Tactical Efficiency

TACTICAL EFFICIENCY

Tactical: Definition-  from Merriam-Webster:

                   (2)      : using or being weapons or forces employed at the battlefront.

                                 b : effective operation as measured by a comparison of production with cost (as in energy,

                                      time, and money).  

                   (2) : the ratio of the useful energy delivered by a dynamic system to the energy supplied to it.

     Or, how I like to put it, performing tasks efficiently on the fireground. In today’s fire service it is extremely important to operate efficiently. With departments who are short staffed, see brownouts on a daily basis, departments who are laying off fire fighters, today’s modern lightweight construction and all of the plastics inside the structures, open floor plans, the list can go on! A question that many departments face is, how can we be efficient and effective on the fireground with less manpower and less time to operate? For many, this question has been around since the first day that they opened the doors for business.

     We all know that engine companies may need to operate as a truck at times, and trucks as engines. By training our firefighters to operate this way, we become more tactically efficient on the fireground. This allows tasks to be accomplished in a timely manner instead of waiting for the first due truck. Now, let’s take that mindset and break it down to the individual firefighter. For this blog we will focus on the task of ground ladders.

lmost every egress point in the area where fire was involved. This is a great photo demonstrating the pride that this fire department has in its ladder work. Any firefighter who needed to rapidly egress, or remove a victim had a way out. I applaud them for their work!

                  For others, this tool is often overlooked and only placed on the fireground if we have an immediate need for the ladder (i.e. VEIS). There are plenty of documented cases in which a firefighter needed to immediately exit a structure from above grade and had to wait for a ground ladder to be placed. Can every fire department make their fireground look like the picture above? The answer is no. This is due to the size of the department, apparatus responding, number of ladders available, and manpower. Whether you have two ladders on scene or fifty ladders on scene, utilize these life saving tools that are given to you and stay ahead of the power curve! If you set up five ground ladders and none of them are needed on the fireground, so be it. But, remember it is much better to be looking at a ladder, than looking for one!

 A solid foundation of ladder skills must be mastered before jumping in to a 24, or 28-foot extension ladder. The ground ladder, just like any other piece of equipment that we lift must be done utilizing proper technique. We lift with our legs, not our backs.  To become comfortable and efficient with ground ladders, utilize the crawl, walk, run method. If this is a new method of operation for you, start with just your helmet, coat, pants, and gloves. Once this is mastered, add your S.C.B.A. Then add tools to the drill. Perform as many repetitions as necessary to perform this task until you cannot get it wrong! Start with a 16-foot roof ladder and perform multiple repetitions of lifting, carrying, and raising the roof ladder before moving on to the 24-foot extension, and once comfortable with that, move on to a larger ladder. There are several ways in which we can carry a ground ladder to reach our objective, so pick what works best for you and use that method. Although, in a single firefighter ladder carry and raise, it is easiest to carry the ladder in the high shoulder method.

This method allows your skeleton to bear the weight, and also makes it an easier transition when moving the ladder from the shoulder to a vertical position. When raising the ladder be sure to check for overhead obstructions, and always face the building when raising a ladder. This will allow you to observe fire conditions as well as allow you to see your objective. By raising the ladder this way, the fly section will be in. For an immediate rescue the ladder could remain with the fly section in ( See Duo Safety Statement photo at the bottom of the page).  Two other options for efficiency include, closed halyard systems, and marking of the balance point on the ladder. Follow your departments SOP/SOG when carrying and placing ground ladders. 

Below is a link to an excellent article from Fire Engineering on single firefighter ladder carries and raises, and a statement from duo safety regarding using a ladder with the fly in.