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DEPARTMENTS
06 | In the news Firefighter receives
Try before you pry
Putting it all together
Know your SCBA inside out
The basics of
COLUMNS
04 | From the editor
Peace of mind for firefighters 12 | Front Seat
Plan, prepare and practice 17 | Dispatches
Prevailing over procrastination 18 | Fit for Duty
The benefits of cross-training 20 | Between Alarms
How to turn your fire hall around 28 | Tools of the Trade Firefighters need a good snooze strategy
By Grant Cameron
Peace of mind for firefighters
Firefighters have inherently tough and dangerous jobs. That’s a given. They put their lives on the line each and every time they don their gear and respond to a blaze or emergency.
That’s why it was so important when the federal government formally recognized the service and sacrifice of firefighters by ensuring their families are compensated if they die while in the line of duty.
The Memorial Grant Program for First Responders, which was officially launched this past spring, provides a maximum one-time, tax-free payment of $300,000 to the spouses, children and family of firefighters, police officers and paramedics who lose their lives as a result of carrying out their work duties.
The program was announced April 11 in Edmonton.
The Memorial Grant is a non-economic benefit and does not compensate families of first responders for monetary loss (income replacement) or serve as life insurance, but rather, is in recognition of their service and sacrifice.
For the record, and also very importantly, the definition of firefighter includes volunteers and those engaged as an auxiliary or reservist by a provincial, territorial, regional, municipal or Indigenous fire service.
The firefighter’s death must have resulted from a fatal in-
jury while actively engaged in his or her duties, an occupational illness primarily resulting from employment as a firefighter, or a psychological impairment or occupational stress injury, specifically suicide.
The date of death must also have occurred on or after April 1, 2018.
It was a landmark move by the federal government, especially in light of the fact the coverage includes death by suicide. As we now know, from articles in this magazine and as a result of more awareness in general in fire departments,
“It’s vital for firefighters to know that their families will be taken care of in the event that the worst happens.”
mental health issues can take a significant toll on first responders.
It’s easy to see why this happens.
Firefighters are usually first at the scene of tragic fires, accidents and catastrophes, oftentimes having to deal with grisly situations.
Such work can take its toll on firefighters.
Edmonton Fire Rescue Services Chief Ken Block, representing the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, summed up the importance of the program in a statement.
He noted that firefighters, police and paramedics put the safety of others before themselves and it’s vital for them to
know that their families will be taken care of in the event that the worst happens.
Well said.
The federal government calculates there could be more than 70 qualifying families per year and, as a result, has committed $117.4 million to the program over the next five years, and another $23.4 million per year after that.
We know from the hundreds of names on the Canadian Firefighters Memorial in Ottawa that the grants will be used.
Yes, the grant program was long overdue, but it is refreshing to see that the government has now recognized the significant contributions that firefighters and first responders make to society and our country.
Firefighters deserve the respect of all Canadians. At the very least, it’s vital for firefighters to know that their families will be taken care of in the event that the worst happens.
While the money won’t bring them back, nor heal the pain and suffering that families of deceased firefighters and first responders must deal with after the death of a loved one, the grant program will provide them with some added financial support.
Firefighters can at least take some solace in that.
October 2018 Vol. 41, No. 4 cdnfirefighter.com
EDITOR
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Alberta department resolving its problems
Didsbury, Alta., has pledged to fix problems with the force, after five firefighters resigned and the department received several complaints about safety. A third-party investigation found the town’s fire chief often responds to calls alone and the department lacks safety and operating protocols. The town has directed Fire Chief Craig Martin to develop standard operating procedures, running orders, a code of conduct and job descriptions.
Fitness test may be discriminatory
A Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruling says a fitness test that sets out a rigorous standard for those wanting to fight fires in the province could discriminate against women and older male employees. The ruling sided with a provincial union over the government. Justices backed an arbitrator’s finding that the WFX-Fit test’s cutoff score was potentially discriminatory against females and older males. No evidence showed women or older men had not been able to do the work of Type 1 wildland firefighting within the province, but because of the standards of the test, they could still find themselves in the category of the 20 per cent of people who could not pass it, the arbitrator had found.
Retired firefighter sues
A retired firefighter in Nova Scotia is suing Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency, saying he was ridiculed and passed over for a position because of his race. George Cromwell of Dartmouth, N.S., filed a notice of action on July 24, which included a statement of claim detailing numerous alleged incidents dating back to the late 1990s. Cromwell said he was denied a position in his station’s rescue unit despite his qualifications because he is black. Cromwell also outlined instances where he believes his life and the lives of his co-workers were put at risk.
An NFPA study found that 51 per cent of Canadian fire departments provide basic life support, five per cent provide advanced life support and 44 per cent provide no emergency medical service.
Retired volunteer firefighter receives award for his work
Ed Barden, a retired volunteer firefighter from Hillsburgh, Ont., has been named as the newest Green Leader by Forests Ontario.
Barden was forestry and drainage superintendent at the City of Guelph until he retired in 2001 and was a volunteer firefighter with the local department in his spare time. During his firefighting career, he helped fight several major blazes in Erin, Ont.
Compared to the U.S. from 2014-2016, Canada had
17% career firefighters while the U.S. had 30 per cent.
Barden has a 33-acre property northeast of Guelph, which has undergone large-scale tree plantings through Forests Ontario’s 50 Million Tree Program and the Credit Valley Conservation (CVC) potted plants program. In total, 1,600 trees have been planted on his property.
Barden doesn’t know where his love of trees and forests stems from, but they’ve been his passion since childhood.
“If I could pass anything down to my grandkids it would be a love of
trees,” says Ed, “so being chosen as a Green Leader is really an honour for me.”
The Green Leader program acknowledges individuals who have planted trees under the 50 Million Tree Program and have made a lasting commitment to the re-greening of the province.
Barden has been planting trees solo or with the help of his sons since the 1970s.
He was nominated to be a Green Leader by CVC.
“Ed’s passion for the land is evident in the time and care he spends planting and tending to his trees,” said Aaron Day, senior co-ordinator, forest management at CVC.
Forests Ontario CEO Rob Keen said Barden’s property is a nature enthusiast’s paradise.
“Ed Barden’s trees help to clean the air and water, provide habitat for wildlife and help to slow climate change,” he said.
Extrication tips
By Chad Roberts
Try before you pry
We’ve all heard the sayings throughout our careers in the fire service like, “Take a minute to make a minute,” and, “Work smarter, not harder,” or even, “Try before you pry.”
To sum these all up, the simpler statement may be, “Slow down and take a moment to think about what is laid out in front of you.”
Most major mishaps in our business can almost always be attributed to moving too quickly and not taking the time to weigh the situation. The fire service is made up of many different members, all with different ways of thinking for a reason.
We have a chain of command and ICS laid out to help us slow down and effectively evaluate before acting. By using both of these attributes in extracting a person from an automobile, we can help solve complex situations, as well as make those complex calls simpler than ever imagined.
With this being said, I’m going to quickly address some time-saving tips, with and without our tools.
The first tip was previously addressed and that is the notion of, “Try before you pry.” While I know this may seem like a no-brainer concept, it is often overlooked.
A lot of times, the door of where a person is trapped is the only one checked then we head straight to the tools. Check all doors and hatchback openings in a vehicle. This can provide early access to the person, create an emergency egress point if the condition worsens, or help you with selecting or influencing an extrication plan.
Take a minute to move the seats back, get the steering wheel out of the way, totally remove the headrests, and tilt the seats back to facilitate removal of the person before cutting battery power to any mechanisms. A few of these simple movements inside the vehicle can save
Chad Roberts is a firefighter in Oakville, Ont. He is a member of the Oakville extrication team and competes and trains across North America. Contact Chad at chadroberts12@gmail.com.
you taking the back of a seat apart to lower it.
Before breaking all the windows of a vehicle, take an extra second to lower them into the doors before the battery power is cut. By leaving a small amount
Take a minute to move the seats back, get the steering wheel out of the way, totally remove the headrests, and tilt the seats back.
of glass exposed, it can be broken quite easily and all the shards are contained within the door.
Take a moment to get a 360-degree look at the scene. Get a view of the entire vehicle and make multiple plans. If something doesn’t seem to be working, go to a different option or plan altogether. If the rear door is giving you issues on a full-side
removal, reposition and start from the front door and move your way back. There is no set plan in auto extrication. Like anything, there is a blueprint, but being able to approach the scene from different angles and develop multiple plans is a must with any extrication. When it comes to the tools, we have to talk about the B pillars. In the auto industry, B pillars are becoming monsters – not only in regards to their size, but also to the fact they’re made of reinforced and synthetic steels. When dealing with these new B pillars, the reciprocating saw is quickly becoming a non-option in terms of cutting through boron-type steels. When cutting, we must consider that most of the strength in these B pillars is in the middle to protect the driver. The weaker points of the pillars are at the top and bottom connection. Therefore, when cutting larger and stronger B pillars, we
By making an initial cut perpendicular to the B pillar, it can weaken the overall strength of the pillar and keep the hydraulic cutters from twisting in towards occupants of a vehicle.
need to keep our cuts high and low. When dealing with an issue related to size in regards to the bottom of the B pillars, a series of cuts will need to be made. Make your first cut directly perpendicular to the base of the B post. You’re never going to make it all the way through, but you’re making a breakpoint in the reinforced steel and reducing its overall strength. Second, you are creating a purchase point for your cutter blades for your next two cuts to finish off the rest of the B pillar base (one parallel cut from the back seat and one parallel cut from the front seat). By reducing the strength with that first cut, the second and third cuts with the cutters will naturally travel toward the cut and away from the interior of the vehicle and occupants.
Next, let’s move to the C, and depending on the vehicle, D pillars. These are other parts of vehicles that are also taking on a new look in terms of size. Much larger C- and D-pillar construction can call for a different approach. When tasked with cutting through these pillars, whether it be for a roof removal or a blowout, the use of hydraulic cutters or combination tools would do the job, but it can be time-consuming because several cuts would be required to get through all the metal. A simple step back to re-evaluate could lead you to using the reciprocating saw for this operation by making one quick horizontal cut rather than three to four cuts with hydraulics. If you don’t have the option of a reciprocating saw, try squeezing the large C and D pillars with your spreaders to condense them into a small section to cut. You may be able to make the cut in one or two cuts with hydraulic cutters.
By taking an extra minute to create space, looking at everything from different angles, and even making small adjustments in your toolwork, you can make more efficient extrications. By practising these time-saving tips and incorporating them into your everyday calls and training sessions, they will become second nature and you will continue to move on to even more finite things to improve your skills. So, until next time, keep your eyes and ears open and never stop learning.
By lowering the glass into the door and only breaking a smaller portion of the glass, the majority of the glass shards will remain in the door.
Some C pillars on newer vehicles are becoming quite bulky and a different approach is needed.
Members of the Oakville Fire Department extrication team work
Gord Ditchburn is president of the B.C. Professional Fire Fighters Association and a member of the B.C. First Responders’ Mental Health committee. Contact Gord at gord@bcpffa.org.
Share it. Don’t wear it.
B.C. committee launches awareness campaign to promote positive mental health amongst first responders
By Gord Ditchburn
If the image on the right seems familiar, you may already know about the awareness campaign aimed at first responders in British Columbia called “Share it. Don’t wear it.” These particular images and words were chosen to represent the mental health challenges firefighters face in their day-to-day work.
What you may not know is who’s behind the campaign – which includes a website full of tools and resources for those who are looking for help and those who are looking to help – or how it came to be. This article describes the process so that other jurisdictions that see a need for something similar can benefit from our experiences.
In December 2015, the multi-agency B.C. First Responders’ Mental Health committee was formed. Chaired by WorkSafeBC, its mission was quickly defined. The mission was to actively promote positive mental health and provide the leadership and recommended practices that first responders, their communities, and their leaders need.
To ensure a co-ordinated, cohesive approach, committee members were recruited from fire, law enforcement, ambulance services, and dispatch – representing workers and employers from paid, volunteer, rural, urban, and First Nations emergency services. Once formed, the committee identified its main goals, one of which was to develop and pilot an anti-stigma campaign, incorporating champions from various first-responder groups.
The campaign came out of a four-month research initiative in which the committee surveyed first responders to better understand their attitudes toward mental health issues and the behaviours that encourage people to seek or offer help – or that deter them. Through in-depth interviews and an online discussion board, participants identified existing resources and those they felt were lacking. First responders from diverse backgrounds and levels of experience completed the study.
Equipped with those results, the committee held intensive focus groups to explore the forms stigma takes, what it looks like from leaders and colleagues, and how it can be personal, social or organizational in nature.
Posters which can be downloaded from the website were designed with a blank space at the bottom to highlight resources, meetings, events and workshops, so that the emphasis is on action. The aim is to associate the poster with a specific, time-limited event, after which it is taken down, so the image doesn’t become background noise.
The quotes that appear over the faces of firefighters on the posters were collected during in-depth interviews with our colleagues, who told us, “I’m tired all the time. I snap at my wife, the kids, even the guys at work. It’s like I’m under a cloud and I just can’t seem to get out from under it. You know?”
They also told us, “There’s this heavy feeling. It’s more than a bad call or a bad day. It’s like all the time and the funny thing is I’m really not sure why.”
Respondents spoke powerfully about the need for a cultural change – a shift that must happen at the leadership level. They asked for a single source of information and resources to support colleagues and to seek information for themselves. A website was created for this purpose, but that is not its only purpose. We hope the site, which houses self-assessment and self-care tools, an event calendar and re -
sources for those in crisis, will spark larger conversations about mental health.
Over the past year, the B.C. Professional Fire Fighters, in co-ordination with Matt Johnston of Centered Lifestyle Services, have worked very hard to build a province-wide network of occupationally-aware mental health professionals. Training has been offered across the province and is now being offered nationally for therapists interested in gaining a better understanding of occupational stress injuries, the stoic first-responder subculture and the unique ways that mental-health challenges may present.
I invite you to send us your thoughts and suggestions on how we can best meet the mental-health needs of firefighters.
Please note that the committee will be holding the first-ever B.C. First Responders’ Mental Health Conference on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, 2019. For more details please see the website at bcfirstrespondersmentalhealth.com.
Posters have been developed as part of an anti-stigma campaign to spark conversations about mental health.
STRUCTURE CONSUMED, RESCUE MADE, LIFE SAVED, TIC RECOVERED – Fully Operational and Ready for Action
Ceiling collapsing, carpet melting, and the scene deteriorating around them — two firefighters battled their way through a burning home, searching for a woman trapped somewhere on the second floor. With grit and the help of their FLIR K2 thermal imaging camera, they found her. But by then, the flames had trapped all three in a bedroom — the closed door, already engulfed in flames. The firefighters dropped the K2 to free their hands for an escape, leaving it to burn with the structure.
And yet…
Not only did the woman and the crew survive, so did the K2. Read this remarkable story to learn how the crew — and the K2 — escaped harm.
Front Seat
By Jason Clark
Plan, prepare and practice
Most firefighters like myself have been around when a new apparatus or other piece of equipment comes into the hall. A lot of times when we receive a new fire apparatus, we go out on the streets of our district, drive it around and work with it in different capacities.
Our citizens likely believe we are showing off the new, shiny red truck, but realistically we are getting to know the new apparatus. All trucks are not made the same and every fire apparatus turns different, accelerates at different rates and has various braking performances. More importantly, the equipment is unfamiliar to us.
I was that “new equipment” in 2014 when I became an acting captain. No one knew my management style during stressful situations.
Crews and I had to train together in order to figure out how we were going to work with each other during responses. I also had to figure out my expectations of the team and those on the team had to figure out my expectations of them.
The biggest complaint I got from my firefighters was that, when pulling up to a scene, they’d want to have a plan ready to go and have it communicated to them before they opened the door. Seemed like a reasonable request. Each fire apparatus has more than
10 storage cabinets and in those cabinets there’s countless tools that aid in successful resolution at a scene. I heard them loud and clear and realized that, as officers, we can’t expect our crews to read our minds and gather equipment if we don’t communicate the plan to them.
We usually have anywhere from three to five minutes of response time to at least have some sort of basic plan communicated to staff inside the truck.
I like to have an “if” or “justin-case” statement ready to go. The best example that comes to mind was a kitchen fire we were dispatched to in spring 2017. It was originally toned out as a confirmed structure fire, but upon arrival we were told by the homeowner in the driveway that the individual believed the fire was put out and there was only light smoke that needed to be taken care of.
From the time we left the station to the time our truck arrived, we planned for a large fire using a 65-millimetre, pre-connected line. We ended up using a 45-millimetre pre-connected cross-lay.
The crews had the line pulled, flaked and charged by the time I got to the front door, as our chief officer was completing a 360-degree size-up. The key to this working out so well is that we’d decided between the three of us involved, who was on the nozzle, who was working the door position and who was to pull the remaining hose out of the bed. Basic and simple communication was the formula to this specific situation. Obviously not all situations we encounter as firefighters or company officers are this simple or straightforward. It’s important that training takes place before a call and an incident action plan has been communicated with the
crews. If you are calling an audible or a change in tactics, everyone needs to know about it.
Have you ever seen a football game where a trick play was intended and its obvious a player or multiple players didn’t receive the message? Usually it ends in disaster and a loss of yards or even possession of the ball, and it’s an embarrassing situation for the entire team.
Just because you aren’t the first truck that’s due at a fire doesn’t mean your role is going to be less valuable to the outcome of the scene. You need to connect with your command staff and see what resources they need filled. Touching base with command and bringing the correct gear and tools forward can avoid timely return trips to the apparatus to gather the correct equipment.
There are many moving parts to the fire service in terms of resources. Your trucks have large engines, pumps and tools and you need to know their limitations as well as their strengths. This goes for yourself as a company officer as well. No one at a fire scene wants to encounter the dreaded breakdown of any resource.
If anything new comes into your station, train with that equipment or person until you can’t get it wrong. The citizens in your response area will soon realize that your truck is a well-oiled machine, as are the firefighters and crews riding in it.
Jason Clark has been a volunteer firefighter in southwestern Ontario since 2007. Having recently made the transition to captain from firefighter, he has a new perspective on riding in the front seat. Contact Jason at jjdclark@rogers.com.
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Mind over matter
The story of Canada’s first aboveknee amputee
firefighter
By Julie Fitz-Gerald
Michael Laughlin knows about perseverance. The 37-year-old overcame a horrific snowmobile accident in 2007 that resulted in 33 pins and screws holding his left side together, including a titanium forearm, femur and kneecap.
Fortunately, he made a full recovery. Then, in 2011, his girlfriend of four years passed away due to suicide – a trauma that he says was more painful than any physical injury could ever be.
“The mental and emotional pain is way worse and it takes a long time to get past something like that,” Laughlin says.
As he persevered through these physical and emotional trials, he had no idea that the fight of his life was still to come. A firefighter with Kingston Fire and Rescue in Ontario for the last 18 years, Laughlin joined the fire department after his hockey career came to an end.
“I had five buddies who went to the NHL and I realized that I didn’t have it, so I wanted to be a firefighter because it’s very similar,” he explains. “When you’re hanging out with the guys doing your thing, it’s like being in the dressing room. When you get that call, it’s all business. You’re going out as a team to put that fire out.”
Little did Laughlin know that in the near future, this team of fellow firefighters would jump into action to save his life. On June 6, 2016, Laughlin fired up his motorcycle for a scenic summer drive down a country road just north of Kingston. He was cruising at 60 kilometres per hour, enjoying the ride, when a deer jumped out of the ditch and ran into the side of his bike, launching it into a speed wobble. He regained control and looked up just in time to see a 90-degree turn in the road ahead.
“I was bending the bike as hard as I could, but the gravel made the bike shoot out from under me,” Laughlin recalls.
As he and the bike careened out of control, his main thought was to protect his head.
“I tried to sit up and ride it out on my butt, but I found out later that when I did that I broke my back and neck when I bounced off the road. My leg got caught on a rock and snapped it right off at the knee.”
He skidded into the ditch with the bike landing on top of him. The sudden silence was deafening.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, I just killed myself.’ But I was going to fight it to the end. I didn’t want to die. The bike was on me halfway up my chest and I realized my leg was holding on by a little bit of skin. My ankle bone was showing and my tibia was sticking through my skin.”
Michael Laughlin returned to light duty just five months after a motorcyle accident resulted in him losing a leg above the knee.
Laughlin’s training kicked in. He pulled his belt out from his jeans and made a tourniquet for his leg. Then he checked his cellphone and, incredibly, it was still in working order.
“I phoned my fire department dispatch because I know that 911 takes a few transfers and my dispatch I could get through to right away. I said, ‘I’m dying in a ditch, my leg’s ripped off. Come out and save me.’ It took 15 minutes because I was so far out of the city.”
The sound of a car driving by, unaware of the carnage that lay in the ditch below, made Laughlin realize that nobody could see him from the road above. He threw his helmet and bike parts up onto the road to get noticed. It worked. A neighbour who had heard Laughlin yelling
was able to locate him, but the perilous scene was overwhelming.
“He went into shock, so I gave him a job to go get some more rope so I could redo my tourniquet,” Laughlin explains. “I was able to keep control and not go into shock myself, which is a big thing because if you go into shock you can’t do anything to help yourself.”
A volunteer firefighter was next on the scene and sat with Laughlin to comfort him. The sirens were in quick succession after that. With the arrival of the firetrucks and ambulance, Laughlin knew he was in good hands and the remaining events blurred together.
“I’m used to being the one packaging someone, but all of a sudden I was the one being packaged. I remember them cutting my clothes off and saying they were going to straighten my leg as they put me on the board. I was ready for unbelievable pain, but when they did it I didn’t feel a thing and I realized my leg was basically severed.”
As the ambulance pulled into Kingston General Hospital, around 20 fellow firefighters were waiting for his arrival. Worried for their friend and co-worker, many had overheard Laughlin’s 15-minute call with the dispatcher as he lay in the ditch waiting for help.
“The fire dispatch normally doesn’t keep people on the line like 911 does, but the fire dispatcher got an award for what she did that day, keeping me on the line and keeping me alive.”
Laughlin’s fire chief, Chief Shawn Armstrong, spoke words of hope to Laughlin just prior to doctors putting him into a medically-induced coma due to intense pain.
“Chief Armstrong came over and said, ‘Listen Mike, you have nothing to worry about. Your job will be here waiting for you.’ My biggest concern was losing my job. We love our jobs so much and wouldn’t trade it for anything. So that was a big deal to me. That just motivated me even more.”
Back on the job
Firefighter Michael Laughlin has a state-of-the-art, $120,000 prosthetic limb with a computer inside that remembers his gait and stride and enables him to climb stairs.
When Laughlin regained consciousness eight days later, he had already been through four surgeries. Doctors had fused together two of his vertebrae, put two eight-inch rods in his spine, and reattached his right leg. Unfortunately, the reattachment didn’t take and it became apparent that his leg needed to be amputated.
The first amputation occurred just below the knee, but after a few days a further amputation above the kneecap was required. Adding to the litany of injuries was a fractured neck and two broken ribs.
“I wanted to get back to doing what I used to do, so the amputation was my best bet,” says Laughlin. “I said, ‘Yep, let’s do it.’ An hour or two later my dad and I were on my iPad looking at prosthetics. There wasn’t much of a grieving process for me. That was what I was dealing with, so I wanted to move on and get it fixed.”
Laughlin remained in the hospital for one month,
“I said, ‘I’m dying in a ditch, my leg’s ripped off. Come out and save me.’ ”
then moved into St. Mary’s Rehabilitation Hospital, where he “learned how to be an amputee every day and got back on my foot a little bit,” he laughs. “Your stump needs to heal and then it shrinks, loses its muscle and then gets to the size where you can wear your prosthetic properly. I was very impatient and just wanted to get back to my life.”
Approximately five months following his accident, Laughlin returned to light duty. During this time, he connected with the first North American above-knee amputee firefighter, Brandon Anderson, from the United States. Remarkably, Anderson and Laughlin both had motorcycle accidents within one month of each other, both requiring an amputation. The two quickly formed a friendship. Anderson had made it back to full-time firefighting duties and was able to help Laughlin navigate these final steps.
“Here he was, a full-time firefighter who had made it back to work and that was motivating for me,” Laughlin says.
Laughlin began working out at the gym daily and got a state-of-the-art prosthetic called the Ottobock X3. Worth $120,000, this one-of-a-kind prosthetic attaches with a silicone membrane and pin system, and has a computer inside that remembers Laughlin’s gait and stride, allowing him to conquer stairs easily. The leg has to be charged every five days and Laughlin has two, storing one in his bunker gear for when a call comes in. He has also added a running blade to his collection and is having a skate custom-made so he can get back on the ice.
In December 2017, Laughlin successfully completed his testing and resumed full-time firefighting duties, becoming the first above-knee amputee firefighter in Canada.
Gratitude is what sums up his outlook on life. Laughlin is newly engaged to a palliative care nurse whom he met during his time at St. Mary’s and is back at the job he loves. In his spare time, he goes to the hospital and talks with patients who have recently lost limbs or are about to undergo an amputation.
“I want to help people and inspire them,” he says.
In sharing his story, he has done both.
Dispatches
By Jennifer Grigg
Prevailing over procrastination
Is there something right now that you know you need to do, but are putting off? What just popped into your head? Why is it that you’re avoiding doing whatever that thing is that you know you really should have done by now?
We don’t see a lot of procrastination on emergency scenes, and for good reason. You’re there to get a job done, whether it’s knocking down a fire or extricating a patient, and time is of the essence. There’s little opportunity to sit around on the fence and debate with yourself about the best course of action. The question is, how can you put this tactic to work in other areas of your life?
What is it about a call for service that sets action in motion? Set aside the fact that it’s potentially life-threatening or that there’s potential for loss of property.
Let’s break it down. How does the call start? The pager. You’re sitting at home, sprawled out on the couch watching television, or maybe you’re working in the yard. If it’s one of those middle-of-thenight calls, you’re fast asleep, dreaming about who knows what. You hear the tones drop and instantaneously a set of physiological reactions occur in your body.
First, there’s a hit of adrenaline, followed by the sudden change of focus from what you were doing to what you’re about to do – which is to get your butt to the fire hall. Grab your keys, pager, cellphone and get ready. Instantaneously, you go from a resting state to all engines firing in the blink of an eye.
Everything changes in that instant. If we compare that response to our response (or lack thereof) to a task we may be procrastinating about, there is a significant catalyst missing – and that is that initial call to action, the drop-everythingand-run instinct.
Since it’s not realistic to have a pager go off to motivate us to do the things we tend to procrastinate over, what are some other options? Air horn? Taser?
Let’s look at why we procrastinate in the first place. According to an article I found on the Psychology Today website, there are three reasons.
The first is that we get an adrenaline rush from fighting a deadline. Perhaps you couldn’t be bothered to do something before, or had forgotten about it, but all of a sudden you have a powerful energy boost and accomplish your task at the last minute. This totally sets you up with a false sense of confidence, thinking that you can do it this way all the time.
The second reason has to do with something we call “life goals.” With more idiosyncratic goals, like taking the next step in your career, starting your own business, writing a book, learning French, becoming a mentor, or helping a charity, the deadlines are non-existent. No deadline means no pressure. No pressure means no action. And no action means no goal.
The third reason for procrastination is due to the disconnect between intention and implementation. To translate a plan into action, your brain analyzes a vast amount of information from your internal
Jennifer Grigg has been a dispatcher, volunteer firefighter, FPO inspector and instructor. She is now a resilience and empowerment coach and certified body language trainer. Contact Jennifer at jennygrigg312@gmail.com or j ennifergriggcoaching.com.
and external environment and makes decisions about what to do next. When you have all the information you need, you start working on a plan. If you don’t, your brain stalls. And that’s when you experience procrastination.
The Psychology Today article suggests looking at your procrastination as a red flag or warning and to delve more into what’s stopping you. This often requires some serious introspection and digging beneath the surface to get down to the nitty-gritty.
In my experience, there is always a reason. It may be well-hidden beneath layers of justifications, excuses or reasoning that it’s just the way you are. But, if you really want to be more productive and kick procrastination to the curb, you have to do some digging.
I recall bugging my husband one day about his tendency to avoid finishing some projects he’d started and his response was authentic and vulnerable and surprised both of us.
We don’t like to look at our reasons for doing certain things because those reasons usually aren’t pretty and therefore we avoid them. We think it’s easier not to change, because change and growth can be uncomfortable.
Staying the same may be comfortable and familiar, but nothing new grows in our comfort zone.
The next time you find yourself procrastinating, dig a little deeper and try to find out why. You may be surprised at how shining a little light on something can have a huge effect in a very positive way.
The goal is to foster that feeling of a job well done – off the fire scene as well as on the fire scene.
If all else fails, shoot me a message. I’ll teach you how to navel gaze.
“We don’t like to look at our reasons for doing certain things because those reasons usually aren’t pretty.”
3There are three reasons why we procrastinate. The first is we think that we have plenty of time. . The second is that there is no pressure or deadline looming. The third is we don’t have enough information .
Fit for duty
By Sherry Dean
The benefits of cross-training
Examining firefighting as a sport and firefighters as athletes helps to assess the kind of training regime to improve performance. No two calls are exactly the same, so it’s logical to consider we aren’t required to have the same fitness demands for every incident.
How do you ensure you are balancing the strength, endurance and power requirements of your job? Cross-training is an excellent approach.
There are benefits of a single sport focus. Some of the benefit comes from specializing and honing specific skills. Practising climbing stairs fully geared, if your company specializes in high-rise response, is one of those types of skills. Confidence is another benefit. Practising a play over and over improves performance and gives athletes the benefit of knowing they are able to achieve the goal. Focusing solely on strength training will improve your ability to lift something on-scene, but it may do little to improve your endurance if that is your weakness. There isn’t a good athlete who doesn’t work on weaknesses.
In 2017, 30 out of 32 NFL firstround draft picks were multisport athletes. The pros of multi-sport focus help to improve a variety of skills, reduce athlete burnout and overuse injury.
Cross-training helps to eliminate imbalance, but also uses several modes of training to develop a specific component of fitness. Each firefighter
has different strengths and weaknesses and it is important to spend time working on weaknesses and becoming well-rounded. If your strength is good, but your cardio needs some attention you should be working on cardiovascular endurance at least some of the time.
It’s important to remember that cross-training doesn’t mean you start running marathons or power-lifting to balance your ability. It is simply a way to ensure you are challen-
your heart, lungs and blood to supply oxygen to your system, and the ease at which you can maintain breathing or avoid fatigue while completing a task. This would apply to pulling hose through a structure or climbing stairs in full gear.
• Muscular strength – This is the amount of force you are able to produce. This would apply to your ability to lift a patient to a stretcher or moving charged high-volume hose off the road.
It’s important to remember that cross-training doesn’t mean you start running marathons or power-lifting to balance your ability.
ging your whole body and abilities and taking time to rest other areas. Sometimes, athletes need rest from the repetitive nature of training. A break can help renew energy.
Access your fitness from an overall perspective and try to cover all of the following areas in your programming:
• Muscular endurance – This is the number of times you can complete a specific task. This would apply to the number of times you can swing an axe for forcible entry or the number of times you can pull down on a pikepole in a ceiling overhaul.
• Cardio vascular endurance
– This is the capacity for
• Power – This is the applied maximal force with speed. This would apply to your ability to transfer your strength into movement, as with forcing a door.
• Flexibility – This is the range of motion of a joint. This would apply to you being able to reach overhead to pull hose off the apparatus bed or crouch and travel in a heated environment. Flexibility is especially important in avoiding injury. There are a number of ways to ensure you are getting some cross-training in your programming, such as:
• Add one or two cross-training workouts to your pro -
gram each week. If you’re not cross-training at all this will be an easy way to improve your fitness.
• If you are currently cross-training, add/change a new workout. Find a new workout partner or create a new workout with your crew.
• Tack on a cross-training activity to the end of your workout. It doesn’t have to be an hour-long. Ten to 20 minutes can do the trick.
• Try a new sport or go back to a sport you haven’t done in a while. Everyone knows how sore they are when they do something they haven’t done in a while.
• Don’t avoid cardiovascular activities. Picking things up and putting things down can be done with a cardiovascular tempo. Lighten the weight or go for a jog, swim or bike ride.
• Try new equipment. If you use barbells, try dumbbells or a bodyweight workout. You could even try yoga. The easiest approach to cross-training is variety. Your body is an extremely smart machine and will find ways to make things easier.
Changing the way that you do your workout by adding reps, different exercises or timeframes, is a simple way to challenge yourself and keep freshness in your program. If you simply make one day a week different than the rest, you will get a benefit from cross-training.
Think about it from the point of view of the variety of activities you do at emergency scenes and it becomes easy to apply.
ROOKIE TO CHIEF…
• Face-to-Face Traditional Recruit Academy
• Online FirefighterAcademy.com (Blended Learning) FIRE OFFICER PROGRAM
• NFPA Fire Officer I
•
Between Alarms
By Arjuna George
How to turn your fire hall around
What are the key ingredients to an effective and cohesive fire department? It cannot be left to the sole responsibility of the fire chiefs to lead the organization. It really comes down to effective leadership of every member, on every level.
This column is based off the leadership lessons of retired U.S. Navy Captain David Marquet, as he outlines in his best-selling book, Turn the Ship Around!
Leadership as we know it, is normally based off the leader-follower concept, where the top of the organization leads the group and everyone else below just follows along. This has worked for decades, but are there more radical ways to view leadership?
In Marquet’s book, he writes about how he successfully turned around his failing, low-morale submarine crew into a highly effective team by empowering the crew to be leader-leaders.
Our current leader-follower model can often instill low passion and poor ownership. With a slight tweak and a rewire, our department leaders can turn it all around and create inspiring fire departments.
Marquet describes leadership as being 20 per cent knowledge and 80 per cent behaviour. He writes about the three core principles he used to improve the behaviour of his team, which are control, competence and clarity.
To improve the team and turn your fire hall around, consider how much and what type of control you
have and currently give. Does your organization take control or give control? One of the key adjustments Marquet made was to delegate control or decision-making as much as possible.
He turned the one-way, topdown briefings into more of a conversation where members felt it was okay to ask questions and provide feedback. He also suggests certifying the members rather than holding passive-style meetings. By certifying, you challenge the crews and get them to ask questions, come prepared, participate and be active in the process.
This paradigm shift doesn’t eliminate fire ground command and control. When a decision must be made under emergency situations, a decision must be made. But when there is time for discussion and more input, better solutions will arise.
By giving up control and distributing it to your officers and firefighters, you provide them with the decision-making power exactly where the information is.
Marquet also changed the crew’s vocabulary to an intent-based leadership tone with words like, “I intend to,” versus phrases like, “Should I?” and, “Permission to,” or simply standing back and waiting for direction.
Another of his keys to success was to eliminate top-down monitoring. Provide the crew with the tools and knowledge to follow through while providing them the freedom to make decisions.
Another principle of control is to specify the goals and expectations, but not the methods. Resist the urge to provide immediate solutions.
It really comes down to effective leadership of every member, on every level
The second pillar to his leader-leader model is competence. You can’t make the switch to leader-leader and expect results if the members are not technically competent. The crew must be willing to be learners by taking deliberate action.
Embrace excellence by not avoiding failure. Marquet suggests that the mechanism to take deliberate action is to pause, vocalize, or gesture what is about to happen. This simple process slows down the action only briefly, but long enough to ensure the decision is sound and safe.
The third principle of Marquet’s system is clarity. By repeating the message and providing clear communications on the direction and path the department is going is critical. This step is really that simple. Communicate your vision, demonstrate a true drive for excellence and trust in the organization and repeat.
Marquet built a highly effective team by encouraging a questioning attitude, empowering his team to make solid decisions while rewarding them with trust and respect. He chose immediate recognition as a key contributor to reinforce the behaviours he was promoting.
Retired U.S. Navy
Captain David Marquet wrote about three core principles in his book called Turn the Ship Around! He used those principles to turn around his failing, low-morale submarine crew into a highly effective team.
Marquet describes how to rewire your organization’s health by changing and rewriting the genetic code.
This move to leader-leader is a bold one and doesn’t happen overnight. It requires hard work and a commitment to excellence.
Marquet tested several methods to alter the new way of thinking, but the one that worked was simply living it. By changing his own behaviours, the organization changed its thinking too.
Divesting control doesn’t eliminate the importance of good officers and great chiefs. It simply strengthens the leadership throughout.
Arjuna George is chief of Salt Spring Island Fire Rescue in B.C. He has served on the department since 1997. Contact Arjuna at ageorge@ saltspringfire.com.
Why stop if you don’t have to?
1 Christenson J, Andrusiek D, Everson-Stewart S, et al. Chest compression fraction determines survival in patients with out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation. Circulation. 2009;120:1241-1247.
When you keep your hands on the patient, you increase compression fraction—a key factor in successful outcomes1. The innovative LIFEPAK® CR2 defibrillator is the only AED that analyses and makes a shock decision while chest compressions continue, reducing the pause between CPR and defibrillation.
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Tim-bits
By Tim Llewellyn
Putting it all together
Ihave often thought that the topic of firefighter training can be broken down into several distinct categories.
In my system of thinking, each category is unique from the others by the general timeframe at which the training is occurring in the firefighter’s career.
The first category is mentioned often in my Tim-bits columns – recruit school. Here, we are taught the basic fundamentals of firefighting theory and practice.
The next category occurs immediately after recruit school is complete. I call it probationary training. This unofficial and undefined period is where the boots meet the road, where new firefighters use the skills taught in recruit school and apply them to real-world situations and station life.
This is the period when the new folks learn there is the “book way” that they learned in school and the “real-world way” or the way it’s done at a particular firehouse.
This is often a time of great eye opening for the new folks when they realize that their pre-service education didn’t teach them everything they need to know.
With their opening-day jitters well behind them, the firefighters pass into my system’s next category – the continuing education phase. This category will encompass the remainder of their fire service career, if they choose to dedicate it to constant learning and improvement.
Here, the firefighters will have an opportunity to expand and fine-tune their knowledge and skills in engine-company and truck-company functions, vehicle rescue, other technical rescue specialties, firefighter survival, RIT, driver-operator, fire instructor, fire officer, etc.
One thing important to note about my system of training categorization so far is that it focuses on the individual. The individual takes courses and certification examinations to hopefully become increasingly more capable at various incidents. Fire departments, in turn, embrace the individual who has the determination to learn more and foster that education by holding regular company-level drills that build teamwork and allow individual firefighters to develop into more effective teams.
The next category is company or department development. If your department is like my volunteer department, company or department development drills are often held once per week on a weekday evening. At best, we get two to three hours of training time, which includes setup and cleanup. It is during this critical time that firefighters can realize the expectations that will be demanded of them as they work in a team or department-wide setting at real incidents.
But my department found that these two to three hours just weren’t enough to give our firefighters what we desired. By the time we get into things, it’s time to clean up and go home.
We realized there were two
Organizing a department-level training day is a good way to give your individual firefighters the chance to safely practice what they need to know.
things missing with our weeknight drills – more time to train and live fire. We quickly realized that the most dangerous thing we were asking our firefighters to do was something we hadn’t trained them on for a long time – fight interior structure fires.
We contacted our local fire academy and enquired about running day-long training for our department using the academy’s facility and its class-A burn building. It was determined that since we only wanted to commit to a single, eight-hour day, none of the standard fire academy classes fit our needs. The academy agreed to rent its facility so we could conduct live-fire training that fell into compliance with NFPA 1403, and it agreed to provide the instructors and fuel – at a relatively low cost.
We picked a weekend day a few months out and met and worked with the instructors to develop a curriculum.
Once finalized, the morning schedule included topics on basic fire control, search and rescue practice and pressurized watercan use.
The afternoon schedule consisted of realistic scenarios that mimicked a few of the fires that we had faced in recent years.
During the morning schedule, we made sure everyone had an opportunity to practice the fundamentals of what we expected of them at real fires – all that they had learned in their recruit, probationary and continuing educational periods.
The afternoon scenarios put it all together. The scenarios were run as “roll-in” drills, with an actual dispatch and staggered response of the apparatus – just like it happens in real life.
Because we had instructors to manage the safety and instructional aspects of the drills, our company and chief officers were able to focus on their incident command and company leadership skills. We had created an opportunity to train as we actually fight fires – but in a controlled and relatively safe manner. Our firefighters did it our way, as a cohesive and familiar group.
The day was a great success. If a fire academy training facility is within your reach, I encourage you to look into setting up a departmental-level training and development day.
Tim
Steam: What you need to know
Thermal energy has not been fully removed until the steam reaches the outside atmosphere
By Lance Bushie
In previous articles, I have discussed the need for live-fire training and given readers a deeper understanding of what heat is. In this article, I will delve into the interactions of steam and how it interacts with fire extinguishment and can cause burns to a firefighter.
Each of the different nozzle patterns needs to be understood and applied at the correct time and with the right technique to effectively extinguish and avoid deadly fire dynamics like flashovers and rollovers, resulting in steam burns.
Knowing what fire stream to apply, the volume of water to apply and what effect it will have is essential. If applied improperly, negative effects will occur.
First off, gallons per minute or litres per minute must match the BTUs or thermal energy that are present for extinguishment to occur. If the flow from the nozzle is not sufficient to cool the surfaces or the gases, the fire will grow.
According to William Clark, who founded the International Society of Fire Service Instructors, “Water has the ability to absorb heat more than any element except mercury.” Understanding that thermal energy is stored in fire gases emanating from a fire is essential.
Cooling these gases and surfaces is essential to safely advancing to the seat of the fire, and if sufficient cooling is accom-
plished the water application will delay or prevent flashover, the deadliest form of fire behaviour.
Steam is important for firefighters to understand. The amount of steam created does relate to the amount of thermal energy being removed from the fire gases, lowering the flash and flame point of the gases, reducing the chances of rollover and flashover.
More steam equals more thermal energy removed from the surfaces and gases.
The production of steam by applying a fire stream during an interior attack does not always generate the feared high temperature steams that we thought it did. If we apply short bursts of water and limit the amount of steam produced, the thermal layer can remain intact while the production of steam and water contacting surfaces cools both gases and surfaces by removing thermal energy.
We must also be aware of the expansion ratios of steam. For every litre of water converted to vapour, 1,700 cubic litres of steam are generated at 100 degrees Celsius. Every firefighter must understand the travel of the flow path and where the fire is getting its oxygen and where it is exhausting gases.
Thermal energy has not been fully removed until the steam reaches the outside atmosphere. Studies by the Underwriters Laboratories Firefighter Safety Research Institute have shown that the application of water to fire gases affects the entire structure due to the laws of thermal dynamics and temperatures finding an equilibrium throughout the structure.
Lowering the temperature of the gases will narrow the flammability range and reduce reignition of gases. Steam will also create a buffer below the gases and further inhibit re-ignition by excluding the interaction with oxygen.
Firefighters must understand the different nozzle patterns and apply them at the correct time and with the right technique to effectively extinguish and avoid deadly fire dynamics like flashovers and rollovers.
Lance Bushie is chief of the High River Fire Department in Alberta and president and lead instructor at Trident Fire Training & Consultancy Inc.
GEAR WE CAN REPAIR YOUR
Excessive steam production can upset the thermal balance, remove visibility and impact your PPE. Note that steam which hasn’t mixed with fire gases is colourless and is as transparent as air. As steam expands the neutral plane lowers, influencing the layer of fresh air that we, as firefighters, operate within near the floor. Keeping the thermal balance intact is the goal. Fresh air and visibility are your friends, while limiting the amount of steam contacting your PPE.
So, what should we do with this new information? We must first agree that, as a standard approach to an interior attack, we use the straight/solid stream to cool the environment by limiting the volume of steam production and air entrainment. If, by observing your surroundings you note this has not been enough to lower the temperature, you can apply water over a longer duration or change tactics to use the power cone.
Steam interacts with our PPE by warming it and penetrating the layers straight through our vapour barrier, reaching our skin.
Because the steam molecules are much smaller than the pores of your skin, steam is able to penetrate the epidermis (protective outer layer) through pores. Only once the epidermis becomes swollen due to the amount of absorbed water in the dermis, do the pores swell and become too small. By this time, it is too late and the damage has been inflicted.
Once the steam comes into contact with your dermis, it condenses and releases the stored thermal energy (Latent Heat of Vaporization) directly to the dermis and causes second-degree burns.
Another theory suggests that the air gap between the layer of our skin and clothing gets saturated with moisture from sweat off your skin. The thermal energy from the fire environment penetrates your PPE and warms that air layer between your clothes and skin.
Once the temperature of the air and water vapour reaches its dew point or it gets saturated, the water condenses on the skin, causing burns.
Quick shots with a power cone to the gases will produce more steam than the straight/ solid stream, but be far more effective in cooling. If the correct amount of water is applied and without moving the nozzle while flowing water, causing air entrainment, the gases will contract and cool with greater efficiency than the solid/ straight stream.
The straight/solid stream pattern should be applied in three-to-10-second bursts, depending on the amount of thermal energy stored in the surfaces and gases. The power cone should be applied in a sufficient number of onesecond bursts. After each application of water to cool the environment, observe the reaction of the gases. Use your thermal imaging camera at frequent intervals and note the changes. Steam is necessary to fight fires.
We must be aware of the amount of steam generated, where the flow path is taking that steam and how effectively the environment is being cooled.
We also need to be more aware of the limitations of our PPE and leave the super-heated environment before thermal energy penetrates our gear.
Back to basics
By Mark van der Feyst
Know your SCBA inside out
Ihave been looking at the mayday function of firefighter survival in the past few issues and how important it is to the survivability of each firefighter.
SCBA emergencies is the next chapter of our study. I have laid the foundation for how, when and why you need to call for help, and one of those reasons to call is based upon a malfunction with SCBA, or self-contained breathing apparatus.
This piece of equipment is the single most important and improved upon piece of equipment that firefighters use and need to use.
In the early days of firefighting, we did not have SCBA, but over time we have seen the introduction of SCBA and the advancement of the equipment based upon available technology, line-of-duty deaths, increase in fuel loads and changes in fire dynamics. The SCBA protects the biggest and most-easily-compromised system of our body, the respiratory system. That’s why SCBA is the most important piece of PPE that we must use.
Even though the SCBA has been designed and tested to perform beyond our limitations, it is still a piece of mechanical equipment and it can sustain a malfunction of some type. We have documented evidence of mechanical problems or malfunctions occurring with SCBA. Though not the norm, it does happen.
Having said that, this is the reason why firefighters need to know their SCBA inside and
out. When a problem occurs, they will be able to diagnose it quickly and come up with a resolution. The goal of firefighter survival is to get out and to get out quickly, and the SCBA will provide that opportunity if you know how to use it.
This knowledge starts with daily inspection of the SCBA. No matter what brand of SCBA you are using, there is a method to conducting a systematic inspection of it.
There are four components to the SCBA: regulator, cylinder, facepiece and back frame/harness assembly. If all four of these components are checked, then the whole SCBA will be checked. It is imperative that you check the manufacturer recommendations so that you know how a specific SCBA needs to be checked and what to look for.
You should also plan how to put on your SCBA. There are two basic methods to don your SCBA – over your head or the coat method.
van
has been a full-time firefighter in Ontario since 1999. He teaches in Canada, the U.S. and India and is lead author of Residential Fire Rescue Contact Mark at Mark@FireStarTraining.com.
Donning the SCBA in the seat-mounted position is only good if you have a seat to place the SCBA on. In the case of firefighter survival, there are no seat-mounted SCBAs inside a building, so you can only rely upon the over-the-head or coat method for donning and doffing your SCBA.
Whichever method you choose, you need to stick with it. You cannot go back and forth between the two – one day donning the SCBA using the coat method and the next day using the over-the-head method. This will just confuse your brain and will not exercise your muscle memory. It is with consistency that we develop muscle memory and, in the case of donning/doffing our SCBA, we need to be consistent with one method.
The other aspect of our SCBA knowledge is with training. You need to train as you play. In the case of SCBA knowledge, it comes with using
SCBA. People like to take shortcuts sometimes in training and one shortcut may be not using your SCBA. This may be due to many reasons, but if you have to use it for the real thing, then why not use it all the time so that you become familiar with it and your knowledge of the SCBA increases?
There are four categories of SCBA malfunctions that I’m going to look deeper into over the next couple of issues. They are:
• Reduced profile maneuvers where firefighters need to navigate through a smaller opening to get out and the SCBA may be hindering their ability to do so.
• Entanglements where firefighters find themselves caught or entangled in electrical wires, ceiling grid systems, curtains, or dryer vent pipe wire. The SCBA may be wrapped or caught in the entanglement and prevent progress out
• Equipment failures where the SCBA itself may have parts that fail, such as the straps, buckles, reducing block, or facepiece. When these things happen, there has to be a quick decision made as to what needs to be done to the SCBA so that quick egress can be achieved if possible
• Out-of-air situations where firefighters find there is none left and the SCBA can no longer provide protection. There is no need to be scared of using the SCBA from what I have described above. The key to surviving any one of these situations is to train for them and become familiar with the SCBA and consistently do the same thing day-in and day-out.
The SCBA going through a reduced opening.
Students practice donning their SCBA or self-contained breathing apparatus.
Mark
der Feyst
•
Tools of the Trade
By Sean Kingswell
Firefighters need a good snooze strategy
Firefighters are exposed to myriad dangerous circumstances.
There are the obvious issues like heat, choking smoke, zero visibility and heavy lifting. Stress has also received a lot more attention lately, which is great.
There are some things that are not quite as obvious or talked about, and one such example is sleep deprivation.
Firefighters are paid to do a lot of things and sleep is not one of them. We have access in most professional situations to a rack that may be used at night if all else is done. Anyone who has slept in a firehouse knows that we use the word sleep cautiously, as anticipating being startled awake creates less than an ideal sleeping environment.
Within minutes, we can go from being asleep to being, not only awake, but in a life-threatening situation.
With a certification in Sleep Science Coaching, I feel there are a few things firefighters should embrace when it comes to sleep.
First, sleep needs some form of priority. Sleep is an active process and this point is the most important of all. Our body and brain recover and repair during sleep. Our bodies recover in the deep stages of non-REM-sleep and our brains in REM-sleep.
Dreams, in many ways, are our brain processing many life experiences and emotions. Sleep is the absolute best practice available for recovery from exercise. Keep in mind that our body likely does not know the difference between a gym workout or a fire ground workout.
Sleep and stress are married. When one is bad, the other usually follows. So, if we are sleep-deprived we are generally more stressed and when we are more stressed we generally do not sleep as well. This is a vicious cycle.
Sleep deprivation obviously leads to fatigue, but it also affects our circulatory system, reaction time, immune and digestive system and cognition. Sleep directly impacts performance in life, a gym setting or the fire ground.
We live in a coffee and soda culture and too much caffeine has a negative impact on sleep. Assuming a typical evening bedtime, noon is generally the cut-off for caffeine due to its half-life. In particular, caffeine can disrupt the first half of your night’s sleep. Alcohol, on the other hand, typically has a negative effect on the second half.
Managing your caffeine is one example of a list of things that are included in sleep hygiene, which are the practices we can partake in to try to improve our sleep.
First and foremost, if you think you may have a legitimate sleep condition such as sleep apnea or insomnia definitely make the effort to see a sleep expert or sleep clinic. When you are sleeping at home make sure you create conditions that work for you and help you sleep.
Regular sleep hours on off-days can help, as can a comfortable temperature and adequate darkness. Screen time before bed will rarely improve sleep, as the light from screens in some ways tells our brain that it is daytime. Speaking of daytime, getting out into the light during the day actually helps us manage our circadian rhythms.
Sean Kingswell is an experienced professional firefighter, personal trainer, fitness coach and the creator of the FIRESAFECADETS program. Contact Sean at firesafecadets@gmail.com.
Exercise definitely helps us sleep. That being said, exercise needs to be properly timed to accomplish that. Exercising too close to bedtime can have a negative effect on our ability to sleep due to the body’s response to exercise.
If you are having trouble sleeping, do not have a clock to constantly look at. Also, if you have tried for some time to fall asleep and have not been able to, get up or partially up, and give it a little time to start over. This could be a time to try reading, as it can often help with sleep.
Sleep procrastination is a real thing. That’s when you’re tired but don’t go to bed. Find your way there. The extra hour of sleep is likely more productive than an extra hour of television.
It can be good to talk to neighbours if you are going to bed after a shift. Hopefully, they will be co-operative and try to help by controlling the volume of their activities.
Talking to family about sleep deprivation that firefighters experience can also be helpful. This can help them understand the importance of sleep as well as take steps to try to aid you.
Napping can be a good strategy, but not too short or too long. If we hit the wrong part of the sleep cycle to wake up in we can feel quite groggy.
If you’ve had a tiring night and are driving home after work be careful, as being awake for 24 hours can have very serious effects on a person. Wear sunglasses on the drive home if it is daytime. If you are planning to go to bed, be sure to remove that light source from your eyes and hence your brain.
Make sleep an active part of your wellness when you are on your off days. Your body, brain and performance will thank you.
Sleep deprivation obviously leads to fatigue, but it also affects our circulatory system, reaction time, immune and digestive system.
Napping can be a good strategy, but not too short or too long. If we hit the wrong part of the sleep cycle to wake up in we can feel quite groggy.
Recipe rescue
By Patrick Mathieu
The basics of breakfast
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It is not just an old adage that mom or dad would use to try to get you to eat something before running out the door first thing in the morning.
Breakfast kickstarts your metabolism, helping you burn calories throughout the day. It also gives you the energy to get things done and focus at work or school.
So why do so many skip the most important meal?
It can happen if you’re at a busy fire house or rushing to get yourself or your children out the door. That’s a mistake. You need food in your system long before lunch time.
If you don’t eat first thing, you may get so hungry later on that you snack on highfat, high-sugar foods. Could you imagine fighting a big fire first thing in the morning with no fuel in your system?
Breakfast also gives you a chance to get some vitamins and nutrients from healthy foods like dairy, grains and fruits.
When you wake up, the blood sugar your body needs to make your muscles
Peanut Butter and Banana Breakfast Bars
INGREDIENTS
2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup spelt flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 ½ cups vanilla almond milk
4 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons crunchy peanut butter
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 medium banana, quartered and diced
½ cup shredded coconut
1. Place rack in the centre and heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease an 8-by-8-inch square pan.
Patrick Mathieu is an acting captain at Waterloo Fire Rescue in Ontario and author of Firehouse Chef: Favourite Recipes from Canada’s Firefighters. Contact Patrick at stationhousecateringco@yahoo.ca @StationHouseCCo.
and brain work their best is usually low. Breakfast helps replenish it. Enough of the science, though. The real question is: how do you make sure breakfast is easily accessible to yourself, your family, your kids and your crew?
Following are a few of my favourite tricks, tips and a recipe to make sure you keep the body fueled and ready for the day ahead:
• Take whatever day may be a down day for you, whether it be on the weekend or a weekday and prepare your breakfast items for the week. Have smoothie items already chopped and bagged, and have certain components already cooked, like boiled eggs or oatmeal and pre-mix pancake or waffle mixes, so all you have to do is add wet ingredients.
• The night before a big day, why not get breakfast going so you can wake up to a warm meal without any work? Use your slow cooker to get the hard work out of the way the night before. Delicious things like oatmeal and egg casseroles are all great recipes to make in the slow cooker.
• Overnight oats are a game changer for a quick grab-and-go breakfast. Just add
oats, milk, and whatever else you can think of or find in a mason jar and stick it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, the oats will be perfectly tender without having to heat them.
• Stock your freezer with homemade waffles, pancakes and other morning staples. Waffles and pancakes freeze surprisingly well. Just throw them into Ziploc baggies and stick them in the freezer. That way, you can just grab and heat them either in the microwave or toaster and enjoy without having to do any actual cooking.
• Make one big breakfast casserole, quiche or frittata on the weekend and eat them throughout the week. These eggy dishes are the perfect items to cook and reheat and you can always dress them up with different toppings like avocado, sour cream, or pico de gallo or hot sauce.
• My wife is a nurse and her favourite trick while on shifts is to quickly cook omelets and scrambled eggs in the microwave in a matter of seconds. Mug omelets = amazing. Just throw everything in a cup, microwave for a minute or so, and breakfast is done. You can customize the recipe to your liking, adding cheese, veggies or whatever else you typically put in your eggs. And since all the prep is done, this comes together in a flash
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the oats, flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. In a separate large bowl, combine the milk, applesauce, egg, honey, peanut butter, and vanilla.
3. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and stir to combine. The batter will be very wet. Fold in the diced banana and coconut and then pour into the prepared baking pan.
4. Bake for 35 minutes or until thickened and golden and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool, cut into bars and serve or package for later use.
• Breakfast bars are easy, filling, and pretty darn easy to make. Even the busiest of mornings have time for a breakfast bar. Simply make a big batch on your down day and you are set up for success.
• Repurpose your dinner leftovers. Think beyond scrambled eggs and pancakes and start getting creative with how you repurpose your leftovers. Rice can be transformed into a hearty breakfast bowl and roasted potatoes can be chopped up into a hash. Mixing and matching leftovers can save you some serious time, cut down on food waste and give breakfast an exciting new touch.
