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Good Luck, Bad Luck, and SOGs
We're supposed to be responders to All Hazards - in other words, we don't do just one thing. In the range of things we do, it never ceases to amaze me how many times I hear or see really bad ideas espoused as the way to do things. Examples abound;
1) Refusing to wear seat belts in the rig "So we can go right to work at the scene".
2) Putting a vent crew on the roof of a structure that is an obvious defensive fire that has already autovented.
3) Putting engine crews in the collapse zone on a defensive fire.
4) Forcing crews to wear structural firefighting PPE for situations where it actually creates hazards from heat stress, lack of mobility, or negative buoyancy such as remote wildland fires, USAR calls, and water rescues.
5) Advocating rescue procedures based on how easy they are to perform even if they create excessive risk to the patient.
My responses to the above are;
1) If your rig only makes it halfway to the scene and you are ejected from the rig, how did the few seconds you "saved" on this call make it worth the end of your career and maybe your life? A few seconds to buckle in pale by comparison.
2) If the fire is through the roof, the fire has already been vertically ventilated. It's the fire's way of telling you to put the truckies to work somewhere else.
3) If your hose stream can't reach the interior of a defensive fire from a safe location, either get a bigger stream in play or just protect exposures with the one you have. You don't need to see how close you can get to the fire when it can drop a wall or an overhang on your head.
4) If you fight wildland fires, do USAR work, or do water rescue, dress for the sport you're playing. Wearing structural PPE to wildland fires can kill you from heat stress and will greatly reduce your mobility. Mobility is a big deal when you're hiking 100 yards - or 5 miles - in a wildland firefight. Mobility is a big deal in confined spaces, trenches, or structural collapse. Structural PPE doesn't help you float, so don't wear it to water rescues.
5) We need to follow best practices because they're the best thing to do, not because they're the easiest thing to do. Rescue procedures need to be evaluated on what we might do TO the patient as well as what we can do FOR the patient.
The photo above shows a best practice - placing a barrier board between rescue tools and the patients. That provides fragment and impact protection for the patients just in case something goes wrong. The rescuers in the photo are demonstrating a best practice instead of just hoping that they get lucky.
If you do something dangerous or stupid and get away with it once, you're lucky.
If you get away with it twice, you're VERY lucky. If you get away with it three times, it's now your SOG.
If you count on good luck as an SOG, sooner or later you'll be attending a LODD funeral for someone that was killed by "We've always done it that way."
Be smart, and don't count on good luck as a SOG. Eventually, your good luck will run out.
I don't want "Unlucky" on my tombstone. How about you?
Add a Comment
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Comment by Allen Ray Corey j.r. on May 28, 2009 at 8:25am
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I am going to print up a copy of this articale and post it in every pice of apperatice we have along with putting it on and in every locker, wall, and any other place I can think of at the firehouse and hope that it can be used to teach the ever elusive COMMON SENCE thank you for this it's pure gold
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Comment by Ray Jagger on May 28, 2009 at 7:34am
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like the barier board idea..don't like top rung of the ladder ...no visable support ...operation of cutting tool
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Comment by Tom Aiello on May 28, 2009 at 7:31am
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Way to go Ben....now if I can just convince my guys.Hmmmm
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Comment by lars-arne gunnstedt on May 28, 2009 at 6:56am
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Verry true,at my station in Sweden we wourked that way.Thumbs up!
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Comment by Charles Bowles on May 28, 2009 at 6:54am
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that last bit sounds like something a safety nerd like me can use to "impress" upon the brothers here. nice work!
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Comment by Brian Rourke on May 28, 2009 at 5:36am
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Possibly the best advice given.....I have read in a long long time. That old saying has never read so true "IF IN DOUBT THERE IS NO DOUBT"
Well done Ben...!
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Comment by Mike on May 27, 2009 at 11:56pm
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"2 Thumbs Up!"
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Comment by Tim Wood on May 27, 2009 at 11:50pm
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NICCCCCEE POST
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Comment by FETC on May 26, 2009 at 11:15pm
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So true Ben.... "We've always done it that way." is many times a root cause.
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Comment by lutan1 on May 26, 2009 at 5:22am
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2) If the fire is through the roof, the fire has already been vertically ventilated.
I like that- must remember that next time someone's arguing roof top ventilation... ;-)
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