I heard from an old friend the other day, and he triggered some nostalgia about my early career in the fire service and the people and events that shaped my present-day attitudes and opinions.
Wayne Kee was my boss in the early 80s in South Carolina. He taught me how important it is to keep learning and, most important, to live and enjoy a life outside the fire department. No matter how stressful, gruesome or frustrating it became at work, there was a world outside the engine hall with people who cared about you and needed you to be a positive influence.
I experienced another blast from the past when the Air Force announced they were naming their heroism award after another old boss, Bob McAllister. Bob earned his battle scars in the rice paddies and jungles of Vietnam. He had an innate understanding of what was serious and what wasn't. Doing the job was serious business with serious situations and serious results; you'd better not take your responsibility as a firefighter lightly. There was plenty of time for relaxing and fun after work. Bob is the guy who taught me the value of attention to detail. He was a stern supervisor, but also a great friend who knew how to enjoy himself. The Air Force couldn't have picked a better person to name a heroism award after.
In these times of shrinking budgets and seemingly endless bad economic news, another person who stands out in my mind is the guy who had the misfortune of having me as his rookie deputy chief. Gordon Messerschmidt knew the business of public safety and firefighting. We had a very small department on what is now known as the Barry Goldwater Range in southwestern Arizona. We had everything we could ever want thanks to his seasoned business acumen and ability to persuade leadership that the fire department was an integral piece of the mission. Ironically, the lesson I took away from Gordie was not about obtaining funds, equipment and support; his lesson was about how to handle the inevitable situation where you don't get what you ask for.
"If all they give you is a wheelbarrow full of wet toe sacks, that's what you take to the fire and you throw them wet toe sacks as far and as hard as you can." Think about that for a minute; that is a pretty profound homily old Gordie was using back then (I had look up toe sacks, too) and it is probably more pertinent today than it was then.
Say you are used to having three or four units show up simultaneously on an initial response but now find yourself waiting for a second or third due engine. Your instinct will be to approach the situation as you always have but that is a mistake you cannot afford to make. You MUST wait for enough resources to show up before you get aggressive. The decision makers are aware of the risk they are accepting and don't expect a crew of three or four to do what normally requires a crew of 13 or 15. The only time there would be an exception to that rule is if there was a no-kidding life saving situation and even then the risk would have to be measured. We must simply do the very best possible job we can within the limitations of the resources we have on hand. We can't be in the business of trading firefighters for vacant buildings. Toss them toe sacks from the sidewalk.
So how do you reign in that "get there first or pick up my line" attitude? It won't be easy but you might start by talking about life outside the job, about paying attention to details and putting things into perspective. Is a vacant building worth risking your lives for? What do your loved ones have to say about that? What about the loved ones of the other people on your crew? What do they think about the "we don't need a culture of safety we need a culture of extinguishment" mentality? Ask them.
"If all they give you is a wheelbarrow full of wet toe sacks, that's what you take to the fire and you throw them wet toe sacks as far and as hard as you can."
What a great lesson.
Rick Brockman serves as deputy director of U.S. Navy Fire & Emergency Services in Washington, D.C., and is a 39-year veteran of the Department of Defense fire service. Brockman has an MBA in finance, a master's degree in executive fire service leadership, and a bachelor's degree in business management. He is a graduate of the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officer Program and is one of only 20 Chief Fire Officer designees in the Department of Defense. He is the editor of the Navy Fire & Emergency Services newsletter, What’s Happening, and is currently serving as the U.S. Navy representative on the IAFC Federal and Military Fire Service Section.
