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tackle multiple challenges as Igor strikes Newfoundland
burn, part 2
Plenty of planning key to successful training exercise by Mark van der Feyst
Retiring Toronto EMS Chief Bruce Farr reflects on evolution of service by Rosie Lombardi
firefighters save Mountie in daring rescue .........................................
Search for civilian almost tragic for volunteer responders by John Giggey
on the cover
In less than 24 hours, Hurricane Igor dumped more than 200 millimetres of rain on the eastern part of Newfoundland, battering the region with hurricane-force winds. More than 150 roads and bridges were washed out and almost 80 communities were left isolated. One civilian was killed when the road on which he was standing collapsed. Igor caused widespread damage to infrastructure and personal property, with initial cost estimates in excess of $100 million. See story on page 8.
Photo by Ed Vincent.
on the web
Visit www.firefightingincanada.com to view Peter Hunt’s take on the role of the incident safety officer in his FireIQ column and Brad Lawrence’s advice on boosting your energy in his FitSmart column. And, for daily news and updates and firefighter forums, visit www.firehall.com.
AsWhere’s your resolve?
I mentioned in October, we’re now the proud owners of the Firehall.com website and, with that acquisition and a refined direction, come some changes here at Canadian Firefighter and EMS Quarterly – changes we think you’ll like.
This month we introduce Ken Sheridan, captain of fire prevention in Norfolk County, Ont. Ken’s passion for fire prevention and public education, and for changing the way the fire service protects the public, is clear in his inaugural column on page 6.
We all know that suppression is sexy but it’s a mere fraction of what the fire service does. If the fire service improves its public education and fire prevention strategies, then, presumably, there will be fewer fires and fewer fatalities. And that’s the goal – or at least it should be.
As Chief Tim Beckett points out in his Straight Talk column in next month’s Fire Fighting in Canada, many in the fire service still believe that those in public education and fire prevention are lesser mortals than their suppression brothers and sisters. So, it’s up to those of us who can to climb on soap boxes and shred that stereotype.
Read Sheridan’s column in this issue – and in April, July and October – then pass it around your department or tell your crews to read the digital version at www.firefightingincanada.com (those young firefighters who think suppression is so sexy tend to like to read the online version).
So, as Sheridan and Beckett aptly point out, it’s time for change. And there’s the rub: change is constant in the fire service – or should be – but, like young children and old dogs . . . you know how it goes.
With so few working so hard for so many – the CAFC pushing for tax relief for volunteers, the OAFC on the brink of convincing the Ontario government to make sprinklers mandatory in homes for vulnerable people, the AFCA breaking new ground on recruitment and retention, the FCABC restructuring the B.C. fire service and creating a model for the rest of the country – the fire service needs more proactive champions among its leaders and chief officers and fewer of those old dogs. It’s a new year. Make a resolution to get involved and shape the future of the Canadian fire service.
Bruce Farr retires next month as Toronto’s EMS chief. In an interview with CFF writer Rosie Lombardi, Farr talked about the healthy relationship between Toronto EMS and Toronto Fire Services and noted, in particular, the teamwork at a highrise fire in September (see story in Fire Fighting in Canada, December 2010).
“We work as a team, each with its own specialty,” Farr said. “For example, in a recent highrise fire, firefighters were there to put out the fire and help the residents to safety, while EMS was right there with them to treat victims and also to treat firefighters who were affected by the heat and strain of fighting the fire.”
In April, we’ll expand on that notion in a new column by Lee Sagert, a career paramedic/firefighter with the city of Lethbridge in Alberta, where fire and EMS has been combined sine 1912. Sagert will explore the challenges of a combined fire/EMS system and offer some insight for a successful fire/EMS model.
Meantime, enjoy the interview with Farr on page 20.
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I’ve never been more excited for the fire service than I am now. There’s no question that we face tough economic times; however, I can’t remember a time when we didn’t.
So, why am I excited? As a 21-year veteran of the fire service, I see an opportunity to change the way we think about protecting people from fire. Now is the time to explore ways to save our customers – the public – before the fire starts. It can be done and it must be done.
We have to think of protecting lives from the threat of fire in broader terms – it’s not just pulling up at a scene, hoping it’s not too late for a rescue. This goal, desire, dream, vision or cause is the right and noble thing to do as firefighters, isn’t it? I hope we are all in this business for this same reason.
In keeping with that vision, we must come back to fire as the root problem, right? Wrong. Human behaviour is the problem. I’ve been in the fire service now for more than 20 years as a firefighter, fire prevention officer, government advisor, public educator and fire investigator. My experiences have taught me that this fire we fight may be bigger than we think.
I remember my first fatal fire: an elderly man died in a shack that he lived in and called home. I remember my second fatal fire: a husband and wife died after careless cooking, with alcohol being a factor. The list goes on. Somewhere along the way I didn’t feel right, and thought that perhaps I had more to offer than trying to save people from burning buildings – which, quite frankly, I’ve never done; it seemed we (the fire trucks) were always too late.
provincial acts across the country. I’m being a little facetious here on purpose. In recent years I’ve asked myself why we have all these boxes. Why can’t we become a little more proficient at joining some of these boxes and become even stronger in our fire fight? We’ve done this with our vehicles – we’ve combined pumpers and aerial trucks and call them quints; we’ve combined pumpers and rescue trucks and call them rescue/ pumpers. This concept could surely work if we combine our personnel roles.
KeN SheridaN
After searching for many years, I discovered a key to all of this chaos – people.
Interestingly, I remember the rush of riding the trucks. Pulling up at a structure fire creates an incredible sense of super-heroism, expecting to perform feats of greatness. And yet, I was there to do what I could to save life and property, and I took that responsibility seriously. Good thing I was young and fearless. I recall the overwhelming sense of accomplishment and the intense adrenalin rush I felt when the fire was out. On most days, I felt good about my fire department and myself. I didn’t have that feeling when somebody died or was injured. Even witnessing the loss of a family pet bothered me.
After searching for many years, I discovered a key to all of this chaos – people.
As a fire service, we have nicely divided our organization into neat boxes. We have the frontline troops – the women and men who ride the rigs and do combat in the field, always fighting from behind (because nobody called them before the fire started). We have the training people doing a bang-up job equipping those folks on the frontlines with skills and knowledge. We have fire prevention people who inspect buildings and do “their” thing at schools, passing on a little education to fill some mandate written in
If we are to be honest with ourselves, we must see destructive fire as a bad thing. That means that we may have to open up and examine why we do what we do. Do we just want to put out fires, hoping nobody gets hurt (or worse) in the process, including ourselves or our comrades? Maybe it’s time to restructure our views about fire and the people who cause the fires. It baffles me that more fire-service personnel haven’t caught on to public education from a firefighter perspective. Every now and then, I hear of a success story in which some firefighter has championed fire safety education in his/ her municipality. That’s great. Perhaps these people have finally got tired of the needless deaths and injuries caused by human negligence and fire. These champions are generally not motivated by money or prestige, but rather by personal satisfaction and a sense of duty. I believe it’s time we consider collectively changing our approach to fire fighting. Is this even possible? Should we do it? Can we do it?
There are many blogs and forums on the Internet about fire fighting and the fire service in general. There are few writers who spend time on public fire safety. Perhaps this is an indicator of what we know – or how much we care – about making public fire safety education a priority.
In the next three columns – in April, July and October – I will look at how to expand our ability to educate ourselves and how to more efficiently educate the public about fire and ways to protect themselves from it. Although some full-time fire departments have dedicated public fire and life safety educators, other municipalities lack honest, consistent programs. It is not really about the size or geographical location of your department or even – dare I say? – money. It’s about people, and our attitudes toward their safety and knowledge of fire and its devastating outcomes.
Ken Sheridan is captain of fire prevention in Norfolk County, Ont. He is a certified fire prevention officer and certified fire and life safety educator for the Province of Ontario. He is a graduate of the Dalhousie University fire administration program and has more than 21 years in fire suppression and fire prevention. Contact him at ken.sheridan@norfolkcounty.ca
Hurricane havoc
Volunteers tackle multiple challenges as Igor strikes Newfoundland
By Kirk Squires
On the morning of Sept. 21, fire departments across eastern Newfoundland were tasked with protecting the public from firefighters’ traditional ally: water.
In fewer than 24 hours, Hurricane Igor dumped more than 200 millimetres of rain on the eastern portion of the island and battered the region with hurricane-force winds. The hardest-hit areas ran from the Burin Peninsula on the province’s southern coast to the Bonavista Peninsula in the north.
More than 150 roads and bridges were washed out, close to 80 communities were left isolated and the storm claimed the life of Allan Duffet of Britannia, Random Island, when the road on which he was standing collapsed. The damage to infrastructure and personal property was widespread, with initial cost estimates in excess of $100 million.
Through the height of the storm, and in the days that followed, it was the local fire departments – the vast majority of them volunteer – that provided unwavering first response service to residents. Clarenville, approximately 180 kilometres west of St. John’s, was the first community to officially declare a state of emergency. The fire department was one of the first groups to jump into action.
“We immediately started our emergency centre and made the calls to get the evacuation centres open,” says Fire Chief Cory Feltham. “First and foremost was public safety. We knew the areas that were in danger so evacuating the people in those areas was the first priority.”
Whether it was for downed power lines, uprooted trees or flooded basements, people called the fire department first. “There were so many calls at the same time; you had to prioritize. A tree across the road wasn’t as urgent as a power line down. Public safety was the priority,” says Feltham. “Make
sure everyone is safe; everything else can be replaced.”
Isolated
The first step in responding to any emergency is getting to the victim. That was the challenge for departments in areas such as Southwest Arm and along much of the Bonavista Peninsula, where fire departments serve multiple communities.
Located in Hodge’s Cove, the Southwest Arm Fire Department serves eight communities – Long Beach, Hodge’s Cove, Caplin Cove, Little Hearts Ease, Butter Cove, Gooseberry Cove and Southport – stretched along the coast. And according to Southwest Arm Asst. Chief Randell Meadus, every one of those communities was cut off
Above: Roads in several Newfoundland communities, including this one in Port Rexton, were washed out by the force of the water rising around them during Hurricane Igor in September.
Photo
by washouts. In his 26 years as a firefighter, Meadus has seen every kind of emergency, but admits this is the first time he witnessed this level of widespread devastation. But, he says, the firefighters took it in stride. “It wasn’t a big panic. Right out of the gate, we figured out what we had to do, get it in action, get the gear in place and start from there.”
In one instance, the department responded to a call involving a woman requiring immediate medical assistance. The only way to get her to hospital was to leapfrog over and around the numerous washouts. The first step was getting her out of the community by boat. Rather than risk any discomfort to the patient, they didn’t bring her to the boat, they brought the boat to her.
“We put the boat on the trailer and towed the boat and trailer into the patio, laid her into the boat on a stretcher from the deck, and launched the boat into the water to transport her across the harbour,” explains Meadus.
On the other side, she was stretchered into a waiting van and driven to the next washout, brought across that chasm to another waiting van. That van brought her to another local wharf where she was loaded aboard another boat to get past the last major washout. “We got her to Long Beach where we could get her into an ambulance and transported to hospital.”
At one point, the Southwest Arm department had three ambulances coming out of Clarenville into Long Beach for patients.
“We had a man with a massive heart
attack, the lady we had to put on the boat and another lady who fell down and broke her collarbone and ribs. They all got to the hospital,” says Meadus. Unfortunately, despite the efforts of the firefighters, the heart attack victim didn’t survive. “The guys did everything humanly possible to bring him back.”
When not responding to emergency calls, the Southwest Arm department, like so many others, was co-ordinating relief efforts. “We had a meeting with the owners of local shops and they made an order of what they needed,” explains Meadus. “Trucks came to Long Beach and we had the boats in place to deliver goods to the stores.”
The department, along with local residents who offered their assistance, did whatever was needed. Meadus says two firefighters volunteered to go by boat in very high winds to get crucial heart medication to a woman in Hodge’s Cove.
Meadus has high praise for the members of his department. “The phone and radio I was connected to would have been useless if I didn’t have the crews able and willing to respond.”
Sense of community
Along with providing command services throughout the storm, local fire departments were a haven for those unable to get home. The Port Rexton Fire Department was home to 22 people – local residents and holiday travellers – stranded by washouts. Even the department’s own vehicles were rendered useless.
“Neither could go more than a mile in either direction because of road washouts. The equipment carrier stood guard at the 30-foot gorge that used to be a small brook and bridge to the east of the fire hall.” Instead, the department relied on personal ATVs and four-wheel drives that could navigate around the washouts. “We knew by noon we were in trouble, so the call went out,” says firefighter Sarah Morgan.
According to Morgan, the Port Rexton Fire Department is a family affair. Tracy and Terry Ricketts, both members of the department, were unable to reach their home. The couple and their 10-year-old daughter Victoria spent that first day and night serving their community and the 22 people who found themselves cut off from the rest of the world. In the days that followed, firefighter David Ellis organized a traditional Newfoundland kitchen party, complete with a Screech-in, to lift spirits. The following night saw a candlelit turkey dinner for the fire department’s guests.
Morgan says throughout the response efforts to Hurricane Igor, members took
note of how they could be more prepared if a similar emergency were to arise again. “As a fire department, we are always trying to improve, so we are thinking of putting together a stash of blankets and pillows. Just general things you need. We had people there for six days,” she says. “We were lucky though. We had access to a local store so we were able to get things like toothbrushes. And we went to the school to borrow the gym mats so
Volunteer firefighters used available resources to rescue residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Igor. Melrose, N.L. (above), near the eastern tip of the Bonavista Peninsula, was among several flooded regions.
The community of Trouty, N.L., was among the worst hit by Hurricane Igor.
Photo
Photo
The magnitude of the damage from Hurricane Igor, which challenged first responders, is evident in this image from Elliston, N.L.
people could have something to sleep on other than the concrete floor.”
While taking care of those stranded by the storm, the fire department continued to answer calls and spent long hours pumping out basements, clearing away felled trees and bringing food and medications to those stranded at home. They also co-ordinated with other departments, such as Princeton, to get supplies to other stranded communities by rerouting through logging roads, side roads and paths on ATVs.
“At one point, everyone who lived in the surrounding communities, if they could get to us, could get a hot meal. We were also putting together little meals that we could bring out. That’s what it is all about,” says Morgan.
The aftermath
Many of the volunteer fire departments involved in first response to Igor are now in the process of looking at the lessons learned. Several of those departments have been impacted heavily on a financial scale. Igor put departments such as the Summerville-PrincetonSouthern Bay Volunteer Fire Department in the red.
Morgan says the Port Rexton department was also impacted financially, but adds that the people who found shelter through the storm were quick to offer donations when the ordeal was over. “We had quite a bill because we provided food and gas. Right now we have $1,600 in donations and that is much needed because our PPE is getting pretty old.”
For some other departments, the emergency hit closer to home. The Five Coves Fire Department on the Bonavista Peninsula was evacuated when water flooded the fire hall. Members had to rush to get apparatuses and firefighting gear and equipment to higher ground at the community centre.
Through Igor, fire departments and volunteer firefighters were the first to respond to protect their communities and local residents. While firefighters across the region affected by Igor are not looking for thanks, they do carry a strong sense of pride in being volunteer firefighters and being the first to respond when their community requires assistance. That sense of pride is apparent in the words of Sarah Morgan.
“Any volunteer fire department is the hub of the community in so many ways. It’s why I joined.”
Kirk Squires is a freelance writer in Clarenville, N.L.
Live burn - part 2
Plenty of planning key to successful training exercise
By Mark van der Feyst
In the July 2010 issue of Canadian Firefigher and EMS Quarterly we discussed important factors to consider when setting up a live fire training exercise, including an acquired structure versus a fixed facility. Before embarking on live fire training, it’s important to set out the objectives of the exercise and recognize the limitations of this kind of training.
A live fire exercise is not the place to work on pump operations. In a live fire exercise, an experienced pump operator needs to be assigned to each apparatus being used as primary and secondary water supplies. This will ensure that there is no interruption in the water flow and that there is an adequate amount of pressure in the hand lines.
Live fire training is also not an appropriate setting in which to practise mayday drills. The term mayday should be reserved for actual emergencies so that when a mayday is called, it will be responded to appropriately, without confusion.
A major training component for all firefighters is the rescue of civilian victims from inside a structure. NFPA 1403 forbids the use of live victims any time fire is present but using training manikins in live fire exercises, nicely replicates the experience of rescuing real victims
Live fire exercises are also not appropriate settings for flashover recognition training. Flashover training is valuable but only in a properly constructed container designed for this type of exercise. Using an acquired structure, or even a fixed facility, for flashover training will produce
fatal results. If you are following NFPA 1403 correctly, there will be no flammable or combustible material inside an acquired structure or fixed facility such as furnishings, floor coverings or certain types of wall coverings. Without these items present, the chance of flashover is greatly reduced.
Ideally, fixed or acquired structure training should focus on the basics of fire fighting, including forcible entry, ventilation, search and rescue, laddering, hose advancement, fire attack and overhaul. Incident command can also be practised, provided there is an instructor with the student/firefighter who is in command.
Forcible entry
Forcible entry isn’t practised enough and some firefighters don’t have ample opportunity to use their skills. Forcible entry can
Forcible entry can be incorporated into the scenarios during live fire training.
Photo by mark van der Feyst
be incorporated into the scenarios during live fire training. It’s easy to build a door prop for a fixed facility or acquired structure (see photo 14). The door in photo 1 was taken from the inside of the structure and was placed into a makeshift doorframe, using the front porch support posts. The door is not blocking any primary means of access or egress and it was designed to be away from the front door. The idea is to make the initial inside truck crew force open the “front door.” No attack crews can go into the structure until the door has been forced open. This part of the exercise must be timed with the ignition officers inside the structure. Once the door has been forced open, the inside truck crew can conduct its primary search.
Ventilation
There are several ways to practise ventilation; the easiest way is to practise hydraulic ventilation once the fire has been knocked down. It is essential to ensure proper instruction on hydraulic ventilation. It will be necessary to go to the roof to train firefighters to cut ventilation holes, but this may not be feasible on a fixed facility. This exercise goes hand in hand with laddering skills. Laddering the building to get to the roof, bringing up the required tools, sounding the roof and then cutting a vent hole are all part of one assigned task.
Using wooden skids on the roof of a fixed facility, students can practise cutting through wooden material with an axe or chainsaw. On an acquired structure, this can be accomplished by going onto the roof. Careful attention is needed to ensure that the roof can support the weight of the assigned crew. Some acquired structures will have enough roof space to allow a team to cut a series of vent holes without being over the top of the fire.
This practice is realistic, as firefighters are cutting through actual roofing materials to make a decent-sized vent hole. Using wooden skids also works, as described for the fixed facility.
Search and rescue
Every scenario should include a search for victims – or manikins. Search and rescue and the declaration of an “all clear” is a major benchmark that must be reached for all primary and secondary searches. I have seen instructors place victims (manikins) in unrealistic areas such as inside the fridge, on the top shelf of a closet or cupboard or stuffed in a hole in the wall. The four most common places in which victims are found are near windows, near doors, at the fire location and in their beds. Placing manikins in these locations gives firefighters an opportunity to exercise their search skills. We can also have manikins hanging halfway out the windows; this reinforces the need to do a complete walk-around and also allows
Only the house portion, not the garage area, was being used for live fire training. This allowed crews to practise getting to the roof and cutting vent holes.
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for opportunities to practise using ladders to affect rescues from the outside rather than from the inside. Training on special tactics such as vent, enter and search (VES) is also a good way to reinforce the skills needed to rescue people. This requires a window prop to be built that allows firefighters to “break” glass and then enter a room. Knowledge about conducting VES is essential.
laddering
Laddering can be incorporated into every assigned task. Hose lines can be advanced up a ladder, victims can be brought down a ladder, and ladders can be put up for firefighter survival reasons. One or two people can raise a ladder; the fire ground on the outside is a good place to practise laddering.
Hose advancement
Firefighters gaining entry and exit using a ground ladder.
Live fire training also affords a great opportunity to practise hose advancement. Depending upon the scenario, the attack crew and the backup line crew will be advancing hose up the stairs, down the stairs, around corners or even up ladders. This is also a good opportunity to practise advancing hose with two-person or three-person teams. Given that most departments operate with two- or three-person teams, this is the place to perfect the skills needed to advance hose.
Fire attack
Fire attack is the main reason we conduct live fire training. The opportunity to suppress a fire is not always available to all firefighters, so we must practise through training using class A materials or propanefed towers. Usually live fire training involves an offensive attack; we rarely practise setting up a defensive attack first, then going offensive. The training ground is the perfect place to practise these different types of scenarios. During training, we can build a controlled fire in a safe setting and experiment with these different tactics.
Overhaul
In acquired structures, overhaul will be trained on at the conclusion of every evolution. Once the fire has been knocked down, overhaul has to take place; if overhaul is not accomplished, the whole structure will be lost with fire extending to the roof. In a fixed facility, the only way to practise this is by overhauling the burn pile. This is not very effective, but practise nonetheless.
Live fire training helps firefighters improve and develop everyday skills. As instructors, knowing exactly what you want to train on is the key to a successful live fire exercise.
Mark van der Feyst is an 11-year veteran of the fire service. He works for the City of Woodstock Fire Department in Ontario. Mark is an international instructor teaching in Canada, the United States and India. He is a local level suppression instructor for the Pennsylvania State Fire Academy, an instructor for the Justice Institute of British Columbia and a professor of fire science at Lambton College. E-mail him at Mark@ FireStarTraining.com.
Photo by m ark van der Feyst
By Rosie Lombardi
AChallenges and changes
Retiring Toronto EMS chief reflects on evolution of service
s the City of Toronto EMS chief, Bruce Farr has led the charge in emergency responses to crises such as the SARS epidemic in 2003, the G20 riots last summer and many others. But the 63-year-old chief is retiring in February after a long and distinguished 39-year tenure providing – and advancing – emergency services in Canada’s largest and most challenging city.
Toronto EMS is a huge, complex beast. The service responds to more than 700 emergency medical calls a day – 24 hours a day, seven days a week – and employs more than 850 paramedics and 150 dispatchers, who are supported by a fleet of 150 ambulances.
“We didn’t have a sophisticated method of tiered response, like we do today, to pre-alert a fire truck and a paramedic unit simultaneously to life-threatening emergency calls.”
Farr has been a leader in shaping the emerging profession of paramedicine and emergency medical dispatch. He joined the service in 1972 as an ambulance driver and attendant. He later became a trainer, and in 1980 he worked in the commissioner’s office to improve paramedic training programs and transform them into community college programs. In the midst of the SARS epidemic, Farr became chief.
Farr has played a significant role over the years in introducing standards that have transformed Toronto EMS into a sophisticated, modern service. He oversaw the implementation of a program that allows paramedics to bypass the usual procedures for patients suffering heart attacks and rush them straight to cardio centres, as well as a system that allows paramedics to refer lowpriority patients to community health spe-
Retiring
cialists instead of taking them to hospitals.
Today, paramedics save lives by performing many emergency procedures at the scene that were once the preserve of hospital emergency rooms. But it was not always so. When Farr first began working as an ambulance attendant in 1972, staff were given a mere month of training before they were sent out into the field. “Compared to the service we provide today, it was just first aid then,” he says.
The concept of a paramedic as we know it today – someone who is not a doctor but can independently perform emergency medical procedures – didn’t exist then, even in lifethreatening situations, says Farr. “Although we were trained to provide CPR, we couldn’t legally perform it unless we were directed
to do so by a physician. The provision of CPR outside a hospital didn’t take shape in Ontario until 1975.”
Over the years, attitudes and training have changed significantly. The initial onemonth course Farr took has grown into a formal two-year community college program for primary care paramedics. Farr was involved in developing a more intensive threeyear program for advanced care paramedics. Communications technology has also evolved over the years to facilitate faster, more targeted responses. Today, 911 call centres can handle sudden spikes in calls; GPS and other advanced technology is used to get an exact fix on the caller’s location, and field staff are equipped with mobile communications.
Toronto EMS Chief Bruce Farr says fire and EMS personnel have a solid and professional working relationship that he hopes will continue to improve.
“The 911 service didn’t start in Toronto until 1982,” Farr says. “Before then, there was one seven-digit emergency phone number for the city. If a bad accident happened in a highrise apartment and 30 people called about it, this surge in calls would completely jam emergency communications for that section of the city. That can’t happen today –switching to 911 was a very good thing for the city.”
The roles of EMS and firefighters, and the processes they use to respond to calls, have also evolved into a well-oiled system that works with maximum efficiency to save pre-
cious time and lives. Back in the ’70s, EMS staff were typically dispatched to incidents first, and they, in turn, would call the fire service if the situation required more resources.
“We didn’t have a sophisticated method of tiered response, like we do today, to pre-alert a fire truck and a paramedic unit simultaneously to life-threatening emergency calls,” Farr says.
An advanced system of triage that separates low-priority calls from high-priority calls has been developed over the years, initiating a series of responses while the caller is still on the line.
“We use a medical algorithm approved by our medical directors that determines under which circumstances EMS and fire need to respond together. In the past, we would respond with lights and sirens to a greater number of calls than we do today.”
The fire service’s assistance handling medical emergencies in many tough situations has been invaluable, says Farr.
“If you think about all the highrise apartments in Toronto that we have to get into and all the different types of access issues we might have, it makes sense to have a tiered response with the fire service.”
Firefighters are also better trained to assist in medical emergencies than they were in the past, and they’re a critical component of emergency medical resourcing.
“They’re well trained in first-responder programs, so they’re able to provide support to the community in medical emergencies. When EMS take a patient to the hospital, they may often get trapped there because there are always so many things to do –sometimes it’s difficult to get EMS resources back to the point where they can fully respond to new calls.”
Any major disaster that hits Toronto is a challenge, but Farr says the SARS crisis was the toughest roadblock he faced in his career.
“Never before in my career have I had to communicate to my staff that many of their colleagues were in intensive care at the hospital, and we didn’t know what outcome to expect because we didn’t know what we were dealing with. It was all new ground because there was no blueprint to follow, and we had no specific information about the cause of the disease,” Farr says. “As SARS evolved, we learned to protect ourselves, and the firefighters and police who were working with us.”
Farr says he will still be available to provide guidance after he retires, and will be back as a pioneer (EMS alumni) to attend events. He looks forward to EMS and the fire service working closely together to help each other during future crises, as they have in the past.
“We work as a team, each with its own specialty. For example, in a recent highrise fire, firefighters were there to put out the fire and help the residents to safety, while EMS was right there with them to treat victims and also to treat firefighters who were affected by the heat and strain of fighting the fire.”
Rosie Lombardi is a Toronto-based freelance writer and regular contributor to Canadian Firefighter and EMS Quarterly.
CAREERS IN FIRE FIGHTING 2011
Fire fighting is a challenging and rewarding career. If you’re thinking about becoming a firefighter, here are some things to consider. By Kory Pearn
Planning for your future
High school is a great time to start planning for a career in fire fighting. Students who recognize their passion for becoming a firefighter at an early age have a great head start on their future. Tailoring your academics to complement your aspirations of becoming a firefighter is wise and is encouraged. However, most high school courses will support your career choice. You should be aware that a few postsecondary firefighting programs require math, English and sciences.
Fire department chemistry
It’s paramount that firefighters responding to emergencies work together as a team to neutralize any emergency situation. Being a team player is definitely something fire departments look for in recruits. Being involved on sports teams in high school can help to demonstrate your ability be a team player. Also, being an active member of your community, such as volunteering your time with children or seniors or at the local food bank, for example, also improves your chances of getting hired.
It’s critical that potential firefighter recruits achieve the minimum education level. There is no point thinking about getting hired by a fire department if you don’t have the credentials (check fire department websites to determine their minimum education requirements). It is also good to have a plan B, such as a trade or a degree, in case you are not immediately hired by a fire department.
Municipal firefighter recruitment process
Fire department recruitment processes vary. Each fire department can establish its own recruitment process and the minimum qualifications and standards it requires.
Recruitment processes can be complicated or they can be simple. The objective of a fire department recruitment process is to determine an applicant’s aptitude for fire fighting. Fire departments use multiple evaluations to determine each applicant’s ability to execute firefighting-related tasks, the ability to function under physical exertion, the overall health and fitness level of each applicant and the ability to understand written and verbal information. Recruitment programs help fire departments determine which candidates possess the skills, aptitude, attitude and abilities needed to be a successful firefighter. Potential firefighter candidates must be successful at each stage of the recruitment program to be considered for employment.
Recruitment program stages
• Candidates submit their application before the deadline
• Chosen candidates write an aptitude test
• Candidates are notified of test results
• Successful applicants are notified of first interview
• Successful applicants are notified of second interview
• Physical ability test is arranged
• Candidates undergo medical examination
• References are contacted
• Conditional job offer is made
Choosing a firefighting program
You want to attend fire school but you’re not sure what course to take or which school to attend. Finding the answers can be difficult. It’s one thing to find a good fire school but it’s another to find the right fire school. Choosing the perfect fire school program depends on criteria such as where you live, because different regions endorse
different fire programs or schools. When choosing a fire school or program ask the following questions:
• Is the program recognized by fire departments in the region(s) in which you want to work?
• Does the program offer distance learning?
• Does the program meet the standards required by fire departments in your region?
The last thing you want to do is to spend your time and money on a fire program that isn’t recognized or accredited. Governments and organizations regulate the standards of fire training and accredit schools to teach to these standards. These regulations are in place to ensure that students receive a level of training that provides a strong foundation on which to start their firefighting careers.
What about my age?
Don’t allow your age to discourage you from pursuing a career in fire fighting. Fire departments are looking for certain qualities and qualifications. It doesn’t matter whether you are an older recruit or a younger recruit; if you meet the criteria and prove yourself worthy of a job, your chances of getting hired should be among the best.
However, there are advantages and disadvantages to each age category: younger recruits lack life experience but the department gains strength, endurance and a desire to learn; mature recruits have a shorter career window but bring experience, loyalty and work ethic. Not every recruit falls into these categories – there are exceptions –but during recruitment drives departments are generally bombarded with resumes and it’s difficult for departments to weed out the potential recruits.
ADVANCED RESCUE TECHNIQUES
SCHOOL OF CANADA
Contact: Paul Sevcik
5334 Yonge St. #609, Toronto, ON M2N 6V1
Tel: 416-222-2223 or Toll Free: 1-800-785-8855
e-mail: info@rescuetechniques.com
website: www.rescuetechniques.com
Courses: High Angle Rescue, Confined Space Rescue,Swift Water Rescue, Ice Rescue, Search and Rescue.
ALGONQUIN COLLEGE
Contact: Randy Foster, Coordinator 1385 Woodroffe Ave., Ottawa, ON K2G 1V8
Courses: The Pre-service Firefighter Education and Training certificate progam provides a theoretical/lab basis for entry to the career of firefighter. Students develop a sound understanding of fire science principles, practices of fire prevention, suppression, rescue, emergency patient care, and community service. Students can practice their knowledge and skills in a pre-graduate experience in level 3 of the program.
CANADIAN CRITICAL INCIDENT STRESS FOUNDATION (CCISF) and BGF ENTERPRISES
Contact: Murray Firth (CCISF), Karen Ness (BGF) 52 George St., Creemore, ON L0M 1G0
Tel: 705-466-5706 e-mail: bgf.enterprises@sympatico.ca Courses: Group and Individual Crisis Intervention Courses using International Critical Incident Stress Foundation Courses (www.icisf.org).
COLLEGE OF THE ROCKIES
Contact: Judy Kolesar, Ron McRae
Box 8500, 2700 College Way, Cranbrook, BC V1C 5L7
Tel: 250-489-2751 Ext. 3216
e-mail: kolesar@cotr.bc.ca website: www.cotr.bc.ca Courses: Firefighter I and II; Hazmat Awareness; Operations; Airbrakes; Class 3 Driver; EVO; Vehicle Rescue Technician; BC Medical First Responder Level 3; EMR; Fire Suppression S100, S185 and S215; Basic Chainsaw; Incident Command Systems 100 & 200; Industrial Firefighter; Confined Space Rescue Technician.
COLUMBIA SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY
PO Box 3110, 25326 Canal Road, Orange Beach, AL 36561
Tel: 251-981-3771 or Toll Free: 1-800-977-8449 Ext. 149 website: www.columbiasouthern.edu
Courses: All Hazards Training: Technical Rescue, HazMat, WMD, Emergency Management; Exercises: Table Top, Functional, Full Scale; Planning Services: Writing, Revisions
DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY, COLLEGE OF CONTINUING EDUCATION
Contact: Gwen Doary
Dalhousie University, College of Continuing Education, Fire Management Certificate Programs, 1535 Dresden Row, Suite 201, Halifax, NS B3J 3T1
Tel: 902-494-8838
e-mail: gwen.doary@dal.ca
website: www.collegeofcontinuinged.dal.ca
Courses: A total of 16, on the following subjects: Fire Suppression Management, Fire Prevention Management, Strategic Planning, Municipal Government and Service Delivery, Fire Service Law, Municipal Finance, Program Evaluation and Statistics, EMS Management and the Fire Department, Disaster Management and the Fire Department, Personnel Management in the Fire Service, Fire Strategic Planning, Organizational Behaviour, Station Officer: Dealing with People, Station Officer: Dealing with New Operations, the Environment of the Fire Station.
Courses: Premier career planning, interview coaching and professional resume writing services for all levels in the fire services. Interview coaching by face to face or by distance (phone or internet). Personally designed programs for group sessions by request. Personalized career planning and guidance for career firefighters moving forward and preparing for mangement positions.
CAREERS IN FIRE FIGHTING 2011
DURHAM COLLEGE
Fire and Emergency Services
1610 Champlain Ave., Whitby, ON L1N 6A7
Tel: 905-721-3111 Ext. 4069
Courses: Fire Prevention; Public Education; Fire Suppression; Haz-Mat; Emergency First Responder; Defib. Awareness; Patient Care; Search and Rescue, etc.
ECOLE NATIONALE DES POMPIERS DU QUEBEC
Palais de justice de Laval, 2800, boulevard Saint-Martin Ouest, Bureau 3.08, Laval, QC H7T 2S9
Tel: 450-680-6800, Toll Free: 1-866-680-3677 (In Quebec)
website: www.ecoledespompiers.qc.ca
Courses: Programs leading to IFSAC certification: Firefighter 1 and II; Hazmat awareness, Hazmat Operations; Pump Operator; Aerial Operator; Officer I and II, Instructor I and II. Other program: Rural Officer
EMERGENCY SERVICES ACADEMY LTD.
Contact: Darrell Reid, Deputy Chief, FF, EMT-P, MBA, Director ESA; Linda Reid, Finance Manager ESA; Kim Lee, Administrative Assistant ESA. 2nd Floor, 161 Broadway Blvd., Sherwood Park, AB T8H 2A8
Tel: 780-416-8822
e-mail: esacanada@shawbiz.ca
website: www.esacanada.com
Courses: Accessory courses including Technical Rope Rescue, Ice Rescue, Confined Spaces and EMS Refreshers.
FLEMING COLLEGE
599 Brealy Drive, Peterborough, ON K9J 7B1
Tel: 705-749-5530
website: http://www.flemingc.on.ca
Courses: Pre Service Firefighter Education and training
GEORGIAN COLLEGE
1 Georgian Dr., Barrie, ON L4M 3X9
Tel: 705-728-1968
website: www.georgianc.on.ca
Courses: Fire and Emergency Services, Pre-Fire Planning, Emergency Operations, 1,2,3; Emergency First Responder; Rescue and Hazardous Materials Awareness; Communications and Relationships; Practical Fire Training 1, 2; Work Place Communications.
GLOBAL RISK INNOVATIONS
Contact: Judy Smith 87 Law Drive, Guelph, ON N1E 7J7
Tel: 289-891-7718
e-mail: judy@globalriskinnovations.com
website: www.globalriskinnovations.com
Courses: Global Risk Innovations is the provider of PreventionLink, a complete online training solution for fire departments across Canada. PreventionLink works to maintain compliance, promote safety, reduce losses, and assist with risk management and documentation. It provides several course platforms for Fire and EMS professionals. Global Risk Innovations also provides the Blue Card Command Certification Program designed to instruct Incident Commanders and other fire officers how to standardize incident operations and outcomes department wide.
FESTI
-Fire And Emergency Training Institute
(GREATER TORONTO AIRPORTS AUTHORITY)
PO Box 6031, 2025 Courtneypark Dr., Toronto AMF, ON L5P 1B2
Tel: 416-776-5271 website: www.festi.ca
Courses: The Fire & Emergency Services Training Institute (FESTI) is the single point of access for multiple programs for firefighters interested in recertification or expanding their existing skills. We also provide customized programs to meet the needs of individual fire departments and online training for those that want the flexibility that distance education offers.
HOLLAND COLLEGE
Contact: Sue Norquay
140 Weymouth St., Charlottetown, PE C1A 4Z1
Tel: 902-566-9502 or Toll Free: 1-866-299-3111
e-mail: info@hollandc.pe.ca
website: www.hollandc.pe.ca
Courses: Paramedicine – Primary Care Paramedicine and Advanced Care Paramedicine (CMA accredited).
HUMBER COLLEGE
205 Humber College Blvd., Etobicoke, ON M9W 5L7
Tel: 416-675-6622 Ext. 4694
website: www.humberc.on.ca
Courses: Pre-service Firefighter Education and Training as well as Advanced Specialized Rescue Training, on weekends.
JIBC, Fire and Safety Division
Contact: Michelle Jackson
715 McBride Blvd., New Westminster, BC V3L 5T4
Tel: 604-528-5590 or Toll Free: 1-877-528-5591
e-mail: fire@jibc.ca website: www.jibc.ca/fire
Courses: JIBC is Canada’s leading public safety educator – a dynamic post-secondary institution recognized provincially, nationally and internationally for innovative education and applied research in all areas of public safety. The Fire and Safety Division offers a comprehensive range of education and training designed to meet the needs of the fire service, public and private sector and a broad international market. The Fire and Safety Division also offers Canada’s only Bachelor of Fire and Safety Studies. JIBC educational experiences are enhanced by an impressive range of facilities, training resources, simulations and E-learning. For more information visit www.jibc.ca/fire
LAKELAND COLLEGE
EMERGENCY TRAINING CENTRE
Contact: Denis Cunninghame 5704 College Drive, Vermilion, AB T9X 1K4
Courses: A multi-dimensional emergency services training centre specializing in fire service, emergency medical services, incident command and emergency preparedness training.
Courses: Two post-secondary programs are offered: Pre-service Firefighter Education and Training (one-year
certificate program) and Fire Science Technology (threeyear Ontario College Advanced Diploma program).
Courses include scheduled and custom courses in municipal fire fighting, hazardous material response, industrial fire fighting, confined space entry/rescue, incident command system.
Courses: The Manitoba Emergency Services College is a Canadian leader in firefighter, rescue, hazardous material, fire inspector, building inspector, management, paramedic and emergency services training. The Manitoba Emergency Services College (MESC) is located in Brandon, Manitoba. The Manitoba Emergency Services College takes pride in offering exceptional training opportunities contributing to the building of confident, competent firefighters, rescuers and paramedics. Whether you are seeking a career in the emergency services or if you are currently a member of a local fire service and would like to expand your current knowledge and skills, the MESC has the training that you need.
MARINE INSTITUTE
Contact: Office of Student Recruitment PO Box 4920, St. John’s, NL A1C 5R3
Courses: Located in Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Marine Institute’s Safety and Emergency Response Training (SERT) Centre delivers world-class training in:
• Firefighting • High Angle Rescue • First Aid
• Hazardous incident identification and response
• Vehicle extrication • Confined space rescue
MICHIGAN STATE POLICE - EMHSTC
Contact: T. Renee Osborn and Stacy Theis 7426 Osborn, Lansing, MI 48913
Tel: 517-322-5519 and 517-332-6515, respectively e-mail: EMHSTC@michigan.gov website: www.michigan.gov/emhsd-training
Courses: The Emergency Management and Homeland Security Training Center (EMHSTC) offers a comprehensive hands-on approach for hazardous materials and homeland security - designed especially for responders, rescue planners, professionals and instructors on hazardous materials events. Please visit our website at: www.michigan.gov/emhsd-training
NORTHERN COLLEGE
PO Box 3211,Timmins ON P4N 8R6
Tel: 705-235-3211 ext. 2121
website: www.northern.on.ca
Courses: Pre Service Firefighter Education and training
NOVA SCOTIA FIREFIGHTERS SCHOOL
Contact: John S. Cunningham, Executive Director 48 Powder Mill Rd., Waverley, NS B2R 1E9
Courses: Agricultural Machinery and Heavy Equipment Rescue, Confined Space Rescue, Emergency Patient Care Instructor Level, Firefighter Emergency Patient Care, Fire Cause Determination, Handling Propane Emergencies, Managing a High Rise Emergency, Pumper Operations, Pumper Operations — Train the Trainer, Public Educator; Volunteer Firefighter Modules, Recruit Training, Flashover Recognition and Survival Training, Community and Environmental Impact of Fire, Fire Prevention Seminars, Executive Development Seminars; Mechanical Officer Seminar, Training Officer Seminar.
PERFORMANCE TRAINING SYSTEMS, INC.
Contact: Dr. Ben A. Hirst, Vice President 250 S. Central Blvd., Ste. 108, Jupiter, FL 33458
Courses: Testing Materials and Services: • Firefighter promotion and selection testing • Web-based firefighter certification • Firefighterexamprep.com • Firefighter exam prep books published by Jones & Bartlett Learning.
PORTAGE COLLEGE
Contact: Martin Marshall
9531 - 94 Ave., Lac La Biche, AB T0A 2C0
Tel: 780-623-6696
e-mail: martin.marshall@portagecollege.ca
website: www.portagecollege.ca
Courses: Emergency Medical Responder (EMR), Emergency Medical Technician (EMT-A), Emergency Medical Technologist Paramedic (EMT-P).
SENECA COLLEGE
Contact: Stu Evans
1750 Finch Ave. E., Toronto, ON M2J 2X5
Tel: 416-491-5050 Ext. 2394
e-mail: stuart.evans@senecac.on.ca
website: www.senecac.on.ca/fire
Courses: The pre-service firefighting program is a new 1-year recruit training program available both to full-time and part-time. The full-time 2-year or 3-year diploma programs are fire science-based with available option courses in firefighting.
MANITOBA EMERGENCY SERVICES COLLEGE
“Training To Save Lives”
For more information, visit us online at: www.firecomm.gov.mb.ca
ST. CLAIR COLLEGE of Applied Arts and Technology
Contact: Dann Dancey, Co-ordinator, Public Safety Institute, Tel: 519-972-2728 Ext. 243, Fax: 519-945-0747; Greg Skomash, Paramedic Program, Tel: 519-972-2727
Ext. 4354.
3600 Rhodes Dr., Windsor, ON N8W 5A4
Tel: 519-945-4007
e-mail: ddancey@stclaircollege.ca OR gskomash@ stclaircollege.ca
website: www.stclaircollege.ca
Courses: Firefighter: Confined Space, Trans. Rescue, Fire Extinguisher Training, Search and Rescue, Security Officer Training. Paramedic Courses: Various to ensure eligibility to write the Ont. Ministry of Health’s Advanced EMCA (primary care paramedic) examination.
RS RESCUE
Contact: John O’Blenis
88 Townline Road, Orangeville, ON L9W 1V8
Tel: 416-970-3325
e-mail: johnnyo@rsrescue.com
website: www.rsrescue.com
Courses: RS Rescue implements high standards on their instructors to ensure that only current, accurate and relevant extriacation information and techniques are delivered to their students. We are committed to providing only the highest level of training in the extrication field.
YOUR FIREFIGHTING CAREER RESOURCE
INTEGRATION ISSUES
Colleges tackle challenges of communication among first responders
By Stefanie Wallace
First responders play a vital role in the communities they serve but the way they interact with each other needs work.
Often police, fire and EMS personnel don’t understand one another’s roles at emergency scenes and, in many cases, their radios are not compatible so they can’t communicate. While a committee of Canadian police, fire and EMS representatives is tackling the communication and interoperability issue, two Canadian colleges are working to improve the levels of understanding and respect among the three professions.
Lambton College in Sarnia, Ont., and Lakeland College in Vermilion, Alta., are teaching their students key elements of first response – such as incident command – that are common to all three professions.
“Ninety-nine per cent of the time, we have to work together,” says Carol Lynn Chambers, the chief and associate dean of Lambton College’s School of Fire Science and Public Safety and the Industrial Fire School. Chambers uses a car accident scenario as an example.
“Police will be controlling traffic so nobody else gets hit,” Chambers explains. “Fire is sometimes the first response and they need to be able to open the vehicle to get access to the patient and start administering first emergency medical response, and then the paramedics need to be able to smoothly take over that patient and get them in an ambulance to the hospital.”
Although the individual roles and skills of the first responders are essential, Chambers says being able to efficiently use those skills to work together is equally as important. A lack of interaction among the three streams can put a victim’s life at risk.
“A lot of individuals know other individuals in other services. But you may not be working with people you know, and you can’t count on that,” Chambers says. “If everybody comes knowing and respecting what everybody else’s job is, they can deal with this incident as quickly and effectively as they can. There’s a huge opportunity to be more effective together.”
Chambers says part of the interoperability problem can be blamed on the schools. “Historically, colleges and training institutions train these students separately. They learn their specific skills, but what’s equally important in our minds is that they’re able to use those skills in a co-operative, smooth and efficient way,” she says.
Both Lambton and Lakeland colleges are trying to change the way students learn by teaching them the value of teamwork before it’s too late. Chambers says there’s a role for everybody at emergency scenes, and Lambton’s goal is to ensure students know that from the get-go.
“We’re introducing some curriculum that is common to all the disciplines, like incident management systems, emergency preparedness and community prevention,” Chambers says.
Typically, only fire students learn incident command. However, the province of Ontario, through the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, has implemented a new incident management system that offers many new courses that will be implemented into all of Lambton’s first response programs.
“We’re keeping the discipline-specific courses separate, but introducing pieces of curriculum that are common to all disciplines, like emergency preparedness, community risk management and prevention strategies, be it health promotion or fire and crime prevention,” she says.
Even though the topics may be different, the strategies are the same, Chambers explains. “We’re trying to find those common elements and really draw those out so students are learning the same systems.”
Learning skills in a classroom is a good start, but putting those skills to the test is what counts. A $10-million, provincially and federally funded facility called the Lambton College Centre of Excellence in Public Safety and Emergency Response, to be completed in March 2011, is being built to give students a place to test their knowledge.
“We’re creating the environment at this new facility where students can practise those skills together,” says Chambers.
Lambton College president Tony Hanlon and vice-president academic Judy Morris had a vision for a bigger and more modern program, and brought in Chambers, a Lambton grad who has a fireservice background, to develop it. The new facility will also host workshops in the spring for those who may be considering a career in emergency services.
In the meantime, changes have been made to the curriculum to get the ball rolling, including implementing the incident management system.
“We’ve integrated IMS-100 (the very basic course) into the curriculums of law enforcement and security, police foundations, paramedic and fire,” says Chambers. “For fall 2011, we will be ramping that up to include more inter-disciplinary learning and skills practice once our new facility is open.”
Besides high school graduates, Chambers sees ample opportunity for existing first responders to further their studies. “At the leadership development level – the sergeants, the platoon chiefs – there’s really not a lot other than discipline-specific courses to enable them to be community emergency service leaders,” she says. “We want people to come back to college and take public safety management diplomas and collaborative degrees,” Chambers adds, estimating programs like this will start to develop in 2012.
Chambers also encourages prospective mature students to consider a career in first responders, regardless of their age.
“I strongly believe we are missing out on a number of great people who would make wonderful emergency responders who have maybe not considered this as a career before,” she says.
“Yes, there are high standards and there are physical requirements, but we need students who are quick thinkers, problem solvers, good with teamwork and can communicate with one another,” she adds, noting that mature students are often full of these positive qualities because they have life experience.
The college also hopes for more diversity within the programs, Chambers adds. “We are encouraging young women to consider fire service careers. We’re missing out on a wonderful
group of people who would make very good emergency services responders. We’re not lowering our requirements, but you should aspire to meet them.”
In western Canada, Lakeland College’s efforts to abolish the interoperability problem go back to the mid-1990s, says Kirk McInroy, manager of technical services and acting associate dean of Lakeland’s emergency training centre.
“A lot of the departments were integrating fire and ambulance, and then the government of Alberta Health and Wellness took over the ambulance systems. Some of the departments that were integrated are being split up again,” says McInroy.
“We’ve always been pro-integration, and we started a diploma program in 1995-96 which incorporates the firefighting and medical stream into a one-year program, called the emergency services technician (EST) program. When students leave here, they will have their basic firefighting and EMT training.”
Students enrolled in the EST program, the only one of its kind in Canada, take core training classes in both emergency medical services and fire fighting before specializing in one of the disciplines. Firefighting students receive their NFPA level 1 and level 2 designations, and students in the health stream earn their EMTA designation, learning from the pros.
“We have a real variety of instructors,” McInroy says, including firefighters that come from full-time and volunteer departments, as well as some coming from airport fire fighting and the military and retired fire chiefs and inspectors. Students will complete on-site practicums at hospitals and on fire services.
“Combined service is great because they can do both at the same time.” McInroy says fire and ambulance services often use similar radio communication systems so they can pick up the same radio signals, helping to bridge the lack of communication, but this isn’t always the case.
“Health, fire and police are all regulated by different ministries, so it’s up to the ministry to put the three together so it will translate to the people working on the floor.”
Integrating paramedics and firefighters is of high importance in Alberta. “There are lots of fire departments that can’t get enough firefighter-paramedics. Departments run advanced life support services, meaning there has to be a paramedic on every ambulance. If you’re running this, it’s hard to get paramedics that are firefightertrained as well,” he says.
He notes there is ample opportunity for firefighters looking to continue their education, as the EST program has seen students ranging in age from late teens to mid-40s. Lakeland College also offers individual day-long or weekend-long courses for those looking to extend their studies.
Regardless of what side of the country you’re in, Chambers and McInroy agree the main goal of these programs is to see all streams of first responders work better together.
“We want to involve the other emergency service disciplines to make this much bigger and much more effective,” Chambers says. “At the end of the day, the indicators of our success are graduates of our programs, who can infuse that culture in their organization towards more effective responses.”
by Wayne Joy
Volunteer firefighters save Mountie in daring rescue
Search for civilian almost tragic for volunteer responders
By John Giggey
Peggy’s Cove, just outside Halifax, is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Nova Scotia. The picturesque village and its famous lighthouse draws an estimated 750,000 visitors a year. When that many people closely interact with an unpredictable Atlantic Ocean, some tragedy is inevitable.
During a November storm, huge waves took the life of one man. Then, the ocean almost claimed an RCMP constable and the three rescuers who went to save him. Here is their story.
A few kilometres down the coastal highway from Peggy’s Cove is Seabright, a village of just over 500 people. That’s where Station 55 of Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency Service is located. The department has 58 fire stations, staffed by about 400 career and 800 volunteer firefighters. Station
55 is first due at emergencies in a number of villages along that section of St. Margaret’s Bay, as well as Peggy’s Cove.
The station is staffed by two career members, a lieutenant and a firefighter, 10.5 hours a day, from 7 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. on weekdays. The rest of the time it is entirely a volunteer operation. If something goes wrong at Peggy’s Cove, Station 55 gets the page. The run is almost 20 minutes. And members have made that trip many times over the years.
It was around 6:20 p.m. on Nov. 6 that the tone came in for a man swept off the rocks at Peggy’s Cove. It was a stormy night; dark, very high winds, heavy rain.
None of the responders knew it yet, but by the time they arrived it would already be too late for the victim, whose body would be recovered more than a week later. But as events unfolded, two firefighters and an RCMP officer would find themselves in that position none of us ever wants to be in: to
have to decide in an instant whether to attempt an extremely high risk rescue with practically no safety gear and no backup. That decision is made even more difficult when the person whose life is at stake is a fellow first responder.
Volunteer firefighter Greg Kutney, a first-year medical student at the Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine in Halifax, was driving Engine 55. Right behind him was Rescue 55 with firefighter Jason Sparkes on board. Rescue boats 56 (Black Point)
Above: The two firefighters and two RCMP officers involved in the Nov. 6 rescue of Const. Chris Richard meet at Peggy’s Cove on Dec. 9 for the first time since the incident. From left are firefighter Jason Sparkes, constables Scott Locke and Richard, and firefighter Greg Kutney. At this time, Richard was still recovering from his injuries and had not yet returned to duty. Waves were washing over these rocks on the night of Nov. 6.
Photo
and 58 (Lakeside) were also on the road. They were about 20 minutes behind the Seabright units.
RCMP Const. Chris Richard, who has been on the force for about four years, would arrive about the same time as the first-in trucks. Another RCMP constable, Scott Locke, would be about five minutes behind.
“We were laying out a plan in the truck,” recalls Kutney. “Once we got a better location on the victim we would radio the other units and tell them where to launch. Then, when we passed the government wharf [at Peggy’s Cove] and saw the waves, we knew
we didn’t need any boats. There was no way to launch anything in those waves.”
On arrival, the firefighters were directed to the parking lot behind the Sou’Wester Restaurant. The waves were so high that water was flowing down the land side of the huge rocks several hundred feet away.
While they were still on the road, Sou’Wester manager John Campbell had taken the time to determine exactly where the victim was last seen. Grabbing some throw bags and life vests, Sparkes and Kutney, along with Const. Richard, headed toward the rocks, with Campbell guiding them.
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Part way up, Kutney gave everybody life jackets. When they got to the top of the rocks, Campbell, who knew this water better than anyone else there, took one look at the waves and told them to stop.
Const. Richard didn’t hear him and continued on for a few feet. The others lost sight of Richard in the darkness and presumed he was checking along the ridge. Their focus was on the man who had been washed away.
Sparkes, a master seaman in the navy, used his spotlight to probe the ocean for any sign of the missing man. But what they saw in the water shocked them all. Reflecting back was the life jacket they had just given Const. Richard. A wave had taken him out and he was already 100 feet away.
“He was too far out,” says Sparkes. “We tried to use throw bags but it didn’t work. There was nothing we could do.”
But just then a large wave picked up the officer and threw him onto the rocks. When it receded, Richard was sprawled and injured on rocks some distance away and near the water.
“I knew this was the one chance,” says Sparkes. “I figured if we don’t go for him now, he’s gone.”
The Atlantic Ocean was not going to wait while a crew was formed and outfitted, a plan formulated, a backup team put in place, and safety lines laid.
Since he was the closest, Sparkes raced to the Mountie. His plan was to lift Richard over a ledge to a higher boulder, then drag him to safer ground. But the officer was dead weight and Sparkes couldn’t lift him.
With another eight-metre wave about to crash down on top of them, Sparkes opted to stay with Richard. Sparkes used his body to pin the officer to the rocks, found a handhold, took a deep breath and hung on. The wave hammered them. He managed to keep his grip as the water receded. By then Kutney and Const. Locke, who had just arrived and didn’t even have a life jacket, were beside him. Together they got the injured officer over the ledge and started the long drag to the top of the rocks.
The fight with the ocean wasn’t over yet. Time and again the crew was knocked down by huge walls of water. Together they would shelter Richard as best they could and hang on to each other, trying not to be washed away. Then they would gain a few more feet up the slope between waves.
Other firefighters from Station 55 came over the top of the hill with a backboard and, thinking they were finally on high enough ground, the group tried to immobilize Richard, who was in severe pain. But another
Battalion Chief John Salka
is a veteran of the FDNY and responded to the 9/11 terror attacks. He is the author of “First In, Last Out - Leadership Lessons from the New York Fire Department” and will share some of the lessons learned after September 11, 2001.
Opening presentation by Deputy Chief Butch Cobb (retired), Jersey City Fire Department. Deputy Chief Cobb responded to the World Trade Centre as mutual aid on 9/11 and was present when the towers fell. He will share stories and lessons learned from the scene.
Saturday April 9th, 2011
Doors opening at 9 a.m.
Presentations finish at 3:30 p.m.
Ilderton Community Bible Church Ilderton, Ontario
Hosted by Middlesex County Mutual Aid Association
Sunday April 10th, 2011
Doors opening at 9 a.m. Presentations finish at 3:30 p.m.
St. Anne’s Secondary School Clinton, Ontario
Hosted by Huron County Mutual Aid Association
wave washed over them. They struggled higher up the slope and tried again, but were again hit by waves.
Finally they got clear of the water. They secured Richard to the backboard, and made the long, treacherous walk back down the rock face on the land side to the parking lot, where paramedics were waiting.
Const. Locke, firefighters Sparkes and Kutney, and several other members of the Station 55 crew, sustained bumps and bruises from being thrown around on the rocks but were otherwise all right.
There was one factor that worked in favour of the rescuers. While the waves hitting them were huge, they weren’t as big as the monster that took the policeman off the rocks in the first place.
“Normally they come in a series of low waves, then larger ones,” says Kutney. “We were lucky that when we got to him there was a series of smaller waves before the larger ones started again.”
Richard was treated by paramedics on the scene and then transported to hospital. He was later released but had not been able to return to work when this issue of Canadian Firefighter and EMS Quarterly went to press in December.
This was not the first time members from Station 55 had performed a dramatic rescue in the face of fierce waves at Peggy’s Cove. Most of the volunteer firefighters in this photo can’t even be seen as a wave crashes ashore during Tropical Storm Noel on Nov. 2, 2007. They are immobilizing a man who strayed too close to the water. He was caught by a huge wave, lifted high in the air, and dropped about six metres to the rocks.
Station 55 volunteer Chief Kevin Smith, who joined the old Seabright Volunteer Fire Department about 24 years ago, has been on calls to Peggy’s Cove many times.
“Generally it’s a medical call or someone falls on the rocks,” he says. “But usually when you get swept off the rocks, you don’t come back.”
This rescue was the third water-related rescue call to Peggy’s Cove in 2010. Some years there aren’t any.
On Dec. 9, firefighters Sparkes and Kutney, and constables Locke and Richard, met at Peggy’s Cove for the first time since the storm. The four walked and climbed part way down the rocks and stood quietly as they looked at the spot, another nine metres below, where Richard had been thrown. Having been there that night myself and having seen the waves, it was hard to imagine how any of them had survived.
Even as Sparkes was making his way down to him, Richard was hit by several waves. If Sparkes had even been just a few more seconds getting to his side, there may not have been a rescue to make.
“I didn’t have anything left,” Richard says. “I knew the next wave would finish me.”
John Giggey is a retired volunteer captain with Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Service and a former senior editor with The Canadian Press. He now works with HRFE in public affairs and publishes the department’s in-house magazine, FeedLine.
Photo by Wayne Joy
Handling side-impact crashes
By Randy Schmitz
Side-impact crashes account for almost 30 per cent of collisions in North America and are the second-leading cause of death and injury to vehicle occupants. More than 10,000 people on North American roadways are killed annually from these types of crashes (1,000 in Canada; 9,000 in the United States).
When a vehicle crashes into the side of another vehicle, even at speeds as low as 35 kilometres per hour, the result is often head trauma or death of the driver or passenger(s) in the vehicle that was struck.
A number of factors can contribute to a passenger’s condition after being involved in a crash, including:
• vehicle mass and type
• drivers and passengers who are not wearing seatbelts
• size and age of the occupants
• seating position of the occupants in the vehicle
• speed of the vehicles prior to impact
All these factors increase the risk of death or of serious injury after being involved in a collision. Therefore, the Canadian and U.S. governments mandate that all new vehicles be equipped with side-impact protection. This is generally accomplished by adding a high-strength metal beam, extra foam padding inside the door and supplemental airbag protection such as roof curtain airbags, torso airbags or side-impact inflatable devices.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Association continue to test for head protection in side-impact crashes. In 2003, these organizations released a study showing that head protection systems reduced driver and passenger fatalities by 45 per cent. Side-impact protection provides protection against the window glass or frame or an impacting vehicle, pole or tree.
Most roof curtain or head protection systems have an additional benefit: because they remain inflated longer than frontal airbags and typically cover the full window area, they can prevent passengers, unbelted or belted, from partial or full ejection through the side windows during a rollover collision.
Torso airbags usually inflate from the seat back, while head protection systems usually inflate from the roof. Systems that combine head and torso protection usually inflate from the door or the seat.
Extended-cab pickup trucks
Extended-cab pickups have become very popular in recent years as they have extra space behind the main seat. Originally, extended-cab trucks used side-facing jump seats that could fold into the walls, but newer models have full benches in the back. Extended cabs are available with either full doors or narrow, rear-hinged back doors. While these half-doors may work fine in the showroom, they tend to be cumbersome in tight spaces because most of them open only to about 90 degrees (see photo 1).
The handles for these rear doors are located along the edge, not on the outside like on a regular door. The handle is not visible and cannot be accessed unless the front door is opened first. Rescuers
Photo1: Extended cab door opens only to 90 degrees.
Photo 2: Spread the hinges of the vehicle body.
Photo 3: Cut the hinges with hydraulic cutters, a reciprocating saw or an air chisel.
Photo 4: The top latching mechanism of the door near the roof rail will need to be cut.
Photos 6 and 7: Spreading the door away may cause the rocker to give way before the latch.
Photo 8: Once the last cut is made, the front and rear door assembly is ready to be opened up via the rear hinges.
Photo 5: If access to the latch has not opened up, cut the door frame and roof rail.
should be aware of an important design mechanism: the rear doors have two Nader-style latches at the top of the roof rail and at the bottom of the rocker panel to keep the door closed, plus another latching mechanism that locks the handle to the front door.
Suicide doors
Some of you may remember suicide doors, a term given to the doors on smaller cars that were similar to the rear doors on extended-cab pickup trucks and opened outward on rear hinges. Some sources say that the name stems from a weakness inherent to the body design; in a heavy, rear-end collision, the lead vehicle has a tendency to fold up (accordion-like) at its weakest point. The weakest point was assumed to be at the leading edges of the suicide doors, just in front of occupants, instead of behind the occupant, as is the case with conventional doors. Very little structure was required to support the doors and hinges, and there was no B-pillar as part of the vehicle body, so the doors were susceptible to being crushed. Today’s vehicles that have the same conceptual design are the Honda Element, Toyota Cruiser, Mazda RX-8 and Mini Clubman. However, manufacturers have improved the design by reinforcing the doors; this modification keeps the doors closed in a crash and the doors now withstand greater collision forces. But, like the older vehicles, newer vehicles are still designed without a B-pillar.
Although these new vehicles fare well in side-impact crashes, there is a point at which a crash can be severe enough to cause intrusion to the passenger space, trapping and injuring occupants. Great care must be taken in these situations to avoid aggravating suspected injuries.
Often, rescuers’ approach to a typical side-impact crash is to create a purchase point on the latch side of the front door, near the handle,
to try to access the door latch and roll it off the Nader pin. This can be done effectively in a number of cases. In a vehicle with rearward opening doors and no B-pillar, the only way to access rear-seated passengers is to open the front door first to allow access to the handle on the rear door. The “latch attack” with hydraulic spreaders is very likely to aggravate injuries to occupants, because the lack of a B-pillar means the structural integrity of the vehicle is less reliable.
A front-door hinge attack is an option that will reduce the injury aggravation of patients and create a large opening for egress. In this option, the side opening procedure is farther away from the victim and moves the door(s) away from the victim’s injuries. Depending on your equipment, you can spread the hinges of the vehicle body and cut them with hydraulic cutters, a reciprocating saw or an air chisel (see photos 2 and 3).
Don’t forget about unbolting hinges. The top latching mechanism of the door near the roof rail will need to be cut away to disconnect the top of the door assemblies from the vehicle body. This cut can be done from the outside at a 90-degree angle to the door frame (see photo 4).
If access to the latch has not opened up or is not possible, simply cut the door frame and roof rail at the top as depicted in photo 5.
Another cut to the frame will be required, adjacent to the first cut, to completely sever and disconnect the latching mechanism and separate it from the upper door frame. Always look beneath the trim or head liner material to expose any potential roof curtain cylinders before cutting in this area. Seatbelt pretensioners are often part of the seat and should not cause any problems. The use of hard protection between tools and patients is a must.
The next step is to insert the spreader tips between the front edge of the door and the vehicle body to start the space-making process. This allows rescuers to gain better access to the bottom latch mechanism that locks the lower half of the rear door to the rocker panel. Be aware that spreading the door away in this area may cause the rocker to give way or to tear before the latch breaks (see photos 6 and 7).
If space permits, insert a hydraulic cutter and sever the latch and any torn sheet metal. Once this last cut is made, the whole front and rear door assembly is ready to be opened up via the rear hinges – just like a gate – to give complete access to front and rear passengers (see photo 8).
The benefit to this procedure is that patient spinal manipulation is reduced, as the patient can be brought out of the vehicle at a reduced angle, rather than a 90-degree turn onto a back board.
A rearward attempt, starting from the rear door hinges, is discouraged. The hinges are often hidden deep within the vehicle body, making access difficult. Spreading the shorter rear door from the rear hinge side becomes difficult, as resistance to the door bending and folding down and away is significantly increased. This may cause further aggravation to injuries, and the tools used will generally be very close to the rear-seated victim.
This simple but effective procedure may not always be ideal; however, it will allow for a systematic approach to vehicles that are equipped with suicide doors, like the ones we are seeing again on our roadways.
Randy Schmitz is a Calgary firefighter who has been extensively involved in the extrication field for 18 years. He is an extrication instructor and has competed internationally. He is the education chair for Transport Emergency Rescue Committee (T.E.R.C.) in Canada, a T.E.R.C. International extrication judge and a tester and evaluator for manufactured prototype products for extrication equipment. He can be reached at rwschmitz@shaw.ca.
Most of you are probably familiar with the 2-20 factor, a rather negative reference reserved for members who have been on the job for two years but act like they’ve been on for 20 (or some variation of this timeline). Simply put, we are talking about those few members who have relatively little experience with their current departments but express the attitude and actions of someone who has been around since the first fires began. Needless to say, 2-20 is not a coveted nickname. Although the actions of 2-20s on emergency scenes can be problematic, their actions around the halls are often even more disturbing. Characteristics such as being outspoken, knowledgeable and authoritative are not necessarily negative, but it’s important to strike a balance between being a leader and putting in your time, especially when that leadership is unsolicited and unofficial.
In many instances, 2-20s overstep their authority on calls by trying to issue orders to other firefighters, or they may freelance, causing chaos because their actions may not fall in line with the bigger picture of mitigating the situation. These
The 2-20 factor
When one person is not on the same page as everyone else, the entire crew structure is affected.
transgressions do not serve the crew well. By stepping out of line in emergency situations, undue stress is put on officers, as they must either focus on that individual regarding accountability and task management, or remove that person from the front lines. Additionally, these actions cause disconnect to occur in coordination among other firefighters. Instead of working together on a task, members butt heads over what is to be done, or how to do it. Our job requires co-operation and communication at all levels, and when one person is not on the same page as everyone else, the entire crew structure is affected. This is not to say that having differing ideas about what to do and how to do it is a problem, but the manner in which those ideas are brought forward (and by whom) is an important consideration.
Although the conduct of these individuals on the fire ground is problematic, one of the biggest issues associated with the 2-20s is their attitudes and actions in non-emergency settings, especially behind closed doors within the firehouse. The behaviour of 2-20s within the
JeSSe ChalloNer
privacy of the firehouse can be as innocent as taking a little too much leeway around the hall, or as malicious as bullying other members. The former may elicit a quick chat with a senior member or officer to rectify the problem, but the latter may require aggressive intervention from higher up. Relaxing too much, being too vocal, or not carrying out expected duties could be an oversight on the junior member’s part, and with a push in the right direction, the issue can be fixed. However, being aggressive, abusive and confrontational in addition to all the rest is another issue altogether. When a junior member develops this pattern, it is not a precursor to a problem – the problem is already there and needs to be addressed. There is a place for the tradition and hierarchy that is the fire service, but it is not the junior member’s place to enforce those customs, and certainly not in a malevolent way.
To curb the proliferation of this 2-20 phenomenon, it may be helpful to understand why individuals exhibit this behaviour in the first place. Perhaps it is an ego issue and the person likes being in the spotlight. Does the person have a knowledge base that is untapped and feel compelled to show just how much he knows (or thinks he knows)? Has this person had experience with another service and is under the misimpression that seniority is transferable? Did the person have a rough probationary year and is now transferring that treatment to others? Or maybe he feels that as soon as probation is over, he is just as apt as the most senior member. Any number of motives may cause some firefighters to act this way but there are definitely certain traits and trends associated with the 2-20 factor that are common across the board. Whatever the reason for this behaviour, it is unwelcome and unacceptable.
3:48 PM
This issue requires attention. It is not appropriate to behave this way and other members should not have to dread coming to the best job in the world for worry of dealing with a junior member’s attitude. It may be unrealistic to expect officers or management to rectify the problem, because the 2-20 seems to have a talent for not showcasing this behaviour in front of authority, and we, as members, are unlikely to bring the issue to proper authority as our first step in dealing with it. The other junior members may be confused about what is appropriate and they may not want to rock the boat after just getting hired. Still, it is inappropriate for us to turn a blind eye to the problem, even if we are not directly affected. The onus is on everyone to help 2-20s see the errors of their ways. Bringing the issue to their attention may be all that is required. But if that action is ineffective, it is our responsibility to make the problem known to officers who have the authority to deal with it.
This issue follows a fine line between traditional fire hall etiquette such as making fun, pulling pranks, and actual leading, and having members take everything too far. Remember, it’s not so much what these 2-20s are doing, but how they are doing it. We need to ensure that the line between the two is drawn plainly and deeply and that it is clear to everyone that our job is the best in the world because of our commitment to help others out of problems, not cause them.
Jesse Challoner is a firefighter/paramedic with Strathcona County Emergency Services in Alberta and an instructor at the Emergency Services Academy in Sherwood Park, Alta. Contact him at jchalloner@hotmail.com.
RIT – tactical considerations
By Mark van der Feyst
During rapid intervention team (RIT) operations, it’s important to consider ways to increase the mayday firefighter’s chances of survival. This can be done by applying the AWARE acronym to every rescue of a mayday firefighter: Air, Water, A Radio and Extrication. This acronym helps the incident commander with the RIT operation and it will help RIT members remember what to address first, second, third and last with respect to the rescue. We have already looked at air, water and radio. Now we’ll look at extrication.
Extrication
Once contact has been made with the mayday firefighter, and a source of air and a defendable space to survive have been provided, the firefighter needs to be extricated. Several factors may contribute to or hinder the operation. A mayday firefighter who is found not breathing for a medical reason rather than a mechanical reason needs to be extricated immediately in a grab-and-go style extrication. It is important to get the mayday firefighter out of the structure to start proper medical treatment. If the mayday firefighter is breathing on his own, take the time to assess, package and remove.
Entanglements
The rapid intervention team’s ability to extricate is hindered when a firefighter gets tangled in wires, a suspended ceiling grid, curtains or HVAC duct work. Assessing, packing and preparing the firefighter for removal while he is still tangled in a mess of wires, is not beneficial. Trying to remove a firefighter who is still tied to the building wastes time. Make sure the firefighter is not tangled by conducting a sweep of the body to check for any possible entanglements. This can be done by one of the RIT firefighters (as seen in photo 1).
Trapped/pinned
Time also work against RIT members if a mayday firefighter is trapped or pinned by a part of the building. In a residential structure, firefighters can be trapped by part of the ceiling, part of the roof, part of the floor above them or heavy pieces
Above: The St. John’s Regional Fire Department practises sweeping for and removing any entanglements that may be found on the mayday firefighter. Below: A lifting operation is being set up and performed to free the trapped/pinned firefighter.
of furniture. In a commercial or industrial type of building, objects trapping or pinning a firefighter are much heavier, such as L-beams, pieces of machinery, bar joists or parts of concrete walls or floors. These objects present a challenge for the RIT and need to lifted off the mayday firefighter using a variety of extrication tools. A lifting operation requires cribbing, extrication tools and manpower.
location of the mayday firefighter
Determining the location of a trapped, lost/ missing or injured firefighter is crucial. If the mayday firefighter can communicate, he can tell command where he is, but this is contingent on the mayday firefighter being aware of his surroundings. It is easy to become disoriented when a catastrophic event, such as a collapse, occurs. The firefighter may be turned around or moved
Photo
away from a landmark and this can confuse the firefighter. Listening to the PASS alarm will help to locate the mayday firefighter. It is important to remember to have the mayday firefighter activate his PASS alarm. If the mayday firefighter is unable to communicate with command, trying to figure out his last location depends on the established accountability system. If proper and current tracking is happening with accountability, RIT members will be able to determine the last location and the search can begin there.
number of mayday firefighters
Generally, in RIT operations, just one firefighter needs to be rescued. When conducting interior structural fire operations, a minimum of two firefighters operate together. It’s important to think about the number of firefighters who need to be rescued. If there is more than one, more resources and equipment are required. A study conducted by the Phoenix Fire Department found that, on average, it takes 22 minutes and 12 firefighters to rescue one firefighter. Rescuing two firefighters requires twice as many firefighters.
nearest exit
After the mayday firefighter has been
assessed and packaged for removal, he must be removed from the structure. The exit point does not have to be the same entry point used by the RIT. It is quicker to create a new exit point closer to the location of the mayday firefighter. Building features, such as a window, can be enlarged to remove the mayday firefighter. Once contact has been made with the mayday firefighter, the RIT officer should establish the nearest exit. A separate crew can be assigned to enlarge the opening while assessment and packaging are taking place.
When extricating a mayday firefighter, use time wisely to increase chances of the best outcome. RIT success comes with much practice and training on certain removal techniques, which we will discuss next time.
Mark van der Feyst is an 11-year veteran of the fire service. He currently works for the City of Woodstock Fire Department in Ontario. Mark is an international instructor teaching in Canada, the United States and India. He is a Local Level Suppression Instructor for the Pennsylvania State Fire Academy, an Instructor for the Justice Institute of British Columbia and a professor of fire science at Lambton College. E-mail him at Mark@FireStarTraining.com.
An enlarged opening created by using a window. By doing this, the exit point will be closer, resulting in faster extrication.
Photo
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The sales pitch
Itrudged along the icy sidewalk, shielding my face with a mittened hand. My free arm clutched five boxes of chocolates, which I was required to sell to someone – anyone. A hostile wind whistled down the street and stabbed at my clothes as if to say, “Go back! Your mission is futile!” Door-to-door salesmanship was an impossible enterprise to my eight-year-old mind. My best efforts had produced nothing more than a street full of closed doors.
One house remained. I trudged up the cold, concrete stairway and timidly rapped on the door. An elderly woman appeared. Her unsmiling eyes scrutinized both me and the boxes in my hand.
I took a deep breath. “Sorry to bother you ma’am. Would you like to buy some chocolate? It’s for a school fundraiser.”
She frowned, and my heart sank. Then she muttered, “Maybe I’ll buy one box.”
I stared at my feet in awkward silence as she disappeared to find her purse. When she returned, she handed me a gnarled fist full of cash.
“I’ll take them all,” she said, without even a hint of a smile.
In the decades since that dreary day, I’ve tried huckstering numerous times. Having lost my childish, woebegone expression – which was my only asset – the result has always been dismal failure. Smooth talking persuasiveness is not my style, nor is it the style of most firefighters I know. We’ve never felt the need to cultivate the art of merchandising. Our services are essential, so why should we have to bamboozle anyone for support? But like it or not, the fire service has entered a wintry era in which we must sell ourselves and our services if we want to survive.
and buy one of these nice calendars, would you? Pretty-please with sugar on top?” Then, (to the back of the guy’s head as he vanishes into the parking lot) “I didn’t think so. Twenty bucks does seem like rip off for a measly calendar…but when you consider the good cause… Excuse me ma’am, you wouldn’t want to have pity on a poor fish...” Fortunately, my partner was a skilled huckster – I mean, salesman –and the day was modestly successful.
Tim BeeBe
We can’t all be talented marketers, but we can at least enlist the help of those who are.
Firefighters live solution-driven lives. We are programmed to hit the floor at 2 a.m. in response to a buzzing pager that demands we instantly respond to Armageddon with our squirt guns and handyman tool kits. When we arrive at the scene, we must slay the dragon of disaster – or at least hold him at bay until he dies of old age. The bottom line: we don’t go home until the situation is resolved…which is a keen incentive to find solutions. Reason dictates that we be given the resources to implement those solutions. If the rest of the world doesn’t see it that way, perhaps we should change our marketing strategy.
This strange, unfriendly world of self-advertising makes me feel like a blindfolded recruit crawling through a smoked-up training maze. My most recent mercantile escapade was a calendar sales partnership with two other departments. The goals of the project were to raise a little money for equipment and a lot of awareness for recruiting. Our mission was noble, our product good. When we set up at the local Canadian Tire store in Thunder Bay, Ont., I expected the calendars to sell like hotcakes to hungry lumberjacks. However, success in marketing requires a certain brassy boldness that I don’t possess. If I had done this project alone, the sales pitch would have sounded something like this:
“Excuse me sir,” (as a man whisks by without making eye contact “You wouldn’t want to have pity on a poor fish-out-of-water like me
We can’t all be talented marketers, but we can at least enlist the help of those who are. On that note, I recently expanded my horizons and conceded (albeit grudgingly) that elected officials could also play a productive role. I had always viewed politicians as the snake oil-selling swindlers in the carnival of society. But hucksters or helpers, they are the ones we democratically selected to make the big decisions; like who gets funded and how much. And if they were skilled enough to peddle their personalities into office, they should have the competence to promote our interests as well.
Armed with this not-so-new revelation, I arranged meetings between local chiefs and our members of Parliament, both federal and provincial. The agenda was simple: Canada can’t afford to sideline the fire service any longer. We didn’t use slick salesmanship or flowery phrases; we merely stated the ice cold facts about aging apparatuses, dwindling recruits and training shortfalls. We ended with a simple request for our government to develop a strategy to help us. While we didn’t walk out with signed cheques, we did persuade them to pitch our case, which is at least a start.
Our chiefs associations and firefighter associations have known this stuff for years, and regularly advocate on our behalf. Maybe you’ve known this stuff for years too, but if you are a slow learner like I am, it’s time to get with the program. We are skilled at harnessing politicians and the media into spreading the word about fire safety. We just need to broaden our message.
The hostile adversity I faced as a child salesman only foreshadowed the economic and political climate we face today. Canada’s deficit has soared past the moon and is now orbiting Mars. The Chinese allegedly own our economy. Competition for funds has reached Olympic levels. A woebegone, save-our-department approach won’t gain us a share of the market.
Our product is worthy of support. It’s time to bundle up, face the north wind and climb the cold concrete stairway to where our customers – Joe and Jane Public – are frowning with tightly closed purses. The prospect is dismal but you never know – they might surprise us yet.
Tim Beebe is the fire chief in Upsala, Ont. Contact him at upsalafd@tbaytel.net and check out his blog at www.beebewitzblog. blogspot.com.
