04 | Comment Weathering disaster
| Front Seat
conflict
| From Hire to Retire
LAURA AIKEN
Comment
By Laura Aiken
Weathering disaster
Though Canada has fared reasonably well through the pandemic, there is still significant healing to be done by communities and between individuals who may have dismissed their commonalities of benefit in favour of their divided opinions on the pandemic.
Canada cannot afford any further divisions any more than the rest of the world can with warnings about how severe the threat of irreversible seismic shifts to our planet are being shown to us as clear as fresh-buffed glass. Climate change won’t discriminate. It’s coming for us all, and so, there has never been a more pressing need to work together.
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a detailed assessment on the science at the end of February and the impacts are happening faster and are more severe than predicted. As aptly noted in the report by Inger Andersen, the UN’s environment programme director: “Climate change isn’t lurking around the corner waiting to pounce. It’s already upon us, raining down blows on billions of people.”
And, in a more direct quote from the report for the fire service: “Difficult choices will have to be made. Which fires do we just let burn because we
don’t have enough equipment to go around?” asked Linda Mearns, National Center for Atmospheric Research climate scientist and reviewer for the report’s chapter on North America.
Fire Fighting in Canada, the sister publication to Canadian Firefighter , themed its 2022 Virtual Summit around climate change. Registration doubled from the previous year and attendees hailed
Climate change won't discriminate. It's coming for us all, and so, there has never been a more pressing need to work together.
from as far as Australia. Whether its wildfires, floods, extreme snow, extreme winds, or catastrophic heat, preparing for and leading the response to climate events is a top concern for Canada's fire service. Responding to longer-term events with community wide consequences, events that are high risk and high impact, is becoming more common. The need to prepare and pool resources — to work together — was emphasized time and again throughout the event.
Throughout the pandemic, we have heard a common refrain from political leaders
that they are “listening to the science” in terms of their response. Listening to the science on climate change is like tuning into a dystopian, apocalyptic audiobook. It’s terrifying. But it is not a fear to run from, it is a fear to run straight towards or we might not have anywhere left to run to. For the fire service, listening to the science means giving due attention to the potential risks in your community and putting significant efforts towards helping your community and department be prepared. The 72-hour stockpile guidance becomes evermore important for households as global warming marches on.
Canada’s fire service can and should partake in environmentally responsible actions and be models of leadership in this regard, but ultimately the mitigation of this global crisis requires global leadership. And, ultimately, firefighters will be the ones on the frontlines of the world to come.
April 2022
Vol. 45, No. 2 cdnfirefighter.com
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Volunteer firefighter training goes online in New Brunswick
Virtual courses are now available to improve access to training for volunteer firefighters in New Brunswick. For the first time, online learning is being offered in combination with in-person practical sessions, giving candidates better access to fulfilling the requirements to become a volunteer firefighter. To become a certified firefighter in New Brunswick, volunteers must undergo more than 150 hours of training. New Brunswick’s nearly 5,000 volunteer firefighters protect more than 90 per cent of the province’s area. They answered more than 20,000 calls in 2021, ranging from house fires and motor vehicle accidents, to wildfires and medical assistance.
Ontario government investing $1 million in first responder mental health
The Ontario government is investing $1 million for Runnymede Healthcare Centre’s First Responders PostTraumatic Stress Injury Rehabilitation Treatment and Assessment Centre. The new centre would include up to two new facilities to help first responders across the Greater Toronto Area affected by work-related stress or trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Ontario’s health care system does not currently provide mental health supports and treatments tailored to the unique needs of first responders. The new treatment centre, located in Peel region, would provide first responders with specialized services like assessments, intensive treatment and aftercare, as well substance use treatment. Other expected services include virtual care and 24/7 crisis support, as well as peer and navigation support towards recovery.l
Í118%
The Office of the Fire Commissioner in B.C. recorded 59 fire-related fatalities in 2021, a 118 per cent increase from 27 deaths in 2019. There were 52 fire fatalities in 2020.
Study suggests climate change made B.C. floods at least twice as likely
Catastrophic floods that swamped much of southern British Columbia last fall were at least twice as likely because of climate change, suggests new research from Environment Canada.
The study, now undergoing peer review, concludes that the likelihood of similar events in the future will only increase as global warming continues to upend normal weather patterns.
In November, B.C. saw three events come together to create unprecedented flooding. A so-called “atmospheric river” brought two days of drenching rain. It fell on already-sodden soil that couldn’t absorb much more and was augmented by high temperatures that swelled bursting stream beds with snow melt.
Since 1880, the average global temperature on Earth has increased by a little more than 1 degree Celsius per year, reports the Earth Observatory.
The result was almost 15,000 people forced from their homes, major roads and bridges washed away and farms flooded in up to two metres of water. Landslides killed at least five people. Insured losses have been estimated at $450 million; 600,000 chickens and 12,000 hogs died.
Nathan Gillett, an atmospheric physicist and manager of the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, and his colleagues turned to the science of climate attribution, which uses climate models to estimate the influence of one or more factors on weather events.
“We compared simulations with
human influence and compared them with simulations without human influence,” he said.
The team worked with a group at Oxford University doing similar research. To ensure the results weren’t influenced by quirks in any one model, the team used more than two dozen different ones. The results were consistent across all of them.
“All of the models show an increase in this kind of event in response to human-induced climate change,” said Gillet
The team concluded that climate change had increased the odds of an atmospheric river like the one that swamped B.C. by at least 60 per cent.
When the scientists factored in the other contributors to the disaster, they concluded that the odds of what happened to B.C. had been at least doubled by climate change, and may have been quadrupled.
And that’s for the current climate, already affected by climate change. The chance of another catastrophe continues to increase as greenhouse gases keep entering the atmosphere.
Last summer, researchers at Oxford concluded the heat dome that brought unprecedented temperatures to B.C. would have been all but impossible without climate change.
First published by The Canadian Press on Feb. 15.
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Front Seat
By Jason Clark
Managing conflict
The more time I spent in the fire service, the more often I found officers starting to trust in my abilities and have me take the lead under their direct supervision. As we were pulling up to a fire or a collision scene with certain captains, we would exchange ideas and initial action plans before we would go to work trying to fix someone’s problem.
I kept doing this, and eventually I wound up in a captain’s position. There I was, in the seat calling shots, and even running the odd scene here and there. I like the idea of being able to throw ideas around with your crew while pulling up to a scene, but at the end of the day, the final decision is yours to make at the crew level on how the task is to be carried out.
With the many types of personalities in the fire service, we all to have to run in and tackle one of the many topics that usually make us squirm – conflict.
It’s that dreaded word that can make the anxiety metre start to quiver, and if you don’t have a game plan as a crew or team leader to tackle it, it can run you over and replay in your brain all day. In my experience, if you leave addressing the conflict to another day, it can make you look like you are aware of it and have refused to deal with it. This can cause that conflict to gain some traction
Jason Clark has been a volunteer firefighter in southwestern Ontario since 2007. Having made the transition from firefighter to captain, Jason shares perspective on roles in the fire service and riding in the front seat. Contact Jason at jaceclark71@gmail.com or @jacejclark.
if it's not addressed. But every situation is different and needs to be treated as such.
I was lucky enough to take a program that unpackaged why we become antsy and cower away from conflict. We don’t want to have those tough conversations with others, but that’s one of the job descriptions as a captain. Whether it’s a personal conflict, or a job performance management item, it is your job to identify it and handle it, depending on your department’s standard operating guideline or policies.
We were packing up after a fire early on in my captaincy and I noticed a piece of expensive equipment laying on the shoulder of the road, covered in mud and requiring some deep cleaning to get back to a ‘service ready’ state. By doing a quick look around, I identified who I thought was one of our rook-
We don’t want to have those tough conversations with others, but that’s one of the job descriptions as a captain.
ies that had walked away from this equipment and neglected to put it away.
My worst fear was leaving it behind and not realizing that we had left it, as well as having to explain to the chief why my crew missed this. I would take the responsibility.
I had a quick chat with my rookie right then and there, away from the other crew members as not to belittle him or make him feel embarrassed for what could be an honest mistake. The rookie stopped me mid-sentence and said, “Sorry cap, that wasn’t mine, but I’ll go get it cleaned up and packed away.”
It was one of my senior
crew members on my truck who made the error, and here is where the conversation started to get challenging for me.
I could easily approach a rookie or probationary firefighter and explain the expectations of following through and doing the task correctly, so why was I having an issue bringing this up to another firefighter with a different amount of years?
The answer was simple. I couldn’t use my original conversation plan of ‘expectations’ right off the start. This senior firefighter obviously knew what was wrong with the situation, but I still had to have the conversation and see what went wrong. That was the approach I took. Did he get sidetracked? Could he have hollered at another firefighter to take it back to the rig and not set it down to perform another task? I explained that piece of expensive equipment needs to be ready for the next call and can’t be overlooked.
Be ready for these tough conversations and don’t go into them too quickly without having a game plan.
Make sure the environment is right and the area is clear from distractions.
We go into almost any fire scene with some sort of a working game plan. Having these tough conversations to make sure your crew keeps their performance and morale level up shouldn’t be any different.
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Wildfires
Wildfires are on the rise across the world
By Laura Aiken
Wildfires are growing in intensity and scope across the globe. The full extent of interplaying factors includes the biologically innate, but climate change, land use and population change are significant contributors. By 2100 the number of wildfires could rise by 50 per cent, and governments are unprepared for wildfires that burn for weeks over thousands of square kilometres with the ability to potentially impact millions, says a new report from the United Nations.
The UN Environment Programme and GRID-Arendal released “Spreading Like Wildfire: The Rising Threat of Extraordinary Landscape Fires” in late February. The 126-page rapid response assessment brought together the knowledge of over 50 experts from research institutions, government agencies and international organizations worldwide.
For the purposes of this report, the authors defined wildfire as “an unusual or extraordinary free-burning vegetation fire
which may be started maliciously, accidently, or through natural means, that negatively influences social, economic, or environmental values.”
In a review of 116 articles written since 2013 on climate change and fire, the report found there is a robust consensus that climate change is escalating the probability of fires in many regions (Smith et al. 2020).
This will also create longer fire seasons. Global warming is creating the hot, dry, windy, conditions that fire events favour.
The year 2020 tied 2016 (helped along by El Niño) as the hottest year in recorded history. Vegetation that wouldn’t normally
burn, such as rainforests, permafrost and peat swamps, are drying up and going up in flames. The report found wildfires happening on every continent except Antarctica.
Our planet and our well-being Wildfires release large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, a negative addition to the global carbon cycle that makes it harder to slow rising temperatures. For example, peatlands, which are now burning, store 30 per cent of the total soil carbon globally though they make up only three per cent of the world’s surface. In 2020 in the Artic, home of permafrost peatlands, fires were
A B.C. wildfire rages on. Around the world, wildfires are happening on every continet except Antarctica. A review of literature on climate change going back nearly a decade found strong agreement that climate change is increasing the likelihood of fires in many regions.
PHOTO: MIKE BIDEN
“responsible for releasing 0.244 Gt CO2 into the atmosphere, which is 35 per cent more than the previous year, which also set records (Witze 2020).”
The tremendous toll on wildlife, biodiversity and vegetation loss seems incalculable and could be expediting extinctions. Out of control fires in Pantanal, the largest tropical wetland in Latin America, wrecked nearly a third of this biodiversity hotspot and there are fears it may never recover, noted the report. There is also the consideration of challenges with water scarcity and pollutants after high severity fires.
Wildfire smoke is quite hazardous to human health. The report referenced a recent study from The Lancet wildfire smoke exposure is linked to more than 30,000 deaths across 43 countries. Firefighters are at particular risk because of their proximity and the strenuous conditions under which they work.
The recommendations
For policy makers, the assessment recommends an audit of all wildfire costs and a rebalancing of the budget to make greater investments in planning, prevention and recovery.
“Countries may consider rebalancing investments by up to one per cent for planning, 32 per cent for prevention, 13 per cent for preparedness, 34 per cent for response, and up to 20 per cent for recovery,” wrote the authors. Sums in Canada on annual national expenditure for wildland fire management were reported to range between $500 million and $1 billion, to the tune of a $120 million increase per decade since the 1970s (Hope et al. 2016; Stocks and Martell 2016).
A second step put forward by the report is to learn from others. Be proactive, share data to improve analysis and forecasting, and gather best practices from others’
experiences around the world. The report notes research shows that the input of Indigenous leaders and women in disaster risk management is critical for solutions that work. Regional and international cooperation was described as one of the biggest potential solutions to lessen the fire risk before occurrence and to rebuild better after.
Building on this is the advocation for a stronger unilateral response through the UN system. Though wildfires are now primarily treated as a national responsibility, the report notes that fires do not respect national borders and the development of an international standard for wildfires would assist international cooperation in wildfire prone regions.
Improving firefighter safety was a key recommendation, taking into account the risks of smoke inhalations, dangerous entrapments like burn-overs, and the overall
rest, hydration, and nutrition of the firefighters. The authors also viewed international standards as a way to improve overall firefighter safety.
The report also looked at integrated wildfire management as being holistically key to adapting to the current and prospective outlook for wildfires around the world. This integrated approach “consists of five interlinked and often overlapping phases: review and analysis, risk reduction, readiness, response, and recovery (the 5Rs) (also known as PPPRR: planning and prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery).”
While prescribed/planned burns or other mitigation techniques can lower the intensity of a wildfire in addition to traditional ways of land management that support maintaining values and biodiversity, these techniques are not without risks such as decreased air quality and unintended con-
sequences. The authors recognize and support the “inclusion of Indigenous and traditional fire knowledge within government policy, practice, and programmes can have multiple benefits (e.g., vegetation management, cultural, spiritual, social, economic, health and well-being benefits, and political-self-determination).”
Communities can better prepare for a wildfire by identifying critical assets that need protection, such as hospitals or major transit routes, and knowing their risk factors and possible alternatives if these critical assets are compromised during a wildfire. Evacuation planning and safe shelters are part of living with wildfires. Additionally, the report calls attention to gathering data that can shed light on gender differences because men and women have unique approaches when it comes to come disaster risk perception and decision making. Everyone in the community needs to
share a long-term vision of how to live with fire, the report says, and there is an increased need for timely details on wildfire threats. Rapid, effective initial attack is paramount in high-risk regions. This means having trained firefighters at the ready.
Wildfires are a global challenge and developing countries find themselves at an advantage, with countries like Canada and the U.S. having generally well-focused suppression strategies and resources. The report notes that developing countries are less organized, have fewer resources and a major lack of fire detection technologies.
To prevent fires, authors call for a combination of data and science-based monitoring systems with indigenous knowledge and for a stronger regional and international cooperation.
The authors conclude: “We must learn to live with fire.” Time for the world to better manage and mitigate the risks.
FSWO
LOOKING AHEAD WITH A CLEARER VISION
A LETTER FROM THE FSWO
PRESIDENT
Pike Krpan
In 2009, FSWO was founded by a mighty group of just three women firefighters who came together and learned the value of networking, mutual support, and visibility. Now we are approximately 450 and growing. We continue to embody those founding principles today more than ever.
Over the past year, FSWO has undergone a strategic planning process to understand where we have been, and where we’d like to go. We’d like to thank all our members and partners who took part in this process which has helped FSWO to prioritize a number of strategic directions for the next 5 years.
We are pleased to confirm that FSWO’s mission to encourage, educate and empower women in the fire service in Ontario has not changed. We know this mission resonates with you. We also have a new set of values which recognizes that future success is dependent on being accountable, collaborative, inclusive and supportive while
STEREOTYPICAL EXPECTATIONS ARE HARMFUL
In a 2021 FIREWELL study both men and women firefighters recognized that stereotypical expectations are harmful.
Both were proud of being firefighters and experienced positive social supports from within the fire service.
However, women firefighters were more likely to report genderbased hostility or isolation.
Men were more likely to experience the adverse effects of hyper-masculine societal and traditional fire service expectations.
In both cases, this added to the cumulative impact of inherent job stressors and reluctance to seek help.
PROGRESS IN EQUITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION BENEFITS EVERYONE
— AN EXAMPLE IS GENDER.
By Joy. C. MacDermid
Diversity exists and is a fundamental strength of the human race. Attitudes on diversity determine whether we respect and value diversity or see it as a way to divide the human race into subgroups with differential value. Equity is about the choices people or institutions make to operationalize respect and value diversity, with inclusion being the tangible evidence of those choices. Belonging is the less tangible outcome of equity that allows people to be their true selves and the group to reap the benefits of diversity.
An obvious lack of diversity exists in the fire service where approximately three per cent of the workforce are women—this and other aspects of diversity are changing. Organizations like Fire Service Women Ontario and The Women Fire Chiefs and Company Officers Network of Canada have played an important role as champions for equity and inclusion for women as an underrepresented group.
In 2013, FIREWELL (https://firewell.ca/) did a study based on in-depth interviews to understand the experiences of women firefighters in one fire service.1 At that time, there were only 5 women out of more than 300 firefighters in that service. Equal does not
Continued on page 5
GREETINGS FROM FSWO
promoting and fostering a sense of camaraderie amongst the membership. By living these values, FSWO will be deserving of respect and trust that will help us to fulfill our mission with integrity, while moving closer to our newly articulated vision - that gender equity is the norm in the fire service, not the exception!
I’d like to share two of our strategic directions with you and invite you to build this vision with us.
Strategic Direction 1: Encourage, Educate and Empower
Trusted, reliable support for ALL women; where and when they need it.
FSWO recognizes the importance and the need to accelerate the progress for women to enter, stay and succeed in Ontario’s fire service. We will continue to educate, mentor and celebrate women leaders. We will expand our offerings to better respond to the pressing needs of women in all divisions and we will explore ways to efficiently offer continuous learning opportunities.
FSWO is also committed to enhancing the culture of the fire service. We will advocate for a healthy, positive and professional workplace. We will continue to work with fire service leaders to improve the experience of women in all departments, so they feel recognized and supported. We will raise awareness of women role models as well as lending our voice to presenting Ontario’s fire service as a viable career option for women.
Strategic Direction 2: Partnerships
Leverage partnerships to meet the needs of women in the fire service.
FSWO is continuing to develop relationships with purpose. We will build on the strength of our reputation and foster meaningful relationships with fire service leaders, provincial associations and external stakeholders. We will create synergies with our partners, leverage supports and identify best in-practice tools to address the needs of all women in the fire service.
FSWO will also continue to honour our role as an expert in advocating for gender equity. We will continue to strengthen relationships with municipalities and other fire service partners. We will work collaboratively to invest in Ontario’s fire service by providing partners with our stories to communicate our greatest needs and campaign on our behalf.
FSWO believes that success in achieving gender equity is predicated on the support of a growing membership as well as engagement with other stakeholders who share our vision. If you see yourself taking some of these steps with us, as an individual or as an organization, please contact us.
Sincerely,
Pike Krpan, President, FSWO
FIRE PREVENTION: THE IMPORTANCE OF COLLABORATION AND INFORMATION SHARING
By Lydia Wilcox
After spending seven years as a municipal building inspector and eleven years as a firefighter, I moved from suppression into fire licensing prevention in July of 2019. Although only three years ago, this was pre-pandemic and now seems a lifetime ago; however, given my previous experience, I believed I had a good foot hold on what to expect.
The task of learning my new role began as expected. I was assigned more simpler cases including licensing an occupancy inspection and some investigations into non-retrofitted duplexes. During this time, the office was full of people coming and going, discussing work, files, and sharing information. We were working together like an office should, speaking about not only work-related topics, but also typical personal life chatter. It was a great time to learn a new skill set from those who came before, and that collaboration in the office at fire HQ was instrumental to laying a foundation of what was to come.
While being a Fire Prevention Officer is a solitary role, so much of the work needs to be done with the collaboration of people throughout the entire fire department, but as my time in Prevention progressed and became more complex, so did the need to work with people outside of the fire service. Working in a college town we have a variety of student housing/lodging houses, typically thought to be found around the school itself, however what was discovered is that these homes were throughout Kitchener. While some of the homes had only four bedrooms, the owners were stacking the students into rooms with two or more beds.
Working alongside three different municipal departments, including by-law officers and building officials, we were tasked with bringing the house into compliance, without evicting student’s mid-term. Then came COVID and the first lockdown, and things got complicated. International students were stuck in Canada due to travel restrictions and our work to bring these houses into compliance became more difficult. However, with patience and working with the homeowners and students, we were able to work together to resolve the contraventions.
As things started opening and the Prevention Division was getting back into the swing of things, something had changed. We were put on
a schedule of when to be in the office, when to work from home and we no longer saw our entire team except on our weekly MS Teams call, which by now, we all know, is vastly different from being in the same room. With our work environment drastically changed, there was no longer an easy flow of information and ideas, however the work itself did not change. We were still expected to serve our communities the way we always had but with a different rule book. The ease of prepandemic communication had become a thing of the past. This also impacted our ability to communicate with others on the suppression side; in general, sharing information got a little bit harder.
Then I was assigned a file that had come from Regional Police. It was a tiered medical call and there was an issue with hoarding. After having worked on several cases with the Community Engagement Division within the Regional Police, I
reached out for their assistance. I learned of the network of individuals across various sectors and services regularly communicating and working together to mitigate risks to people within the community. Through these connections I was able to gain permission from the homeowner to access the house and check for fire risk. This resulted in being able to work with that individual, police and social services to have a considerable amount of storage removed from the home and industrial cleaning to be completed to remove fire risks prior to the individual returning to the home. In following up with the initial police officer that reported the hoarding concern, I discovered they had been to the house three times. I was dismayed because had COVID not changed our work environment so much maybe it wouldn’t have taken this long to help the individual.
I want to make it clear that no one is to blame for the length of time it took to mitigate the risk in this house. Hoarding cases are extremely complicated to handle. They are a mental health issue that unfortunately can put others at risk. They need to be handled by several agencies, all doing their part to make the lives of their clients better. In this specific case, I could not have done my job had it not been for the circumstances at a specific time.
We work in a different world than we did in 2019. Communication and information sharing presents greater challenges than it did three years ago and at times this means processes and
procedures are slowed. However, I can’t stress enough how important it is to reach out and report something that doesn’t sit right. That one email to a Fire Prevention Officer is enough evidence for them to do something that they may not have been able to otherwise.
It is also important to acknowledge that there is a vast network of colleagues that do not wear the same uniform but are so instrumental in working collaboratively to help our community and acknowledge everyone that has come through this pandemic and shared information. You may not hear about an outcome; however, it doesn’t mean there isn’t a team of people working in the background to mitigate the risk. While the pandemic may have changed the landscape of how we are able to reach out and share information, the importance of doing so remains so instrumental to mitigating the risk to our communities.
LYDIA WILCOX is currently working as a Fire Prevention Officer with the Kitchener Fire Department. She has 21 years experience in municipal government, including 7 years as a Building Inspector and 11 years as a Kitchener Firefighter. In 2018 she graduated from Western University with a master’s degree in public administration. Lydia is a lifelong learner and is currently completing her Fire Service Executive Management certificate through Humber College. If she had a motto to live by it would be ‘When you help the one, (oftentimes) you help the many’.
PROGRESS IN EQUITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION BENEFITS EVERYONE — AN EXAMPLE IS GENDER
Continued from front page 1
mean the same. They acknowledged their differences in strength capabilities compared to their male counterparts and took action by training to improve strength and doing tasks in different ways. We confirmed this in a performance-based study that showed women used more strategic biomechanical strategies than men performing the same task.2 However, we also know that women can experience challenges due to equipment not being made for them.1 In these cases, policy changes to ensure women have access to appropriate equipment made for their different body structures is an important equity issue. We learned from women firefighters that the social aspects of counting on your crew, gaining respect, and feeling a sense of belonging were important. Where they were not accepted, they reported receiving insufficient training, being reluctant to seek help, and compromises to collaboration during task performance.
In a 2021 FIREWELL study both men and women firefighters recognized that stereotypical expectations are harmful.3 Both were proud of being firefighters and experienced positive social supports from within the fire service. However, women firefighters were more likely to report gender-based hostility or isolation. Men were more likely to experience the adverse effects of hypermasculine societal and traditional fire service expectations. In both cases, this added to the cumulative impact of inherent job stressors and reluctance to seek help.
Differences between groups should not be transferred to presumptions about individuals. For example, although our studies suggest that on average, men firefighters are stronger4 and that in general, men tend be more oriented towards leadership; whereas women are more oriented towards interpersonal relationships,5 we know that some women will be stronger than some men and some men will be better communicators than some women. Further, differences in traits may not
EQUITY IS ABOUT THE CHOICES
PEOPLE OR INSTITUTIONS MAKE TO OPERATIONALIZE RESPECT AND VALUE DIVERSITY, WITH INCLUSION
BEING THE TANGIBLE EVIDENCE OF THOSE CHOICES.
translate to differences in task or role performance. Studies suggest men and women firefighters often achieve a similar standard in simulated firefighting task performance.6
Research can help us understand existing biases and marginalization. However, what is more important is interventions that lead to better inclusion and belonging—starting from what attracts people to a career in the fire service, whether training should be targeted to individual differences, and what strategies improve inclusion. As we grow, we should capture the benefits of diversity to achieve better efficiency, team performance, job retention, and firefighter health.
References:
1. Sinden K, MacDermid J, Buckman S, Davis B, Matthews T, Viola C. A qualitative study on the experiences of female firefighters. Work. 2013;45(1):97-105. doi:10.3233/WOR-121549
2. Sinden KE, MacDermid JC, D’Amico R. Experiences of Female Firefighting and Task Performance: Implications for Injury Management. In: Association for Canadian Ergonomists: 44th Conference Proceedings. 2013.
3. MacDermid JC, Lomotan M, Hu MA. Canadian Career Firefighters ’ Mental Health Impacts and Priorities. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18(23):12666. doi:10.3390/ ijerph182312666.
4. Nazari G, MacDermid JC, Sinden KE, Overend TJ. Comparison of Canadian firefighters and healthy controls based on submaximal fitness testing and strength considering age and gender. Int J Occup Saf Ergon. 2019;25(1). doi: 10.1080/10803548.2017.1372086
5. Ghodrati M, Walton DM, MacDermid JC. Exploring the Domains of Gender as Measured by a New Gender, Pain and Expectations Scale. Women’s Heal Reports. 2021;2(1):87-96. doi:10.1089/whr.2020.0109
6. Nazari G, Lu S, MacDermid JC. Quantifying physiological responses during simulated tasks among Canadian firefighters: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Mil Veteran Fam Heal. 2021;7(1):55-75. doi:10.3138/ jmvfh-2019-0063
JOY. C. MACDERMID is a Professor of Physical Therapy at Western University and the Scientific Director of FIREWELL a national network of firefighters and scientists who conduct applied research to improve firefighter health and safety.
NOT ALWAYS ROSY
By TJ Robbins
In 1952, Dr. Rosalind Franklin used her expertise in X-ray diffraction to study and photograph DNA. In doing so, she discovered the doublehelix structure of deoxyribonucleic acidthe molecule containing the genetic instructions for the development of all living organisms. The image, called Photo 51, is said to be the most important photo ever taken. But her colleagues just called her Rosy.
Maybe we can chalk it up to her time. After all, haven’t we all seen the images from old movies where a woman in the workplace was patted on the backside and called Toots when she was being “asked” to make coffee? Like a lot of things in history, this treatment was wrong, but it was, nonetheless, widely accepted behaviour. So, when Dr. Franklin’s colleagues called her Rosy while they referred to each other as “doctor so-and-so”, maybe these poor souls were just products of their time. But what about today’s souls?
Rising above sticks and stones, names can be used in several different ways in the pursuit of good. To be given a nickname is a fortunate gift that confirms the recipient is accepted, well-liked and included. When a term of endearment is used, this recipient knows they are appreciated and thought of affectionately as words like Hun and Sweetie are often used in intimate relationships as well as very close friendships, both personal and professional in nature. Addressing someone with the short form of their name adds a casual tone and has the power to be disarming when used properly. Doing so says that either a friendship already exists or one is about to.
But there is another side to the use of all these names. As was the case with Dr. Franklin, a nickname, term of endearment or short form can be used to diminish, devalue, and exclude. For example, within some professional circles (including ours), the use of just a last name is common practice. Imagine if during roll call as tasks are being assigned, the commanding officer calls out, «Okay Hassan and Smith, you›re doing this. Chang and McKay, you’re doing that. Southerland and Rosy, you’re doing the other.” Although it might not be perfectly clear what the intention is, it would be directly obvious to Rosy that she is not thought of as the same as everyone else. The others would indirectly receive a similar message that they too might internalize and then express.
Words have always mattered and we now live in a time where we are finally recognizing that fact and, in some cases, we are acting on it. Name calling, for example, seems to be a thing of the past. Most of us would never think of name calling a co-worker nor a loved one. Luckily, we’ve left those names in the school yard. We’ve also banished many out-dated and archaic slurs with consternation that such expressions were ever used. So how do we proceed, where names are concerned, to ensure that we keep moving in a positive direction? We listen.
There’s the belief that because we have two ears and one mouth, we should listen more than we speak. That’s good advice. Next, we can consider the circumstances to determine what kind of name to use when addressing someone. There must have been plenty of people who could have appropriately referred to Dr. Franklin as Rosy, including some of her colleagues. When the doctors were alone in a lab or lunchroom, it might have been a great time to be casual with each other but while presenting to a group of unknown or outside colleagues it would not be appropriate at all. Like most things in life, the use of a particular name depends on sound judgment and the nature of the situation. There are some people from my recruit class who I believe will one day be Deputies and Chiefs but when I see them socially, I’ll still call them by some cutesy derivation of their first or last name. I may even add the word baby to the end of whatever name I use but, should I see them in a professional setting, I’d call them by their rank. Not only would doing so afford them the respect they deserve as a friend and colleague, it would also be a demonstration of the respect I earned alongside them. We cannot diminish, devalue, and exclude someone without eventually earning a name for ourselves. Dr. Franklin earned a good name. Here’s hoping we like ours.
TJ ROBBINS has been with MIlton Fire Department for 5 years and has recently been promoted to lieutenant.
TJ is also a board member with FSWO.
TOWARDS A VISION OF GENDER EQUITY IN THE FIRE SERVICE
By FSWO
With the help of a major grant, Fire Service Women Ontario has been researching the work experiences of women in fire and developing tools to reduce the barriers they face in recruitment, hiring, retention and promotion. Although women have been firefighters for decades, we often struggle to answer some of the most basic questions about them. How many women work in the fire service? Which fire departments welcome women and how do they do it? How many women experience harassment and bullying at work? What do women need to succeed in this challenging and rewarding profession?
Back in 2018, FSWO was fielding these questions often with few definitive answers. So with a visionary project proposal penned by Chief Deryn Rizzi, FSWO began a path towards these answers and more. This article will discuss the various stages of this multi-year project and offer ways for your fire service to benefit from the tools we have created for your use.
Including Women in the Fire Service: A Strategy Toolkit
After years of research and development, Fire Service Women Ontario is excited to offer our toolkit to reduce gender-based barriers in the fire service. It is available at www.fswo.ca/toolkit.
The toolkit incorporates FSWO’s own research study Insights from the Inside, peer-reviewed referenced material and established policies and
practices from fire services across Ontario.
Each toolkit section identifies how a fire service goes about identifying their own strengths and weakness through a size-up SWOT analysis. The toolkit then assists in the development of an action plan, and strategies to achieve the identified goals.
Each of the six sections of the toolkit has been designed so it can be used singly or in combination with others:
1. Diversity and Inclusion in your Fire Department: assists fire services to understand how developing an equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplace can create a robust service where each member feels seen and heard.
2. Leadership: describes how a top-down approach to diversity and inclusion within the fire service incorporates all communications and interactions with members and how the actions of leadership shape the actions of the members.
3. Recruitment: explores how women are introduced to the fire service and how targeted recruitment attracts a more diverse candidate pool. We also provide detailed templates on creating introductory training programs to introduce women and girls to firefighting.
4. Hiring: explores how long-standing hiring procedures have created barriers to women being hired in the fire service, and how changing hiring practices can mitigate unconscious bias during the hiring process.
5. Employee Retention: looks at why women leave or consider leaving the fire service from challenges such as harassment and exclusion, lack of pregnancy policies, firehall design, and ill-fitting uniforms and PPE which are typically designed for male bodies. Firefighter retention is primarily about fostering a positive work atmosphere that respects health and safety protocols. The toolkit contains strategies on implementing clear, comprehensive, and defensible pregnancy and parental leave policies that have a
positive impact on employee wellbeing and morale across rank and gender lines.
6. Promotion: explores how hierarchical promotion processes, stereotypes and informal mentoring leaves women at a disadvantage for advancement. When it comes to promotion, our toolkit suggests that leadership development should be a priority starting early in a firefighter’s career. Formal mentorship programs provide measurable benefits to women looking to advance through the ranks. Our research suggests that in-depth training for all supervisors in conflict resolution, anti-discrimination and antiharassment policies should be provided.
Assessing your department using baseline data
Gathering baseline data is essential to identifying where a fire service may have difficulties and limitations. Different from SWOT analysis, collecting baseline data is more quantifiable. To be quantifiable it is imperative to define what you are measuring by creating a common language. The evaluation process should begin with creating a common definition of some of the key phrases and ideas used in the assessment. This gives all involved a shared understanding of what is meant in the context of the assessment.
Where to look for baseline data
Historically, municipalities have shied away from gathering data on their employees. No matter what the reasons behind those decisions, times have changed. Residents and stakeholder groups in any municipality are asking for more accountability and transparency from their cities, including hiring practices and service levels. This increasing demand has meant the use of work culture surveys aimed at employees in addition to municipal strategic planning to shape the future growth of communities. These surveys help to indicate who municipalities are employing, what departments they are employed in, and how this shapes overall community engagement and servicing. It also takes the temperature of how the municipality as an employer is doing.
In addition to these work culture surveys, many municipalities now have Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) divisions. These divisions are a wealth of information about the municipality as an employer and the residents and visitors that live, work, and thrive within its borders. As fire service leaders it is important to engage with this division to identify the different cultural communities served by your department.
Next Steps – Chiefs Roundtable
An initial step in this project was consulting fire service leaders at a Chiefs Roundtable in 2018. FSWO gathered 21 leaders from departments across Ontario to ask what your challenges were in creating a diversified and inclusive work force.
In spring 2022, we look forward to hosting a second chiefs roundtable to share our findings and test-drive our tools with fire service leaders. We hope you will consider attending the roundtable to reassess your challenges in the current climate and to test drive some of our tools in your department. It is our hope that the toolkit will be a living resource that will be updated as the strategies are adopted and assessed in departments of all sizes. The feedback fire service leaders can provide is important to its success.
Please visit our events page at fswo.ca to see when the roundtable will take place.
Upcoming Sessions: Recruitment and Hiring
Recruitment and hiring are most consistently the two areas of practice that fire departments ask for assistance from FSWO. Fire departments are noticing that a lack of diversity can negatively impact service levels, while a diverse service can make for a progressive work culture, increase health and safety awareness and overall better employee wellbeing.
To assist in recruitment and hiring, our step-bystep session will take fire service leaders through our toolkit sections on these topics. Leaders will learn how to apply the concepts in the toolkit by identifying the objectives and goals your service is striving to achieve. The session will explore topics such as budgets, training and development. Each step in the process will assist leaders to make your department a place of diversity. It will explore why diversity is important and how commonly held assumptions can create barriers to hiring women. These assumptions are often rooted in our traditions, and while traditions can be beneficial for a fire service, some can unknowingly exclude women - for example, the giving of points for military, or trade experience in the hiring process. These experiences, while beneficial to the fire service, are not a necessity and are typically get awarded to male candidates. A discussion regarding using human resource best practices and not so much intuition or traditionally held assumptions, can break down the barriers to hiring women. During the sessions, leaders will be able to ask questions to better understand how they can adapt their practices to better serve their communities.
The creation of programs such as Camp FFIT (Female Firefighters in Training) will be explored during the recruitment session. Programs like these introduce young women to the fire service. As the research in the Insights from the Inside study shows, this early introduction is often a watershed moment for women looking at a future in the fire service. Across Ontario, graduates of Camp FFITs are being hired by fire services.
Once FSWO has had the opportunity to engage with fire service leaders, we will begin training those staff who are involved in the recruitment and hiring of their membership. These pilot programs will assist departments in reaching their diversity and inclusion goals.
Please visit our events page at fswo.ca to see when the next sessions will take place
FWSO would like to thank Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) for funding this project. WAGE is a department of Government Canada which works to advance equality for women by focusing its efforts in areas such as increasing women’s economic security and prosperity and encouraging women’s leadership and democratic participation.
Extrication Tips
By Chad Roberts
So many choices: Struts
When thinking about our compliment of auto ex tools and how we evaluate our needs, the one area that is often overlooked or undervalued is the stabilizing and/or lifting struts. While some may argue this is due to their somewhat limited use on our general extrication calls, with the advent of newer struts on the market, today’s strut combinations put that argument to bed very quickly. From their original inception in the rescue world, these tools were used mainly for general stabilization and widening of the vehicle footprint (for more, see the October 2021 Extrication Tips). But now, struts, like many other tools in our trade, have been evaluated, re-engineered and rebranded to make them extremely versatile and valuable to any department, no matter the size or budget. The tricky part is knowing which one or type to go with.
That being said, I’m going to try and put a lot of the current strut types into specific categories so we can have a better idea of not only their capabilities, but which might work best for your department. I’m going to stay away from endorsing any exact brand, and stick more to type and function to avoid any bias. We’ll not only touch on versatility and function, but also its relative ease of use. And finally, another area of evaluation that we tend to forget is weight and how it fits into your apparatus.
So, let’s start with our light stabilizing struts. These are products such the Holmatro V-Strut and Junk Yard Dog Xtend strut. I love these type of struts because of how light and simple they are to use. They generally take up very little room on your apparatus and don’t require a ton of user knowledge to understand the basic application principles. The downside of these struts is that they are specifically designed for stabilizing loads. And while they can carry a weight rating from 4000 to 6000 pounds, we must keep in mind
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.
that these both use straps, not chains. Therefore, the working load limits of these straps will generally be our weak point.
Next up is our very versatile medium range strut. This class includes various models such as the Res-Q-Jack and the Rescue 42 strut. This is considered our middle class because these specific struts not only bring in a heavier WLL ranging from 10,000 to 18,000 pounds, they both can have fixed strut jacks attached to the unit that can be used to convert from stabilizing to lifting anywhere from 6000 to 8000 pounds. And while thinking about our lighter strut category, these can generally be used in conjunction with chains as well as straps, which gives us more peace of mind when talking about our weakest links.
Last but not least is the heavy hitters. These are common strut brands such as Paratech grey and gold series, as well as the
Holmatro PowerShore hydra struts. This group of struts are capable of lifting loads from 20 to 25000 pounds and stabilizing loads over 100000 pounds. On top of that, these strut packages can be fitted with a multitude of different heads, bases and extensions to accommodate use not only in the extrication world, but to trench, structural collapse and even rope rescue. While these features are very attractive and seem like the ultimate winner hands down, we must be cognizant of the fact that more features and capabilities come with a lot more training required to fully understand and safely use these in such intense loading situations. A quick example of this may be the difference between air powered and hydraulic powered strut options. While the hydraulic option gives us much greater lifting capacity, the air powered options may be more suitable to stabilizing (“or chasing”) the lift. Also, the extreme power of the hydraulic lift will
Lightweight struts are easy to set up, but have their limitations.
Medium range struts bring a more versatile working load limit and the ability to possibly lift passenger vehicles safely.
Extrication Tips
be too much for such applications as trench rescue, whereas the air powered are usually the preferred choice.
So, when dealt the with the ultimate conundrum of which is best for your department or rescue team, what does this all really mean? To break it down simply in relation to auto extrication, I go to what kind of vehicle each strut is capable of being applied to. The lightest category is generally used for passenger cars and light duty 1500 series pick-ups. The medium range strut gets you into safely lifting the cars previously mentioned while safely stabilizing heavier vehicles such as buses and cargo vehicles. And if you need the ultimate lift and stabilizing you go to the heavy weight category. Where these are specifically more capable are the transport truck incidents and vehicle under rides which we are seeing more and more on our roadways.
All being said, we don’t always have to settle every argument by weight. We must keep in mind simplicity of use and training required to main-
tain operational knowledge. How many moving parts are involved or included? Is there a bag or full cache of parts that go with the strut that can easily be stored, lost or confused? Or is it more convenient to have everything attached to the strut itself. Is the actual weight and size of the strut a concern when trying to figure out if it will fit on your specific apparatus? And at the end of the day, what are your mutual aid department capabilities or do you have easy access to heavy tow that may ease your mind when it comes to those heavier lifts.
So, there you have it, a small glimpse into the world of struts. While I wasn’t able to include all brands and models, you can clearly see that there are differences.
Before you commit, know your area, the applications you need them to apply to and versatility you’d like in your strut package to have going forward.
Please take this as a guide. Contact your local tool reps to help you make the best decision for your team.
The heavy hitter struts offer massive lifts, while also providing stabilization.
Recipe Rescue
By Patrick Mathieu
Why recipes fail
E
very interview or television appearance I’ve had usually starts out with the same question: “How did you ever get into cooking?” For me it’s quite simple, I was born into a large French Canadian family who lives and breaths everything food, who loves to eat and finds great joy in the kitchen together. I always thought everyone lives to eat and relishes in the cooking experience. Turns out some people just eat to survive and will only cook out of necessity. I know, unfathomable! I have always felt at home in the kitchen, but now I understand that is not the case for all. When I was teaching cooking classes, if an individual had no experience in the kitchen, I would always tell them, “If you can read, you can cook!” Surely you can find and follow a recipe that sounds good to you. There is a recipe out there for everyone. Name a cuisine, any ingredient, any skill level and you will be able to find endless examples and recipes in cookbooks and online. But what happens when a recipe doesn’t quite turn out? (And it does happen a lot). A flat cake, a bland soup, over-cooked meat, soggy vegetables, a dry loaf of bread… when a recipe doesn’t turn out as expected, we feel the disappointment to our very core. Our instinct is to blame either the recipe itself or our own inferior cooking skills, but very often it’s neither. Certainly, recipes sometimes do have errors. I’ve written a cookbook and the process isn’t always so easy. I am far from perfect. But when we have a recipe fail or talk to other people about their recipe failures, it more than often will come down to one, or some of these reasons.
• The oven temperature is off. Even if you only use your oven
• 1 lemon
• 1 head of garlic
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter or extra-virgin olive oil
• 6-8 bone in skin on chicken thighs
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
Arrange a rack in the center of your oven and preheat to 425 F. Cut one lemon in half crosswise and remove any visible seeds. Cut one head of garlic in half crosswise. Melt a half stick butter in a small saucepan or microwave..With chicken thighs skin facing up season every surface of chicken with lots of salt and pepper. Drizzle chicken all over with melted butter and transfer to oven.
Roast until chicken is nicely browned and cooked through, checking for doneness after 25 minutes. To check, carefully remove skillet from oven, poke with a knife and pierce the meat. If juices run clear, the chicken is done. If you see a rosy pink color, it needs more time. Continue to roast, checking every five minutes, until juices run clear. Chicken is done at an internal temp of 165 F. Let chicken rest in skillet at least five minutes as this will help the juices in the meat to settle. Transfer chicken to a platter and pour all those glorious, buttery pan juices over top of the meat and serve with roasted lemon and garlic alongside. Yum!
Patrick Mathieu is an acting captain at Waterloo Fire Rescue in Ontario. He was featured on Food Network’s Chopped Canada. Contact Patrick at stationhousecateringco@yahoo.ca or @StationHouseCCo.
occasionally, picking up an oven thermometer is a worthwhile investment. Ovens are often several degrees warmer or cooler than the numbers on the dial and having an oven thermometer means you know exactly how much to adjust the oven to compensate. When baking, which is more of an exact science, precise temperature is key.
• Ingredient substitutions. Going off-recipe is fun and one of my favorite creative parts of the cooking process, but it also requires a little more due diligence and expertise on our part to understand how the additional or substitute ingredient will affect the recipe. For instance, cutting the sugar in a cupcake or substituting a tenderloin for a chuck roast in a braise will give you very different results than the recipe author intended. Try a recipe once as it was intended by the author and then make it your own with any substitutions or add-ons during the next cook.
• Equipment substitutions. If the recipe says to use an eight-inch pan or a cast-iron skillet, there’s probably a good reason for it. That doesn’t mean we can’t substitute something else in its place, but we just need to understand that our dish might turn out differently.
• Adjusting the cooking time .
Recipes are often written with the expectation that you’re following along. If you pause in the middle of making a cake and come back to it an hour later, some chemical reactions might have taken place that the recipe didn’t intend because it thought the cake would go right in the oven. Same goes for shortening the cooking time, like the time for bread to rise or a roast to cook. The result will likely be different. As with the ingredient and equipment substitutions, it’s not that you can’t adjust the cooking time. You just need to think it through first.
• Trust your own judgment. Recipes (and the people who write them, like me) aren’t fail-proof and they also can’t take into consideration every variable in your kitchen, like how cold your eggs are or how strong your whisking arm is. Just because a recipe says to cook something for 15 minutes, you should use your judgment if it’s not quite done yet or starts to burn at the 13-minute mark. A failed dish is a disappointment, but every time a recipe doesn’t come out quite the way we expected, it’s also an opportunity to learn something. Grab that recipe and try it again!
In talking about recipe fails, I’m sharing one of my “foolproof” favourites. Eat well and be safe.
Bariatric rescue
A new technique for a challenging rescue
By Jared Newcombe
Are you prepared to rescue the bariatric patient?
At a recent fire, we were confronted with this very question. Our initial update included the report of a basement fire, people trapped and explosions coming from the basement area. On approach we noticed smoke coming from the front door and occupants
exiting the house. During our initial engagement we began by advancing a 45 mm handline and gathered information. During the size-up we determined that everyone upstairs had evacuated the premises. We were advised by the homeowner, who had self evacuated, that a woman and her child were still in the basement. The hose line was redirected to a side entrance where an exterior door was cut into the side of the building. This led us to a shared room full of pressurized smoke. Upon descending the narrowed set of stairs, the smoke thinned where a closed and locked door was located against the bottom of the step. This was an accessory basement apartment that did not
meet building code.
We forced the door open to encounter a high heat zero visibility environment. This vent limited fire had used all the available oxygen and began reacting quickly to the flow path created from an uncontrolled door. The hose line was moved into position, and while the fire was being extinguished, a simultaneous rescue effort was underway. The woman and child were located and taken to the only means of egress, which was the narrowed staircase. The child was rescued up and out of the basement in a matter of seconds. The woman, weighing 385 pounds, was not as easy.
The team who had made the grab required
Jared Newcombe is a captain and a 28-year veteran of the Brampton Fire and Emergency Services in Ontario.
additional assistance with the rescue. We assigned one firefighter to continue with extinguishment while the other two assisted with the rescue. The fore-and-aft rescue technique was chosen as the narrowed staircase did only allowed firefighters to work side by side. One firefighter positioned themselves at the woman’s head while reaching under the arms and cross gripping the wrists. The second firefighter’s SCBA low air alarms activated as they were securing the patient. With each attempt to carry the woman up the stairs her slippery body escaped the grasp of the firefighters’ arms. Communications were made immediately that more resources would be required to extricate the patient. We continued with the fore-and-aft method until another on scene crew relieved us.
The crews on scene rotated often while applying the various rescue techniques they were familiar with. We used many other techniques, such as sticky straps (hasty harness), ladder and finally the scoop stretcher. Rescuing this bariatric patient was a specialized operation.
A bariatric patient is an obese person with a body mass index greater than 30 or 100 pounds greater than their ideal body weight. A 2016 study suggested that one out of three people in North America were obese. We must consider that one in three rescues today will be considered bariatric
There is a risk of firefighter injury during this type of rescue. Injuries are a consequence of three major factors. The significant lifting forces (patient weight), repetitive movements and awkward positions (Ref 1). Firefighters performing rescue
operations do not have the luxury of a controlled environment, visibility, and time.
Currently, our job performance requirements do not include demonstrating a rescue technique suited to the larger patient, but solely suited to the 165-pound manikin. Bariatric rescue is a specialized operation requiring resources, tools, and specific training to be successful. Until then we’ll address this problem ourselves.
Our approach uses the NFPA 1407 standard for rapid intervention training as it addresses the need to train firefighters to locate and rescue lost, trapped, and injured firefighters employing specialized extrication techniques to move firefighters up the stairs, down the stairs, out of windows, etc. The same techniques and concepts can be employed towards the bariatric patient.
How do we bridge the gap between bariatric rescue and that of a firefighter? A rescue harness built in seconds that mimics that of a firefighter’s SCBA harness. The harness is simple in design, easy to make under harsh conditions and can be applied to various sized patients in seconds. Specialized rescue techniques reserved to rescue firefighters can now be applied once to the bariatric patient. Dragging lifting or carrying a patient on grade, upstairs or
The modified fore-and-aft carry.
downstairs is now methodical in its approach.
Building a rescue harness that will accommodate bariatric and non-bariatric patients rescue harness combines two continuous loop webbing and a carabiner connecting the two interconnected systems along the spine. The system is best taught as two independent systems but meant to be built simultaneously.
How to build a reverse Swiss seat harness
• Using a 5’continuous loop webbing, loop around the bariatric patient’s legs or torso and positioned around the waist
• Collect webbing at navel and pull up towards the ceiling
• Twist webbing in a clockwise motion until it is tightly fitted around the waist.
• Roll patient to their side
• Run the twisted webbing between the legs.
• Using a carabiner connect the webbing running between the legs and along the back
How to build a chest harness
• Using a 5 ‘continuous loop webbing wrap overtop of the chest
• Roll the patient to a side and clip the webbing into the carabiner
• Roll patient to their other side and clip the webbing into the carabiner
A bariatric rescue should be considered a specialized operation because it requires a considerable amount of time, effort and resources. Firefighters choosing to build and use a rescue harness are able to carry, lift and drag a patient upstairs, downstairs or on a grade. Professional teams using the right tools and moving as a synchronized unit make the greatest impact towards saving life.
If we could go back in time, could the initial crew have affected the rescue using this new approach? Yes. Building a bariatric rescue harness and applying the RIT approaches learned, we could have easily extricated the 385-pound woman up the stairs.
Author’s note: Special thanks to Paul Winkley, Chris Brooks, Mike Harasiewicz, Jonathan Barnett, Jason Beauchamp, Jessica Zeher, Tricia Beirnes, Chris Presunka, Lech, Mike Haarasma, Mike Lech, Chris Buott , Chris O’blenis, James Kirk, Jamie Foster, Derek Jansen, Craig Daley and C shift for their work in developing the bariatric rescue training initiative.
Reference
(1) Hogya PT, Ellis L. Evaluation of the injury profile of personnel in a busy urban EMS system. Am J Emerg Med, 1990 Jul; 8(4): 308–11.
From Hire to Retire
By Arjuna George
Energy management
Most are familiar with philosophies around time management and how time is becoming harder and harder to manage. In a relatively short period of time, our world has morphed into a 24/7 non-stop action-packed mustdo kind of place. Our culture fosters do-more-with-less. How can we succeed at mastering our time if we continually fill the voids with more tasks? This mindset means that we never complete all our tasks, and this approach can cause enormous stress over time. I know for myself, my endless “to do list” was never completed. There was never an opportunity to celebrate the end, it just kept getting longer and longer. It caused me great stress, which forced me to work harder and longer to try to overcome the never-ending jobs. This is not a healthy option long term.
The pressure and commitment of always being “on” creates a never-ending loop of things to do. The more we do, the more we add to our plate. We know that time is a constant, but we continue to pile tasks on. Is this really being productive or is it just an illusion? Is all this busyness really paying off?
What would happen if we reframed our days (time) into energy management instead of trying to manage time? There is no one way to be productive. It includes a variety of habits, but adding this to your energy management
may be of great benefit.
With many of my coaching clients, I have noticed a common thread and that is the desire to effectively manage time. I hear: “Not enough time in the day,” “I have too much to do,” and “How do I prioritize what I need to get done?” As firefighters we have daily tasks and special projects inbetween emergencies. Does that list every get fully completed? Does it stress you out, never seeing an end to it?
Consider reframing your views on productivity so they are guided by your energy levels instead. Our bodies and mind run on fluctuating energy levels. Maximize those times to do amazing work.
Our 1440 minutes in a day are all we are given. We cannot add minutes, even though we keep trying to squeeze more into each day. I am a recovering workaholic. Busyness felt like a requirement for the job. Now I know that way of thinking is not sustainable or produces your best work. I cherish those 1440 minutes, and dedicate energy to my productive times, less energy on menial tasks, and most of all, I allow time for whitespace and recovery. When you create whitespace, you provide opportunity for reflection, and a distraction free environment to thrive in. When we are in moments of whitespace, we are building our resilience and energy reserves. The secret is to use your energy curve to your advantage by tackling tough complex issues when your energy tank is full. If you form this mindset, you will be
Arjuna George retired as a fire chief in November of 2021 after serving the department in Salt Spring Island, B.C., since 1997. He is now a fire service coach and consultant. Visit silverarrowco.com or email arjuna@silverarrowco.com
managing your days in a more productive way.
When we start to manage our time around energy, we begin to get more done, and experience less stress and overwhelm. When we identify our own unique energy peaks and valleys, we can increase our performance.
Consider reframing your views on productivity so they are guided by your energy levels instead
The Yerkes-Dodson Law, a classic model, shows that small, simple, everyday tasks can be improved with a bit of added stress. The Yerkes–Dodson law, originally developed by psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dodson, states that performance increases with stress or mental stimulation, but only up to a certain point. When levels of stress become too high, performance is found to decrease. Now that we know this, does it seem right to expect optimal productivity when our energy capacity is low?
One effective way I found was to track my energy over a few weeks by journaling those high and low energy periods. Some studies have shown that our energy ebbs and flows throughout the day roughly every 90 to 120 minutes. Over time I recognized my optimal time for decision making and learning, and times that my capacity was low. I identified that my valley of low energy is
between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. Knowing this, I can schedule my day to get the hard complex jobs done outside of those hours and leave 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. for light activities. I built a habit around doing something between these hours that recharges my body and mind, such as exercise, being outside, reading, or having a great conversation. These are all activities that can help refill your human battery.
Some of us may be early birds who rise early to take on the day and some of us may be night owls who are most productive later in the day. Everyone is a little different. As you move through your career, it may be of great use to know your own energy curve.
As firefighters we have studied the power of energy. Fire is the energy we know, and we know what it needs to thrive or be snuffed out. It’s time to consider our own body's energy and hack it for better decision making and a stress reduced lifestyle.
As firefighters, most of our decision making comes under stress, which can impact our attention, memory, and decision making. But firefighters can’t schedule in emergencies that match our energy output. With a good grasp on our energy curve, we will at least have awareness around our potential and our weak areas. Knowing this may help you schedule when you can, do hard work in your prime hours and leave space for recharging.
With this power, you can now attempt to design your days to work for you.
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