Ok I know I’m going to catch a lot of crap for this one and probably most people aren’t going to agree with my look on this issue we had at my department but it still bothers me so here it goes…
About a month ago my department gets toned out possible barn fire, Chief arrives on scene reports a confirmed 2 story working barn repair shop fire with a second barn exposure on the C side well involved with a full size van on the A side also a exposure problem he immediately requests a full assignment from our district and a second and third alarm to be started bring in equipment from 6 other departments (mostly tankers). So I respond along with 2 other FF that where with me from about 15 – 20 minutes away considering it’s a working fire and during the week day I figure that they would have a manpower issue ( 2 of us are interiors both captains and 1 exterior probie I have about 6 years of firefighting experience and the other interior has about 30 years). We get on scene advise our chief that we are there and he is at the road doing water command and the barns are both on the ground but still burning pretty good so me and the other interior go pack up and get ready to go over to the fire since there was only 3 hand lines going. After we pack up and start to approach the barns to get orders from the commander who is standing over near the barns we are stopped by a assistant chief from 3 departments away and told they don’t need any more FF over there and we need to stand by over at the engines (mind you there are still only 3 hand lines on two barns and only about 6 FF 2 on each line and some of them went off the lines to start overhaul so some lines only had 1 person on them and also at least two of them FF’s low air alarms where going off) So we aren’t happy with his orders but stand by where he told us. About 2 minutes latter our assistant chief who was operations who was still over by the fire comes over looking for more interiors since they had low air alarms going off and others just wanted a break so then they let myself and the other interior with me go over and relieve the 2 with low air alarms while about 10 other interiors are forced to continue to stand there doing nothing when there is a lot of over haul and so on to be done. There was no other danger at the time there were no chemicals or anything like that in the barns, what was left of the barns where stable and nothing left of walls or roofs so no danger to falling debris, and so on. So I just wanted everyone’s opinion on what place this assistant chief from 3 departments away had to force all these interiors to stand by when there is work to be done and there was no orders from any one above this guy to have him do these actions he did it on his own and when someone would try and get to the scene he would physically not allow them past him… something just don’t seem right and our chiefs knew it happened and did nothing about it just said they did not order it…