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Terminology - The Language We Speak
Surprisingly enough, I'm sitting here at my computer wrangling over the definition of a "working fire" although after 28 years on the job, I know exactly what I mean when I say I have arrived and have a working fire, but putting it into words for our procedure manual doesn't seem to be going well.
This whole revelation occurs at the confluence of two events: 1) I'm working on our SOG manual's definitions section and 2) the other night I arrived on scene of a well-involved structure that I declared a defensive fire, but with the transition our department is going through right now, I thought about it and considered that perhaps I wouldn't be getting certain resources allocated to me (like utilities, additional staff, etc.) unless I expressly declared this a "working incident".
Fortunately, the Dispatchers on duty knew that I wanted the notifications without my stating that word "working" (when I called them on the phone later, they informed me that when I gave my initial report and declared it well-involved, they got the picture and made the calls), but who's to say that this will always be the case. So off to the definitions section I go...
In conducting research, we try to triangulate our sources, because really (especially in emergency services) there really is no one absolute expert who says, "This is the Gospel" and everyone else goes, "Okay". After going through all my pertinent textbooks and substantial internet hits, I'm no further along than when I started. So what is a "working fire"?
"Fire that is found in the free-burning state." "Fire that requires all hands of the initial assignment to work." "Fire where it is anticipated that all companies will work when they get there." "Signal to dispatch to make notifications." "Fire where companies will be in service for greater than 20 minutes." "Fire that will take at least two lines to control." "Fire that requires a supply line."
These are only a very small sample of what I have found. In fact, sitting here, I'm thinking, this might be a good problem statement for an applied research project ("What is a working fire?" I can get a problem statement and thirty pages out of that! Brings to mind the motto of the EFO Student - "Two-oh and go").
I know what I'm going to write, but the lesson to be learned is that the fire service can't seem to agree on a lot of things until we are forced to do so. The common terminology for NIMS had to be attached to the threat of holding out funding unless organizations complied with it. I love the Nextel commercial with the "If Firefighters Ran Government" concept. I can't get agreement out of two firefighters as to what the hell they want to eat for dinner tonight and we're expecting wholesale agreement on water quality? As flattering as the commerical is, you know those advertising executives never spent 24 hours in a firehouse.
At the risk of exposing my lack of biblical knowledge, isn't that part of the whole tale of the Tower of Babel? The problems that occurred because no one could speak a common language? How can we expect to build an enduring legacy of community service and leadership for our industry if we can't even agree that a tanker is likely to drop water ON you while the only way you'll get water dropped on you by a tender is if you are standing in the Fold-a-Tank?
The fire service is at a critical juncture in its existence, where we have the opportunity to standardize our operations, our terminology, and much of the rest of what we do. We can work together to meet the needs of our nation, or we can work apart. Credentialling and typing are essential items needed to allow resources to operate outside of their own jurisdictions, and with the massive numbers of resources that go across state lines these days as a result of disasters, we have a need to be able to talk to one another on interoperable communications (THAT's a whole other subject), but if we aren't even talking the same language, what good are interoperable radios?
We all, as emergency service leaders, need to let go of our egos from time to time and reach out to try to communicate with each other. We let go of 10-codes years ago, and we adopted the NIMS standard language years ago as well. But in my studies, I still see organizations using codes and signals and everything else. Just as a large influx of immigrants to our jurisdiction has pushed me to learning some rudimentary Spanish, regardless of any political view in one way or another, these people are there, I have to help them, and it would help if I knew what they were saying to me. Likewise, coming from the great state of South Carolina, if I arrive in North Dakota for a disaster, it is essential that I can speak to you and that you can understand what I am telling you.
The entire fire service must begin to work closer together and put away our disagreements. Volunteer or career, we are all in this together and we all need to put our egos aside and work to a better whole, a best practice, and to serve the customers we are charged with assisting. If you can't see that in those terms, realize this is truly a working incident that we all are called to try to solve. You are part of that assignment and we are calling you to step up to the plate.
This whole revelation occurs at the confluence of two events: 1) I'm working on our SOG manual's definitions section and 2) the other night I arrived on scene of a well-involved structure that I declared a defensive fire, but with the transition our department is going through right now, I thought about it and considered that perhaps I wouldn't be getting certain resources allocated to me (like utilities, additional staff, etc.) unless I expressly declared this a "working incident".
Fortunately, the Dispatchers on duty knew that I wanted the notifications without my stating that word "working" (when I called them on the phone later, they informed me that when I gave my initial report and declared it well-involved, they got the picture and made the calls), but who's to say that this will always be the case. So off to the definitions section I go...
In conducting research, we try to triangulate our sources, because really (especially in emergency services) there really is no one absolute expert who says, "This is the Gospel" and everyone else goes, "Okay". After going through all my pertinent textbooks and substantial internet hits, I'm no further along than when I started. So what is a "working fire"?
"Fire that is found in the free-burning state." "Fire that requires all hands of the initial assignment to work." "Fire where it is anticipated that all companies will work when they get there." "Signal to dispatch to make notifications." "Fire where companies will be in service for greater than 20 minutes." "Fire that will take at least two lines to control." "Fire that requires a supply line."
These are only a very small sample of what I have found. In fact, sitting here, I'm thinking, this might be a good problem statement for an applied research project ("What is a working fire?" I can get a problem statement and thirty pages out of that! Brings to mind the motto of the EFO Student - "Two-oh and go").
I know what I'm going to write, but the lesson to be learned is that the fire service can't seem to agree on a lot of things until we are forced to do so. The common terminology for NIMS had to be attached to the threat of holding out funding unless organizations complied with it. I love the Nextel commercial with the "If Firefighters Ran Government" concept. I can't get agreement out of two firefighters as to what the hell they want to eat for dinner tonight and we're expecting wholesale agreement on water quality? As flattering as the commerical is, you know those advertising executives never spent 24 hours in a firehouse.
At the risk of exposing my lack of biblical knowledge, isn't that part of the whole tale of the Tower of Babel? The problems that occurred because no one could speak a common language? How can we expect to build an enduring legacy of community service and leadership for our industry if we can't even agree that a tanker is likely to drop water ON you while the only way you'll get water dropped on you by a tender is if you are standing in the Fold-a-Tank?
The fire service is at a critical juncture in its existence, where we have the opportunity to standardize our operations, our terminology, and much of the rest of what we do. We can work together to meet the needs of our nation, or we can work apart. Credentialling and typing are essential items needed to allow resources to operate outside of their own jurisdictions, and with the massive numbers of resources that go across state lines these days as a result of disasters, we have a need to be able to talk to one another on interoperable communications (THAT's a whole other subject), but if we aren't even talking the same language, what good are interoperable radios?
We all, as emergency service leaders, need to let go of our egos from time to time and reach out to try to communicate with each other. We let go of 10-codes years ago, and we adopted the NIMS standard language years ago as well. But in my studies, I still see organizations using codes and signals and everything else. Just as a large influx of immigrants to our jurisdiction has pushed me to learning some rudimentary Spanish, regardless of any political view in one way or another, these people are there, I have to help them, and it would help if I knew what they were saying to me. Likewise, coming from the great state of South Carolina, if I arrive in North Dakota for a disaster, it is essential that I can speak to you and that you can understand what I am telling you.
The entire fire service must begin to work closer together and put away our disagreements. Volunteer or career, we are all in this together and we all need to put our egos aside and work to a better whole, a best practice, and to serve the customers we are charged with assisting. If you can't see that in those terms, realize this is truly a working incident that we all are called to try to solve. You are part of that assignment and we are calling you to step up to the plate.
Add a Comment
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Comment by Katie Moon on October 2, 2008 at 7:19am
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It seems to me every region has their own way of describing an incident and responding to it, and feels theirs is the only way to do it. Sure would be great if all of us could arrive at common lingo...
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Comment by franklyn Field on October 1, 2008 at 9:29pm
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I have a deep interest in providing fire safety education for children. Mike Mayers insightful approach can be multiplied by 10 when it comes to approaching the subject of teaching children fire safety and prevention. Its an every man for himself approach with the result that only unifying feature I have found is the mantra of "Stop Drop and Roll"--a procedure that I was taught 70 years ago as a cub scout and now the pride of fire educators on a national scale.Worth teaching bur rarely used
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Comment by Greenman on October 1, 2008 at 9:11pm
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Great blog. Certainly food for thought.
GM
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Comment by Damon Dyer on October 1, 2008 at 6:25pm
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To standardize all of this they will need people from each region . Lots of stuff can get done but if they do not get input from all regions it will not do much good .
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Comment by Jim Seargent on October 1, 2008 at 5:42pm
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Great post! You got me thinking, (first time for everything), and I will try to put my ideas to words.
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Comment by 1901 on October 1, 2008 at 5:33pm
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I agree 100% with what you are saying, and very often it is hard to put into words what you mean or want on a scene. It is like you said the dispatchers are great and usually know what we want and what we are asking for, it is a good thing they understand us. It would be very hard to standardize the terminology of the north and the south, or the east and the west unlss someone was to come out with a national standard.
Good luck
Ken
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Comment by Joey "BigShow" De Piano on September 29, 2008 at 10:31pm
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If hitting the nail on the Head ever really makes a DING you just Hit the nail on the head so true it went in and out other side and thats all the responses and lead post thus far, and in fact thats why the fire service gets ..I don't want to say disregard but maybe not taken as seriously as we should be?...We can't seem to pull it together and the sad part odf it is we can we just let to many voice up instead of saying "this is it thats it"..I mean with police yes every state and town has their call numbers and 10 lingo and what it means but when they are told to adopt to ABC or 123 its done no 2 ways about it do it get it done and do it this way, EMS same thing when an emt arrives and requests medics its not cause they are bored its cause "its holy crap time for someone same with cops and SWAT when that request comes in the world stops moving and every cop off duty on duty visiting or in jurisdiction responds and does ABC 123 , We however and i love the fire service but nothing is more frustrating than planning , caring, and making life simple and as one and then some one in the back or in other area says "Bullcrap my grandfather did this way " you wanna strangle and shake them and wake em up its for THEM as well. but for what ever reason we don't get it, I am willing if any one else is to make a proposal for the new party elect coming in and the law makers that we as a collective thats 1 or 2 from every single vollie and paid dept. make a single solitary SOG formatted into simple text that is stamped into effect so that even the grumpy guy in back MUST do ABC or 123 by the letter as ONE how about it ? we apply for a non profit grant set up a communication line between the depts. elect the people who want this to to speak for us and hit DC with a 5" master stream in the kisser I am game if you all are lets MAKE THE CHANGE NOW..Not joking either.
PS
if i misspelled anything it was cause I was on a roll not cause I talk that way on the radio..lol
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Comment by Mick Mayers on September 29, 2008 at 10:30pm
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Interestingly enough, today we had a fire that met the criteria I laid out, but there's no way in hell I'd have called it a "working fire" (I'd be laughed off the job!). I guess I need to finesse that definition a little more...
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Comment by Tiger Schmittendorf on September 29, 2008 at 10:28pm
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It's all Greek to me....
Good post Mick and it's good to see you blogging and putting your mind to good use. Your challenge is magnified 97 times over in our county where we try to "bring it all together" in a fire service community with pretty clear differences between the way they do things in the north vs. the south. Some days I swear it makes the Civil War look like merely a disagreement amongst gentlemen.
I'd be interested in seeing what other words you've mastered in your glossary. I'd like to use them in an online reference tool for educating the public and hopefully recruiting them to join the fire service.
Stay safe. Train often.
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Comment by Paul Montpetit on September 29, 2008 at 8:29am
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Well when we have OSHA, OFPC, NFPA,US Fire Administration, Local SOP's, SOG's...then how CAN we ever get to the same sheet of music...? More like Analalization to paralyzation.......Paul
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