on scene. “Squad 39 from Poynette command.” “Go command.” “Squad 39 establish traffic safety.”
By this time my 360 of the fire truck is complete. No victims or extra hazards. Pete and James are putting out the flare fire.
Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew. When I bit off more than I could chew.
There is fireground radio traffic and County dispatch traffic and I’m having problems separating the two in part (which I’ll learn later) because my radio battery is messed up. Cpt 1 Brandon steps in from his observer role and helps me through. He gives me a piece of excellent advice about how he keeps his personal radio on the fireground channel and takes an extra portable radio with him when he exits the rig and keeps that on the County dispatch channel. He also says that I got a little closer to the truck than I should have without being masked up. Again, good advice, which I appreciate.
I did so, because I was thinking the Chiefs might have put a dummy somewhere near or in the vehicle as a curveball for me to deal with.
I had my own curveball, which I did not throw. Way back when, Mitch, Lexi and me were first on scene at a raging semi fire. Mitch was on the pump panel, I had the nozzle, Lexi was backing me up and we just went to it. Back up arrived five or ten minutes into it, and me and Lexi were still just tearing into a wall of flame at close range with a handline.
I always thought, in retrospect, that it would have been better if we just blasted the fully-engulfed semi with the deck gun. The deck gun flows an immense amount of water, and can do so at a much greater distance than a handline. I understand there are good reasons not to use a deck gun in such a situation. You go through tank water (the only water you have) at an increased rate and there’s going to be some waste using a cannon instead of a rifle. Still, I think it is a truism that the deck gun is not used in firefighting as much as it could, or should. Here's Madison Fire using their deck gun this week:
Now, add in the coolest part that Pete’s last name is Gundeck. And I have this memory of a truck fire that could have been extinguished faster with the deck gun. And now I am in command of a training evolution with a flare in the back of a pickup truck representing fire. And everyone at the department is watching.
FOR WHAT IS A MAN, WHAT HAS HE GOT?
IF NOT HIMSELF, THEN HE HAS NAUGHT
TO SAY THE THINGS HE TRULY FEELS
AND NOT THE WORDS OF ONE WHO KNEELS
As we pulled up to the fire, it would have been LEGENDARY for me to command, “Gundeck, on the deck gun”, and have the entire department watch Pete turn the truck bed into a swimming pool in a matter of seconds.
But um, this is serious stuff. So I didn’t.
Being a firefighter at my age is enough of doing it my way.
