Wake up call
By Capt. Polikoff
The following was something I posted on a fire department message board. It is aimed at my county where I work, but I feel when you read it you can see the issues I outline are not too different then what you might have in your department. Please remember this is what I see and it is my opinion.
I have
been thinking we have had fires recently that have not had the best outcome. I
mean tactically speaking. Nobody was hurt which was a great outcome. I get
questions from a lot of people asking about fires in the county. They want to
know what happens or I heard this went wrong. If I was not on the call I will
tell them I was not there and I can’t give you answer. If I know something I
will tell, good or bad. (Sometimes I talk too much)
Stay with me I do have a point.
We have one of the best USAR Teams in the country, if not in the world. Our Haz
Mat Team is top notch as well as our Water Rescue Team. These teams are allotted
days to train and each team takes full advantage of their training. Some members
go as far as to take advance training to further their skills to keep their team
on the cutting edge.
With that being said, I have some questions.
Do you think that if the officers and firefighters in our county would train in
the bread and butter skills as hard as the Specialty teams train in their team
skills we would be able to handle routine fires?
Think about it, if we would spend 1 shift a week doing bread and butter skills
instead of sitting on our butt’s, we could handle these fires. Do the specialty
teams train in firefighting skills as hard as they train in their specialty? Do
we as county firefighter’s career and volunteer bother to train and learn new
techniques that pertain to our job?
Can we continue to stand by and burn down property and just shrug our shoulders
and say well at least nobody got hurt? How can you get hurt when you don’t do
the job??!!! How about going to a critique of a fire that was a total
embarrassment and start the critique off with I want to thank you for doing a
good job?? It is time to wake up officers (yes officers) and get out of the fire
station do something constructive, teach your people. Instead of patting
yourself on the back for telling the public to check their smoke detectors or
don’t forget to blow out candles before you go to bed. How about being better
firefighters and officers, so when you get a call from the public you will show
up with skilled aggressive firefighters ready to do the job because they (the
public) forget to blow out the candles.
I know some will be pissed off about what I said. If you know me you know I
won’t care what you think about my comments. Bottom line, do your job. Be better
officers lead your people earn your paycheck. As for the volunteers you are
doing it for free, you preach you are doing it for the community well prove it
and be the best you can be, not the best ass you can be.
Past Misc.