In the past 6 months or so, several Firefighters, some VERY young, have died in the Line of Duty during OVERHAUL, while hitting HOTSPOTS, etc. Clearly, losing a Firefighters life of ANY age is a tragic loss ... but it seems to hit harder...much harder when it is during OVERHAUL ... and then, a kid who HAD a great future on this job.
Easily the BEST non-hands on resource among many to TRAIN YOUNG FIREFIGHTERS in the collapse of burning buildings-and structural firefighting in general is
Chief Vinny Dunn's book.
And while this BOOK is the bible in FF survival, some YOUNG FIREFIGHTERS "these days" may learn better, a bit differently. They may do much
better watching the VIDEO series. So what? Whatever it takes. This is an outstanding INVESTMENT ...well worth it.
Today's YOUNG Firefighters learn differently. Deal with it. They naturally must also learn the "old fashioned way" but these GAMERS may be quicker to also learn via video, the Internet or whatever. Either way-we have to get them TRAINED. FRUSTRATED by the young GAMER FIREFIGHTERS? No worse than the old timers being frustrated with us. We recently had a
pretty good discussion about these "kids" here.
There are also some related links on the above page as well to help us better understand THIS new generation of Firefighters.
Interior Structural Firefighting: It is critical to think and make tactical decisions based upon:
"who we are risking...for what." We are not advocating not ever going in. Not at all. We just have to do our absolute best to make sure the conditions, size-up and resources best match the actions being taken with regard to these "kids"..young and old, that get sent in.
Take Care-BE CAREFUL,
BillyG
The Secret List 3-10-08 / 1215 hours
www.FireFighterCloseCalls.com