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Your SOPs
After all these years I still can't resist following, at a discrete distance, an engine or truck on a call. Today's chase had me thinking. If out of quarters and your tones drop for a fire, do you stop and don your PPEs or wait until you get on scene? Does it change if you have to stop to switch drivers?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Fireyladd - Retired Chief Sharp on
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Our firefighters do not carry their PPE. They respond to the station, get there gear on and repond on the apparatus. We have a truck out of the station within 3 minutes of the call. Myself and my Asst Chief respond to the scene in our Duty rigs and don our gear when we get onscene.
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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Halverson on
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It depends on if they're on the road or stopped somewhere else. If they're on the road, they generally don en route, though they're not really supposed to. If they're stopped somewhere, they'll don before they go. All the EVOC stuff gets done on the training simulator and on courses, so anyone who could potentially be driving at the time an emergency is dispatched will be certified to respond under the conditions required.
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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If we happen to be out of station when paged for a call, we'll respond straight there, usually we'd have boots and turnout pants (structure or wildfire, depends on the vehicle) on. Jackets can be donned on arrival. If we had to switch drivers (perhaps someone not yet qualified to drive lights and siren was at the wheel) then people may quickly don extra clothing.
Being volunteers we aren't often out of station driving around - career staff can be as they are required to inspect their area.
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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
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I have yet to figure out how to don ppe in a moving vehicle while wearing a seatbelt.
Your drivers are good to go after a training simulator and courses (Out on a limb here I'm assuming your mean a driving course)? Really? No actual, supervised, over-the-road driving? Must be one hell of a driving simulator.
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Permalink Reply by blair4630 on
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Funny you should start this thread. Just Tuesday at our company meeting I brought up (among other things) the fact that we need to SLOW DOWN on our responses, in regards to getting ready at the station. It seems with vehicle accidents or working fires, people come sprinting into the station (I've actually seen two people collide violently before), the first one or two will don then everyone else coming in gets yelled at "LET'S GO, LET'S GO", usually telling people to grab their gear and don enroute.
I said at the meeting that we need to take that extra 20 seconds or so, don our gear properly, then get on the rigs. I cited examples of where the engine shows up, the officer starts giving orders and guess what?...NOBODY'S ready, because it's impossibly to don everything in the back of a moving truck in 5-15 blocks half the time. Plus nobody's seated. Plus they're in such a damn hurry now that they're at the scene and not ready that nobody's doing a size up (moth to flame, which I quoted during my rant)....people forget MINOR safety equipment like radios, tools, etc...(you know, things you can take em' or leave em' in a burning building :(
I said basically that the 20 seconds we "save" getting into the truck without our gear on...we lose getting ready at the scene, being rushed, and on top of that...
When the engineer/driver is reving the engine to "encourage" people to move faster, he certainly isn't thinking about 1) reviewing pumping procedures in his head since our last fire 10 weeks ago...2) what is the address, and where' s the closest hydrant to that area....3) where should I place this piece...etc.
When the officer is yelling "LET'S GO, LET'S GO!!!", he certainly isn't thinking about 1) how many guys are going to be on this piece 2) how long until my 2nd piece is on scene 3) what are my priorities based on the chief's size up 4)how will I assign my initial crews 5) what should I be looking for myself on the size up 6) are there reports of victims 7) what is the structure type of the house 8) the 6 million things I didn't think of that go into being a line officer
When the FF's in the back are getting all their gear on, they certainly aren't thinking about 1) did I grab a radio? and put it on the right operations channel? 2) did I don my hood 3) what is in each of my pockets, it's been a while since I went through them (when I need those snips when I get tangled up in zero visibility, etc. etc.) 4) have I been listening to the chief's size-up myself 5) I'm I listening to my line officer's orders? oh wait, he's just yelling "LET'S GO!!!"....
I said that it seems that not paying attention to things, and being rushed are the big reasons many LODD's happen. Of course, there were several in the back, that mumbled and snickered amongst themselves. None of them of course had anything to say to the membership, just under their breath. I'd be willing to bet that none of them have been involved in a LODD either. I haven't in fire, a few in the military...on a 1-10 fun scale, it's a 0. I think some of these guys need to go to a few LODD funerals, or better yet, be taken to the morgue when they have a 22 y/o firefighter on the cold slab. That might make them shut up and train harder/more.
Of course, I was just ranting...what's the point. WE'RE JUST A SMALL TOWN VOLUNTEER DEPARTMENT. A LODD CAN'T HAPPEN TO US!!!
After the meeting, one of the active guys told me ironically he was about to say something similiar, but didn't because I did. Apparently, this guy and the deputy chief were just talking about that very same thing that morning, and the DC said they were going to have some policies implemented to correct some actions due to the things I brought up myself (totally unaware of that conversation). I hope actions come after the words.
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Permalink Reply by Dustin J. Millis on
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Being volunteer, we are not faced with this alot but it does happen every now and then. Our SOPs state that when you leave the station on an apparatus, whether responding to a call or not, you take all of your gear with you. It does not state that you have to be wearing any of this gear but most of the time, guys have their bunker pants on. If we are stopped somewhere ex. we got a call while doing "fill the boot" this year in which case we geared up right in front of the store (kinda got a few strange looks) lol then rolled. Once on our way to county fair duty, we got a call for an MVA, we responded as is then geared up as soon as we got on scene, (again getting a few strange looks from people wondering why we didnt already have our gear on) lol. But as stated above, there is absolutly no way to put all of your gear on while wearing a seatbelt.
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Exactly... you can't.
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