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senor punk posted:So FDNY has 2 flashover simulators, and this week we finally got to go through them. Definitely the coolest thing in the whole academy. The name is a bit misleading, because they don't actually induce a flashover, but instead manage to create and control a rollover about 2 feet above your head. The flames don't even look real, it's insane. All done just by burning wood and properly controlling the door (and with that, the oxygen supply). I'd love to have just sat in there and watched it for a good 10-20 minutes, however they claim that the facepieces start to melt if you're in there too long. A bunch of Captains in my department took the instructor level training and set up a live burn "house" made out of metal shipping containers welded together. They been doing the live burn training for out department for about two years running all of our crews through it at least once a year. One of em is my Capt and his normally white helmet turned black in a few months. No problems with melting scba masks, though.
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Jun 15, 2013 11:51
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 11:42 |
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You can buy the webbing in bulk if you are worried about losing it. I carry two webbings, one is like the above guys around 10 feet water knotted together. The other is something huge like 20-25 feet. Never had to use the larger loop yet, but the plan was in case I had to bail out of a window/patio with no ladder. I carry a few other things in my turnouts: A red construction crayon that is inside a plastic holder designed for it. The plan with that is in case of a search through buildings we can mark the doors with that large X. A few wood door chocks. Forcible entry and/or keeping doors open. A cheap wire cutter, for cutting the negative battery wire in a vehicle accident. Extra medical gloves. Small shove knife. In case I forget to grab a halligan off the truck. Utility knife. Flashlights. I used to carry a small jar of vicks in case of a really smelly scene.
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Aug 24, 2013 13:30
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Yeah that's how we do the searches. Haven't had a large incident where we actually had to use it, except in rare "annual" drills. Luckily, we only have one fire department for our county. So we wouldn't have problems like two or three departments converging on a single incident and using different search methods.
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Sep 8, 2013 07:43
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Regarding the one and done thing, in my department, we have medical monitoring during rehab. We measure vitals including carbon monoxide levels. If you exceed them you get to rest longer and get retested.
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Nov 6, 2013 07:22
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Loco179 posted:Bread and butter stuff very rarely has rehab. You have some drinks on the TSU you get when your switching tanks. We get extra companies in extreme cases but our first alarm assignment can handle it most of the time. Our average is like a hour on single dwelling fires. Sometimes people make this poo poo way too complicated. Why do you need CO2 monitoring if you have your pack on? There are reasons why rehab is important. If you have been working in a fire on a 30 minute bottle you should be given 10 minutes of rest with some fluids. If you have been working for 60 minutes you should be given 20 minutes of rest, fluids, and medical monitoring. This is now a requirement if your department follows NFPA 1584. The gas you monitor is not CO2, but CO (carbon monoxide). Best site I can find with further information that doesn't have a pay/login wall is http://www.firerescue1.com/fire-rehab/articles/327047-Making-Rehab-a-Requirement-NFPA-1584/
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Nov 16, 2013 02:53
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smooth.operator posted:I'm wondering if the 4th firefighter entering from the basement turned what was a ventilation-limited fire into a full on inferno. Why leave your job of securing the water line? Why not just radio what the bystander told you to your crew already in the structure? I know it's lovely to armchair-quarterback after the fact but to me it seems like these deaths may have been preventable. Is there a link that talks about what the 4th firefighter did, or did you figure it out from the audio? I'm not used to the clipped dialogue so I couldn't pick up that. Even if the entry door was shut as much as possible, that still leaves a 3-5 inch gap for the wind to blow through. Where was the third firefighter? In my department, the minimum crew is 2 firefighters, one driver and one officer. The officer and a firefighter go in with a 1 3/4 line with the second firefighter helping set up water supply and/or helping pull the line through the entry door. Officers job is to read heat with an exposed hand ahead of the nozzle. My departments standard right now is 100 gpm but several captains are pushing for 150 gpm, which I agree with. I hope someone recorded the initial incident for future training. I definitely agree that these deaths were preventable. Anyone know what hand line length/size/gpm and scba bottles Boston uses?
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Mar 29, 2014 07:52
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Beach posted:After two years on the eligible list for my city and six months of residency/background checks I have my first board interview in front of members of city fire, personnel, and legal department in two weeks! I have been reading Paul Lepore's "Smoke Your Firefighter Interview" and am keeping a notebook of thoughts and responses, as well as practicing question and answers with friends and family. Any other suggestions for getting through the board interview process? Keep your calm.
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Jul 12, 2014 22:14
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There is some memorization involved but a lot of it you wouldn't need to remember unless you are actually working on a hazmat company. Most important thing for me was to recognize initial hot zones 50/100/150 ft and how to pronounce the methyl ethyl poo poo. Level A's are confining but I'm a large guy so I hate level B's even more. At least in a Level A suit you can have a rag to wipe up sweat and a clipboard to write things down without contaminating everything.
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Aug 29, 2014 05:55
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Tried polishing your boots? That or working on your personal vehicle.
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Dec 9, 2014 02:36
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I still remember my first burned victim, 19 year old kid lost control while speeding and ended up hitting a tree. The tree went into the car from the passenger side and ended up right against the victim. Couldn't tell he was there until the fire was out.
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Feb 15, 2015 03:13
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I'm not sure what the official name is, but our SOP(G?) is to have the officer lead into a structure and do a heat read from the floor with an exposed back of the hand traveling towards the ceiling. At the point where it is too hot, the hand will come down. You want to have that point be somewhere above half the height of the room for safety. I don't like the idea of laying down with a hose on top of you or pulling out a 2 1/2" while still fighting active fire. Sure you could see fire rolling over you, but then your helmets water and impact protection is negated. We only use 2 1/2" lines for longer lays, large buildings, or exposure protection. Our main attack is one 1 3/4" at 150gpm followed by a second line if we have the manpower/need.
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Feb 16, 2015 12:09
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It appears that he was not hitting the rafters hard enough. I like to grab the D handle on the trash hook and really give it to the roof.
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Apr 1, 2015 08:46
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My partner in recruit class was 45 years old. He had 15 years experience from a bigger department. When we had paired drills we were almost always near or at the top, mainly from him keeping his head.
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Apr 10, 2015 20:04
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11 years to go eh? Hopefully I will be out 5 years after you, as long as the state officials keep our pension funded. Tomorrow on Mother's Day, I hope nobody on C watch calls out sick so I can go home.
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May 9, 2015 21:52
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Nothing like holding a 2 1/2" @ 150gpm while a probie practices transitioning from tank to hydrant water.
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Aug 14, 2015 11:37
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invision posted:Did you try getting rid of the hose and just putting an adapter on the nozzle and then putting it directly on the 'water goes out from here' hole on the pumper? I think the captain wanted to watch me sweat a little. For me, I thought of it as good reinforcement to always keep one hand on the bail.
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Aug 18, 2015 09:41
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Don't forget some kind of anti-chafing poo poo like petroleum jelly or a big manly tub of Destin or some other butt paste.
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Sep 1, 2015 12:48
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The department gently caress-up works on my crew. I'm trying to coach him, but he continues to gently caress up. He panics when under pressure and freelances constantly. Does anyone have some kind of motivational instruction technique or solution to help me help this guy?
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Oct 9, 2015 07:12
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smooth.operator posted:Does he gently caress up during training evolutions? Is he getting the training he needs? A lot of stuff we do can be mastered by repetition. Once the skill becomes automatic it makes the job a whole lot easier. Does your department have specific SOP's for incidents? He may benefit from having a basic checklist made for him to refer to when responding to incidents (e.g. At an MVC make sure the car is in park and keys are taken out) or when given roles (hydrant man, nozzleman, pump operator). It's easier to think clearly under pressure and problem solve once you know you have all the basic stuff taken care of. He does gently caress up in training drills. I think part of it is that he lacks confidence in himself. The frustrating thing is he doesn't like being told he is wrong and usually blames mistakes on "misunderstanding the order" or on the equipment. E: also our station is full of chill guys, but some of the older guys are getting fed up with him. I want to help this guy out. The Gardenator fucked around with this message at 08:04 on Oct 10, 2015 |
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Oct 10, 2015 08:02
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Well the captain does not want to take those steps at this time. I can see where it is a liability, but it is not that far off from having a fresh recruit or a firefighter on his last legs physically. I had to look up OSHA standards on theatrical fog because dude was freaking out over it during one of the training sessions. If anyone wants to look it up, wikipedia has some good links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatrical_smoke_and_fog#Adverse_health_effects
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Oct 26, 2015 03:45
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What to do when the last shift doesn't empty the kitchen trash. 
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Mar 11, 2016 07:44
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In addition to baby wipes, get desitin or some other brand rash cream. Some guys swear by petroleum jelly.
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Apr 28, 2016 07:08
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Hook up to the autosprinkler? Let me get my universal key.
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May 2, 2016 18:35
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Nostalgia4Butts posted:bunch of jobs to soon be opening up in Hartford CT I don't think that mayor really understands what is going to happen if he forces that department from a 42 hour to a 56 hour work week. FLSA will kick in and with a possible 1/3rd reduction due to retirement or people burning their sick/vacation, overtime expenses would rise dramatically.
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May 16, 2016 18:05
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I will not be seeing that anytime soon, we just got new handheld tics for every company. One of our local councilmembers has a hard on for not funding our current years wildland fire overtime expenses and is talking about going from 5 man to 4 man engine/ladder companies.
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May 17, 2016 22:46
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HiroProtagonist posted:On tempered glass the center punch takes zero effort or force, and controlling the shattering is good. For laminated glass a saw is quicker, safer and easier than trying to bash it in, especially considering if you need to it means there's probably a victim in there under it that needs to be extricated. We have one honorary axe with that short pick on the other end on our truck. It sucks using it to break auto glass, you have to really put some force into the hit. For cutting plywood roofs or walls, we will start with the axe side then flip to the flat side to crush our way through. One of our guys got some new fancy flathead haligan combo tool called the "pig". I believe he said it cost around $300. You can gis it here (phone posting): https://www.google.com/search?q=the...ike+firefighter We just grab our haligan and flathead axe for any forceable entry. Our department wide tic training is designed for the officer to use to direct the nozzle guy to the seat if the fire faster. It comes with a replaceable retracting cord and the tic itself is much smaller than our older model. At higher heat readings, it goes into a colored heat mode which really makes the fire standout. We also just got these ~6" aluminum disk things which fit over a 2 1/2 hose for pushing or pulling. Lots of new or updated equipment. Finally got salvage covers again, it's been several years since we last had use able ones. Finally, we got these new 14" rotary blades to replace our old multipurpose 12" blade. We tried it on auto pillars and it cuts through regular metal like butter. Much faster than using spreaders/cutters, although it may not be suitable if we can't shield victims in the car.
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May 24, 2016 08:38
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windshipper posted:Just starting at a department that is on pace for well over 14000 calls this year tomorrow. I guess it depends on types of calls, my department has almost 7000 so far this year, but most are medicals and miscellaneous poo poo. My district has a lot of beaches with athletes of various skill levels doing those paddleboard/kayak "downwind" runs. It's almost guaranteed that we will get at least one call for a person in distress in the ocean per shift. Inevitably, the caller will report that the person in distress is "moving too fast", "too far from shore", or my favorite "I wouldn't be out there". I know we cannot dissuade people from calling, but it does get old. The only joy I get from these false alarms is asking the caller if the person in distress was waving their arms or shouting for help because they will almost always say no.
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Jun 3, 2016 11:49
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I try to stay far from using hand tools for cutting, chainsaw or rotary saw are my go to tools. The guy with the pig is a physical specimen, he says he hates burpies but then I'll see him doing 50 after his main workout. I think the best tool to carry in a brush fire that lots if guys forget is a large file. Nothing like a dull axe to ruin your day.
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Jun 13, 2016 23:36
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Never had to use a spit hood, gonna find out from our medical trainer if we can obtain/use them. Triangle bandage should work in a pinch?
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Jul 9, 2016 01:55
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Val Helmethead posted::SERVICEF, F3, PUBLIC SERVICE DETAILS, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, SEE COMP ACROSS THE STREET--CAN SEE INSIDE THE SCHOOL AND SAID THERE IS A TURTLE UPSIDE DOWN STUCK BETWEEN TWO ROCKS....COMP IS CONCERNED ITS GOING TO DROWN Was it a Squirtle? Delivery McGee posted:Edit: this last Friday I went to Walmart. The fire alarm went off, and I waited until they made the "Please GTFO" announcement over the PA to leave. Turns out it was a minor electrical fire in the main panel. I'm pretty sure you are joking about abusive parking. We always have to park our ladder either along the curb or take up 5 stalls. We had a constant call to Walmart a few years ago. There was something wrong with the flow sensor. On the last call there, the Walmart manager was "busy" and wouldn't come and talk to the Captain, so he cleared the building until we inspected every part of the store. Not surprisingly, they fixed the sensor that week.
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Aug 7, 2016 21:48
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bear is driving! posted:http://imgur.com/a/EdsLS Yeah, I only use the inside mount stickers for this very reason.
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Nov 24, 2016 23:00
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We operate Jet Skis and have to wear a floatation vest and helmet which I think is a standard requirement in the USA, which would be complicated by also wearing FF PPE. When I was a recruit, we did a water survival course that included jumping into a pool while wearing full FF PPE (its easy to drown). Despite the risk of drowning, the idea is not too crazy. Instead of that water suit, you could get a safer and more reliable design by sticking a valve on the jetski that could output into a 1" line. Then you could have a hoseman and a jet ski operator.
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Feb 6, 2017 22:03
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windshipper posted:Wanna watch that operator punch the gas without warning and have the water pressure on the line suddenly knock the hose an off the back. Anything can be forgiven as long as the guy on the hose doesn't let go of his nozzle.
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Feb 17, 2017 19:50
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We didn't jump in with SCBA on, but my experience was that I had to take my boots off and fill it with air and then use that as a floatation device. We didn't make our collars tight or do anything else special to make the ppe hold air better.
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Feb 23, 2017 07:34
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My coworkers young boy recently passed away from cancer and he really loved everything to do with firefighters. He wanted to be just like his dad. If anyone is working in the next few days, it would be awesome if they could add in his son, Trucker Dukes, onto their riding list or rms or whatever it's called and post it to social media under #TruckerRidesWithUs. The next few days are gonna be pretty stressful for him because there is gonna be several public celebrations of life and the actual funeral, and I think it would help him and his family. 
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Mar 9, 2017 09:11
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Our department recently changed all of our older duraglass (or whatever the material is called) into these new Cairns helmets. We demo'd several types and the chief picked the heaviest one at 53oz. But i rather have leg room. Our stations new Pierce engine doesnt have it. We either have to tuck our feet behind our knees or put them up on the quick access shelf in front of our jumper seats. 
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Apr 29, 2017 20:24
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We had a small brushfire in the morning, could only do a quick water and brush cleaning when I took that picture. Okay, I'll admit that they usually look only slightly better than that. For some reason we have been told not to polish this specific model.
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Apr 30, 2017 23:58
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I will look at the model of boot when I get back on shift. But yeah, I hate the confined space of the two jump seats. However, the center seat is a non jump seat, and has about 4 more inches of room. I have no idea why they spec'd out this rear cab this way. Our ambulances have the motorized suction, but they are run by a private company (AMR) so we don't get lots of practice with them.
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May 2, 2017 08:33
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windshipper posted:What do you have? The manufacture we are using for boots and new turnout gear is now Honeywell. Our turnout 10 year cycle is up for our entire department this year. Some of us have gear that is over 10 years. My jacket made 10 years in February and but my trousers are still good to go. I told my captain that I can only fight structure fires now feet first into a door laying on my back. We were supposed to be getting our new Honeywell gear starting last year, but comically, a large amount of errors were found in the batch they made for our department. Trousers missing waist closures, wrong length jackets (either total length or the arm length), and overall gear that was more tight fit than the older gear of the same size. Also, no goddamn American flag patch on the jacket. Six months or more later, the new gear is slowly trickling in. I haven't gotten mine in yet, but I'm planning on taking my old American flag patch off my expired Jacket and sewing it on to my new one somehow.
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May 7, 2017 09:01
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 11:42 |
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Drones: I am starting to see them at large public gatherings and I am mostly worried about some idiot crashing one into somebody. I would like to be a part of some kind of drone pilot cadre in our department, once drones can reliably supply live video. Chiefs and turnout gear: The only time I would expect to see a chief in turnouts is every 10 years or so when they get fitted for new gear.
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Jul 9, 2017 06:47
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