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Engine Co. Probie: Where Am I Going?
The new guy was just putting away the last dish when someone yelled "First due box!" He's the last one on board and the engine pulls out just as he closes his door.
Bouncing back and forth in the cab, he buttons up, and tries to slip his arms into his SCBA straps. Forgetting his radio, he slips out of the SCBA and slips the radio on. As he leans against the rig while taking a corner, he notices his hood on the floor of the cab. Instinctively he leans down to pick it up and is jerked to a halt by his SCBA and seatbelt.
He hears the driver holler "layout!" Realizing that is meant for him, the new guy jerks out of his seat, out of the cab, and runs to the back of the engine. Stepping up on the backstep he pulls down the end of the supply line and drops it near the hydrant at the curb. No sooner then he turns back to the engine, then he sees it head down the street.
Running down the street, realizing he left his helmet in the cab, he goes the distance of a couple of houses and catches up with the engine. The lieutenant and the lineman have already begun running the 150-foot line to a house with fire coming from a first floor window. The driver has already cleared the bed and begun hooking up to the intake. Grabbing his helmet and leaving his hood he makes his way to the house. The driver runs by him carrying a ladder and yells to him "flake out this line!" The new guy quickly chases the kinks and then begins to mask up.
Finally making his way into the fire room, he can see the charred remains of a living room and the lineman venting the room with the line. He can hear his lieutenant giving information over the radio and it dawns on him the he never turned his own radio on. Someone shouts "hey new guy!" and he turns to see the driver handing him a hook. "Start on the ceiling okay?" He makes his way towards where the lineman is standing and his lieutenant asks him "Where have you been?"
Text Book + Real World = Confusion
I'm not saying to take everything you learned and forget it. What I am saying is, take what you've learned and see what applies to your specific situation. With the exception of what is taught in a specific recruit school most "basic" firefighter training is "generic". It is when you get to your own house that you have to learn their ways. The problem most new firefighters have is discerning what book knowledge to use, what to keep tucked away, and what to throw out. Rather than speak up, most usually are silent, because that is what they are taught; the probie must keep his eyes and ears open and his mouth shut. When company training or street drills come up, he is on the alert, ready with the correct answer, even thought he has no idea what the question will be. In the context and experience of a combination department, here are three areas we'll expand on; where you can reorient yourself to the way your house does things in the context with the engine company and what they taught you at "fire school".
Learn your area: Where Am I Going? What Am I Getting Into?
Learn your apparatus: Lines, Lines, Lines
Learn your place in the company: Tonight You're Riding the Line
Learn Your Area
When I say learn your area, I don't mean just the addresses, but the physical makeup of your first due area. In Hyattsville we have a mix of single family dwellings, stand-alone apartments and apartment complexes, not to mention commercial and residential high-rises, and retail occupancies. Whatever your construction mix is, you need to know what lines will reach these addresses. Engine companies have their one or two lines they usually pull all the time. I hate writing that, because sometimes firefighters pull this line without thinking they should pull a better line. The key to learning your area is that you need to be more aware of the addresses that are the exception. I have run addresses that required the first engine to run the 400' line and the standpipe rack, to just get into the building. The layout of apartments and today's mini-mansions, sometimes doesn't allow you the access to use that always handy crosslay or bumper line.
What addresses in your area require a strategic placement of apparatus before the attack on the fire can begin? As a member of the engine company, will you have to assist the first due engine with the placement of the initial handline? Will you have to extend their line in order to reach the fire? Knowing your area means not just the physical identity of the address but the unique characteristics that cause changes in the selection and stretch of the initial handline.
Learn Your Area, Review
As a new member to the engine company, you have a lot to learn and learn quickly. Knowing the size and length of the handlines and supply lines on your rig doesn't help if you don't know your addresses and their peculiarities. Below are some tips to help you orient yourself.
- If you have an ambulance in your house, ride it. Honestly, most of us hate riding the ambulance, but the reality is the ambulance runs more calls than your engine. If you ride the ambulance, even as an observer, or extra aid man, you'll become familiar faster with addresses in your response area.
- Start studying your map books. Even if you have no desire to become a driver, learn the area by learning the maps. Make copies for yourself, or, if you have no map books, start a list of addresses your company responds to. Use Yahoo maps or Google maps and put your company's address in. Take your copies and drive your area. Become familiar with your streets and buildings and make notes of places with limited access, dead end lanes, or any thing that will cause you to select something other than a crosslay for the initial handline.
- Stay close to the senior men in your company, especially your engine driver. Listen to what he has to say, especially when he's talking about runs. Chances are he's been in your house longer than your officer, and will know more about your response area than anyone else.
- Keep a journal and write down what you observe on calls with regard to stretching handlines. Make notes about building access, length of lines stretched and water supply.
- Take some utility rope, as long as your longest preconnected line. Tie a knot in it every 50 feet. Use this with your engine and see how far it takes to reach the front door of an address, just as if it were a handline. Make a note of this in your personal maps or apparatus map book. Figure how much additional line is needed to cover the entire building and have one working length available. You could also buy a measuring wheel from your local hardware store for this, but be sure not to be exact in your measurements.
- Make an effort to always be on the street. Whenever the company goes on the air for the meal or for fuel, get on board. Even if you don't need to get something to eat, or you would rather stay in the station, get on and get out in the street. The more experience you gain simply riding and paying attention to how you get there, the more this will be recorded into your memory.
- Undoubtedly you have a pager or scanner. When you're away from quarters, or not riding, keep a note of where your engine responded. When you have the time, write out how to get to each address from the station. Go out and drive what you wrote down and see if you are correct.
- If your local paper lists the latest home sales in your area, look up the ones in your response area and see if you know where they are and how to get there.
- Each time you go to your quarters, take a different route there and a different route back home.
Read more of Backstep Firefighter and others at FireEMSBlogs.com.
Bouncing back and forth in the cab, he buttons up, and tries to slip his arms into his SCBA straps. Forgetting his radio, he slips out of the SCBA and slips the radio on. As he leans against the rig while taking a corner, he notices his hood on the floor of the cab. Instinctively he leans down to pick it up and is jerked to a halt by his SCBA and seatbelt.
He hears the driver holler "layout!" Realizing that is meant for him, the new guy jerks out of his seat, out of the cab, and runs to the back of the engine. Stepping up on the backstep he pulls down the end of the supply line and drops it near the hydrant at the curb. No sooner then he turns back to the engine, then he sees it head down the street.
Running down the street, realizing he left his helmet in the cab, he goes the distance of a couple of houses and catches up with the engine. The lieutenant and the lineman have already begun running the 150-foot line to a house with fire coming from a first floor window. The driver has already cleared the bed and begun hooking up to the intake. Grabbing his helmet and leaving his hood he makes his way to the house. The driver runs by him carrying a ladder and yells to him "flake out this line!" The new guy quickly chases the kinks and then begins to mask up.
Finally making his way into the fire room, he can see the charred remains of a living room and the lineman venting the room with the line. He can hear his lieutenant giving information over the radio and it dawns on him the he never turned his own radio on. Someone shouts "hey new guy!" and he turns to see the driver handing him a hook. "Start on the ceiling okay?" He makes his way towards where the lineman is standing and his lieutenant asks him "Where have you been?"
Text Book + Real World = Confusion
I'm not saying to take everything you learned and forget it. What I am saying is, take what you've learned and see what applies to your specific situation. With the exception of what is taught in a specific recruit school most "basic" firefighter training is "generic". It is when you get to your own house that you have to learn their ways. The problem most new firefighters have is discerning what book knowledge to use, what to keep tucked away, and what to throw out. Rather than speak up, most usually are silent, because that is what they are taught; the probie must keep his eyes and ears open and his mouth shut. When company training or street drills come up, he is on the alert, ready with the correct answer, even thought he has no idea what the question will be. In the context and experience of a combination department, here are three areas we'll expand on; where you can reorient yourself to the way your house does things in the context with the engine company and what they taught you at "fire school".
Learn your area: Where Am I Going? What Am I Getting Into?
Learn your apparatus: Lines, Lines, Lines
Learn your place in the company: Tonight You're Riding the Line
Learn Your Area
When I say learn your area, I don't mean just the addresses, but the physical makeup of your first due area. In Hyattsville we have a mix of single family dwellings, stand-alone apartments and apartment complexes, not to mention commercial and residential high-rises, and retail occupancies. Whatever your construction mix is, you need to know what lines will reach these addresses. Engine companies have their one or two lines they usually pull all the time. I hate writing that, because sometimes firefighters pull this line without thinking they should pull a better line. The key to learning your area is that you need to be more aware of the addresses that are the exception. I have run addresses that required the first engine to run the 400' line and the standpipe rack, to just get into the building. The layout of apartments and today's mini-mansions, sometimes doesn't allow you the access to use that always handy crosslay or bumper line.
What addresses in your area require a strategic placement of apparatus before the attack on the fire can begin? As a member of the engine company, will you have to assist the first due engine with the placement of the initial handline? Will you have to extend their line in order to reach the fire? Knowing your area means not just the physical identity of the address but the unique characteristics that cause changes in the selection and stretch of the initial handline.
Learn Your Area, Review
As a new member to the engine company, you have a lot to learn and learn quickly. Knowing the size and length of the handlines and supply lines on your rig doesn't help if you don't know your addresses and their peculiarities. Below are some tips to help you orient yourself.
- If you have an ambulance in your house, ride it. Honestly, most of us hate riding the ambulance, but the reality is the ambulance runs more calls than your engine. If you ride the ambulance, even as an observer, or extra aid man, you'll become familiar faster with addresses in your response area.
- Start studying your map books. Even if you have no desire to become a driver, learn the area by learning the maps. Make copies for yourself, or, if you have no map books, start a list of addresses your company responds to. Use Yahoo maps or Google maps and put your company's address in. Take your copies and drive your area. Become familiar with your streets and buildings and make notes of places with limited access, dead end lanes, or any thing that will cause you to select something other than a crosslay for the initial handline.
- Stay close to the senior men in your company, especially your engine driver. Listen to what he has to say, especially when he's talking about runs. Chances are he's been in your house longer than your officer, and will know more about your response area than anyone else.
- Keep a journal and write down what you observe on calls with regard to stretching handlines. Make notes about building access, length of lines stretched and water supply.
- Take some utility rope, as long as your longest preconnected line. Tie a knot in it every 50 feet. Use this with your engine and see how far it takes to reach the front door of an address, just as if it were a handline. Make a note of this in your personal maps or apparatus map book. Figure how much additional line is needed to cover the entire building and have one working length available. You could also buy a measuring wheel from your local hardware store for this, but be sure not to be exact in your measurements.
- Make an effort to always be on the street. Whenever the company goes on the air for the meal or for fuel, get on board. Even if you don't need to get something to eat, or you would rather stay in the station, get on and get out in the street. The more experience you gain simply riding and paying attention to how you get there, the more this will be recorded into your memory.
- Undoubtedly you have a pager or scanner. When you're away from quarters, or not riding, keep a note of where your engine responded. When you have the time, write out how to get to each address from the station. Go out and drive what you wrote down and see if you are correct.
- If your local paper lists the latest home sales in your area, look up the ones in your response area and see if you know where they are and how to get there.
- Each time you go to your quarters, take a different route there and a different route back home.
Read more of Backstep Firefighter and others at FireEMSBlogs.com.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bill Carey on
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Thanks Mike.
One thing we have to be careful of, especially with new members, and even more so with new members in a volunteer setting, is the transition between fire academy and fire house. As I wrote above, we're not actually telling the new member 'forget what you just learned." Likewise we shouldn't be telling them that their academy instruction is "not what we do." This sends a mixed message and starts undermining valuable safety lessons and the teachings of our training staff.
Instead, what we need to do is help the new member transition what he or she learned at the academy to the more practical area (real world) and then to enhance that knowledge as it applies to our first-due area and battalion (or general response area).
Once we start telling a probie "forget this" or "forget that" we set them up for someone to come along and tell them to forget what you and I have said as well
Bill
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Permalink Reply by Pararescue on
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Improvise, Adapt and Overcome
Not to mention, come to training as often as possible.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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As I wrote above, we're not actually telling the new member 'forget what you just learned." Likewise we shouldn't be telling them that their academy instruction is "not what we do." This sends a mixed message and starts undermining valuable safety lessons and the teachings of our training staff.
Instead, what we need to do is help the new member transition what he or she learned at the academy to the more practical area (real world) and then to enhance that knowledge as it applies to our first-due area and battalion (or general response area).
I agree Bill.
There are ways a company may prefer to do things or a dept does have their own procedures etc which aren't always taught in a fire academy, but doesn't mean to forget what was learned. Many times such different techniques or tactics are just another way of doing things, another "tool in the toolbox".
One thing that sticks out is something my first chief said before an internship was established in the dept......that the interns are getting the newest and latest info out there and we can learn from them, just as much as we can teach them. I agree with such sentiment and never a subscriber of the "keep the eyes and ears open and mouth shut". Anyone can have something to contribute. Only difference would be the person coming from another dept with the "this is how we did this, and did that". Some ideas are fine, but we are not your old dept, and do not operate the same way.
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Richmond on
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We had two graduate from the academy last month and both are model probies, they are playing the time honored game of be seen and not heard, make the coffee and scrub the toilets which has endeared them to the old timers. The difference is that both are highly intelligent and have pulled a couple of us of to the side and asked in a respectful way, why we do something the way we do and what would happen if we did it this way? I gotta say the kids have made me think. I agree that the eyes open and mouth shut is not exactly the type of firefighter that a probie should be but it does gain them respect, if they are sharp as our two new ones are, they will question proceedures in the proper manner and will be able to initiate some modern changes that they have learned to crusty old dogs like me with out stepping on toes.
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capcityff
"Do you work in Hyattsville?"
I used to many years ago.
Bill
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Permalink Reply by Richard Armstrong on
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Agree and it has been discussed before in other threads how old timers shouldn't tell the rookies to watch and learn not speak cause they do have stuff to offer.They can suggest but they also have to suggest with respect.
A buddy of mine just went to a new fire college and the instructor there told them the first day, "I take all the crap from the book and throw it away and teach you the real world stuff but if and when you get on a station everything you have been taught will be tweaked by your station" and he said he remembered that and it was true he said when he got hired.
The old timers have to remember they were rookies once to but they must also realize that the rookies of today are alot more knowledgable than the rookies of yesterday so they can tuck them under their wing and also learn while teaching!!!
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