Recently, we had a rash of structure fires in our Rescue/Fire dept. (95% vs 5%) Well during these rash-typical three in a row, we found some interesting things that only seem to happen on real fires.

One of the most important ones that I wanted to throw out there was the TIC performance. I was the first due engine company on a fire, where the fire was in the incipient/growth stage of the fire. The fire was upstairs and was a very dense smoke/ not alot of visible flame fire. I activated the TIC at the front door and made my way with my firefighter up the stairs, by the time we got to the top of the stairs and into the dense smoke, the TIC went dead. So we made the move to old school and found the deep seated fire, but a second crew came upstairs to back us up, and his TIC did the same thing.

Problem- morning checkouts- most firefighters, take the TIC out fo the charger, turn it on, maybe run it for a minute or so and then turn it off and put it back in the charger. #2 The TICS are about 7-8 years old, original batteries.

Department was reactive to situation- all the TICS were checked, only one last 10 minutes the rest 2-3 minutes.  All the batteries were replaced with new ones.

OK- So where is your department on this? What is the condition of your TICs?

Another issue- how well do most firefighters make the transition from technology to oldschool, when the technology fails? What happens when you rely on tech too much?