Deep Impact
Going the extra mile to help someone can affect your entire community
By Ray Gayk

Have you ever thought about the impact your department has on the community you serve? Sometimes the impact is very clear, such as when we help save a life or make a great stop on a fire. We train hard for those moments, and when they occur, we receive recognition for doing a good job.

In reality, those truly life-saving opportunities don’t come around very often; however, as company officers, we have the greatest potential—and the greatest obligation—to make an impact on our communities every day. We probably don’t think too much about it, because we can’t always see the results of our work and it can be difficult to measure, but the opportunities are always there.

At most fire departments, company officers make decisions at the task level. In other words, company officers decide what their crew is going to do and how they’re going to do it on an emergency scene. Ultimately, these decisions can dramatically affect—or impact—many people’s lives.

Water Damage
Consider this scenario: You’re the officer of a truck company that’s dispatched, along with two other engine companies and a battalion chief, to a ringing fire alarm at 0230 hrs. As you and your crew arrive on scene, you can hear the alarm sounding. The business is closed, and there are no signs of a fire, but one of the engine companies notifies everybody that there’s a heavy flow of water coming from several roll-up doors at the back of the building.

The battalion chief gives the order to force entry and investigate the problem. One of the truck firefighters makes access to the rear of the building and finds a very large sprinkler line has broken and is dumping a tremendous amount of water into the building. You shut down the system, but the damage has already been done.

Decision Time
I call this “decision time” because I’ve seen this exact scenario go a few different ways depending on how the company officer chooses to react. One way involves the company officer contacting the business owner and advising them that their business is flooded and that they need to call their insurance company. This is what I call the minimalist approach. Some company officers may feel justified in making this type of a decision because businesses usually pay for insurance that covers water damage.

The truth of the matter is flood insurance is an interesting animal; it’s often very specific and sometimes very misleading. What I mean by misleading is that business owners who own, rent or lease a space often think they’re covered for water/flood damage regardless of how the area becomes flooded or what’s affected. Often, this is not the case. As a result, business owners have a rude awakening when they find out what their policy really says.

So back to our scenario: The business owner arrives on scene and is shocked by the amount of water pouring out of their business. You decide not to take the minimalist approach, however, and instead, you lay out a plan for water removal. The crews on scene then begin the arduous task of removing thousands of gallons of water while also protecting files, stock and some expensive machinery. The crew completes the final touches around 0800 hrs and leaves the scene.

Best-Case Scenario vs. Reality
Your department did a good thing for the business owner, but you probably don’t even realize the true impact of your actions; the unrealized impact is actually quite significant. Many businesses don’t run on fat budgets, especially in today’s economy, but they employ numerous people.

If you had taken the minimalist approach, in the best-case scenario, the business owner would have a very good, comprehensive insurance policy that covers all the damage, so they could re-stock and replace any damaged equipment. They could also pay the entire staff while the business is being repaired.

From my experience, this scenario is extremely rare. Most of the time, the stock, equipment and building damage aren’t covered by insurance, which puts the entire bill on the business owner. The employees are usually temporarily laid off and may even lose their jobs because the business owner can’t afford to re-hire the entire staff when they’re up and running again.

The Ripple Effect
The ripple effect of an incident like this can be significant to a community. What happens to the typical American employee who loses their job for a month? We know most people live paycheck to paycheck, so the loss of one or more paychecks is often devastating. The person’s spending ability is drastically reduced, which affects other parts of the community, because these people can’t spend money at other local businesses.

Today’s recession is a great example of how the ripple effect works on a very large scale. And while we may not be able to do much about our jacked-up national economy, we can have a major impact on our local communities.
How many lives are impacted from what we may consider a simple call? I bet most of us don’t even think that far ahead during one of these incidents. Something that seems simple to us may have a very complex impact on our community. The question you must ask yourself: “What is the possible impact and ripple effect of this emergency if I don’t do everything I can to help fix it?”

When we consider a particular incident and its ripple effect, realizing the possible outcome, we make better decisions—decisions that have a ripple effect of their own. The decision to do an outstanding job may help someone who may not even realize what you did. In the fire service, company officers make these decisions every day.

Conclusion
On your next call, before you decide to act, ask yourself a couple questions: What decisions will you make today, and what is their potential impact? If you were on the receiving end of one of your decisions, would you be happy?

You probably won’t get an award for doing the right thing on a simple incident like the one I described, but knowing you made a true impact on people’s lives, whether they realize it or not, is a pretty good feeling.

Ray Gayk is deputy chief of Operations with the Ontario (Calif.) Fire Department (OFD). Gayk is an 18-year veteran of the fire service who has been actively involved with the OFD’s development of engineer and captain mentor programs. Gayk has also taught numerous classes on company officer development. Contact him at raygayk@verizon.net.