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FEATURES
COLUMNS
04 | From the Editor
Keeping fit for fire
10 | Front Seat
Fixing a problem and providing a service
18 | Fit for Duty
Slow and steady doesn’t always win the race
20 | Between Alarms
One per cent better
38 | Dispatches
How safe do you feel at work?
BY LAURA AIKEN
BY BRIEANNA CHARLEBOIS
Preventing electrical fires
A new British Columbia study suggests that residential inspection programs with a focus on secondary suites and basements could reduce the burden of electrical fires.
BY LEN GARIS AND IAN PIKE
By Laura Aiken
Keeping fit for fire
This edition’s cover story is on FireFit, a competition circuit featuring firefighter challenges based on tasks of the job. FireFit is such a success that it will be making its debut at Interschutz in 2021 (the event was postponed from June of this year due to COVID-19). For firefighters, being fit is part of the job requirements. What a great occupational checkbox to have! FireFit celebrates, honours and helps motivate this very key aspect of being a firefighter.
The evidence for how multifaceted the health benefits of exercise are has grown to the point where its value can’t be overstated.
The evidence for how multifaceted the health benefits of exercise are has grown to the point where its value can’t be overstated. Getting the heart pumping and muscles strong has a protective effect on us from head-to-toe. Humans are designed to move, there’s no doubt about that. The consequences for failing to do so express themselves in a number of dire and well publicized ways.
Canadian Firefighter magazine features two regular health and fitness columns penned by wonderful sources of expertise. Tools of the Trade by Sean Kingswell and Fit for Duty by Sherry Dean provide concrete advice and ideas for maximizing the benefits of exercise in ways specific to firefighters. In light of our cover story on FireFit, I have rounded up their tips from the last four columns. All of the articles are worthy of a revisit and can be found online in our digital archives.
In last April’s edition of Tools of the Trade, Kingswell wrote about why it was important for firefighters to stick to a longterm fitness plan. He said time, energy and motivation are key factors to adherence, and discussed ways to overcome obstacles with them. In July of 2019, Kingswell highlighted how firefighters need to consider training for specific tasks, and in this case focused on ground work training. In this column you’ll find tips on practicing crawling and crab-walking, and the value of push-ups, bridges, core exercises and strengthening the neck to help firefighters move better on the ground. In October 2019, Kingswell reviewed the biomechanics of climbing stairs, a four-step process that uses many parts of the body. In January, he encouraged fire -
fighters to consider the physicality of the job, akin to that of a professional athlete, except a firefighter’s body needs to be maintained for 30 years or more. It’s pretty important to keep taking care of it!
In the April 2019 issue’s Fit for Duty, Dean discussed how to start a workout program, offering key tips to make it a success you can stick with alongside exercises to help get you started. In July 2109, Dean explored mobility, explaining this as range of motion, which is a bit different than stretching and flexibility but they overlap. She also provided a handy home technique for soft tissue release. In October 2019, Dean focused on finding your motivation, what stops motivation and how to figure out what is stopping yours and get past it. In January, Dean discusses the benefits and potential downfalls of partner and team training. She notes that the benefts are greater than any possible drawbacks and encourages readers to draw from the motivation that working out with others can provide.
I hope this edition’s cover story and recap of tips here inspires you to give it all you’ve got in your next workout session.
April 2020 Vol. 43, No. 2 cdnfirefighter.com
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In the news
Rooftop campout
In February, Edmonton firefighters took part in an annual rooftop campout to raise awareness and funds for muscular dystrophy research. Among the participants was firefighter Wesley Bauman, who spent a total of two hours and 20 minutes encased in an ice chamber.
Having seen first-hand the effects of muscular dystrophy, Bauman said he wanted to do all he could to help.
“If I can stay in there for these families and their kids and show them how much I love them by suffering the way I suffered for an hour, that would be enough,” Bauman said. “ It would be inspirational for myself and for them.”
Bauman actually broke the world record by a full 12 minutes, but because the proper steps weren’t taken prior to his attempt, it doesn’t officially count as a Guinness World Record.
Having surpassed their initial goal of $100,000, the department has deemed this year’s campout fundraiser a success.
Inspiration prize
The Yukon First Nations Wildfire, an organization that trains and hires its residents to be initial attack crew firefighters, attended the Arctic Inspiration Prize ceremony and received a million-dollar funding boost. This included a $410,000 prize, plus an additional $622,000 from the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency.
This is an annual Canadian prize awarded to up to five diverse teams who have made a substantial contribution in the gathering of Arctic knowledge and who have provided a concrete plan and commitment to implement their findings.
The Arctic Inspiration Prize money was awarded for the organization’s Resilience Training and Healing Program, which offers preventative and healing programs for youth and wildland firefighters.
A study published by Firewell found that 96 per cent of firefighters indicated exposure to some type of critical incident throughout their entire careers.
Exposure to critical incidents
There are
3,672 fire departments in Canada, cites the NFPA in the 2014-2016 Canadian Fire Department Profile. This included 66 departments staffed by all career firefighters, 44 who are mostly career firefighters, 501 are mostly volunteer and 3,061 were all volunteer.
Firewell recently published a study about the prevalence of traumatic critical incidents Canadian firefighters experience throughout their careers and the mental health effects resulting from responding to these calls.
Researchers Nazari G, MacDermid JC, Sinden K, D’Amico R, Brazil A, Carleton N, Cramm H. surveyed a cohort of 464 firefighters — 390 career firefighters and 74 volunteer firefighters — to determine the frequency and type of traumatic calls firefighters respond to throughout their career.
The study found that 96 per cent of firefighters reported being
exposed to some type of critical incident throughout their career. The two most commonly reported critical incidents from their research were: “Respond to incident involving one or two Deaths” and “Respond to incident involving multiple serious injuries”.
Results also showed that female career firefighters reportedly had lower rates of critical incident exposure than male firefighters.
The results from the study highlighted the high rates of traumatic exposure among firefighters across the country. To check out the study, visit www.firewell.ca.
FireFit of Canada
A quarter century strong and counting
By Laura Aiken
What does javelin throwing have to do with fire fighting? This is the very question Hilary and Dale McRoberts, owners of FireFit of Canada, were asking themselves in 1993 when Dale was a Vancouver firefighter competing in firefighter games that were nonexistent in Canada at the time. Although Dale was very active in and enjoying these beyond the border competitions, this enterprising couple saw an opportunity to bring a firefighter event with fire fighting based tasks to Canada. Armed with vision and a new baby son Connor, the McRoberts worked with Firefighter Combat Challenge to do just that with the original intention of it being perhaps only a one-time thing. The very first Canadian National FireFit Competition was held in conjunction with the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver in 1994 and about 50,000 people saw Canada’s firefighter games debut. Fire departments and sponsors were thrilled. In 1995, seven FireFit events were held across Canada that saw over 700 competitors from over 100 departments compete. These early successes sparked an enterprise 26 years strong and counting. Undoubtedly, the McRoberts will enjoy a first-
time success again in 2021 when FireFit debuts at Interschutz, a massive international show in Germany encompassing fire and rescue services and civil protection, safety and security.
Even with the best of starts, businesses require tremendous sweat equity and emotional and financial investment. The McRoberts were no exception, with the young family traveling extensively and even taking a second mortgage on their house to build and grow the circuit, which has 12 event slated for 2020. Sometimes, Hilary said, they wondered what they had gotten themselves into.
“We made some big sacrifices because we felt that this was something that was really relevant and necessary for the fire service in Canada, so it been a labour of love…Our son has grown up with it – this past year was probably the first time he’s had a birthday at home in about 25 years. We are very much like circus people, for lack of a better way of explaining it.”
The McRoberts poured their funds into FireFit, eventually having a hydraulic tower built that goes up in 10 minutes, which was a big improvement over the handhewn scaffolding that took a whole day to take down. The family has friends coast to coast and son Connor plays a key role in event operations. It’s a family business through and through.
All the hard work continues to pay off with the expansion of FireFit onto the world stage at Interschutz in 2021 (Interschutz
was previously scheduled for June of this year, but was postponed to 2021 due to COVID-19). Previously, the McRoberts allowed some organizations to hold FireFit events in Europe and this caught the eye of the Interschutz organizers, said Hilary. Interschutz offers massive exposure for FireFit. The show boasts 157,000 visitors and over 1500 exhibitors with over 50 per cent being international. The show sees representation from over 50 countries and features 178,000 square metres of show floor. The 2021 show will be the first time Interschutz attendees will see firefighters from around the world compete in the FireFit Championships. The course and concept will be the same as it is in Canada, said Hilary. The measurements will be the same but the tower will be a little bit different as FireFit can’t take their tower there, but it will be similar. There are six fire fighting tasks in the games. First, firefighters will tackle the Stair Climb by racing up a HAIX stair tower in full turnout carrying a 19 kg high-rise hose pack. Once at the top, competitors take on the Hose Hoist and haul another hose pack up from the ground on a rope. Once this is completed, firefighters face the Forcible Entry simulation using a chopping simulator. The fourth challenge is the Run, featuring a slalom course and challenging contestants to drag a charged fire hose over a set distance. The Hose Advance has shouldering a 1 3/4 inch fully charged hoseline and dragging it 75 feet as part of its
task. The final challenge is the Victim Rescue, which involves moving an 80 kg dummy over a specific distance. The championships are made up of individual, tandem, and relay events for teams of three and five competitors. For the Interschutz event, there will be European title winners and world title winners.
To say there was interest from firefighters is an understatement – McRoberts
said registration basically filled up the same day it opened. The scope of registered participants is definitely international, but they all share a passion.
“They all have the same mindset where they want to be better,” said Hilary. “They want to do their job better. They want to maintain their fitness, which is super important in fire fighting. This gives them a goal to do that.”
Eager spectators on the home front will most likely have to wait for video footage post-Interschutz to be posted on FireFit’s YouTube channel, but snippets will be making the rounds on social media during the event. In Canada, FireFit has aired on TSN, OLN and RDS.
The McRoberts have been holding a FireFit world championships in cahoots with its national championships, and now the family is bringing FireFit further into the international spotlight. The debut at Interschutz will also be a boon to FireFit’s sponsors, many of which have been with the McRoberts since the beginning.
Expansion seems to be the theme of FireFit’s quarter century turn. The McRoberts recently introduced PoliceFit and MedicFit. The PoliceFit Championships is very similar to FireFit in that is based on regular line-of-duty tasks and requires around the same level of fitness. The PoliceFit challenge will happen on the same competition course as FireFit, which takes advantage of existing safety protocols for contestants. MedicFit follows a similar model in being designed to showcase the skills of the group through task-based challenges. The company is starting with PoliceFit, which will have several events running in tandem with FireFit for 2020, and working towards ramping up MedicFit. Scheduling this trifecta is an ongoing challenge for the McRoberts with the finite number of seasonal weekends in Canada.
“Eventually, we would want to incorporate police, fire and medic all into one. We think it’s very important to bring those entities all together,” said Hilary.
The games are spectator sports as well, and McRoberts noted that for the police in particular, participation is a nice way for this group – who can take a lot of flak as the issuer of speeding tickets – to have positive interactions with the public and build rapport.
FireFit of Canada has evolved from a one-time success to quarter century success story. In retrospect, javelin throwing turned out to have a lot to do with fire fighting. It served as a catalyst for Canada’s own fire fighting games.
The Hose Hoist simulates getting extra hose up and into a window of a building.
Front seat
By Jason Clark
Jason Clark has been a volunteer firefighter in southwestern Ontario since 2007. Having recently made the transition to captain from firefighter, Jason has had a new perspective on roles in the fire service and riding in the front seat. Reach Jason at jaceclark71@gmail.com or on Twitter @jacejclark.
Fixing a problem and providing a service
Ihad been in the department for around eight years before I started my role as acting captain. Before then, life in the fire service had been very different. When tones would go off, I’d would gear up, get on a truck, attend a scene and I’d attempt to solve someone’s problem on what I could only assume was one of the worst days of that person’s life. In my early years, it was usually a captain or senior crew member that would provide me with some guidance and explanation on what was expected of myself and, as a team, we would come to a resolution. This all changed when I became captain.
While structure fires and major incidents usually make up a low percentage of calls, house fires and motor vehicle collisions with confirmed entrapment have human life and property at stake. These situations often create problems that need to be addressed and corrected immediately. Often, someone has called 9-1-1 and requires our equipment, personnel and skillsets to intervene and ‘fix it’.
If your department is like mine, the remaining 65 to 75 per cent of calls fall into the medical assist category that get dropped down from ambulance dispatch. These are calls that can be serious in nature when you think of the ‘vital signs absent’ calls. Most of the time, these calls tend to be those of generally unwell, shortness of breath or medic alerts. So, for the majority of these calls, we are providing a service.
In our area, there are times when the next available ambulance can be anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes away depending where they are coming from. One of these calls sticks out for me because of its outcome.
We were dispatched to a medic
“Every call gives us the opportunity to be problem solvers and service providers.”
alert in a residence with no voice communication with the service provider or the client. When we arrived, our crew went to the rear of the home because the front door was locked. It was here that we found our patient in no medical distress, but she had sunk several inches into the ground in her motorized wheel chair. She was attempting to get the laundry off her clothes line. It had rained the day before and her back yard became soft, causing her to get stuck.
With no one in sight, she pressed her alert and we were dispatched. I remember how embarrassed she said she felt, but we reassured her that it was no issue at all. It took a few of us to remove her from the back yard. One of my captains grabbed the clothes basket and started removing the rest of the laundry from the line. Without saying a word, other crew members followed suit. We finished grabbing the laundry and helped her back into the house.
This was a first for me. I was expecting a medical emergency where I would be taking vitals and getting a medical history for the incoming ambulance. We live in a world where there is a lot of finger pointing, passing the buck and saying, “that’s
not our job”. I’m certain there are in home services that would have come out to help our lady in distress with her laundry but they weren’t there. We were.
Not every call we respond to is going to be something that could be featured on an episode of the latest fire station action-drama series. Our calls usually start with someone having to pick up a phone to make a call to 9-1-1 and wait for the services to show up so we can fix the problem and provide a resolution.
Our calls can sometimes be traumatic and emotionally charged, and sometimes they can be ‘head-scratchers’. A lot of the time, we are dealing with residential carbon monoxide alarms, a four-year-old pulling a pull station at the community centre or shortness of breath and chest pain calls. Every call gives us the opportunity to be problem solvers and service providers.
Show your probationary firefighters and junior ranks that we are a service with many various skillsets and there is an opportunity on every call we deal to not just earn the public’s trust, but hopefully make someone’s worst day better somehow.
Q&A: Mark Healey
Wildfire strategist Mark Healey on how BCWS tackles wildfires
By Brieanna Charlebois
An element of the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) is the wildfire suppression service in British Columbia. The BCWS employs about 1,600 seasonal personnel each year, including firefighters and dispatchers, among other seasonal positions.
Mark Healey is a certified planning section chief for one of the six BCWS incident management teams. He has been in the service for 26 seasons and has worked as a planning section chief for over a decade.
Q: What does your role with the BC Wildfire Service entail?
A: I always tell people that being a planning section chief is like being the centre of an hourglass. All the information, data and intelligence that comes from the fire line goes through us and then we disseminate that information out to where it needs to go. Whether that’s keeping track of the number of people working on the fire, mapping, photos — all the filing comes through us. We’re also the ones who create the incident action plan. That’s the plan that all the firefighters on the ground use to meet the objective of whatever the incident may be.
Q: Canada has seen record-breaking wildfire seasons over the last few years. What have been the biggest challenges in dealing with the wildfires?
A: The biggest challenge we’ve seen are the effects of the mountain pine beetle. The affected forests have now changed from mostly standing dead trees to large areas of blowdown. In some cases, the trees are piled up three to four metres in height and it is completely unsafe to send people into these areas to put out the small fires when the burning conditions are in high to extreme conditions. The volume of fuel on the ground has made the fires that do
get going in these areas extremely volatile and hard to control. The strategies and tactics we are having to use are very different than traditional methods. We use more heavy equipment, more water and more people to put these fires out. This taxes the resources we have available and we end up falling back to areas where we can attack these fires in more open terrain, or we use natural barriers to slow or stop fires burning in this fuel type. This has been a significant change compared to fire fighting 10 years ago in the same areas where the affected trees were still standing or under attack from the pine beetle.
Q: What lessons have you learned? Is there anything that would surprise people about the BCWS?
A: We’ve learned to do more burning both during fire season and on the shoulder season — to do hazard reduction burns and getting the buy in from the general public, the stakeholders and First Nations people. In some places they want us to do more but there’s only so much time and manpower available. It’s a real challenge because sometimes there are more areas that we could and want do the work on but we can’t due to lack of resources.
Q: What sort of positions are there in the BC Wildfire Service?
A: There are almost 150 different positions in the BC
Operations Centre in Glen Innes, New South Wales Australia, December 2019
Wildfire Service that we do that people don’t always realize are fire fighting positions. New people usually start on a crew. After a few years, based on their education, people sometimes transition into other roles within our organization. There are operational people who go out on the ground and actually fight the fire and then there are planners who work in an office. We have people who worked in prescribed fire, people involved with safety, aviation, prevention, operations, wildfire prevention and enforcement, weather forecasters, communications specialists, and then we have people involved in finance and admin side of things. We also feed a lot of our people into fire departments around the province. We’re actually like the farm team for municipal fire departments, RCMP, city police. So there are actually a lot of people who came from the BC Wildfire Service who work in fire departments or with the police force now.
Q: Is there anything that you think a firefighter who works at a department may be interested to know?
A: If they haven’t worked with us, I think a lot of people would be surprised to know that wildland fires are always fought the same way. They’ve been fought the same way for over 100 years and I don’t see it changing in the future. It’s all about the basic fire triangle. If you take away one side of the fire triangle, you stop the spread of the fire. One of the things that structural fire departments find
challenging when they work with us is that we’re okay with letting a fire get bigger. We don’t rush to spray water on it to put it out, we sometimes let it burn to natural barriers or to man-made barriers like a paved road because we know it’s not going to cross the road. We let it burn to those areas so we know we won’t have another fire there for the rest of the season because of the burned grass.
Q: In your role, you predict what will happen with the fire and where it will spread. Does this include deciding when to let it burn?
A: As a planning chief, it definitely is and we usually make that decision when dealing with larger scale fires. You have to consider the weather forecast, the topography, the fuels, how the fire is reacting on the landscape, and then try to predict where the fire is going to go and how quickly it’s going to get there. The reason we do that is for firefighter and public safety. It’s not just about knowing what resources we’re going to need. We’re aware of what strategies and tactics we need to use to try to stop the fire but it’s not just science, there’s some art and experience to it too. For example, if we know the fire is going to make a significant run the next day because there’s a big wind event coming in, we’re going to prepare for that and we’re not going to put people in front of the fire. It’s all about knowing and understanding how fire behaves and what fire can do. Of course, there are times where I’ve been completely wrong and there are times when I’ve been completely right.
Q: How has the wildland firefighting changed over the course of your career with the BC Wildfire Service?
A: The fundamental way we fight fires is the same but I would say our command and control organization is much better now. We utilize people with specialized skills and abilities to do certain roles and that allows us to be more effective on a fire because we’ve realized that it’s not just about putting the fire out. There is the planning side and there are a lot of strategies and tactics that, with climate change and with the growth of the urban interface and the values on the landscape, are different than they used to be. I think that has really changed how we have to look at a fire as a whole. It’s not just wildland fires that you’re fighting anymore. Sometimes you’re protecting cultural values, you’re protecting somebody’s home and there’s more significant wildlife values nowadays. There’s different parts to a fire now that you have to think about, so having specialized resources has really changed how we fight a large-scale incident today.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Mark Healey has worked for BCWS for 26 wildfire seasons.
Extrication tips
By Chad Roberts
Chad Roberts is a firefighter in Oakville, Ont. He is a member of the Oakville extrication team and competes and trains across North America. Contact Chad at chadroberts12@gmail.com.
Exposing the weakness: Part 1
Growing up around the world of sports, I was always taught to play the game fair and work hard. But, to be honest, in sports, the one way to get a leg up on our opponents is to expose and take advantage of their weaknesses. Whether that be an injury, a shortage in players or just a sheer skill match-up, identifying and using this disadvantage is a common way to exceed.
This tactic is no different in the fire service world. It translates, perhaps most directly, with the ve hicles at scenes we respond to every day. The constant innovation and technological changes within the automotive industry always chal lenge us, so we must study and learn from manufacturers in order to truly identify weaknesses that we can use to our advantage. To be fair, our tools are and have been getting better every year, but are we keep ing up? Whether your answer to this is yes or no, exposing these areas of new vehicles will go a long way to helping all of us, no matter the punch your packing on your trucks.
So, let’s start this two-part series with the actual research, learning perspective we need to consistent ly be revisiting. With vehicle technology changing on the daily, we as first responders always seem to be on the sidelines — or at least it may seem that way. However, if we look at it similar-to disciplines such as building construction, as first responders, we can have a great impact on the auto manufac turers and how they identify their hazards and technology. Things such as de-energizing cut loops, air bag identification and high
Remember the motto
“defeat our opponents” when
use to expose some of the weaknesses behind our newest vehicles. First off, get online. The information available to us from the manufacturers has never been more accessible. One of the best examples of this is the site BoronExtrication. com. This website offers first responders’ great access to what the inner workings of newer vehicles are made of from a steel standpoint. With the consistent drive for companies to make safer, lighter and more efficient vehicles, we have seen a strong addition of borons and other synthetic high strength steels that can make our hydraulics seem like they’re 10 years past their prime. Now, I’m not suggesting you
weak point or purchase point for our cutter tips. By putting one of the cutter blade tips in this hole originally intended for wiring, we are not only creating a purchase point for our tool, it can potentially take advantage of that weaker area in the steel, which will naturally swing the tool towards the weak point (and not towards our patients and rescuers on the inside of the vehicle).
While looking for these wiring harness, keep that field of vision wide open because it will lead us into our next area of weakness we can exploit: door hinges. Along with the stronger steels in the body of newer vehicles, door hinges are becoming increasingly tougher and, a lot of the time, harder to access. With that being said, when removing your wiring harness to
holding the door to the frame with an impact gun or maybe just remove the hinge pin itself? These cars were put together merely reversing those steps. What if we can’t see the bolts or pin and the hinge is recessed and difficult to assess? Don’t always rely strictly on your
cutters to remove these. While our hydraulics are generally up to the task with these hinges, getting them into a favourable position to cut these recessed hinges will sometimes leave us with nothing more than tool twisting, head scratching or even a broken blade (which can be a frightening event that we don’t need to expose ourselves or our patient to). Instead, let’s attack the weaker areas of our hinge assembles with our spreaders, exposing and easily overcoming the bolts or hinge pins that hold the doors in place.
Simplify and expose the weaknesses. Remember the motto, “defeat our opponents”, when approaching the newest technological hurdles. The information is out there for us. Let’s take advantage of our colder months of the year and use it wisely to educate ourselves and be ready for our newest challenges.
A structural overview of a Tesla Model 3: Note the stronger areas of the steel and its many layers.
Back to basics
By Mark van der Feyst
Firefighter Survival
Firefighters are searching for reference points when trying to find our way out of a structure. In this issue, we are going to look at the hose line and how it is a valuable reference point in firefighter survival.
The hose line will direct a firefighter in one of two ways: the way out or the way in. Depending upon the intended task of the firefighter, they can either follow the hose line into the building, leading them to the fire, or they can follow the hose line out of the building, leading them to safety and away from the fire. Whether the hose line is a preconnected line or a hose hooked up to a side discharge outlet, it is attached to the engine or pump with the other end going inside the building.
Whenever a firefighter is lost or disoriented, they may be able to locate a hose line if they were searching for one while trying to find a window or door exit. When they do locate a hose line, they then need to locate a set of couplings. The hose line will be charged and full of water, so trying to pull the hose toward you to locate the couplings will not be possible. It requires the firefighter to follow the hose line with their hands until they come across a set of couplings.
Mark van der Feyst has been in the fire service since 1999 and is a full-time firefighter. He is an international instructor teaching in Canada, the United States, FDIC and India. Contact him at Mark@FireStarTraining.com.
I mention using the hose pulling to locate the couplings because that is what we often see in training. In training, the hose line may not be charged with water (a dry line). Many times, the firefighter going through the course will sit in the one spot, and pull the hose line toward them in an effort to find the coupling. This type of action
is only lending itself to a muscle memory habit. In training, charge the hose line, fill it full of water so that the muscle memory developed will be based upon a charged
line, not a dry line.
Once the coupling has been located, the next step is reading the coupling. Just like a blind person feels braille to read, we need to feel the coupling in order to read it. Let’s look at photo one and start to work our way back from the nozzle to the pump. In the photo, you will see two styles of couplings married together – the one a male coupling and the other the female coupling. The male coupling has long distinct rocker lugs running the width of the coupling, whereas the female coupling has shorter rocker lugs.
Reading the coupling ensures we head in the right direction: back to the pump. There are many different sayings that firefighters remember to help them with reading a coupling. Mine is this: “run away from the woman.” When I feel the female coupling (shorter rocker lugs), I go in the opposite direction which will take me back to the pump. If I go with the woman, then I am heading towards the nozzle (the wrong direction). Another saying is “long way out, short way in.” The long rocker lugs are the way out, the shorter rocker lugs are the way in.
When you do find the hose line, make sure that do not lose contact with it. This is your lifeline out. If both of your hands are busy, place the hose line in between your legs so that you are straddling it. You will not lose orientation of the hose by placing in between your legs.
The male coupling has long distinct rocker lugs running the width of the coupling; the female coupling has shorter rocker lugs.
Standpipe connection in a stairway.
Standpipe connection in a hallway.
In photos two and three, we are seeing a standpipe connection in a building. So far, we have looked at a hose line in a residential structure where the hose line runs outside to the pump, but what about when the hose line is connected to a standpipe system?
There are two types of standpipes. They will either be located in the stairway or in the hallway. Either way, the hose line needs to be secured to the standpipe one floor below the fire floor. There are many reasons we want to do this but the main reason is for safety. This includes the safety of the crew working inside the
building and safety of the crew to get out of the building. By having the hose line run one floor up from the floor
below (as depicted in photo four), means the firefighter(s) following that hose line to get out of the danger area will be able to follow it to a safer place, one floor below. In photo three, the standpipe cabinet is in a hallway located across from the stairway door. Some will argue that if they were to connect on the fire floor, they would be able to follow the hose line back to the cabinet, and then be able to locate the stairwell door to go down to a safer area. But, LODDs have sometimes resulted from firefighters becoming disoriented in a very small area, let alone in a
high-rise building. Trying to locate a stairwell door in visible conditions is easy, trying to locate it in zero visibility conditions, coupled with intense heat, a need to get out now and tunnel vision setting in, will be a detriment to the crew. It is better to err on the side of caution and run the hose line one floor below the fire floor. Remove the thinking and allow for just the action to take place.
Practice reading couplings takes with your structural gloves on. This can be done at anytime in the day or night at any place in the station. Train on it.
ROOKIE TO CHIEF…
Hose line running up from the floor below.
Fit for duty
By Sherry Dean
Slow and steady doesn’t always win the race
The amount of time spent working out is not always a good measure of effort or results. If you compare two athletes, one who worked out for two and a half hours and the other who was in and out of the gym in 45 minutes, which one had the better work out? It’s impossible to answer because there is no way to know what you are comparing. Evaluating your workout depends on your goals.
If you are attempting to build muscle density then slower, heavier, strength-based workouts will be effective and provide good results. Endurance-based workouts are comprised of moderate exercise conducted over a longer period of time. Interval training lends itself toward improving cardiovascular efficiency and endurance with improved strength. This is similar to emergency scene tasks that are shorter in time frame and intense in nature.
Interval training combines short, high-intensity bursts of speed and effort with recovery or rest phases repeated during one exercise session. Alternating intense and light activity builds stamina and endurance, tends to burn more calories and can reduce the frequency of injury. Short rest periods during vigorous activity helps to reduce the accumulation of lactic acid pain. The short break periods or reduction in intensity give muscles the opportunity to redistribute the lactic acid, allowing athletes to continue pushing hard throughout a workout.
High intensity interval training (HIIT) follows the same structure
as regular interval training, but pushes the heart rate closer to its maximum. Tabata is a great example of HIIT: 40 seconds of work and 20 second of rest for eight rounds (a four-minute total time). Both interval training and HIIT are recommended on alternating days, or targeting different body parts if workouts are done on consecutive days.
Science supports the benefits of interval training. Muscle cells are broken down in a way that promote energy production and improve physiological efficiency. The benefits of an interval workout can be measured in the body for more than 24 hours after a workout. Calories can be burned at a higher rate for up to two hours after an interval workout.
Having a solid base of overall aerobic fitness before performing high intensity and interval training is recommended. Set goals that are within your ability. If you are a beginner or new to interval training, balance your effort and exertion enough to be able to continue through your workout. The target of interval training is to engage in elevating your heart rate to between 80 and 85 per cent of your target heart rate. Perceived exertion is a good gauge of effort. On a scale of one to 10, you should be aiming for an eight. You shouldn’t be able to engage in conversation while working and you shouldn’t be able to keep going for an extended period of time. Rest periods or reduction of effort will be needed to be able to move on to the next stage or movement. As firefighters, it is beneficial to train in the same fashion as we work. Interval training accom -
Sherry Dean is a career firefighter/engineer with Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency Service. She has more than 20 years of experience in fitness and training. Contact Sherry at deansherry@bellaliant.net.
Calories can be burned at a higher rate for up to two hours after an interval workout.
plishes physical benefits and task benefits. Participating in interval training requires less time to accomplish the same work load and can reduce the repetitive stress on your joints. It is known to increase V02 max, endurance and strength which will improve our performance on scene.
The following is a six round (three rounds for beginners) workout with a 30/15 second work/rest ratio. Rest periods can be increased to 30/30 or reduced to 30/10 depending on your overall fitness and the amount of effort you are putting into each movement. During your rest periods, you should be moving to your next station and recovering enough to be able to start the next movement.
Keep track of your reps in your first two rounds and attempt to maintain those numbers throughout your workout. Move quickly through each rep or movement to elevate your heart rate to 85 per cent maximum effort.
Station 1 – Treadmill/rower with high intensity. It should be difficult to maintain the chosen speed for much more than the 30 seconds it takes to complete.
Station 2 – Pull-downs, pullups or chin-ups.
Station 3 – Burpees, full body on the ground with a small jump when getting back to your feet.
Station 4 – Weighted reverse lunges (kettlebell or dumbbells)
Station 5 – Box jumps or step ups.
Station 6 – V-ups (add a medicine ball or light weight to increase intensity)
Station 7 – Dumbbell clean and press
Station 8 – Tricep push-ups. Hands and elbows remain close to your body.
1-minute rest between rounds. Work hard and be safe.
Between alarms
By Arjuna George
One per cent better
The fire service is a career perfectly suited to driven, lifelong learners. From your first day to retirement, there are endless skills to perfect, new sciences to adapt to and numerous developmental challenges. The secret is to excel just one per cent at a time. Unfortunately, we often see members fall into a slump, feeling that they know it all and don’t feel the same challenge or excitement as they once had. Years may pass with no personal improvements, just coasting through in a state of mediocrity. Today’s leaders demonstrate something special and are always pursuing excellence with a keen focus on continuous improvement. A very simple concept is focusing on getting one per cent better each day, also known as “the aggregation of marginal gains”. This idea was first coined by British Cycling coach Dave Brailsford who took a struggling cycling team from poor performers to Tour de France champions five times. Brailsford’s vision was to incrementally improve every aspect of their training and racing. He essentially hacked every aspect of the racer’s life — from sleep to food to clothing and equipment. Everything he did with his team slowly changed their execution one per cent at a time. All aspects of their performance were optimized and they excelled beyond expectations. It’s a simple concept people can use in both their professional and personal life.
To be a lifelong learner, you must build habits that allow you to continually improve with little effort. If habits aren’t formed, then the strive for excellence and knowledge tails off.
When building solid habits, it is best to find ones that are obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying. In the book Atomic Habits , author James Clear shares his four Laws of Habits. If your one per cent goal can meet these laws, you are on
Just imagine if you dedicated to improving stretching a hose line one per cent better each day, or throwing a ladder one per cent better each day? Over time, with little effort, your performance level on those skills would be at the elite level. In a career where lives are on the line and time is of the essence, wouldn’t it be amazing to be elite in the basics of fire fighting? The best part is this would not take an onerous amount of
To be a lifelong learner, you must build habits that allow you to continually improve with little effort.
the road to excellence and self-improvement.
Starting today, make a habit of being one per cent better than yesterday. This golden nugget has been my habit for years without even knowing it. But, what is one per cent better? One per cent better can be reading one Canadian Firefighter article a day, studying the equipment in one cabinet on your apparatus, mentally preparing for an incident at a particular building in your community, joining an online forum that discusses new trends and tactics, taking an online course, and spending time on getting better acquainted with your crew. There is no excuse not to learn just one thing a day; commit to being one per cent better.
time or effort. It happens so incrementally that the habit is easily sustained.
Committing to being one per cent better in your firehall or on your apparatus is also possible. Much like the British cycling team, making small incremental changes to your operations can greatly impact the team’s performance. Have systems in place that aid in ergonomics, pre-rigging, or keep tools properly mounted for rapid use. Even simple improvements, such as labeling the tools and cabinets for fast and efficient deployment, will make the team one per cent better.
It doesn’t stop there. One per cent better also can be used for your physical and mental fitness. Physically, this can simply mean 10 push-ups today, 11 to-
morrow, continuing with the one percent factor. You can also use this simple habit to improve your mental capacity and health. Starting off with a onehour meditation may be difficult to sustain, but starting with a 30 second meditation before work, adding a few seconds each day will allow you to continually build up to a minute or longer. These are the sizable habits you will find that stick and work.
This can also be used in your personal life; finding ways to hack your lifestyle to reduce unnecessary decisions, tasks, and general overload. Improving your day-to-day life can start by getting up at a certain time each day. Over time, waking up one per cent earlier will bring a sense of calm. Also consider reducing your time on your mobile phone by one per cent each day, avoiding the mindless scrolling that is both unproductive and unhealthy for your brain function.
One per cent better is a mindset that hacks our day-today life and operations in a way that opens the doors to achieving success each day. Our careers should never be allowed to become stagnant or dull. Building continuous improvement into your life helps maintain the edge. The habit of one per cent allows us to continually sharpen our saw and excel in this very important job.
Starting today, between alarms, focus on improving by one per cent and begin building the habit of excellence, and by this time next year, you will be 365 per cent better firefighter, leader, and person.
Arjuna George is chief of Salt Spring Island Fire Rescue in British Columbia. He has served on the department since 1997. Contact Arjuna at ageorge@saltspringfire.com.
FSWO
FIRE SERVICE WOMEN ONTARIO
EQUITY: WHAT WE NEED TO SUCCEED
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT OF FSWO
Pike Krpan
As president of FSWO, every week I am sent a news story heralding a fire department’s first female chief officer, first all-women crew, etc. While I celebrate each and every milestone, I am also keenly aware that the fire service lags significantly behind other maledominated fields in the inclusion of women in its ranks. The defeatist attitudes about this are alarming. After all, do we give up on overhaul when we still see embers, saying “good enough”? As firefighters, we work until the job is done. Diversifying our fire department should be no different.
By inclusion I don’t mean counting up the numbers. The “diversity” count rings hollow to everyone. Yes, we can invite the few women and people of colour on our department to be in our promotional materials, but does that accurately portray our crews to the public?
Does it show what minority recruits can expect in the fire hall? Does it alienate all the members of our department by being an empty gesture of visibility?
By inclusion I don’t mean “add women and stir.” This approach has been marginally effective at the best of times. We can’t expect women to just behave and work like men, because they aren’t
Continued on page 4
BENEFITS YOU CAN EXPECT FROM DIVERSIFICATION
Decreased costs resulting in time off from stress in the work environment
Decreased conflict among members, which minimizes the associated loss of productivity
Decreased cost resulting from attrition-hiring costs, new gear and clothing, and administrative fees
Decreased legal costs from harassment litigation and litigation because of illegal recruitment and hiring practices
Increased organizational productivity with clear direction and a sense of belonging felt by all
Improved customer service by reflecting and representing the community we serve
Increased financial resources to put toward other fire department business
FULLY INVOLVED: THE FIVE PHASES OF DIVERSIFICATION
By Andréa Speranza
Would you like to create a more harmonious work environment that better reflects the community you serve, increase productivity, improve cost efficiency, and potentially save lives?
Progressive business owners know their target market by analyzing their personnel, their community’s needs and their business. With this information, they are better able to make adjustments to their products and services, and to specifically recruit, integrate, and retain a more diverse workforce to deliver what the market is demanding. It’s time the fire service embrace this as well.
The population of Canada is ever changing. Statistics Canada data shows consistent growth in women and minority populations. The future employment market has an enormous labour pool that most fire services are ignoring. It is time to accept the indisputable fact that every fire service needs to adapt to the changing times by proactively focusing on “minority” recruitment initiatives. This is the only way we will be able to effectively deliver our services in the future.
Many fire departments have recognized the need to diversify but have been unsuccessful in recruitment initiatives because they have failed to see the recruitment process from the viewpoint of minority communities. Recruiting more effectively is not the whole solution – we must also retain. It requires more people to do things differently. The only way to ensure equality in the fire service is by recognizing the importance of equality for all employees and changing behaviours accordingly. Strong leadership is required.
A Google search of “firefighter harassment” produces these results:
Although we are starting to see more positive messages happening in the media with stories of increasing diversity and inclusivity that indicates positive changes are happening, I look forward to the day when these types of milestones are common place. These are subtle signs of progress, but how far do we have to go? Is there still a glass ceiling?
Think about the vast amount of resources spent on investigations and court cases. Typically, this figure does not include increased cost of sick time, negative impact on morale, decrease in productivity and divestment in our firefighting profession. The real cost also includes the impact of those who ended their lives because of harassment. These are issues that the fire service can no longer afford to ignore.
Although these more positive messages exist, I look forward to the day when the milestones described in the headlines above are common place. These are subtle signs of progress but how far do we have to go? Is there is still a glass ceiling?
Alice H. Eagly and Linda L. Carli argue that the glass ceiling metaphor is no longer useful because it fails to incorporate the complexity of challenges that women face in coming to leadership. They argue that “the metaphor implies that woman and men have equal access to entry and midlevel positions. […] A better metaphor for what confronts women in their professional endeavors is the labyrinth. Passage through a labyrinth is not simple or direct, but requires persistence, awareness of one’s progress, and a careful analysis of the puzzles that lie ahead.” While deliberate exclusion of women is increasingly less common, second-generation gender bias continues to exist. This refers to practices that may appear neutral in that they apply
to everyone but can discriminate against women because they reflect the values of the men who created them.
For example, consider a promotional requirement where the candidates have to find their own path as opposed to providing standard training for everyone. It’s easier to find a mentor if you are male. People gravitate to supporting those similar to them, which results in men in leadership positions advocating for other men when opportunities arise. Research has indicated that managers tend to hire and promote people whose backgrounds resemble their own. It’s like a marathon where the men are cheered on, supported and given clear direction while the women navigate an unknown obstacle course while being told if it’s too tough, quit.
I believe a comprehensive five phase approach is required to address diversification in the fire service.
PHASE 1: PROVIDE LEADERSHIP
Leadership is holding a flashlight and lighting the way for others. In order to do this, we need to know where we are and where we want to go. And before we shine that flashlight, we also need to make a personal and financial long-term commitment to diversity and inclusion. Moving forward, we need to be aware of what we don’t know so we can seek assistance from subject matter specialists, including all members of our organization. We get commitment for this by asking others for their perspective, their concerns and their participation. We collaborate on how to move forward. When people are intimately involved, they are more likely to be committed, even when the going gets tough.
We cannot direct others to just follow the flashlight’s beam; we need to lead the way by communicating about the new vision, and incorporating it into our policies, procedures, training, performance evaluations, clothing, facilities, etc.
While everyone’s commitment is required, we need champions of diversity to support the changes each person is committed to making. I’ve always found that the veteran firefighter’s encouragement is like a drop of rain on a parched desert for the new person who is underrepresented in the workforce. This is what leadership looks like to me.
PHASE 2: PERFORM A 360 SIZE-UP
Just as we research a building preplan, we need to research how to develop our personnel to provide the best customer service. We need a preplan of the community we protect, on ourselves, our personnel, our organizational operations and, more specifically our strengths, weaknesses, biases, opportunities and aspirations. We collect so much information on buildings, yet we know very little about our people and the internal workings of our fire departments. This is what is critical for personal and professional success.
A good starting point is to research community demographics such as racial, cultural, and gender mix and compare the results with our organization’s demographics. The next step is to truly get clear about what we are trying to accomplish by creating specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-orientated (SMART) goals. It is important that our goals are realistic and achievable. The (US-based) National Report Card on Women in Firefighting reports that the proportion of women in comparable professions is 17 percent. This goal may only be achievable in the long term. This enforces the importance of the personal and financial long-term commitment to
the direction of our journey.
Now is the time to not only consider a new recruitment and selection process, but also how to evaluate it. This enables us to monitor our progress on the attrition rate/retention rate and make the necessary adjustments. This is also the time to connect with other departments to see what is working well for them in their efforts and share what is working well for us.
PHASE 3: PRIME YOUR ENVIRONMENT
Just like we must prime our pump, we must prime the work environment for the introduction of new members. Examine your policies, procedures and practices – including the undocumented corporate culture - through the eyes of the candidates you are hoping to attract. Stand in their shoes and read your policies on harassment, discrimination, and maternity leave. Think about the clothing and equipment provided. Identify potential issues with the facilities. Ask for help with this initiative from your organization’s membership and from the public. This will mean the difference between acquiring a diverse workforce and retaining one. This aspect is as important or perhaps more important than your recruitment and selection processes.
We are all different and these differences can lead to conflict. What is not common is the employee who feels confident in addressing conflict. It is essential to teach our employees to resolve these issues.
PHASE 4: USE THE BEST RECRUITMENT METHODS
A firefighting career can provide personal fulfillment, with a sense of contribution to the community and financial security for our families. All of this is so attractive, but sometimes the reality is so very different. It can be very isolating when you realize that very few other employees look like you or share the same religious beliefs. Perhaps there are no appropriate washrooms or sleeping quarters for you, or more subtly - you just don’t feel welcome as a member of the team.
Forewarned is forearmed. Before we bring anyone into our workforce we have to set them up for success. We have to be prepared to give them what they need in order to be successful, even if it is different from the current workforce’s needs. Working together with current members and members of the public to identify these needs will enable us to truly welcome them into our workplace. Don’t make promises you cannot keep! We must be honest and open in our recruitment messages.
PHASE 5: UPDATE RETENTION METHODS
It is not enough to hire candidates. We need to ensure they will stay on the job. We owe each employee five things: clear direction, specific and timely feedback, a safe work environment, tools/ training and fair compensation. All of these will help the employee be successful – and that is what true leaders want for their employees. And when the employee is happy, productive and successful they will want to stick around for more. This notion is so simple and yet it seems to be so hard to deliver.
What are other ways to support the success of our employees? We can also offer new ways to connect and communicate with others, training and development on a variety of topics, participation in social responsibility initiatives, and activities that enable us to celebrate differences with our coworkers.
Offer mentors to new recruits. Implement additional training sessions for personnel to enhance skills, build confidence, and create a support network. Provide women and minorities with developmental job experiences and allow them to gain the respect needed to command key leadership positions.
Perform regular climate surveys to ensure you are moving in the right direction. Have a focus group if something turns up. If an issue escalates, implement a restorative justice process.
Even the simplest change can seem hard, but when we work together collaboratively, we can be successful. Change is necessary so that our fire service can embrace diversity and not only continue to have the resources to provide excellent service, but also reflect the community we serve.
ANDRÉA SPERANZA is a 25-year veteran of the fire service (5 years volunteer and 20 years career) and is currently an operations Captain in Nova Scotia, Canada. She is the founder of Camp Courage, an award-winning camp that educates and inspires young women to become first responders. Speranza was a national Firefighter’s Combat Challenge champion. Speranza has been recognized with numerous awards including from the Province of Nova Scotia and the Fire Marshalls Office, and is a business owner with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
EQUITY: WHAT WE NEED TO SUCCEED
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT OF FSWO
Continued from front page 1
men. To that point what we have always expected of men is no longer valid either. While I respect many of the traditions and culture of the fire service, I also see how many of them need to change, and change now, for the health and betterment of our sisters but also for the entire fire service.
For many years I have been involved in a girls’ firefighter camp hosted by my department. The benefits to the young women are obvious to me; they see themselves in the career, they get to try the skills required and they get to ask questions of women already on the job. They build a confidence and desire they otherwise may never have been exposed to. And yet I still find myself at the fire hall kitchen table fielding the question “why don’t we have a camp for boys?”
Truth be told I get frustrated with the question. I hear it constantly, and its intention is often to invalidate the girls’ camp. But it’s also an opening to explain why equity, not equality, is what we need to bring all members of our department to the same level of skill, professionalism and teamwork.
The reason we need a girls’ camp is equity. If we were concerned about equality, yes, we would host a boys’ camp. But are we lacking male applicants to the job? No. We need a girls’ camp because women firefighters are still so rare that young women can’t “be what they can’t see.”
We need it because girls just don’t get enough exposure or encouragement into jobs that involve physical labour and mechanical knowledge.
Boys don’t have this obstacle. We don’t need to clear it for them. (Yes - an argument could be made that we DO need a boys’ camp to increase equity for boys of colour and indigenous boys for another set of reasons.) But what other barriers do boys have in accessing the fire service that a boys’ camp could address? From an equity perspective, boys might need access to programs to unlearn toxic masculinity, so they can better take care of their physical and mental health instead of being a tough guy. PTSD and mental health problems are serious challenges for today’s first responders. Honestly, maybe we do need a boys’ camp. But from an equity perspective, the content would look very different than the girls’ camp.
Women often struggle with one-person ladder throws. It’s often taught that there is one correct way, and it is dependent on your centre of gravity being further from the ground (hence it requires a certain height). We judge everyone by this one standard – you must meet it, complete the skill, or you don’t pass training. This standard is indicative of an
equality approach, not equity.
The “diversity” count rings hollow to everyone. Yes, we can invite the few women and people of colour on our department to be in our promotional materials; but does that accurately portray our crews to the public?
But is there truly only one way to throw a ladder? For women, who are often shorter, throwing the ladder in this one way demands them to use biomechanics that are unsafe, which then increases the chances of injury. There are most definitely safer ways to throw a ladder, and teaching alternate methods is a way to promote equity. At FDIC in 2018, Women in Fire offered a hands-on course that focused on unconventional methods for overcoming height and strength differences using the proper tools and adjusting technique. Promoting equity in this case definitely benefits women, but also many others. How often do injuries occur when any firefighter throws the ladder in the standard way? Would it not make sense to say – the ladder must go up, and safely, and let’s work on learning multiple safe and effective ways to get the ladder there? This approach could assist older firefighters, short firefighters of all genders, or any firefighter who wants to experiment with their own biomechanics to promote health and safety. This is the equity, not equality, approach. Give everyone what they need to succeed, not giving everyone the same thing.
One of my favourite writers Audre Lorde says “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” Let’s get creative on doing this and bring the fire service into the modern era of inclusion.
WHAT I SIGNED ON FOR
By TJ Robbins
When my daughter was about one month old, I found out that she had infant acid reflux. It is not uncommon for newborns to have this condition as sometimes those adorable little bodies do not grow evenly. For some, the flap at the top of the esophagus does not close properly or at all. What this meant was that if my daughter’s eyes were open, she was screaming. There is video of her at six months old in a rare moment of silence. While you cannot see me, you can hear me laughing and predicting how many seconds before the screaming started again. Why was I able to joke around about something so all-consuming and stressful as a baby who screamed 90% of her waking hours? Because it was what I had signed on for. Making a clear statement about what we DID sign on for is difficult but normally, we have no problem defining what we did not sign on for. Case in point, I have done regular volunteer work for the
same organization for almost ten years. On one particular shift I was berated by someone who mistakenly believed I had done something wrong. He went on to (as the expression goes), tear me a new one in front of a small group of people. I walked away from his attack saying out loud for anyone to hear, “I didn’t sign on for this s#*t!”. That was easy to define.
Happily, I can report that as a firefighter, I have never had a moment that defined what I did not sign on for. In fact, my experience has been very much the opposite.
I signed on to be on the nozzle at a barn fire where two horses perished in the smoke and flames (others were put down in the hours that followed). I signed on to accidentally stand on one of them because it was the middle of the night in a dark barn with debris everywhere. So focused on my task while performing it, I felt nothing on scene and managed to forget all about it by the time I arrived home around 7am. I prepared for my day job and the client meeting I had that afternoon. While driving to it, I realized how tired I was and
became resentful of my fatigue. I asked myself, why am I so tired? Then it dawned on me that I had signed on for this exhaustion. I had signed on to be suddenly overwhelmed by the flood of emotion I did not feel on scene. If you know anything about our history with this majestic beauty, then you know we owe horses a debt of gratitude. They are stunning creatures and we had lost several of them just the night before. I signed on to arrive late to my meeting because I had also signed on to pull over from crying so hard I could not see the road.
I signed on to lean in for a kiss and get only part way there. I signed on to see the look in his eyes when he hears the tones and wonders if they are mine. I run from him and ignore the voice inside telling me to stay here where it is cozy and warm. This voice tries to warn me that I might be running towards something that is very ugly. I race out the door anyway without looking back. I signed on to leave him alone in my house holding the remote rather than holding me. I signed on to be awakened not by a gentle breeze or the warmth of the sun on my face. Nor by the giggling sound of a precious child who wants to play, but rudely by a blunt beeping sound that cuts through the peace and quiet at 2am. I signed on to get to the station and wait on stand-by. We monitor the radio just waiting to be needed. After about an hour of this we no long want to be needed. We want to hear those beautiful words all firefighters want to hear when 0200hrs becomes 0300hrs; command terminated. These words do not always come quickly and our excitement eventually slows down as everyone settles in. I signed on to lie down on the back bumper of Pump 11 and fall asleep there while my sister and brothers nap on the floor of Rescue 14 and against the wall on the apparatus floor.
I signed on to have my ass handed to me at one time or another by almost every saw at my station. I renamed the Saws All based on my early experiences with it. Add only
HAPPILY, I CAN REPORT THAT AS A FIRE FIGHTER, I HAVE NEVER HAD A MOMENT THAT DEFINED WHAT I DID NOT SIGN ON FOR. IN FACT, MY EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN VERY MUCH THE OPPOSITE.
one word and I am sure you can guess what that name might be. I signed on to fail to start some of the K12s and chainsaws time and again in my recruit year and have these failures play out in front of everyone. I signed on to be put in my place and have the core of my confidence be threatened by a freakin’ saw.
Although no one asked me to, I signed on to remain sober each New Years Eve since I was hired and be paged for only the first one. I signed on to have dinner interrupted and to abandon birthday parties. I signed on to sweat more than I thought a human could sweat. I signed on to work for each breath because they do not always come freely in a mask. I signed on for potential injury and was once injured. I signed on for the increased cancer risk known in our industry. I signed on to risk my life.
Some people hear our stories (the good, the bad and the boring) and ask, why? We hear each other’s stories and ask, where do I sign?
TJ ROBBINS has been a Town of Milton fire fighter since 2017. She joined the FSWO board in 2019.
THE CHALLENGE OF INCLUDING WOMEN IN FIRE RESEARCH: TALKING WITH FIREWELL
By Sheri Fisher
In the fire service, firefighters are required to do the same job, no matter their sex or gender. And yet there are biological, physiological and anatomical differences between men and women that complicate how they do those jobs. Significant research has been done over the years to protect firefighters from risks to their physical and mental health in this high-risk occupation. Despite the dual acknowledgement of the differences between men and women and the importance of safety research, women are still often overlooked in fire
service research. I interviewed Joy McDermid, Project Director at Firewell, to understand why. Women make up approximately 4% of firefighters and that number is growing. While this low percentage is a challenge to including women in research, it certainly does not provide justification to the exclusion. Going back at least a decade, women may have been more hesitant to participate in research for fear of potential repercussions with their male co-workers, explains Joy MacDermid, who is a professor, physical therapist and researcher. But now more than ever, women want to participate in relevant fire service research. Across all fields of study, female firefighters are some of the most willing participants in research. And yet still there is not enough research being conducted on women in comparison to their male counterparts. “That’s not acceptable. You can’t just exclude the women,” says Joy. “Even if you do not have enough data to make firm conclusions, you should at least present that data.” She explains that particularly in eastern and rural Canada, it is difficult to get a large enough data sample of women on the job. Also, in volunteer departments, it isn’t always clear how to communicate with volunteer members and access their experiences for research studies.
Are there risks associated with generalizing fire service-related research?
In short - yes. The truth is that the
Dr. Joy MacDermid is a physical therapist, hand therapist, and researcher. She is cross-appointed as a Professor in Physical Therapy at Western University and in Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University. Upon request of the fire service in Hamilton, Dr. MacDermid established FIREWELL, a collaborative research program focusing on firefighter health and work outcomes.
underrepresentation of women in research across ALL fields of study has been ongoing for years, and there are definite risks associated with not conducting gender-based research. Case in point is a report done by the U.S. Accountability Office in 2001. Of the 10 pharmaceutical medications that were taken off the shelves between 1997 and 2001, 8 were shown to have significantly more risks to women than men (1). Additionally, another study showed that the failure to consider the physiological differences between men and women in the development of car seats lead to the significant increase of potential injury to women in vehicular accidents (2). These increased risks to women in both fields of study were proven thanks to genderspecific related research. And we see the same risks play out in the fire service. When Joy first began researching firefighters in 2005, the women she spoke with said their gear did not fit them well, typically being designed for men and supplied to women in smaller men’s
sizes. As a result, the gear felt more restrictive in some areas and challenging to move in. Women had to work harder to complete the same tasks as men because of the ill-fitting gear. Since that time, there has been research conducted to show that the female firefighter uses her body differently both ergonomically and biomechanically. This shows a need for custom firefighter gear, and we have seen this type of gear starting to be adopted in the fire service.
How do we effect change?
Research in all fields has changed because of the Sex and Gender Research (SAGER) Guidelines, established by the European Association of Science Editors (EASE). They were published in 2016 to provide a comprehensive procedure to include specific gender and sex analysis where appropriate. This has created changes in how research is designed, but also to how data has been analysed and interpreted.
Their Motion Analysis Video Library shows how firefighting tasks are performed by firefighters of different age, gender and size. TechnologyEnabled Analysis of Movement and Feedback (TEAM-Feedback) provides ergonomic analysis and advice on how to do a task in a safe way. More videos will be added so come back often!
Firewell is also making a positive impact. Created by firefighters, researchers and other individuals with an interest in firefighters’ health, Firewell is at the forefront of research in Canada. Firewell is striving to ensure that men and women are equally represented in research. “Even though we may not have the numbers to provide firm conclusions, there are techniques to be able to combine research data from multiple researchers to possibly be able to conclude something,” Joy explains. This is why it is still crucial to collect and report on female-based data. Having a system for collecting and sharing data across multiple sites would be helpful. We are starting to see more of this type of research emerging from the United States, but there is not yet a system in place in Canada for sharing collected data. Combined with a smaller population, this makes it more challenging to present definitive research conclusions.
As the visibility of women in the fire service continues to increase and more women step into leadership roles, Joy believes we will continue to see gender-specific research represented more equally. It’s important to have both male and female champions stepping to the research table who are advocating for closing the gender gap. We are starting to see a number of firefighters who are pursuing academia in the world of firefighter related research. Louise Hine Schmidt (Past-President of FSWO and Lieutenant with Ottawa Fire Services) and Amanda Brazil (PhD, MAEd and volunteer firefighter with Cross Roads Fire Department) are just two people that Joy suggests are emerging in firefighter academics. Change is happening and so is better research to protect all firefighters from the inherent risks to their health and safety.
REFERENCES
1. gao.gov/products/GAO-01-286R U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-01-286R. Drug safety: Most drugs withdrawn in recent years had greater health risks for women, 2001
2. sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/ S0001457513001000?via%3Dihub Linder A, Schick S, Hell W, et al. ADSEAT–Adaptive seat to reduce neck injuries for female and male occupants. Accid Anal Prev. 2013;60:334–43
SHERI FISHER was a volunteer firefighter for 5 years and is now a firefighter with Vaughan Fire & Rescue Service. Sheri has also been a board member of Fire Service Women Ontario since 2017.
Len Garis, Fire Chief (Ret), Adjunct Professor at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV), University. Contact him at Len.Garis@ufv.ca. Ian Pike is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia. Contact him at ipike@bcchr.ca.
PREVENTING ELECTRICAL FIRES
Inspections could help reduce residential electrical fire burden suggests a recent study
By Len Garis and Ian Pike
Arecent study in British Columbia suggests that residential inspection programs with a focus on secondary suites and basements could reduce the burden of electrical fires.
Electrical fires cause significant casualties and damage in Canada. Recent fire data shows that in British Columbia alone, an average of 200 electrical fires take place each year, causing almost 12 injuries and deaths per year and almost $69,000 in material losses per incident.
Researchers from the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) and the British Columbia Injury Research and Prevention Unit (BCIRPU) examined the 2,635 residential electrical fires in the province from 2004 to 2017, and the impact of factors such as jurisdiction, area of origin and equipment type on both their prevalence and burden (human and financial).
The result was a safety inspection checklist identifying the areas of the home and types of equipment most often involved in residential electrical fires. Published in March 2019, The Influence of Electrical Fires in Residential Homes: Geospatial Analysis Pointing to Vulnerable Locations and Equipment Failures was authored by Alex Zheng, Fahra Rajabali, Kate Turcotte, Len Garis and Ian Pike.
“Electrical fires cause significant pain, suffering and financial losses each year –
and regrettably, many are preventable,” said lead author Zheng, a BCIRPU biostatistician and researcher. “Our research has helped narrow down where and how electrical fires happen. We’re hoping it will lead to the development of evidence-based programs to tackle this problem.”
The study was based on data collected by the British Columbia Office of the Fire Commissioner on residential fires in both detached and multi-family homes. Of the 28,160 residential fires in B.C. from 2004 to 2017, 9.4 per cent (2,635) were determined to be electrical fires, caused by a short circuit or sparks. Over the 13-year study period, electrical fires caused more than 150 injuries and deaths (about six injuries or deaths per 100 fires), and more than $180 million in material losses (about $14 million per year).
Distinct patterns emerged from the data. Of note:
• Fires originating in a basement made
up 14 per cent of electrical fires, compared to nine per cent originating elsewhere in the home. Based on a modeling analysis that calculated the odds, basement fires were 39 per cent more likely to be an electrical fire than those elsewhere in the home.
• Basement hotspots were laundry rooms (making up 16.5 per cent of electrical fires), common living spaces (14.8 per cent) and passageways (12.3 per cent). Based on the modeling analysis, all basement rooms had similar odds for electrical fires.
• For electrical fires on any level of the home, hotspots were garages (making up 16.6 per cent of electrical), bathrooms (15.7 per cent), laundry rooms (15.2 per cent) and common living areas (12.6 per cent). Based on the modeling analysis, garage fires were 86 per cent more likely to be an electrical fire than those elsewhere in the
Based on a modeling analysis that calculated the odds, basement fires were 39 per cent more likely to be an electrical fire than those elsewhere in the home.
home, bathroom fires were 53 per cent more likely, laundry rooms were 43 per cent more likely and common living space fires were 17 per cent more likely.
• Kitchens were the room of origin less than five per cent of the time for electrical fires, possibly because they are high-use areas where problems are quickly identified. Based on the modeling analysis, kitchen fires were 64 less likely to be an electrical than those in other areas.
The higher risk of basement fires has significant implications for B.C., where high housing prices have made secondary suites – often located on a home’s lower level – an attractive option as both a mortgage helper and a source of affordable housing.
Many suites are installed without following the required regulatory process and are therefore unlikely to meet safety standards. This is particularly worrying when it comes to electrical wiring, due to the risk for fires and other electrical injuries.
To limit this risk, the study suggests that an inspection scheme focusing on electrical safety, and basements in particular, would be effective in reducing the overall burden of electrical fires.
The authors also suggest specific inspection priorities, based on their review of the types of equipment involved in electrical fires. Their assessment indicated that electrical distribution equipment was the cause of half of all electrical fires. More than half of this equipment was permanent fixtures such as electrical wiring, outlets and switchboards. Other equipment with elevated risk included permanent wiring, and cords, switches, outlets and power bars. Clothes dryers and electrical equipment with motors were also leading causes of electrical fires in certain rooms.
The following order of priority is recommended for inspections: garage, laundry, bathroom, basement, common living space, then other areas of the home. The focus in each area should be:
• Garages: permanent wiring, extension cords, and batteries.
• Laundry rooms: clothes washers and dryers.
• Bathrooms: electrical components with motors.
• Basements: permanent wiring, switchboards, extension cords, and clothes dryers.
• Common living spaces: permanent writing, extension cords, outlets, surge protectors, and space heaters.
It was interesting to note that illegal electrical bypasses were the known cause of only about two per cent of electrical fires. This indicates that all basements and secondary suites – not just unregulated ones – should be a target for inspections.
There was also not enough evidence to conclude that basement, room type or the home’s jurisdiction (e.g. city, municipality, regional district, First Nations land or other) had an effect on the overall human and cost burden of electrical fires, underscoring the need for inspections to address the whole home.
There are some limitations to the study, based on the lack of clarification about some of the data. However, the study represents the best data to date, and the conclusions reached will be useful for jurisdictions considering inspections to reduce the burden of electrical fires.
The study can be downloaded for free from the UFV public safety and criminal justice research database at https://cjr.ufv.ca.
Recipe rescue
By Patrick Mathieu
Patrick Mathieu is an acting captain at Waterloo Fire Rescue in Ontario and author of Firehouse Chef: Favourite Recipes from Canada’s Firefighters. Contact Patrick at stationhousecateringco@yahoo.ca.
Lightening up your recipes
Changing seasons provide a great opportunity to switch up what we are cooking in the kitchen. As we leave the cold of winter behind and shift into spring, I want to leave the dishes of winter behind as well.
Swap out the long, slow braises and hunker down comfort food for light spring dishes and fresh seasonal ingredients.
Warmer weather brings an array of new produce after a long winter. There’s nothing more welcome than the sight of spring’s first vegtables: crisp lettuces, earthy morels, spears of asparagus, onions, fresh peas, green beans and piles of bright rhubarb join year-round staples like garlic and beets. These are a few of my springtime favourites you can try to work into your next recipe. Asparagus and leeks are great additions to dishes like soup, and add a boost without overpowering other ingredients. Rhubarb is available once a year so make the best of it! Its tart flavour and vevety texture when cooked make it a popular ingredient in both sweet and savoury recipes.
During the spring months, we celebrate events like Easter, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. These are great opportunities to try something new and fresh like my Salmon Wellington, Beef Tataka and Pistachio Encrusted Halibut. These are super simple recipes that have that little bit of elegance and freshness that make them perfect for spring. If you ever need inspiration, please reach out or check out my Instagram account (stationhouse_) where you can see what’s cooking in my home and firehouse. Eat well and stay safe!
Swap out the long, slow braises and hunker down comfort food for light spring dishes and fresh seasonal ingredients
MARINADE INGREDIENTS:
2 green onions, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon each fresh ginger and garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon lemongrass, finely chopped or 1 tsp lemon zest 1 teaspoon sambal oelek
TATAKI INGREDIENTS:
1 piece center cut beef tenderloin, about 1lb
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
Pea shoots, for garnish
FOR THE MARINADE:
1 In a glass bowl or in a sealable plastic bag, combine all of the ingredients and set aside.
FOR THE TATAKI:
1 In a skillet over high heat, brown the tenderloin on all sides in the oil for a couple minutes per side. Let cool for a few minutes. Place the tenderloin in the marinade and coat thoroughly. Cover the bowl or seal the bag and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
2 Remove the meat from the marinade and strain the marinade through a sieve.
3 In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise with 2 tablespoons of the strained marinade.
4 Thinly slice the meat against the grain and divide among plates. Serve with the pea shoots and drizzle with the mayonnaise. Bon appetit!
Pistachio Crusted Halibut with Gremolata
FOR HALIBUT:
4 (1 1/4-inch-thick) pieces skinless halibut fillet (about 6 ounces each)
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup shelled pistachios, finely chopped
3 tablespoons cornmeal
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
GREMOLATA INGREDIENTS:
1 lemon
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
METHOD:
1 Put fish in a shallow baking dish, pour milk over it, and chill, covered, turning over once, 30 minutes.
2 Meanwhile, stir together pistachios and cornmeal in a shallow bowl.
3 Remove fish from milk, letting excess drip off. Transfer to a plate and sprinkle all over with salt and pepper, then dredge lightly in cornmeal-pistachio mixture. Transfer to a clean plate as coated.
4 Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté fish, turning over once, until golden and just cooked through, 6 to 8 minutes total.
5 While fish cooks, make the gremolata. Using vegetable peeler, remove peel in long strips from lemon. Mince lemon peel. Transfer to small bowl. Mix in parsley and garlic. (Can be made 6 hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate.) Serve fish with Gremolata on the side. Bon appetit!
Beef Tataki
Recipe rescue
Salmon Wellington
INGREDIENTS:
2 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
8oz fresh baby spinach
1 teaspoon kosher salt, for spinach
1 teaspoon pepper, for spinach
½ cup panko breadcrumbs
4 oz cream cheese (1/2 a block)
METHOD:
1 Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C).
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
2 sheets puff pastry, softened to room temperature
1 side of salmon, skin removed
1 teaspoon salt, for salmon
1 teaspoon pepper, for salmon 1 egg, beaten
2 In a pan over medium heat, melt butter. Add the garlic and onions, cooking until translucent.
3 Add the spinach, salt, and pepper, cooking until spinach is wilted. Add the breadcrumbs, cream cheese, parmesan, and dill, stirring until mixture is evenly combined. Remove from heat and set aside.
4 On a cutting board, smooth out the sheet of puff pastry. Place the salmon in the middle of the pastry and season both sides with salt and pepper.
5 Place several spoonfuls of the spinach mixture on top of the salmon, smoothing it out so that it does not spill over the sides.
6 Fold the edges of the puff pastry over the salmon and spinach, starting with the longer sides and then the shorter ends. Trim any excess pastry from the ends, then fold the ends on top. Flip the puff pastry-wrapped salmon over and transfer for a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
7 Brush the beaten egg on the top and sides of the pastry. Score the top of the pastry with a knife, cutting shallow diagonal lines to create a crosshatch pattern. Brush the top again with the egg wash.
8 Bake for 20-25 minutes, until pastry is golden brown.Slice, then serve! Bon appetit!
Tools of the trade
By Sean Kingswell
The road to recovery
When we think fitness, we usually think of physical exercise. Exercise is vital to fitness and health, but to be implemented effectively, there needs to be understanding and implementation of two crucial components: rest and recovery.
The reality is, we do not get in better shape while we exercise. We get in better shape during recovery while our body adapts to the stressors that were put on it during exercise. In the world of exercise, rest and recovery are two different things. Technically, rest is the time between sets during exercise and recovery is the recuperation period between workouts.
The rest between sets is relevant and needs to be adjusted based on your goals. For a lot of metabolic routines, the rest may be quite minimal. For hypertrophy (muscle growth), a rest time of 45 seconds to a minute is ideal. Strength or power workouts will have longer rests. The rep range and load are also tied directly to goals. Recovery can and should be an active process in a couple of ways. Firstly, you must have an active process, meaning something that we intentionally engage in, then focus on movement (being active) at the right levels can assist in recovery. Movement allows nutrient rich blood to enter the area for healing. It is more than our musculoskeletal system that needs to recover as our nervous and endocrine systems are taxed heavily also. Age may have an impact on our ability to recover and we need to pay close attention to how we are feeling over time.
Active recovery simply means
being active during non-exercise days/times at a low or moderate intensity. Some examples of active recovery include stretching, walking, hiking, swimming, myofascial release and biking. These can be an opportunity to recover both mentally and physically without being sedentary.
There are also numerous recovery techniques that can and should be implemented. Sleep is probably the most important aspect of recovery. This can include getting quality night time sleep as well as naps at the right length.
Stretching helps blood get to the muscle and can include dynamic and static stretching. Some form of warm up is ideal before static stretching. The “hurting so good” massage also aids in recovery and can even lower compounds of inflammation. Myofascial release is beneficial and also helps with mobility and injury prevention. Many swear by the use of compression garments which are, of course, part of the R.I.C.E principle (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) and may assist the body in healing.
Nutrition is another crucial part of recovery. This includes both water and food. Water aids in digestion (getting nutrients distributed) and keeps the cells healthy and effective. Urine should be clear and plentiful if we are getting enough water. A balanced diet with an emphasis on adequate protein is a good idea as protein is vital for muscle repair and building. Hot and cold therapy can both be effective recovery techniques. Different modalities may work for different people and under different circumstances. Find what works best for you.
Sean Kingswell is an experienced professional firefighter, personal trainer, fitness coach and the creator of the FIRESAFECADETS program. Contact Sean at firesafecadets@gmail.com.
Sleep is probably the most important aspect of recovery.
Firefighters do not just recover from exercise. We also recover from injury and this also needs to be a very active process. Following the recommendations of medical professionals should be a top priority. I have coached many people over the years who have had a nagging injury, who admit to not following the advice of physiotherapists when it came to exercises and or stretches recommended. Have a good health team in place and follow their guidance. Having a physiotherapist, chiropractor, massage therapist, doctor, etc., that you respect and have rapport with will aid in your health and overall recovery.
Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) can be a consequence of exercise. This is typically due to the negative movement of an exercise as less fibers are recruited and the ones that are become heavily taxed. DOMS does not necessarily indicate a good or bad workout, but too much soreness can have consequences. A high level could certainly have an impact on a fire scene in terms of pain, mobility, range of motion and more.
Overtraining is just what is sounds like and the symptoms can include poor sleep, moodiness, fatigue, decreased performance and a change in appetite just to name a few. One very important point is that our effort at a fire could easily be considered a workout. If we are taxed physically, our body doesn’t know if it is from a fire scene or the gym. Incorporate recovery techniques post fire as well as post workout. Shower after a fire to ensure the best chance of decontamination. A shower can also be a passive warm-up for some static stretching. Keep the above strategies in mind after exertion both personally and professionally and understand that recovery is as important as the workload.
Dispatches
By Jennifer Grigg
Jennifer Grigg has been a dispatcher, volunteer firefighter, FPO inspector and instructor. She is now a resilience and empowerment coach and certified body language trainer. Contact Jennifer at jennygrigg312@gmail.com or jennifergriggcoaching.com.
How safe do you feel at work?
In his book Why Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek talks about the effects work environment has on people. He provides a fascinating perspective on what we all know to be true, but perhaps didn’t have the words or the awareness to articulate until now.
While I haven’t yet read the book, you can bet that it’s been added to my reading list. I found out about it when I came across an interview with Marie Forleo and Sinek discussing key concepts in the book. It was a conversation so powerfully engaging I couldn’t help but continuously pause it and feverishly scribble down note after note.
As a body language coach, I often talk about oxytocin and how it’s produced in the brain through nonverbal behaviour like eye contact and haptics (the scientific word for touch). It’s known as the “cuddle hormone” and it fosters connection. It’s the hormone behind that “feel-good” feeling that you get when you do something nice for someone with no expectation of anything in return — this is also experienced by the person receiving the kind action as well as anyone who witnesses the interaction.
As Sinek says, we’re “designed” to take care of people. It feels good. When we take care of others, and create that flood of oxytocin, it boosts our immune system, makes us more generous, and creates a
ripple effect of good. In his words, “it’s the human body’s desperate attempt to look after each other.”
I also talk about another chemical that’s produced in the brain known as the “stress hormone” and that’s cortisol. It increases heart rate, blood pressure, respiration and muscle tension, and shuts down the body’s systems that aren’t needed in the face of a crisis, such as digestion. People
is the feeling of stress and anxiety. Cortisol actually inhibits oxytocin, which means that if we work in a poorly led organization, not only do we have high stress, it inhibits empathy. In other words, I’m less likely to even want to care about somebody because of the poor leadership or poor environment that’s been provided for me to work in. The more cortisol you have in your body, stress goes up, anxiety goes up, it af-
“Leadership is not about being in charge. It’s about taking care of the people in your charge.” - Simon Sinek
that constantly feel stressed have elevated levels of cortisol coursing through their body, wearing them down.
Your body language directly affects and influences both of these hormones — which is why I talk about them both so much. It’s also important to note that hormone levels can also change rapidly depending on environmental cues.
“When you create an environment where you allow that (oxytocin) to flow, it does so naturally,” he writes. “When you create environments where we restrict that, it does the opposite. It releases a chemical called cortisol, which
fects our immune systems.”
Let’s look at this in terms of your job as a firefighter. What happens if you are less likely to care about somebody that you’re in the business of caring for? I’m sure we’d like to think that nothing could affect that particular aspect of your job or your ability to be empathetic to those you’ve signed on to serve, but what if? Hence my original question of “how safe do you feel at work?”
The leaders of the organization are responsible for the environment that you work in, and since we respond to and are influenced by the environment we work in, if you feel
safe in the environment, everyone benefits.
So, leaders, ask yourselves what you’re doing to create an environment that brings out the very best in your members. Are you creating oxytocin or cortisol in your people, your colleagues, those in your charge?
If you look at things in terms of lost time, sick leave, insurance costs, replacement staffing, administrative issues, grievances, staff relocations, shift assignments, etc., you’ll see clear indicators of the environment you’ve created.
Ask yourself: across the higher levels of leadership, how happy are your people? What is the quality of your daily interactions, the effectiveness of your meetings, the results of your SOPs and SOGs? Is the culture improving? Would your people follow you regardless of your title?
The fire service is ever evolving. The quality of our face-toface interactions and interpersonal relationships are more important than ever, and are more dependent on communicating effectively.
A chief training officer of a large department recently told me: “The fire service isn’t about busting down doors and saving lives anymore. It’s changed.” The people in your organization are your most valuable asset, care for them as if they were your own family and they’ll go the distance for you.
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