Recently I received a note from a young firefighter that read: “I just watched a new fire department documentary on the Discovery channel, and the firefighters had mostly long coats and boots and used old tactics, and I only saw one imager. They found the church fire by following the smoke and feeling the floor; this worked actually faster than the imager from what I gathered. I also heard so many PASS devices going off that it was impossible to tell if a firefighter was down.

“Are we in the fire service so dependent on technology that it hinders more then helps? It looks to me that the ‘old school’ is the way to go, where guts and instinct ruled the day, not mechanical gizmos. I am personally afraid that some departments are too much into technology. I have seen it on scene when our imager goes down everyone seems lost because I never learned any other way til I saw that show. Should we abandon the technology and go back to the old tactics?”

It seems the typical fire service mindset — the black-or-white, either/or thinking — has made its way into this young firefighter's philosophy — use technology or not. Change in the fire service is difficult to accept, but once it's accepted there is full commitment, so much so that the past is practically abandoned.

The fire service should embrace technology, but not get so wrapped up in it that it suffers from technology dependency syndrome. An everyday example of technology dependency syndrome would be the use of calculators. If one who has never studied basic mathematics and number relationships hits a wrong key on a calculator, he or she won't know that the answer is off and will commit to that figure. This could result in disaster to the checkbook.

Have you ever called a company with a problem and their computers are down? Something that may be so simple to correct takes weeks or even months to correct because no one knows how to do it without the computer? Will the fire service ever find itself in this position?

A fire department that suffers from technology dependency syndrome places itself and its members in a very unsafe and inefficient position. For example, it's wonderful that pumpers now are computerized, but does that mean that we should stop teaching basic hydraulics? Should friction loss not be taught anymore? Is it necessary to teach manual pump operations? What happens if the pumper's computerized pump panel goes down in the middle of a working fire with personnel fully committed? Will the pump operator, who has been trained from the start on this computerized system, be able to go into manual operation instinctively?

Would a firefighter know what to do if the SCBA electronic readouts malfunction in the middle of fighting a fire? What if a thermal imager goes down? Could a firefighter, who has been trained only using this device, find the seat of the fire before she finds herself in trouble? If a firefighter knows nothing but the fully encapsulated envelope of his PPE, will he commit too far into a fire?

Now let's look into the future. What happens when a young firefighter who has been trained using only this technology becomes an officer or a chief, with all the firefighters underneath trained the same way? Will we find ourselves in an emergency situation knowing only an automatic transmission and facing a condition, due to malfunctions of technology, where we must use a manual transmission?

To avoid technology dependency syndrome, there must be a balance of old and new. The basics must never be forgotten; the theories behind the dynamics of our business must always be taught. With the technological advances in this business, safety and efficiency will constantly improve, but a critical balance between old and new must continually be maintained.

Training with an emphasis on the basics is essential. A good, solid knowledge of the basics of firefighting ensures an understanding of the behavior of fire and the most efficient and safest way of performing the tasks necessary to fight that fire.

A key to the avoidance of technology dependency syndrome is to train with and without the technology in the same scenario. This will result in three things. First, it will ensure that the safest and most efficient action will take place instinctively in an emergency if the technology malfunctions. Second, it will develop an appreciation of the technology. Finally, it will point out the limitations of the technology and eliminate the dependency on it.

The next important thing that will prevent technology dependency syndrome is experience. This is difficult because we have done such a fine job with engineering, enforcement and education to dramatically reduce the number of serious fires that occur in this country. So how do young firefighters get experience? One way, of course, is continual training. The other way is for all of the more experienced firefighters to mentor the younger firefighters. When a fire occurs, no matter how big or small, it's important for the senior members to discuss the fire from a training point of view with an emphasis on both the effective and ineffective events that took place.

It's also important to have general discussions about past fires. When having these discussions, various firefighting techniques should be talked about. These discussions also should include how today's technology would have helped, but always with a caution that depending on this technology could be dangerous and that a good working knowledge of basic firefighting goes hand and hand with the technology. Younger firefighters need to be mentored like this. They are not getting the on-the-job training from fighting working fires as older members have had. They will benefit if they can share in the experiences of these senior members.

Finally, we must realize that every member of the fire service is valuable. Whether a firefighter is a senior member or the newest rookie, we can and should all learn from each other. It's more important today, with tremendous influx of technology, that this exchange of knowledge continually occurs.

Technology dependency syndrome is easy for all of us to catch — in fact we all have been infected with it to some degree — but the fire service can't afford to have the slightest degree of infection. We must keep our immune system in top shape by never forgetting the basics and always knowing what to do if the technology fails or isn't available.

I would like to thank that young firefighter who sent me that note. To him I say keep up with your good observations and don't be afraid to ask questions. You are of great value to the fire service and don't ever forget that. Stay safe.

Chief Mike Chiaramonte is a 35-year member of the Lynbrook (N.Y.) Fire Department and a past chief of the department. He's currently the chief fire inspector, where he's responsible for code enforcement and prevention education. Chiaramonte was a past chairman and board member of the IAFC Volunteer and Combination Officers Section Board and New York State Director to the IAFC Eastern Division. He's also a National Fire Academy Instructor and an adviser to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Chiaramonte is a state EMT-CC and an instructor at the Nassau County EMS Academy. He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Houston and a master's degree from Hofstra University, both in communications education.