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By Brittani Schroeder
Preparing for an emergency
As I continue my journey of learning more about the fire service, it’s clear that being prepared for any kind of emergency is of the utmost importance. These emergencies could range anywhere from car accidents to medical calls to house fires to natural disasters, like wildfires. This goes for civilians and public safety personnel.
But what goes into being “prepared”?
In this month’s Back to Basics column, Mark van der Feyst focuses on inspecting personal protective equipment (PPE), and how gear should be set up properly to cut down time when getting to a call. I’d argue this would be one of the first steps for a firefighter to be prepared for any kind of emergency.
Some might believe that maintaining a healthy body and mind are the building blocks to being prepared. Eating balanced meals or strengthening your muscles, like Patrick Mathieu and Sherry Dean write about in this month’s edition, could be a good place to start for some.
Being prepared can look like a lot of things, but one thing always rings true: it starts with you. James Rychard focuses on changing your attitude towards the calls that come through to your team in his Psychological PPE column; but being prepared could also just be ensur-
ing you have the proper passion for fighting fires, like Jason Clarke writes about in his Front Seat column.
Others might suggest that training is the most important aspect of preparing for an emergency. For team leaders, emergency preparedness might look like training your members and sharing your wisdom from past experiences. In this month’s cover story, Canadian Firefighter spoke with Yvonne Meulenbroek, a wild-
There are many ways to be and feel prepared for an emergency, whether it’s on a smaller or larger scale.
fire crew leader in Norman Wells, N.W.T., about how she became a leader in her crew and how she now shares details of her past experiences fighting fires to help educate others.
Training could also simply be the task of learning and practicing a new skill to use on the fire ground. In his article, “Preserving life on the fireground”, Jared Newcombe explains the necessary training on hose advancement and controlled exit strategies, which will greatly help any firefighter in an emergency.
But what about being prepared for what happens after an emergency has occurred? How can firefighters prepare their communities for a catastrophic event? In this month’s article on the 72-hour fallacy,
@fireincanada facebook.com/canadianfirefighter www.firehall.com
Kaitlin Secord delves into this topic and shares some ways we might be better prepared in the future.
Clearly, there are many ways to be and feel prepared for an emergency, whether it’s on a smaller or larger scale. With the range of articles featured in this month’s edition of Canadian Firefighter , there is something for every reader to take away.
Whether preparing in advance or based off lessons learned, it is a crucial aspect of the fire service.
I can say, personally, these articles have given me a lot to think about. Am I prepared in the case of an emergency? Unfortunately, I don’t think so. It’s time to create my own emergency preparedness plan for my family and I.
Looking forward, as always, I invite you to pitch me your ideas, send me your latest news and accomplishments, or connect with me just to have a conversation. You can reach me at bschroeder@annexbusinessmedia.com.
Until next time, happy reading and be well.
April 2023
Vol. 46, No. 2 cdnfirefighter.com
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Research studies how wildfires impact glacier melt
On the Athabasca Glacier, in the Canadian Rockies, the impacts of wildfire smoke on glacier melt were investigated using weather measurements from the 2015–2020 melt seasons.
The research, “Fire and Ice: The Impact of Wildfire-Affected Albedo and Irradiance on Glacier Melt” was published in the American Geophysical Union journal Earth’s Future in April 2022.
Climate change is accelerating natural disasters, including an increase in forest fires and glacial melt. Over the observed period from 2015–2020, two automated weather stations operated in Athabasca Glacier Research Basin.
The stations observed air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, incoming and outgoing short and longwave radiation, snow depth and ice elevation.
Precipitation was observed using a tipping bucket and weight gauge.
The study states that in 2019, the weight gauge malfunctioned and data was infilled.
A time-lapse camera was pointed towards the Athabasca Glacier. This provided visibility, smoke, precipitation type and cloud observations.
Of the 2 million calls responded to by Canadian fire departments in 2022, 50 per cent were for medical emergency..
The seasonal period analyzed ran from July 1st to Sept. 15th, referred to as the melt season, includes the “co-occurrence of the primary glacier melt period and the regional wildfire season.”
and caused ice melt to increase by up to 10 per cent.” It also found that in years when there was a lot of smoke in the air, the ice meleted less “because less solar energy reached the ice surface.”
Of the 126,000 firefighters reported in the 2022 Great Canadian Fire Census, 90,000 are volunteer.
The research states “2015 to 2020 included both high and low wildfire occurrence and cool, wet and warm, dry years.”
During heavy fire years, wildfire smoke deposited on the glacier surface gradually darkens the ice. The glacier surface stayed dark in the following years, even if no-fire activity was detected.
The research found that “soot from fires darkened the ice surface
The study concludes that upwind forest fire activity influenced surface glacier melt in two ways; “firstly, through decreasing the glacier albedo from soot deposition following smoke drifting over the glacier and secondly, through the direct impact of the atmospheric conditions above the glacier on reducing shortwave irradiance, increasing longwave irradiance and reducing net radiation.”
Climate change is accelerating natural disasters, including an increase in forest fires and glacial melt.
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Back to basics
By Mark van der Feyst
Mark van der Feyst has been in the fire service since 1999 and is currently a firefighter with the FGFD. Mark is an international instructor teaching in Canada, the United States, FDIC and India. He is the lead Author of Fire Engineering’s Residential Fire Rescue & Tactical Firefighter books. He can be contacted at Mark@FireStarTraining.com.
Desensitizing firefighters: Part 2
In our continuing series of desensitizing firefighters, we are going to focus on the topic of personal protective equipment (PPE). Although this may seem like a very basic area to look at, it is actually the opposite. PPE forms the nucleus, or the foundation, upon which everything else falls upon. When we look at the series of mishaps or dominoes that are lined up in a chain of events, much of the time, PPE was missing or was not used as it needs to be – thus leading to the bad outcome.
Let’s start with inspecting PPE, because there are two areas that need to be addressed here. The first deals with PPE being inspected on an annual basis, and the second deals with the regular inspection by the user.
The annual inspection is a mandated requirement for PPE items like structural coats, pants, helmets, gloves, hoods and boots. This is where a third-party provider will inspect the gear, perform testing on it—such as hydrostatic testing to ensure that the vapour barrier is still intact and not compromised—and give it a failing or passing grade based upon the condition of the gear. One of the factors of consideration is the age of the gear; it needs to be within the recommended 10-year lifespan from its manufacturer date. Every year, this needs to be done to ensure the user is protected when they are wearing it.
The regular inspection is to be done by the user themselves. As the word “regular” denotes, this is to be done on a consistent and constant basis. This refers to every time the PPE is used and after it has been used, it needs to be inspected. The responsibility to ensure that PPE is ready and safe lies upon the user – it forms the Internal Responsibility System (IRS) as legislated in most health and safety acts. Examples of what to look for are rips, tears, degradation of material, discolora-
tion of material and holes.
O ne benefit of doing regular inspections is to account for any items that may be missing. Like the old joke about the dryer where socks seem to go missing, the same thing can occur with our gear; we can have missing components such as our gloves, hood, safety glasses, DRD strap, etc. With respect to the DRD strap, this can be a common missing component in that it is not installed properly after cleaning. Whether done by a third-party provider or by the user themselves, the DRD can be re-installed incorrectly. I have personally found my DRD strap in my coat and my safety harness in my pants, reinstalled incorrectly after being sent out for cleaning. It was only on my own inspection that I discovered this missing component. With missing com -
ponents of PPE, the user will not be properly protected and will not be able to complete their job.
Another factor that leads to desensitizing a firefighter is with their PPE being “combat ready”. This refers to a readied state being always maintained by the firefighter, and it begins with the culture of the department – with leadership encouraging each person to be combat ready at all times. If the culture does not support this, then the membership will not follow suit as well as a department that does foster this type of culture.
W ith respect to PPE, being combat ready starts with having all PPE present and accounted for and set up in a fashion that will allow the user to quickly and easily access their gear for donning. Regardless of the department model, being a full-time, part-time or volunteer type, the same principle applies to all. In the photo you can see an example of how gear can be set up for quick and easy access for donning. Notice how the items are laid out for the user to don in a certain sequence—this is part of being combat ready.
W hen responding to a call, the clock has already started, and we want to beat the clock by getting dressed quickly so that the truck can leave the station in a short time frame. This will only happen when the team is constantly in a readied state, and the starting point is going to be with prepared PPE. What we don’t want to have is our gear sitting in a gear bag by the truck or in side a locker – this is not gear that is ready to go at any moment.
T his may seem like a redundant discussion topic, but we can see how this is a common area that is overlooked or not being addressed regularly, that can cause other issues as a result. If we address the smaller issues that cause firefighters to become desensitized, then the bigger issues will take care of themselves and be easier to deal with.
Being combat ready starts with having all PPE present and accounted for.
A fiery passion
How an admiration of fire turned into a career battling it
By Kaitlin Secord
Yvonne Meulenbroek, wildfire crew leader in Norman Wells, N.W.T., has always been intrigued by fire. As a fire spinner in her circus community, her admiration for playing with fire turned into a career battling it. Meulenbroek grew up travelling around the world; her childhood was spent trying new experiences, in new places, while being homeschooled. “It really helped me to be comfortable with changing quickly all the time. It’s a really important part of who I am and what I do.”
Developing a new passion
Meulenbroek joined the fire service in Norman Wells after a friend recruited her, since the department had found themselves to be short-handed that season. As a lover of the outdoors, hard work and, of course, fire, she jumped at the opportunity and headed straight to the local fitness testing centre.
At the beginning, Meulenbroek saw being a firefighter as an interesting summer job to add to her resume. Her first export changed everything. “It became really clear that the more you learn, the more there is to learn, and it never stopped being interesting for me,” said Meulenbroek. “I’d never touched small engines before getting involved in wildland fire, then suddenly I was using chainsaws and pumps and quickly switching from
maintaining equipment to using equipment. I tend to enjoy things that leave me exhausted at the end of the day, and this does all of that.”
From there, her career and evolution as a wildland firefighter began. Meulenbroek now has six seasons under her belt and is ramping up for her seventh. The 2022 season was a big one, both for fires and for Meulenbroek. She held a double role as fire crew lead and as the fire technician.
“Our fire technician left last season, so we offered Yvonne the position. She’s proven to be a fast and eager learner, so we knew she could handle this different type of role,” said Shawn Maxwell, manager of forests in the Sahtu region in N.W.T. Meulenbroek recalls being offered the role, at first being surprised but then turning to panicked. “My first reaction was that maybe I didn’t know enough to be successful in this role. But my managers chose to see things in me that I didn’t see in myself,” said Meulenbroek. “They helped teach me all of the things I needed to fill the role the way they were expecting.”
Wildland fire crews don’t typically see many women come into the job, let alone into more senior roles. Meulenbroek chooses to see her presence there as a step in a positive direction. “I don’t focus on things like working harder than my colleagues to pass standard fitness testing requirements or being occasionally mistaken for a camp cook,” said Meulenbroek. “At the end of the day, we’re all firefighters and I think we’re often our own worst enemy and just believe that we need to do something more or be more to do the same job.”
To Meulenbroek, its more about equity. “Pound for pound strength doesn’t matter as much as everyone bringing everything they are and have to the table for the good of their crew.”
Meulenbroek doesn’t think her experience is typical. With a small base number of employees, she says it’s easy to be a big fish in a little pond.
Inspire through teaching
In 2021, the Northwest Territories’ Department of Environment and Natural Resources held an emergency firefighter training camp to help increase the number of women and non-binary people on fire crews.
“It’s not that there isn’t already room in the industry, but there needs to be a shift in perspective. I think women are taking themselves out of the game by thinking, ‘maybe I’m not strong enough, or maybe I’m not good enough’,” said Meulenbroek.
Maxwell said, “Yvonne is a great face for our department. She is quite involved with our female fire fighting camp. She facilitates training of fire behaviours and suppression as well as acts as a mentor for the women attending the camp.”
Meulenbroek eagerly took on the role as an instructor, saying, “It really appealed to me as a pet project because it felt lasting and something I was really invested in.”
Meulenbroek said she struggled to see fire fighting as a long-time career because its so seasonal. With Northern summers being so short, she wasn’t even sure she could make a lifestyle out of it. So, when the chance to do some teaching came
“The job is nebulous, so certain yet so mysterious. You never know where you’ll be, what you’ll be doing or how long it will last.”
- Yvonne Meulenbroek
up, especially on something she was passionate about, she began to see that, even though fighting fires ebbed and flowed, the chance to educate others and learn was always available.
“It’s inspiring to inspire people,” said Meulenbroek. “It helps to remind me why I got into this job, because it’s so much more than just a spot on a resume to me now.”
Fire is the ultimate educator; it pushes your boundaries but teaches you to stay calm under pressure. It forces you to become confident in what you’re doing and who you are in ways nothing else can, said Meulenbroek.
One of Meulenbroek’s favourite parts of the job is the wisdom-sharing. Seeing a rookie pick something up that she taught them, or getting to learn from a new tool or tech-
nique makes every day even more exciting for her.
Before starting her career, Meulenbroek would have described herself as an introvert.
“What really brought me out of my shell was getting to relate to other people in this job – it is such a cool thing. Whether it’s people that you work with directly on the crew, in a camp environment or with the community, there is so much knowledge to share. It’s our own little community.”
Meulenbroek describes the job as nebulous, so certain yet so mysterious. “You never know where you’ll be, what you’ll be doing or how long it will last.”
For that reason, the crews need to wear many hats – or helmets. “We’re each other’s cheerleaders and support systems. We hold each member
accountable and hope they’ll do the same for us,” said Meulenbroek.
Behind the scenes
Fighting fires in the Northwest Territories changed during the pandemic. Meulenbroek saw more time on the line and got a clearer view on what is really involved behind the scenes. Her four-person crew was localized to the Northwest Territories, when normally, they mobilize where needed, anywhere across Canada. People couldn’t be in camps, so her crew ended up camping on the line, which meant cooking for themselves after 12-hour shifts. “All we were used to thinking about was doing our jobs and everything else happened for us. The pandemic really impacted logistics. We couldn’t freely go where we needed to because of the travel ban.”
Staffing wildland fire crews has been a challenge, said Maxwell. Meulenbroek says the job is for a niche group of people. She thinks people’s priorities are shifting and it maybe isn’t even the danger of the job that deters them. “To do this job, you have to be okay without a shower and a plan. We work on Mother Nature’s clock.” Which to Meulenbroek, sounds like the perfect job.
Lessons learned
As self-described “pyro,” if something is on fire, Meulenbroek will be nearby. Fighting fires has allowed her to get closer to the flames she is so intrigued by, while also experiencing its harmful effects and preventing them to keep people safe.
With its short-lived summer season, the Northwest Territories was the perfect place for Meulenbroek to test the fires and grow into her career. Her hopes for the future are to continue growing professionally, potentially extending her season within other regions, like Australia. “Everything about the job feels like it was meant for me,” Meulenbroek said. Her experience is a lesson in following your heart and saying “yes” to new experiences.
Fire is the ultimate educator, it pushes your boundaries but teaches you to stay calm under pressure.
Preserving life on the fireground
The main goal for every call
By Jared Newcombe
Advancing a hose line to an interior position supports all fireground objectives, leading to the achievement of our overarching goals. The nozzle is the tip of that spear when moving beyond the front door, supported by a team moving as a singular entity and addressing the emerging challenges affecting the completion of the assigned objective.
If a fire begins to overpower the extinguishing capabilities of the chosen handline and requires your team to withdraw or reposition, what’s your strategy?
We have been taught to fight fire, not to retreat, so when I was asked this question back in 2019, my answer was simple: we’d peel back as we continued fighting the fire.
Hose advancement drills
We know that the fire control efforts of the first handline save more lives at a structure fire than any other firefighting action. 1 Conducting hose advancement drills between fires is part of our routine for these simple reasons:
1 Hose advancement, when combined with door control, limits air flow to a ventilation-limited fire and reduces the heat release rate.2
2. Finding synchronization of movement and tempo amongst the team on the hose line is imperative. When you consider the varied sizes of firefighters, levels of athleticism, experience and injuries, the movement of the hose line may be fluid, or not, on any given day. Drilling leads to
mindfulness and equips them with the knowledge that allows the advancing team to finetune their movements, complementing each other on the line, resulting in a more methodical and effective execution of the task at hand.
Implementing the drill is easy; flake out a 1 ¾ inch hose line on the floor and charge it. The nozzle or pipe person leads the charge—demonstrating the various approaches within their arsenal—advancing the hose line, and seamlessly transitioning between “hit and move” and “flow and move” techniques. This skillfully executed advance is contagious, and we realize that we are not finished products, but a work in progress. We have a lot more to learn.
Each person takes a turn clamp sliding forward to the halfway point, then transitioning the hose from under the knee to the hip, resuming the advance, flowing, whipping, sweeping skillfully – yet aggressively – while proceeding to the intended target. Once we are properly warmed up, ready
and hungry to do more, the stage is set for us to find our synchronicity on the line as a team. Incorporating the controlled exit or peel back is easy to do, but far from routine. When we decided to test this approach as a team, we realized we had overestimated our abilities, falling short of what we believed we could accomplish (Dunning Kruger Effect3). The difficulties stemmed from the unsynchronized movement of the team on the line and an ensuing tug-o-war between us. A combination of the varied approaches we applied included standing up, walking back, some crawled on all fours, and some inched their way backward on their knees. The fluidity we were accustomed to when moving the nozzle forward wasn’t there, and we didn’t have a combat-ready approach. This was a tough pill to swallow, but the fuel to finding a solution.
Testing out different methods
Our team looked at the approaches we’d been using to move the nozzle forward and how we could apply them to an exit strategy. We identified the clamp slide used to hit and
“The ability to move backwards as efficiently as we move forward aids in both civilian and firefighter life safety.”
Jared Newcombe is a captain and a 29-year veteran of the Brampton Fire and Emergency Services in Ontario.
move was the best approach to achieving a controlled exit while remaining engaged.
How do you incorporate a clamp into this controlled exit strategy? It starts with communicating the need to peel back, reposition or exit, and the team adjusts their positioning to execute the tactic of moving backwards. The nozzleman places the line under the knee towards the ankle and settles into a clamp slide position while, simultaneously, the firefighters reverse their pulling positions towards the entry point (pushing leg cocked and ready to engage with each order), and they communicate that they’re ready to move. In preparation for the line to move backwards, the nozzle person lightens their pinning leg using the hand on the same side of their body. Their weight shifts slightly forward to reduce friction against the floor, yet stay cognisant not to force the line backwards as they call, “ready move”. The firefighters on the line engage their cocked legs
and push in unison, moving approximately three feet. The team on the line repeats the process to the nozzleman’s cadence and they slide gracefully into positions that serve a greater tactical purpose.
As your team finds their synchronicity on the line, you may want to incorporate multiple pinch points, flowing water as you reposition while being able to address fire that may get behind you. The ability to move backwards as efficiently as we move forward aids in all life safety.
Case study
In Dec. 2021, I was given a new station assignment with a group of firefighters that had never worked together before, which left many unanswered questions about how we’d work as a team. We used the hose management and advancement drills to break the ice and begin team building. We quickly found our varied approaches mor-
phing and aligning with what we all considered best practice, resulting in a more cohesive and synchronized movement. Using everyone’s input on how to accomplish our mission, we established expectations and trust between us.
D uring and after our training, many conversations ensued that included ideas like: using a thermal imaging camera in cooperation with advancement, reading the door, feeding hose and other old school techniques. This set the stage for how we conducted all our training – hands on.
On Jan. 20, 2022, one of my firefighters – who is an acting captain – took my role as the officer, and I took his position on the rig. On this day, our mettle was to be tested at a townhouse fire. My level of trust in said acting captain and the team was high, but there were still some unanswered questions about how we would fair in battle as a team. We were returning from a motor vehicle
collision when we received the notification of a townhouse fire. On approach, there was a great amount of smoke filling the sky, narrowing to the visible fire blowtorching through the backside of the fire unit. Fire inside, outside and extending up vinyl clad to the third story attic.
As our truck took a position between cars randomly positioned on scene to watch the unfolding events, smoke and flames were seen extending beyond the front door; heavy black, voluminous smoke was seen pushing from the second-floor window, and we saw slightly less on the third floor. The front door had been kicked down by someone prior to our arrival, which left us unable to control it and ultimately resulted in an irrepressible flow of oxygen feeding the fire. We had a short stretch of approximately 20 feet to the front door. Working through the deep snow, we positioned a 1 ¾ inch hose line quickly.
We needed to get control over the main body of fire on the ground and its extension to the second floor as soon as possible. As the line was charging, the acting captain shared the thermal camera with the team, orienting the location of the stairs and layout as rehearsed. The bale opened and the reach of the stream was put to work. First, we would hit the stairs, followed by the hallway, which would lead us into the main fire on the ground floor. Whipping and sweeping, we advanced, knocking the fire down as conditions changed favourably. We were gaining the tactical advantage over the fire. We moved the line backwards to the entry and up the stairs to the second floor where we began extinguishing the fire that had extended up and through to the kitchen. This team, who had just recently come together, was cohesive in the way they moved through the ground floor, through to the second floor, and was confident in their decisions.
Just as we gained the advantage on the second floor and readied to clear the room, something changed on the ground floor. The acting captain noticed that the fire on the lower level had redeveloped and was chasing the flow path to our location, leaving us in a vulnerable position. We would need to reposition and reengage the fire on the ground floor. We moved backwards with ease and forward again, eliminating any potential of redevelopment. Simultaneous rescue efforts were underway on the second and third floors, utilizing windows and stairs secured by the first handline.
Before the fire, there were unanswered questions about how we would fair in battle as a team. That question was put to bed as the team remained disciplined and mindful of expectations. The training in the station prior to this incident allowed us to build a cohesive team, able to move forward and backwards seamlessly and in sync with each other, preserving life on the fireground.
Note: Special thanks to Chris O’blenis, Craig Daley, James Foster, Jen Gould, James Kirk, Paul Winkley, Kyle Taylor, 213 B and C/D shift for their work in the training initiative.
For a full list of references, please visit www.cdnfirefighter.com/ preserving-life-on-the-fireground/
The 72-hour fallacy
Preparing your communities for the unexpected
By Kaitlin Secord
In emergency management, it’s important to know where initiatives or directives originated from, and they should be consistently re-evaluated to ensure that they are still current and required.
The 72-hour preparedness rule came to fruition during World War I as a directive given from national levels of governance. There were requirements to be self-sufficient due to competing priorities from national defense. Individuals needed to sustain continuity of their livelihood for 72-hours.
Chris Collins, professor of emergency management at the Emergency Management and Public Safety Institute of Centennial College and level 3 trainer with Emergency Management Ontario, said, “We are still using a method of preparedness from war-times, but have advanced as a society in every other way. So, what’s wrong with this picture?”
Public Safety Canada released a report in 2010 called the Emergency Preparedness Week 2010 Evaluation which had a market researcher company conduct a survey among Canadian residents to “explore issues related to Emergency Preparedness Week.”
The results showed that 72 per cent of those surveyed strongly agreed that an emergency plan and kit are necessary in ensuring the safety of their family. It also found that 54 per cent assumed their area would not likely be affected by disaster and 48 per cent thought if disaster did strike, it would be over soon. Forty-four percent felt the government would take care of them if a large-scale emergency were to occur.
58 per cent said their family had never looked into what to do in case of an emergency.
Since 2010, demographics, geographics
and population have changed significantly across Canada. “An increase in immigration and a rise in natural disasters, construction and inflation have all led to changes in budgets, and municipalities and individual needs,” said Collins.
Support from government agencies is different among rural, suburban and urban areas, and so are their needs. “This is why 72 hours cannot be something that is universally applicable,” said Collins.
So, what can be done?
Collins says the first step is to look at your community, municipality and specific neighbourhoods you serve.
“No one can prepare a community better than members of that community,” said Scott Cameron, co-founder of Emergency Management Logistics Canada.
Many regions are transitioning away from a generic approach by incorporating tools that are unique to them.
FireSmart Canada and B.C. FireSmart have launched two unique initiatives that directly help communities support themselves. The Local FireSmart Representatives (LFSR) program is described as “people
from all walks of life, unified by a central purpose: to mitigate the damages caused by wildfires to our neighbourhoods and communities.” These representatives are neighbours that “foster FireSmart values at a grassroots level.”
Collins was a LFSR during his time living in B.C. “The program provides risk assessment on an individual level. We’d look at things like trees in someone’s front lawn and the impact that has on the wilderness-urban interface,” said Collins.
The other initiative is the FireSmart Canada Neighbourhood Recognition Program. This program recognizes neighbourhoods “that have taken critical steps to reduce their vulnerabilities to wildfires.”
The program hits on a couple of areas of preparedness that are often weak within province-wide planning. First, they utilize LFSR’s to create a plan that identifies locally agreed-upon solutions and that are attainable for each neighbourhood to achieve.
These goals and solutions are tracked by progress or status and are used to create “dedicated local FireSmart programs.”
“People like to be recognized and self-suf-
58 per cent [of people surveyed] said their family had never looked into what to do in case of an emergency, 60 per cent said they had not purchased or prepared an emergency kit and approximately one-third felt they did not need one.
ficient,” Collins said. “By showing communities we see their efforts, we’re setting everyone up for greater success.”
The FireSmart B.C. initiatives are one example of provinces taking charge of preparedness, but is one of the few that considers each community in its approach.
Ontario recently released its first-ever Provincial Emergency Management Strategy and Action Plan. While its “one window for all Ontarians” approach seeks to coordinate with emergency management partners on preparedness, it may not directly consider that the time and need for emergency response varies across the province.
The Alberta Emergency Management Agency works in a similar function by coordinating emergency operations.
These coordination plans, while obviously important, unfortunately don’t create enough “buy-in.”
Collins explains that the most effective way to engage someone is by connect with their emotions. “You only have about three seconds to grab someone’s attention. Storytelling lets people put themselves into situations,” he said. “It lets them think about their reactions and realities.”
A study, called “Interventions for Preventing Residential Fires in Vulnerable Neighbourhoods and Indigenous Communities: A Systematic Review of the Evidence” shows that partnerships with Indigenous communities and education through tailored programming saw improvements in engagement with targeted populations.
O ne of the most common areas of improvement is communication.
“We often emphasize pub ed, but I think emergency services need to start sharing their initiatives more often,” said Collins. “Our goal as emergency personnel is to help our communities stay safe; by sharing what we’re doing, we can learn and develop at an even more impressive rate than we are now.”
“Traction gained in public awareness could be lost or contribute to confusion about standards if it were to be changed,” said Cameron.
While 72-hours may not be enough time to be prepared for, its marketability and memorability are two things that make the
concept attractive. The 2010 Emergency Preparedness Week study found that greater than 70 per cent of participants understood what “72-hour” referred to.
Provinces and territories are updating the language they use when it comes to preparedness. Most suggest “a minimum of 72-hours”, while regions like Sidney, B.C.,
are encouraged to be prepared for seven days due to their remote location. Choosing what to communicate with the communities you serve and how shouldn’t be based on a generalization. Shifting focus to how you can best prepare your communities for the unexpected will provide relief to everyone being impacted.
Psychological PPE
By James Rychard
In addition to being a firefighter and R2MR instructor from the city of Burlington, Ont., James Rychard is an advocate for mental and behavioural health in the fire service, sitting on multiple association committees. He can be reached at jaymzr007@hotmail.com.
The fire service’s Challenger
For decades, NASA was on top. With a streak of successes, they grew a mindset that they could do anything. They could fix any problem placed in front of them.
Recall the year 1970 when the Apollo 13 crew experienced irreparable damage to their spacecraft on the way to the moon. It was NASA’s engineers, millions of miles away, who innovatively orchestrated the unconventional use of internal spacecraft parts that saved the three astronauts and enabled their return to earth unscathed. When an organization saves lives and does it by using parts outside their original design and use, that breeds confidence. As NASA’s successes grew, so did their confidence. To some, they might have even said that confidence morphed into arrogance. They were untouchable with respect to space and safety.
It was a beautiful, sunny day, but a cold one. Despite the freezing temperatures that unexpectedly hit the state of Florida the night before, NASA was determined to get the Challenger and its seven-person crew off. The day was Jan. 28, 1986, and the Challenger’s flight was special; a teacher was being sent into space. Appropriately named the “Teacher Flight”, this was deemed to be a memorable mission. As NASA officials monitored the three-billion-dollar space truck, officials and engineers at Morton Thiokol, a subcontractor of NASA, held their breath. Their
inspections and assessments dictated a catastrophe was imminent for the space shuttle, they just didn’t know when. Unfortunately, 73 seconds after lift-off the shuttle exploded.
To understand the whys, a presidential commission was created to investigate the disaster. As the layers began peel back on the events leading up to the destruction of the Challenger, a well-documented problem surfaced. What made matters worse? NASA knew about it. When the final report was filed, it was determined that there were two culprits: the failure of an O-ring seal, and the attitude of NASA. If there was an issue with flight safety, then how could NASA have overlooked such an obvious issue?
A ccording to Margaret Heffernan, author of Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the
The fire service can have an attitude that tells us that we can do anything and solve whatever problem is placed in front of us.
Obvious at Our Peril, “NASA was under political pressure to launch, and Morton Thiokol was under commercial pressure and could never have had the power to stop the launch.”
Given these diverse types of pressures were at play, it’s no wonder a catastrophic event occurred. Pressures such as these create tremendous amounts of tension for any organization. Further, and regrettably, “external pressures” can outweigh responsibility; they can make those in charge willfully blind to doing the right thing. The fire service industry is not immune to this concept.
Honourable Judge Simeon Lake, who presided over the United States vs. Enron case addressed to CEO and Chairman, Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay, said, “You are responsible if you could have known, and should have known, something which instead you strove not to see.”
Essentially, what he was saying was that willful blindness is a legal term and a choice. If you see something that could create potential problems, you need to do something about it. Don’t wait until something happens; act because you have the duty, responsibility and power to do so. When going back to the Challenger structural break up, willful blindness did play a big part in the process. They chose not to act on the issue of compromised O-rings on the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs). Soot
continued from page 18
was uncovered behind both the primary and secondary seals and was deemed a “red flag”.
Morton Thiokol’s rocket engineers had documented for years that there was a problem and communicated their inspection and assessment results to NASA. After recovering the SRBs in the Atlantic Ocean post-launch, Thiokol noticed that the O-rings, the rubberlike seals that measured ¼ inch in diameter which encircled the forty feet of circumference of the SRBs, were demonstrating impingement of heat. To ensure a sense of redundancy was in place should one seal become compromised, two O-rings seals were engineered; if one seal failed, the other backed it up. The O-rings were vital for flight safety—they prevented any hot repellent gases from penetrating the external fuel tank which the shuttle rested on.
Yet, due to political pressures, NASA managers chose to turn their head to the issue and issued a waiver: there was a known problem, no time to fix it. The processed document gave the green light to fly. NASA chose to be willfully blind to the seal degradation problem.
Like NASA, the fire service can have an attitude that tells us that we can do anything and solve whatever problem is placed in front of us. We are good! Not necessarily because we have had decades
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of success, but because we train repeatedly for the unexpected. Whatever problem placed in front of us, the fire service works tirelessly to fix it. In some cases, there are levels of redundancy built into fire-ground and rescue practices to ensure fail-safes are in place. This is what makes the fire service a “safe” industry – because we drill on “hypothetical situations”.
However, for some organizations in the fire service industry, they rest a little more on their laurels than they should. They can have the mindset, similar to NASA’s “we can do anything”, and in response breed a sense of over-confidence. When applying willful blindness, it becomes vital that leaders, managers and supervisors choose not to look the other way when issues surface. Yes, political and commercial pressures can arise, but it’s up to those in charge to not allow safety to be compromised—and safety can also be psychological safety.
Although the fire service industry doesn’t need to worry about space vehicles blowing up and the use of rockets, there can and should be concern. The O-rings can serve as a metaphor for other issues within.
If we chose to substitute O-ring for a mental health concern such as bullying, intimidation, collusion, favoritism or disrespectful behaviour, which could lead to stress leaves and PTSI/PTSD symptoms, it’s possible to pull back the layers and uncover where the toxicity originated. In other words, the fire service can experience a Challenger situation if those who are responsible to build a culture of safety, choose to be willfully blind to factors that can render one unhealthy.
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Being in charge comes with a high price and making good decisions can be paramount to successful outcomes. Choosing to be willfully blind to things that leaders, managers and supervisors “could have known, and should have known, something which instead [they] strove not to see,” can land them in hot water, as decided by Judge Lake.
Success does breed confidence, and it is possible to have an inflated sense of confidence should a streak of successes exist, be it professional and/or organizational.
If leadership is a choice and being willfully blind to events/issues/ circumstances is also a choice, then it becomes paramount that the fire service industry has the right leaders, managers and supervisors in charge. Leaders are human and fallible, which means mistakes will happen, but it’s prudent that they do the right thing, which can be hard, especially when both political and commercial pressures are in play.
Simon Sinek once said that leadership is a choice. It doesn’t matter what rank or role someone is in as long as they look after the person to the left and the right of them. What makes Sinek’s ideology unique is that it is the anthropological definition of a leader. When looking back to the reasons why the Challenger disaster occurred, and how any future disasters can be averted, the fire service industry can be safer when it does not become willfully blind to perpetual issues/problems.
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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.
Recon in the rescue environment
All too often we get caught up with the skills that relate to specific types of rescues. We see this not only in training but also in how we operate on scene. It’s easy to get caught up in the tools and techniques that engage all of us so much in the world of technical rescue. This can range from being trained on a skill before learning the basics, to on scene operations who skip tasks that can endanger our members and patients, and cause us to miss critical information that will make our jobs much easier. What I’m specifically referring to is the reconnaissance step that we must be well versed in at all of our rescue scenes in order to provide the safest and most efficient outcomes for everyone. In our respective fire services, we are taught to do things and think critically at a high pace to ultimately battle our enemy: time. While this is still as important as it has always been, the recon in the rescue environment needs to be calculated slightly different. The ever solicited “take a minute to make a minute” or “slow down and breathe” phrases hold a lot more weight at our rescue calls. The complexities involved and resources required to miti-
gate these scenes require the first on scene officers and firefighters alike to take the extra time to properly size up their environment and avoid missing the critical information.
While there are many different technical rescue disciplines that your department may require you to perform, I am going to take a more specific look at the auto extrication scene. That being said, the steps I am about to describe are by no means specific only to the extrication world. These can be modified quite simply to fit the needs for almost any tech rescue scene. Please feel free to change and make it work in your department as you see fit.
To start, we’re looking at the information that the first on scene member should be gathering while performing a full 360 view of the scene. The 360 is such an important factor in all our scenes, and in these specific situations it should be done immediately after you exit the apparatus while the remaining members of your crew are gathering the equipment they may need. Ideally, this total scene view should be accomplished before any other crew members touch or approach the specific vehicles involved. While performing this walk around you must be sure to look for, and make note of, the following:
1 Immediate safety hazards.
2 Number of vehicles involved in the incident.
3. Types of vehicles that are involved.
4 Number of patients involved in the incident.
Our immediate safety hazards may seem straightforward: glass, gas, fire, wires. While all of those do stand true, what about the most glaring safety issue—traffic and scene protection. Although it sounds like a no brainer, far too often we are seeing firefighters and first responders alike being injured or killed on roadways across North America because we fail to secure our scene before
A proper 360 will provide you not only the number of patients but their orientation in the vehicles.
we exit the apparatus. Proper “fend off” positioning, extra lane closure and spacing from the incident need to be addressed in order for our crew members to exit the apparatus safely, let alone approach the scene.
Next is trying to identify the number of vehicles involved. While this may be simple to accomplish from the front seat as you’re rolling up on scene, it may be more difficult than it appears. Night, weather and terrain conditions can severely hamper our initial impressions of how many vehicles are involved. We must stay diligent and perform that 360 survey with our head on a swivel to look out for and recognize other vehicles that may have left the roadway, were trapped under another larger vehicle, or maybe left the scene altogether. Sometimes out of confusion, these unknown vehicles involved may just be further up the road where you may need to direct additional resources. By properly identifying the correct number of vehicles involved in our scenes we will be able to get an early indication of how many additional resources we may need before we move on to our next step.
Just as important as the number of vehicles involved is the type of vehicle. While many accidents we respond to involve passenger vehicles, we must keep in mind all the other vehicles occupying space on our roadways. Transport trucks, dump trucks, school busses, oversized loads and motorcycles are just the tip of the iceberg. A lot of this may be specific to your responding districts, but the one thing that remains common for us all is that we need to identify “what” the vehicle is carrying (cargo/people), and how it is “powered”. Being able to identify what is inside the vehicle will quickly help you identify whether this is a scene where you will be addressing mainly patient injuries and require EMS assistance, or whether you might have a full-blown hazmat situation that is going to require specialized rescue teams. Don’t ever rule
out heavy vehicles involved; once it is confirmed that a large vehicle is involved, be sure to start thinking about contacting heavy tow operators and your specialized heavy rescue teams. The more recent, but not so recent, hazard of what is powering these vehicles cannot be overstated. By figuring out early on in your 360 if you have an alternatively fuelled vehicle (EV, hybrid, propane, NG), you’ll be able to start formulating alternative plans for extrication, fire control, or even who to call to help assist you with shut down and towing procedures.
And lastly, the most important aspect of our 360 recon is the number of patients we have involved in our scene. Even though this may seem simple, this bit of information may be difficult to pinpoint. These patients may be in the vehicles involved, but more regularly now can be in any number of places. They can be seen walking outside the vehicle (unsafely in open traffic lanes), running away, under other vehicles or nowhere to be found. Be diligent with this step; don’t take what you see as truth right away. Talk with witnesses and look for other clues, such as car seats and other seat belts that have the seat belt pretensioner applied and loose that no one is sitting in, to give you some better ideas. The use of a thermal imager can also be a great tool to not only check the seats for other occupants’ warmth, but a quick scan around the vehicle may also provide you with patients that have left the scene. Once all patients are accounted for, the last part of this step is to identify their orientation in/or around the vehicle. This will provide you with the most pivotal information that will start to formulate your extrication plan. By knowing their orientation, be it sitting, upside down or underneath another object and pinned, things will work largely in your favour as to figuring out your next steps of how to manage your extrication scene quickly, safely and efficiently.
Suction Separators
By Jason Clark
Rekindling passion for the fire service
Iam the kind of person who always tries to have an all-in, 100 per cent positive attitude with most of the daily activities I do, but it’s especially important when I walk into the fire station. I work with a great team of both firefighters and chiefs; upon arrival, we like to catch up if we haven’t seen everyone for a while and share a laugh or two. We will continue chatting while we are getting some of the station duties out of the way, like washing the rigs and floors and changing equipment around.
This year marks my 16th with the fire service and, as we know, as much as we strive to keep our spirits high and attitudes in a positive manner, we can lose focus of how we can do that. I think it was a combination of the pandemic and balancing work and extra-curricular activities, but I found it tough to be a positive person to be around at times. Around the middle of the pandemic, it felt like we were going through the same motions, and we were stuck on a merry-goround that wasn’t so merry.
T here were a lot of unknowns during that time and coming into the station to find out that courses were being cancelled, our response style was changing and we were being trained on new PPE and procedures all just felt a bit overwhelming to me. It started to chip away at the entire outlook of the service. Our station even lost a few senior personnel to retirement dur-
Around the middle of the pandemic, it felt like we were going through the same motions, and we were stuck on a merry-go-round that wasn’t so merry.
ing this time
In order to combat this attitude adjustment, I started showing up and helping out more where I could. I took on a bit more responsibility around the department in terms of extra duties and even took some shifts as an instructor at the fire school that was in the neighboring county once the pandemic restrictions started to lift.
That’s one thing that can be really rewarding – teaching at the same level that you came into the fire service at. Unless you came from another fire service, you have zero experience and need to be trained from the basics onward I enjoyed looking at some of these recruits, as they came from all over Ontario and were “all in” when it came to being firefighters. They had the
positive attitude and they wanted to learn all the possible skills they could at their level. It was refreshing watching them come out of a live burn after seeing the various demonstrations of fire behaviour. They would peel off their SCBA masks—you could see the outline on their face due to how tight they had it sealed— and their looks of determination when the instructors were talking.
I loved the questions we got from the new generation of fire recruits. The hundreds of what-if questions and ‘what would you do here’ questions. It threw a spark back into the fire service for me to start leading again, but in a different setting than the operations side. Going through training evolutions and talking through the small skill sets to the big-
ger picture really put the fire service into perspective for me.
O ne of the most interesting parts of my experience in helping the recruit classes, was the entire group of instructors that had very similar start dates and years of experience as myself. It was like we all said to ourselves that we needed a reset but still wanted to help out, right at the same point in our careers. I still remember my first day walking into the fire station and I remember my first day at fire school; both were equally terrifying but I never doubted them for a moment. I wanted to see the faces of the new individuals joining the fire service and let them know that the feelings of fear and anxiety are normal, and it’s all going to make sense as soon as you’re on the trucks.
I firmly believe if you are having some trouble re-finding your passion for the fire service and you feel like you’ve hit a wall, it may not be lost for good. You just haven’t looked back far enough to where it all started.
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.
I wanted to see the faces of the new individuals joining the fire service and let them know that the feelings of fear and anxiety are normal.
Recipe rescue
By Patrick Mathieu
It’s all about balance
At Waterloo Fire Rescue, I am fortunate enough to work with one of the leaders of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Peer Fitness Initiative Team, Luke Pederson. He has a super progressive mind and is a true pioneer in firefighter health and fitness. Our stations are posturized with small tidbits of useful information from the IAFF on everything to help us all lead and live healthier, happier lives. Posters include tips on fitness, body movement, sleep, hydration, cancer fighting tips and nutrition— to name just a few. I find great value in seeing these little reminders on our station walls and would highly recommend it for all departments. For the purpose of this article, though, I’m going to hone in on one particular poste that focuses on nutrition and building a better plate.
A key to good nutrition and feeling full after eating is to aim to eat meals that are well balanced. But what does that mean? What does a well-balanced meal and building a better plate consist of?
T he new standard food guide plate consists of:
1. Making half your plate vegetables and fruits. They should always make up the largest proportion of the foods you eat throughout the day.
2. Making one-quarter of your plate whole grain foods. Grains and starchy foods vary in calories, fat, sugar and fiber, but they are all higher in carbohydrates. Healthy grains and starchy foods include brown rice, whole wheat pasta, potatoes (with the skin), as well as turnips and butternut squash.
Patrick Mathieu is an acting captain at Waterloo Fire Rescue in Ontario. He was recently featured on Food Network’s Chopped Canada. stationhousecateringco@ yahoo.ca @StationHouseCCo
Grilled ahi tuna with Sicilian salsa recipe INGREDIENTS
4 ahi tuna steaks (about ½ lb/225 g each)
2 Tbsp (30 mL) grapeseed oil, for coating
Spice rub
1 Tbsp (15 mL) garlic powder
1 Tbsp (15 mL) dried basil
1 tsp (5 mL) ground fennel seeds
¼ tsp (1 mL) red chili pepper flakes
½ Tbsp (7.5 mL) kosher salt
1 tsp (5 mL) lemon pepper or freshly ground black pepper
Sicilian salsa
¼ cup (60 mL) chopped cured black olives
¼ tsp (1 mL) cayenne
Eating balanced meals is important for several reasons, such as increasing the variety of your intake and feelings of fullness.
1 cup (250 mL) chopped tomatoes
¼ cup (60 mL) chopped fresh basil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp (30 mL) extra virgin olive oil
Juice of ½ lemon Kosher salt, to taste
Prepare a grill for direct grilling over high heat and oil the grill rack. Coat the tuna with grapeseed oil.
Spice rub. In a small bowl mix together the garlic powder, basil, fennel seeds, chili flakes, salt and pepper. Sprinkle both sides of each tuna steak generously with the spice rub.
Sicilian salsa. To make the salsa, combine all ingredients in a bowl, taste and season with salt. Set aside.
Grill the tuna directly over high heat for 1 to 2 minutes per side, until grill-marked and still rare in the middle. Arrange the tuna steaks on individual plates and top with the salsa. Serve alongside your favourite pasta.
3. Making one-quarter of your plate protein foods. Tip: choose lean proteins. Tr y using protein-based foods that come from plants, limit red and processed meats. So basically, a balanced meal is one that offers a variety or balance of foods and therefore nutrients. Generally, a balanced meal or snack will hopefully consist of at least three different food groups (like carbs, protein, fat, etc.) A well-balanced meal typically consists of a source of carbohydrates, a serving of protein, some healthy fat and one or more servings of vegetables and
Eating balanced meals is important for several reasons, such as increasing the variety of your intake and feelings of fullness. When you aim to include different foods like grains and starches, proteins, healthy fats and fruits/vegetables in your meals and snacks, you’re increasing the variety in your diet. Eating a varied diet is important because it increases the likelihood that you’ll meet important nutrient requirements.
By increasing your dietary variety and adding several nourishing foods
to your meals, you’re taking care of various aspects of your health at once. By adding fruits, vegetables and other plant foods like grains and nuts, you’re eating more fibre – which is important for digestive health and your gut microbiome. You’re also eating vitamins and minerals that are essential for good health. By incorporating protein, you’re supporting your muscles, bones and a wide array of important body functions. By adding sources of healthy fat, you’re supporting things like heart health and your body’s ability to absorb fat-soluble vitamins.
Balanced meals that include things like fibre (found in fruits/ vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds), protein and fats not only increase the variety in your diet, but they also help you feel fuller. They do this because they digest slower. For example, a slice of toast with jam would not keep you nearly as full as a slice of toast with jam paired with two scrambled eggs and some orange slices. The protein from the eggs and fibre from the orange slow down the digestive process, helping you to feel full for longer.
Satisfaction generally comes from gaining pleasure from the eating experience, so in addition to a variety of food groups, try to find ways to incorporate flavours and textures that you love. These are definitely part of a balanced meal, too. Trust me, making healthy choices on a consistent basis will be much more sustainable if you are enjoying your eating experience!
Well-balanced, filling meals also help to keep your blood sugar levels stable. By avoiding big spikes and crashes in our blood sugar levels, we’re also going to feel more stable energy levels, so we’re not always heading towards the coffee pot.
As firefighters, we like to keep things simple, and building a balanced meal is not something we need to overthink. Sometimes, a balanced meal might emphasize fruit and vegetables less, and look something like one third vegetables, one third grains or starches and one third protein. Sometimes, your plate may be one half fruits and vegetables and one half protein-rich foods or whole grains. This can still be considered a balanced meal, too. However, when you’re able, aiming to include fruits/ vegetables, grains/starches and protein foods is ideal from both a nutrition, energy and fullness/satisfaction standpoint. Of course, it’s important to aim for a varied diet and eat lots of nourishing foods, but we are human. That being said, there are days when some of your meals lack vegetables. Or maybe you just want a big bowl of pasta, or pizza, without the side salad. This is all perfectly okay and a part of normal life. L isten to your body, and work on honouring your hunger and cravings as well as building balanced meals.
Eating well isn’t about being perfect. It’s about what you do most of the time, not all of the time. There is plenty of room for fun and enjoying the eating experience, in addition to taking care of you.
For a balanced and super colorful plate, try this recipe from my cookbook, The FireHouse Chef , for grilled tuna with Sicilian salsa. Eat well and stay safe!
Fit for Duty
By Sherry Dean
is a
firefighter/engineer with Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency Service. She has more than 20 years of experience in fitness and training. deansherry@bellaliant.net.
So, you have back pain?
Statistics Canada reports that more than 80 per cent of the population suffers from back pain at some point in their lives.1 To add insult to injury (pardon the pun), Statistics Canada also reports that for 85 per cent to 90 per cent of individuals with back pain, no known specific cause can be identified.
Most back pain occurrences will happen between the ages of 30 and 50 and will affect men and women equally. The cause of back pain can come from a mechanical movement, from
trauma or from an underlying medical issue. No matter the cause, suffering from back pain can be completely debilitating for the person suffering it; even in the best case scenario, your body’s mechanics will be affected for a range of five to 10 days as your muscular system adjusts from tying to protect itself.
We do know that some of the contributing factors to back pain are poor abdominal and back muscular tone, obesity, poor posture, sedentary lifestyle and improper lifting techniques. Most of these can be addressed by having a regular and thoughtful workout
Preventing a back injury is not always possible, but focusing on a strong core, good conditioning and using proper techniques is not a huge time investment, though it will really pay off.
regime and healthy diet. So, that’s the good news! The bad news is that firegrounds are rampant for improper technique. We get things done at all costs, including poor form and risk to injury.
There are some simple treat-
ments for the back pain that isn’t caused by trauma or medical conditions – those that are instead linked to activities like a fetched hose line or swinging an axe in a cramped hallway –that do not need official medical treatment. Alleviating the pain with over-the-counter anti-inflammatories or relaxant medication and working to restore proper function can be improved with some downtime for a couple of days. Unfortunately, this may not be an option for many firefighters. This downtime should be coupled with either heat to improve blood flow or ice to reduce the inflammation. If possible, try to get back activities as soon as possible, as this will help prevent stiffness and muscle tightness.
A visit to a massage therapist, or self-massage, is also extremely helpful. Your mobility practices will come in handy to help release some of the tightness your body will experience when you have back pain. It is amazing how twisted out of shape and crooked your spine can become when your body’s protection system comes into play. Your body is trying to correct the problem, but imbalance over several days can cause discomfort in your hips, knees and shoulders. Using massage to release tension may not be comfortable, but you already know mobility isn’t pleasant. If you are doing this yourself, your focus needs to be on your muscularity, not on your spine. You are treating a muscular issue, not a skeletal injury.
Preventing a back injury is
Sherry Dean
career
It is amazing how twisted out of shape and crooked your spine can become when your body’s protection system comes into play.
not always possible, but focusing on a strong core, good conditioning and using proper techniques is not a huge time investment, though it will really pay off. Your workout regime should have at least some focus on abs and back. Focusing too heavily on either area can cause an imbalance, which will have an effect on your posture and ‘pulling’ your body forward or back, so it’s important to balance your focus between abdominal work and lower back work. Mindful connection to your body while it is at work is also fundamental, but not always possible. There are a lot of us who have ‘thrown’ our backs lifting the milk out of the car or picking up our golf ball.
Here is a workout focusing on strengthening your core, front and back. Be safe and well and take care of yourselves out there.
References
1. Billette, Jean-Michel and Teresa Janz. “Injuries in Canada: Insights from the Canadian Community Health Survey.” Statistics Canada, 2015. https:// www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/ pub/82-624-x/2011001/ article/11506-eng.htm.
2 “What You Need to Know About Treating Lower Back Muscles.” Healthline, 2018. https://www.healthline. com/health/pulled-musclein-lower-back.
Exercises to reduce back pain
Complete four rounds of each exercise.
30 to 60 seconds between sets.
You can do consecutive sets or run through all exercises and repeat four times. Remember, change is your friend and keeps your body alert. Adapt, adapt, adapt.
• Roll outs x 15 – two dumbbells or a barbell will work here. Limit the distance of travel by ability but make yourself work.
• Plank x 1 to 3 minutes – Adjust your plank: elbows, straight arm, stacked feet, weighted, side plank. If you are cruising through 3 minutes, change it up.
• Dead bugs x 15 each side – complete with no weight or add a stabilized kettle bell on one side while you dead bug the other. Switch sides after 15 reps.
• Tension band extensions (Pallof Press) x 15 each side – straight over from chest to full extension, chest to overhead, extension to overhead, cross body, with a partner. There are so many variations of this one.
• Superman/banana x 20 (front and back) with 5-10 sec hold between transitions. Switch directions of your roll each time.
• Overhead walk x 50m to 100m – double arm or single arm, dumbbells, kettlebells, hosepack. Make sure you stabilize before you move and as you move.
From Hire to Retire
By Arjuna George
How to build resilient teams
Teams are the backbone of many organizations, especially the fire service. As any team leader knows, forming a group is easy, but building a strong and resilient team is a difficult task. It takes time, energy and commitment from all members—not to mention that it’s not always easy to know where to start when building a resilient team.
First, what is the definition of resilience? Merriam-Webster defines it as “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” My view on resilience is the ability to withstand disruption and recover and grow from the experience each time.
B uilding a resilient team is no small task. It takes work and dedication from everyone involved—but the payoff is worth it.
In this article, we’ll be exploring six critical steps you can take to build a resilient team.
1. Resilient self
For any team to function at a high level, everyone must consider self-care as the number one rule and foundation of forming and growing their high-performance team. The culture of well-being and selfcare must be evident and supported first. Team cohesion will be challenging without the individuals laying the foundation for resilience.
2. Team safety
As firefighters learn to become increasingly resilient, the next stage is to create a work environment that brews safety. As first responders, we already have an abundance of unsafe work environments; why let the fire station be another unsafe zone? This stage is critical to all the following steps and can only be achieved authentically. We should strive to build a psychologically safe fire station where all members know they will not be reprimanded or embarrassed for speaking up with sugges-
tions, ideas or concerns. Once this culture is created, the following steps to team effectiveness are easier to foster.
3. Build trust within the team
Trust is the third step to building a resilient team that can withstand and excel during turbulent times. Trust is built by being honest and transparent with each other, being consistent in your actions and words and not letting others down. You must also be loyal to the team and all of its members, who will be there for you when times get tough.
Transparency and authentic communication help to build trust because it allows everyone to see what’s going on without having to ask questions or look for hidden agendas—which gives them confidence that they can rely on one another during difficult times.
4. Establish an effective communication strategy
If you investigate why teams fail, you will often see communication as one of the root causes. Communication is vital to a resilient team. We must respectfully communicate with each other and break down the silos of information within. The more information that flows from top to bottom and bottom to top, the better decisions and
trust will be created.
We spend countless hours pulling hoses and forcing doors but need more time training on communicating with each other. If we know it’s a weak link in our team’s health, why do we not focus more on sharpening that skill set?
5. Embrace change, even when it’s scary
It’s important to remember that change can be scary, but it can also be exciting. When you embrace the idea that change is inevitable, you’ll be able to think about it more positively and use it as an opportunity for improvement. Try not to let it overwhelm yourself or others on your team—instead, look at it as an opportunity for growth.
6. Be compassionate with one another
Being compassionate with each another is an integral part of building resilient teams. No one truly knows how other people are feeling or what crisis they are currently in. Treat everyone like they are doing their best based on their lived experiences. Compassion is the ability to understand someone else’s situation, feel what they feel and care about them as human beings. As firefighters, we do this daily with our patients; we show unwavering empathy for their current situation. It also includes being kind and understanding in difficult situations, which can help build trust within a team and strengthen relationships between members.
R esilient teams can withstand the storms of adversity, but like all humans, teams will have dysfunctional periods and high-functioning times. It is a process of flowing between those two states that is normal. Building a resilient team is crucial to the success of any organization. By focusing on self-care, safety, trust, communication and support, you can create a team that can adapt and recover from setbacks and continue moving forward together.
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.
You must also be loyal to the team and its members, who will be there for you when times get tough.
