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Pitboss Lecture Series - America's Bravest

I considered firefighting as a possible career in high school. Our high school's technology center has an amazing firefighter training program, and I took the first two courses. I have not read tsy's posts yet, but I'll report back with more of my experiences later once I read through. Thanks for doing this, tsy.
 
My father-in-law was a NYFD firefighter for like 30 years, the majority of which was spent in Harlem. He has some crazy stories, most of which he never told his family about until after he retired, as he didn't want them to worry too much. The most nuts ones involve the riots in the '70s, when people would set abandoned buildings on fire so the firefighters would come out, and then they would dump burning garbage on the firefighters to get back at The Man. He said they would end up using their Halligan (sp?) tools as weapons to fight their way out. The City would not let them stop responding, as the City did not want to be portrayed as not caring about its less fortunate citizens, so the firemen were the ones who had to deal with it.
 
What's the deal with fires in January? Why are they so much more likely to occur?
 
January and February are generally the coldest months for most of the country. People do stupid and desperate things when they get cold. Factor in the abundance of winter weather in January, and people losing power and the result is higher numbers.

I will say, people cant have emergencies when the weather is beautiful. In the past year, we had a house fire when it was 15 degrees and another when it was 103. Its next to impossible to accomplish anything in those conditions.
 
I'm skeptical that there's that big of a tipping point in January because people are cold and stupid vs. December and February, but I'd really like to learn more about it.
 
I went back and re read the statistic you were asking about. It refers to the months with the most LODDs, not fires overall.

I'll have to find the months which have the most fires. I wouldnt be surprised if it turned out to be January as well.
 
Oh, I see. My fault.

Even as LODD, that statistic surprises me. (Now I want to know why LODDs have a big uptick in October, too.)
 
I can easily see January being the most deadly due to the weather conditions. I have no idea how Oct is second though. It may start sooner up north, but our rash of chimney fires dont normally start until late Nov or early Dec.


Keep the ??s coming.
 
Do all volunteers respond to all calls? Are you on some sort of rotation so only some respond if it isn't bad?
 
Some departments have shifts, and they respond to calls during that shift. Ours is strictly volunteer, so if I'm available and willing when the call comes, I'll go. If I've been drinking, am out of the district, or just choose not to respond, I dont have to.
 
Awesomely done and great insight. I had an unhealthy obsession with fire trucks when I was a kid to the point that I ended up with a kevlar fire coat with my name on it as well as an old fire hat from the local volunteer dept so stuff like this is really interesting to me.

And Backdraft is awesome.
 
bigdoublezero said:
What's the deal with fires in January? Why are they so much more likely to occur?
Click to expand...

According to the NFPA, there isnt a huge difference in the months with regard to structure fires. That doesnt take into account the other types of fire, but it surprised me. According to table 2 from that link, the largest months are January and December at 10%. There is a slight uptick in the colder months, 9% vs 7% or 8% in warmer months, but its minimal. Days of the week are pretty much even at 14%-15%. 42% of house fires are started from cooking equipment, 17% from heating equipment, and 8% are intentional. That surprises me, because most of our house fires have been deemed electrical in nature.
 
tsywake said:
Some departments have shifts, and they respond to calls during that shift. Ours is strictly volunteer, so if I'm available and willing when the call comes, I'll go. If I've been drinking, am out of the district, or just choose not to respond, I dont have to.
Click to expand...

How do they contact you? Is it still by beeper? If you don't want to respond, how do you notify them?

How does it work with your regular job? Have you ever had to sprint out of an important business meeting? Do you wear tear-away suit pants for such an occasion?

Do they still publish that awesome magazine for cops/firefighters where you can order decals and lights for your car?
 
DistrictDeacon said:
How do they contact you? Is it still by beeper? If you don't want to respond, how do you notify them?

How does it work with your regular job? Have you ever had to sprint out of an important business meeting? Do you wear tear-away suit pants for such an occasion?

Do they still publish that awesome magazine for cops/firefighters where you can order decals and lights for your car?
Click to expand...

For my relatives and friends, they all have scanners. Now with smart phones, some of them receive scanners on their phones. They also get texts for the calls as well.
 
DistrictDeacon said:
How do they contact you? Is it still by beeper? If you don't want to respond, how do you notify them?

How does it work with your regular job? Have you ever had to sprint out of an important business meeting? Do you wear tear-away suit pants for such an occasion?

Do they still publish that awesome magazine for cops/firefighters where you can order decals and lights for your car?
Click to expand...

Funny you mention that, as I was reading your post we got a call. All of our calls are dispatched over radio, and we carry pagers like this one.


In the last year, a company out of Oregon has come along and developed a smartphone app to also notify us of calls. Dispatch enters a code to automatically send them a text message with the location and type of call, and they handle dispatching it out through the app. Its a pretty sweet advancement, mainly because it has mapping capabilities. It's really helpful when responding mutual aid to neighboring districts.


Officers and EMT's carry two way radios so we can communicate directly with communications.

tk-2170_tk-3170.jpg


The trucks carry hard wired radios that we use to talk back and forth on. In the old days, we used CB channels, but now use FCC Licensed channels. We learned from experience a few years ago the FCC doesnt like for us to use profanity or slangs on calls. Apparently someone in the public called and complained about something we said over the air, so we got a nice warning letter.

We only notify them if we are responding. Each EMT checks in route and on scene for medical calls, but all other calls only the first officer responding and all apparatus check in route. ISO mandates that we have 3 minutes in which to respond to the station and check a truck in route, and 5 minutes of travel time to the scene. Theoretically, you should have someone there within 8 minutes of the call, but we average a little over 5. If after 3 minutes, no apparatus has checked in route, communications will re-tone us and automatically dispatch the next due department.

I work 30 miles from home, so I dont respond from work. Those that work in district are free to respond if their employer allows it. It varies from employer to employer though. In the back seat of my truck I carry my EMT jump bag and my gear bag enabling me to dress on the scene. We size them large enough to fit over street clothes, but I generally strip down to boxers and a t-shirt as I'm changing so I wont get as hot.

Is this the magazine you're referring to?
 
tsywake said:
Some departments have shifts, and they respond to calls during that shift. Ours is strictly volunteer, so if I'm available and willing when the call comes, I'll go. If I've been drinking, am out of the district, or just choose not to respond, I dont have to.
Click to expand...

So when you have a sweet fireman's ball and you're all wasted does no one respond? Or are there paid departments that cover your area? Or is there a designated driver who brings a bunch of hammered firemen to the scene?

Obviously I'm kidding mostly, but how do you make sure there are always enough volunteers available?
 
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