I was talking to one of our Probies the other day, and he asked me about Pompier Ladders. I told him that in 14 years, I've never seen one except in pictures. In fact, I'm certain that no F.D. in the Chicagoland area owns one of these! Are there any Fire Departments out there that actually use Pompier Ladders? Thanks in advance!
Yes, he went up Side C of the building and she did indeed climb down with him talking her all the way through it. Most of the buildings then were older brick or masonary with windows but again you would use it if it met the desired cause and effect...A good fireman who remains calm can put confidence into 90% of the fire victims they come across but trust me they will sense a fireman who is shall we say hurried or nervous and will react accordingly!
When I was a DCFD Rookie in 1982, I was taught by good experienced firemen that all of these methods utilizing various tools and techniques were to be put in your arsenal for that time that you may need them and I am sure this would make the IFSTA Authors and the NFPA (Not For Practical Application) crowd blush!
How many stories was the pompier rescue, and what type of building?
I understand all about remaining calm and instilling confidence, but it's difficult to instill confidence in a victim that's unconscious or so badly injured that they can't assist in their own rescue.
Interestingly, I've found that most of the NFPA standards are based on things that help keep firefighters, civilians, and buildings safer. The school design fire codes that resulted from the Our Lady of the Angels school fire in Chicago, for example.
As for getting the SCBA out of the cabs, I'm all for it. A lot of firefighters die or are seriously injured from not wearing seatbelts. If getting the SCBA out of the cab results in fewer firefighter deaths, I'm all for it.
Dude please I do not want to get into a a pissing match with you on the rescue but if you really want I can go back to the firehouse find all the great info or you can try and look it up in the newspaper archives for christs sake....Suffice it to say it was done and he did a helluva job... Read my posts completely and you will find that it is just another tool to be used!!
Nope you are right about instilling confidence in a dead person wow how could I have overlooked that fact damn do you think I might have been talking about the living dude don't show your ignorance please!!
The NFPA has some good points but some of it just doesn't make sense! But it is people like you who scare me, we will never agree cause you are one who thinks they(NFPA) know it all and can do no wrong cause they err on the side of caution well let me help you out this is a dangerous occupation by it's nature!!! You therefore will never say man maybe they(NFPA) could be wrong on that one!! I do not believe they are all they are credited too be!! "SCBA's in compartments" yep that tells me alot, but hey I am a dinosaur in the fire service! Oh wait we did that when I first joined the fire service, nothing like regression...
I wasn't looking for a pissing match on the rescue or anything else...I was asking about details on the rescue because I wasn't familiar with it - tonight is the first I've heard about it.
You said yourself that your department removed the pompier ladders years ago, so that makes the issue moot.
You accuse me of being ignorant, but you just posted some completely incorrect assumptions about me based on a couple of internet posts???
You don't have a clue what I will or won't say about the NFPA or anything else. That's another assumption on your part, and it's incorrect.
If we take the SCBA out of the cab and that keeps more firefighters alive, please explailn how that is a bad thing? Why would doing something that helps keep firefighters alive scare you?
Re-read this exchange, and you'll discover that you, not I, made the reference to saving a dead person when you said "Nope you are right about instilling confidence in a dead person wow how could I have overlooked that fact damn do you think I might have been talking about the living dude don't show your ignorance please!!"
Then you went on to claim that I was showing ignorance because of something that you said. When I discussed vics that are "unconscious" or "too badly injured to assist in their own rescue", I was in fact talking about the living. A simple re-read of my post should clear up any doubt.
You have me I did jump one step farther on your comment. My apologies but you should have understood what I was saying but you chose to go to an absurd level by that statement quoted below... ref.. "uncon or too badly injured" ...
As for the Pompier Ladder just because we don't carry them doesn't make the arguement any less cogent. Chiefs make decisions sometimes not based on the right information
Well if moving SCBA to the compartment can save a life then ask yourself this why do we bother too respond to emergency incidents any more we can probably save more lives by just going with the flow of traffic don't you think ? Or maybe we can have just one unit respond and the rest go with the flow? Look times change but in the end we still have a responsibility to respond in a timely fashion and believe it or not this quote still applies and now even more so " When Seconds Count"
As for your statement "why would something that saves lives scare me" ... Just because it looks good on paper doesn't make it right! We have that inherent danger that is part of the job! Some may not have you believe it but it is...
Because...if we die in apparatus wrecks while donning SCBA instead of wearing our seatbelts, then it's not those seconds you're worried about that really count.
What counts are the firefighter lives that are wasted in apparatus wrecks because they weren't wearing their seat belts. What else counts is all of that experience and training that is snuffed out at the same time. When firefighters die in apparatus wrecks, their experience and training is gone for good.
Bottom line - we did just fine pulling SCBA out of the compartments and donning them in the 1970's when I started. The few seconds it took were worth it then, and they're worth it now.
We need to protect lives and property, but we need to stop engaging in well-intentioned suicide attempts while we do it.
Just because our job is inherently dangerous doesn't mean that we should casually disregard common-sense, easy ways to make it safer.