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“Early on in my fire service career, we responded to a report of a tractor-trailer rolled over on a nearby state highway. We arrived on scene and found a truck lying on its passenger side. The wheels were facing the roadway and the top of the cab was on the shoulder of the road. The truck driver was being treated as walking wounded. It seemed like a relatively benign accident.
As we approached the curb side we realized that this was no ordinary call. It turned out that the truck driver had a young female traveling with him. When the tractor trailer tumbled on its passenger side, the girl apparently fell half way out the window. Only her right arm was now visible outside the overturned cab, turned up at a ninety-degree angle towards us, her hand motionless.
She was buried alive and we were given reports that just prior to our arrival, her muffled screams could be heard from underneath the several feet of mud and snow that accumulated on the side of the road when the truck finally skidded to a stop.
Being the smallest and lightest of our crew, I was suspended by my ankles into the cab by two other firefighters. As I began digging feverishly with my bare hands in the muck that the eighteen-wheeler had plowed through, her cries for help became fainter and fainter, until they stopped all together.
You can imagine the outcome – and the emotions that came with it: frustration, anger, sadness – every extreme imaginable. I was in maybe 19 or 20 at the time and completely unprepared to deal with the personal side of tragedy. The whole episode lasted just a few minutes, but it was an experience I will never forget.”
Why do I share this story with you? Not to be a bragger, for there are no bragging rights to be had in recovering those who we could not save in time.
My goal is simply to stress to you the importance of telling stories, of sharing our experiences.
Very early on in their book titled: “Made to Stick,” brothers Chip Heath and Dan Heath point to the fire
service’s success in sharing stories as a means of sharing experiences, passing down critical information to their
successors. The book is based on the premise of why some ideas survive while others die.
“Firefighters naturally swap stories after every fire, and by doing so they multiply their experience; after years
of hearing stories, they have a richer, more complete mental catalog of critical situations they might confront
during a fire and the appropriate responses to those situations,” they say in describing the sixth principle of their
“stickiness” theory.
The Heath brothers are not firefighters. Chip is a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford. Dan is a
former researcher at Harvard. The book is about many businesses, including the business of delivering
emergency services. But you don’t need to be a Stanford or Harvard graduate to figure out that they’re right.
It’s my opinion that the need for telling stories in the fire service has never been greater.
Read the rest of the blog at: www.tigerschmittendorf.com
Tiger Schmittendorf is chairman of FASNY’s Recruitment and Retention Committee and serves the County of Erie Department of Emergency Services (Buffalo NY) as Deputy Fire Coordinator. He created a recruitment effort that doubled his own fire department’s membership and helped net 525+ new volunteers countywide. A frequent presenter on the subjects of leadership, incident management, safety, recruitment and retention, he is a Nationally Certified Fire Instructor and has been a firefighter since 1980. Visit his blog at www.tigerschmittendorf.com.
“Early on in my fire service career, we responded to a report of a tractor-trailer rolled over on a nearby state highway. We arrived on scene and found a truck lying on its passenger side. The wheels were facing the roadway and the top of the cab was on the shoulder of the road. The truck driver was being treated as walking wounded. It seemed like a relatively benign accident.
As we approached the curb side we realized that this was no ordinary call. It turned out that the truck driver had a young female traveling with him. When the tractor trailer tumbled on its passenger side, the girl apparently fell half way out the window. Only her right arm was now visible outside the overturned cab, turned up at a ninety-degree angle towards us, her hand motionless.
She was buried alive and we were given reports that just prior to our arrival, her muffled screams could be heard from underneath the several feet of mud and snow that accumulated on the side of the road when the truck finally skidded to a stop.
Being the smallest and lightest of our crew, I was suspended by my ankles into the cab by two other firefighters. As I began digging feverishly with my bare hands in the muck that the eighteen-wheeler had plowed through, her cries for help became fainter and fainter, until they stopped all together.
You can imagine the outcome – and the emotions that came with it: frustration, anger, sadness – every extreme imaginable. I was in maybe 19 or 20 at the time and completely unprepared to deal with the personal side of tragedy. The whole episode lasted just a few minutes, but it was an experience I will never forget.”
Why do I share this story with you? Not to be a bragger, for there are no bragging rights to be had in recovering those who we could not save in time.
My goal is simply to stress to you the importance of telling stories, of sharing our experiences.
Very early on in their book titled: “Made to Stick,” brothers Chip Heath and Dan Heath point to the fire
service’s success in sharing stories as a means of sharing experiences, passing down critical information to their
successors. The book is based on the premise of why some ideas survive while others die.
“Firefighters naturally swap stories after every fire, and by doing so they multiply their experience; after years
of hearing stories, they have a richer, more complete mental catalog of critical situations they might confront
during a fire and the appropriate responses to those situations,” they say in describing the sixth principle of their
“stickiness” theory.
The Heath brothers are not firefighters. Chip is a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford. Dan is a
former researcher at Harvard. The book is about many businesses, including the business of delivering
emergency services. But you don’t need to be a Stanford or Harvard graduate to figure out that they’re right.
It’s my opinion that the need for telling stories in the fire service has never been greater.
Read the rest of the blog at: www.tigerschmittendorf.com
Tiger Schmittendorf is chairman of FASNY’s Recruitment and Retention Committee and serves the County of Erie Department of Emergency Services (Buffalo NY) as Deputy Fire Coordinator. He created a recruitment effort that doubled his own fire department’s membership and helped net 525+ new volunteers countywide. A frequent presenter on the subjects of leadership, incident management, safety, recruitment and retention, he is a Nationally Certified Fire Instructor and has been a firefighter since 1980. Visit his blog at www.tigerschmittendorf.com.
Add a Comment
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Comment by Joe Stoltz on September 5, 2009 at 9:26am
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Besides communicating the history and tradition of the department - which is largely word of mouth anyways - the stories tell the newer folks how the older members faced a situation and dealt with it. I think it gives the younger ones a sense of how a difficult situation was overcome and the members took it in stride - or not.
It's not unusual to see a few of the young folks talking among themselves in the back row during training exercises. My impression is that they are silent and attentive when the stories are being told. They want to learn about the past. Maybe a regular story-sharing session should be incorporated into each drill.
Something like "The parable of the rookie pump operator charging the cross-lay while it was still in the bed..."
Great concept, Tiger. Thank you.
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Comment by LadyChaplain on September 4, 2009 at 10:41pm
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Thanks for sharing with us Tiger ~~ as always, there's many lessons to be taken away, and hopefully those who need it most will heed the lessons presented.
Keep down the fort 'til I get back!
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Comment by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on September 4, 2009 at 10:00am
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Another bright nugget from the mine that is your soul.
Much of what shaped my career in the fire service came at the hands of those that I interacted with telling us their stories. We would get the technical stuff for the classroom done and then we would listen to stories of situations that my instructors and other firefighters in the class had been involved in.
I believe that story-telling is a vital part. It fleshes out that picture that we all imagine is the fire service. Without it, we are starting at a point that denies us that opportunity to connect with history and tradition.
I enjoy the technical stuff because I believe that I HAVE to stay up on the latest.
I love the stories because I want to know the personal perspective from someone who has eaten and slept it.
In today's fast paced tekkie world, I don't think that as many stories are being told. Somewhere to go/something to do. No time to sit around and listen to stories from the vets.
Which is why there might just be a generation of firefighters who will have a gap in their catalog of tools. They will have to find out for themselves and unfortunately, that might prove to be disasterous.
Good stuff again, Tiger.
TCSS.
Art
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Comment by truckeewads on September 3, 2009 at 7:20pm
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Good story that those of us that have been in the business for a while can relate to. Very true,how storytelling can be educational and eye opening for all of us at some point in our careers to realize the potential of what we may face at any minute. As a new firefighter it is probably hard to imagine a call such as yours and how they will deal with the hopeless feeling that will come with it. Stories are important...thanks for sharing.
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Comment by David Case on September 2, 2009 at 10:01pm
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I ONCE WAS TOLD BY A VERY WISE MAN, "WE LEARN MORE FROM OUR FAILURES THEN OUR SUCCESSES" THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR STORY. OH THAT WISE MAN ? MY 93 YEAR OLD GRANDFATHER STILL ACTIVE IN THE BARNARD FIRE CO. EXEMPTS. ONE OF THE MANY REASONS I,M STILL LEARNING EVERY DAY.
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Comment by Tiger Schmittendorf on September 2, 2009 at 5:10pm
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Thanks Guys - but the blog is not about CISM - it's about the importance of story telling and sharing with our replacements....
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Comment by Oldman on September 2, 2009 at 3:21pm
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I still drink coffee from my mug, but the t-shirt is a tattered old rag.
I learned the hard way to take advantage of being able to talk to someone and not just hold it in. Not wanting others to go through that, I and the chief officers all took CISM training to be more aware of the well being of our people. Now after every serious incident, I take the time to go to my people and ask them if they are ok, and to let them know there are outlets available to them should they desire. We do a lot of in house defusing, but have and will bring in an outside team for an impartial ear.
And yes, I too have my go to person when I need it. It's the one time when I do more talking than listening.
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Thanks for your concern Trainer -
The incident probably occurred more than 25 years ago, long before CISD was popular or accepted by the masses.
Unfortunately, I've dealt with much worse since - but have always considered CISD a tremendous resource to take advantage of at every opportunity.
Stay safe. Train often.
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Comment by Trainer on September 2, 2009 at 6:40am
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Tiger great point, but I have to ask did you do this when it happened, or at least discuss it with the guys. I remember my first, I won't go into detail but will say 3 adults and 1 child left on the pavement on a cold snowy January afternoon, I had been on maybe 1 year. Went back home to the wife and kids, remember feeling very strange, all knotted up. Within an hour came a knock on the door, fire dept Chaplin, man did he help, talked for over 2 hours. Point is you need to talk, with the guys, the Chaplin anybody who is capable of listing, it's amazing how much it helps.
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