Correct PPE?

If this guy is actually a member of this Fire Department, he absolutely should be wearing correct PPE. If he isnt apart of the Department, why is he up there in the first place?

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Permalink Reply by WestPhilly on June 18, 2010 at 9:52pm

Not really.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on June 18, 2010 at 10:39pm

Let me put this way...maybe in your sandbox things are different...in ours...If you are on a Firescene you have your gear on.....even Pump operators wear turn-outs and a helmet....and if you don't have at a minimum FF1 then you work outside and don't wear a pack......This has gotten to the point of ridiculous I'm out of here....Have a good one....

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Permalink Reply by Tony P on June 18, 2010 at 11:33pm

Let's take it in a different direction. The cat could have jumped down easily from there, no need for anyone to climb a ladder. Really want to use a ladder? Rest it against the bottom of that window and let the cat use it as a ramp.

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Permalink Reply by WestPhilly on June 19, 2010 at 6:11am

But, Paul, he was working outside and he wasn't wearing a pack.

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Permalink Reply by The Irons on June 19, 2010 at 5:37pm

as long as he made the grab..

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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on June 19, 2010 at 5:45pm

WP...he wasn't wearing ANY protective gear......but if that's how you guys work that's cool...as long as it isn't any of our people I guess I shouldn't care....just get bummed out going to funerals is all...

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on June 19, 2010 at 6:16pm

There's a big controversy going on about this same thing out west - a raft guide lost a customer overboard and the customer was missing for 45 minutes. Rescue arrived, established Command, and set up a tethered boat system for the rescue.

The guide decided that things weren't moving fast enough and despite orders from Command to stay out of the water, he jumped in, swam to the customer...then just sat there until Rescue completed their rescue as planned.

Then...he was arrested for interference. Many of the paddlers don't like it, because supposedly the guide was better qualified.

There are good discussions on this one going on on Boater Talk, MountainBuzz, and the Yahoo SwiftH20 news group.

Warning - firefighters might not like some of the opinions. Remember, they're just opinions.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on June 19, 2010 at 6:33pm

Normally, I'd say that a firefighter in gear should have done the cat retrieval, but in this case, the smoke profile is light and the guy on the ladder is not in it.

There appears to be a zero percent chance of flashover, structural collapse, or other really bad outcome from the limited information available.

If the cat was seriously injured but alive, getting it out quickly is important, especially to the owner. Remember that pet owners often value their pets more than their inanimate possessions.

The problems I have here are that the ladder is set at a bad angle, no one is heeling it, and that there are two firefighters in the photo that could have taken care of those duties without significantly interrupting their progress on whatever else they had been assigned.

A quick call to Command could have taken care of it.

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Permalink Reply by WestPhilly on June 19, 2010 at 7:33pm

Paul,

I just said that to see if you were really "out of here". (I knew you'd be back).

Ben,

You're killing me: The angle of the ladder? Nobody heeling it? (You know that ladder ain't goin' nowhere).

But my very strong suspicion is that this guy is actually the homeowner who has gone from trying to fight the fire himself (note what looks to be a garden hose at the foot of the ladder and near the 1 3/4" line) to trying to rescue the cat himself - proof positive that any mope can be a ladder guy, but you gotta have balls to move in with the line.