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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on March 31, 2011 at 12:21am

So does this mean there is a difference in midwest and the south then too?

Bottom line to anything comes down to size up, building construction, hazards, and staffing. To believe that one coast does thing one way vs the other truly takes away any regard from the rest of the country. There is a huge amount of America between the east coast and west coast, so why limit the discussion to just that?

How about looking at the fact that each area will do things to meet the staffing, hazards, building construction, and size up? Does it really matter in which area they do such things? I can tell you that we do things differently than other depts in the state because of staffing and what is encountered, let alone to say how things differ in the midwest, nor even across the country.

In the end the acronym RECEO comes into play, despite how anyone else states it. Rescue of savable victims, Exposures...keep the fire from spreading, Confinement....keeping the fire to the room or building, Extinguish...put the fire out, Overhaul....make sure it is out. How one goes about accomplishing such tasks really doesn't matter, now does it?

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Permalink Reply by Matthew Gussow on March 31, 2011 at 12:32am

I fully agree with you! You made the point I was going to make eventually. The textbooks that we have to use in class always specify a particular region of the country, like the LAFD, and their procedures on doing things. My Intro to Fire Protection book was written with West Coast fire depts. in mind. My instructor, a FDNY firefighter, hates it. Shouldn't the textbooks be standardized with generalized procedures, as you put it?

I was impressed by your response, BTW. Very well written and thought out. Would you mind if I used it in class?

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Permalink Reply by Dispatcher on March 31, 2011 at 12:33am

I would say humidity would play some sort of factor. I am a rookie but I know people in California that say it is a lot less humid there when it is hot then it is over here in New York and the like. Maybe thats nothing. I wouldn't know.

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Permalink Reply by Matthew Gussow on March 31, 2011 at 2:02am

Well, LA County and the rest of CA does have a problem with brush fires and the like. However, so do farm lands in the Mid-West. Even in Upstate NY, the problem is still there.

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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on March 31, 2011 at 12:07pm

Have at it.

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Permalink Reply by Matthew Gussow on March 31, 2011 at 12:08pm

Thank you very much. I will make sure I reference you should I need to put it in writing.

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Permalink Reply by Sparky3317 on March 31, 2011 at 1:35pm

John,

I fully agree with you. And also why stop with sections of the country, just in every state alone there are differences on how firefighters operate and train. Like you said John it all comes down to staffing and location. The cities are going to do if different than small town USA and so on and so forth.

There is a set of standards on what needs to be completed when it comes down to training in most areas, but everywhere you go is going to have thier own spin on that training that they teach their firefighters in-house on how they specifically complete tasks on the fire ground.

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Permalink Reply by Matthew Gussow on March 31, 2011 at 1:40pm

Sparky,

You bring up a good point. Oh, I'm sorry for interjecting here. My first fire house was in Theresa, NY. The only hydrants were in the village and there were only a couple of them. We relied on tankers for the most part.

However, where I am here in Rockland County, tanker are rarely used, unless there is a fire in the mountains or far enough outside of the towns, which doesn't happen very often.

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