Where firefighters come to talk training

Are we any different than the news crews

You know I recall seeing a Paul Combs picture of a news lady showing the one thing that went wrong. And theres always firefighters dogging the news for ridiculing fire departments for mishaps on the fire seane.

Yet I can find lots of Youtube videos where firefighters are bashing departments for the same things that news crews point out. In short we are doing the same thing that the news crews are doing!

There are times I scroll thru some pages on Facebook and the pages are great for learning tools. And there are folks who give an "out of the box" view and they were crucified for it.

Hazing and such has and always will be a part of the fire service but what we need realize is that we are doing the same thing as the news crews.

Just look at the above video many of us in the fire service have seen this video and with that many of us have seen the statements that have been made regarding the safety blunder in this video. But what if citizens who are protected by this department happen to stubble across the conversations regarding this video?

You know there is another one out there

that one is a bit long but I encourage you to watch it.

Where there mistakes? Yes. But instead of using all our time ridiculing them let us learn from it and examine what went wrong and what not to do.

Another thing is as soon as you dog a department what do you do when its someone from your department making a mistake and its you all on youtube. How will that look then when the shoes on the other foot?

Another thing I have noticed is firefighters from rural areas and firefighters from urban areas tend to have different tactics and they approach things differently. But thats not an excuess for rural ff's to start dogging urban folks for there methods and vise versa. Discussions are good but not brawls over the web.

So just remember before you go and jump in on a discussion think.

1) would I want my mother reading this?

and

2) am I really doing anything different than the news crews?

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Comment by Art "Chief Reason" Goodrich on April 19, 2013 at 1:23pm: Chris:

Not long ago, Bill Carey posted on Facebook. It was a video, but I commented on the still photo that I saw no stretched hose lines. Now; I was in a hurry and didn't watch the video until Bill called me out on it. So, when I viewed the video, the fire team had water on the fire at one minute thirty seconds after arrival AND they had two ladders to second story. I thought it was awesome.

I almost think we have become programmed to look for what's wrong. But, isn't that a teachable moment then?

Sometimes I think that if you weren't there, you are already half wrong!

But, I know what you're saying and we agree.

Comment by Chris Willis on April 18, 2013 at 8:30pm: Art

I agree hazing and such will always happen, but its how it happens the videos I showed were some "extremes". But I have seen videos out of New York City where the FDNY were doing there thing to some they moved to slow to some they are dead on. If you were to show a video from my area to FDNY they may think we were backwards and slow. The thing I encourage everyone to do is step back and understand the situation before posting on it. Learn from the situation and there tactics, dont degrade them.

Thanks for posting

Comment by Art "Chief Reason" Goodrich on April 18, 2013 at 2:09pm: Chris:

Chowing down on someone's mistakes has been around since that first call for mutual aid went out. That was well before the explosion of social media. Not only did social media send it world wide, but with supersonic speed.

Back in my day, we would be requested for mutual aid and we would go, do our thing and return to the station to sit around and criticize some of the actions that we witnessed. I mean, it started as soon as someone said, "they should have called us sooner". We knew who around us was training and who wasn't and it would rear its ugly head at a fire scene. But...knowing that we had to work with these departments, we discussed it among ourselves privately. And then, we would get together with them and go over the incident. Sometimes it got heated and down right ugly, but to this day, we get along very well with our neighbors.

Now; here is where there's a split in the road: my opinion is that if people are foolish enough to put their error-riddled videos on YouTube, then they can expect the fallout and if the errors are egregious enough and there is litigation being contemplated, then don't be surprised if you walk into court and see the prosecutor firing up the projector to play the YouTube video for the jury.

On the other side, everyone has a phone with picture/video capability and you can't control that they are shooting video of your fire scene, unless you can get the cops to move barricade tape to three blocks away. And if you can't, then you'd better hope that training will produce fewer mistakes at an incident. People who have to tape everything they see are either looking for their 15 minutes of fame or are looking for money. Some news outlets will pay for stills or videos.

But, I see no end to SOME firefighters criticizing OTHER firefighters and especially where it was FUBAR.

Some years ago, when a young firefighter died in a training fire, criminal charges were leveled against the firefighter who was "in charge" of the practice. Google "Lairdsville Revisited" and see what you come up with. Anyway, we were discussing the practice, the criminal charges and then the trial on a fire website and the next thing we know, members of the family of the deceased firefighter logged into the site. But, after the trial started, the defense attorney for the firefighter charged with wrongful death; actually logged into the website to argue his case with other firefighters. I have personal emails from him during a time when he was involved in the court case. It can get very crazy.

With regards to news organizations wanting to shred fire departments? I credit deep seeded and underlying psychological issues or on a simpler theory, jealousy or rejection. They have their reasons. Expect it.

Now, I have to get back to the coverage of West, Texas. What a nightmare.

TCSS.

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