Hefty attitudes of the FDNY doing it wrong
By Bill Carey
Originally published 7 November 2013.
Urban Firefighter Magazine posts many tongue-in-cheek photos, or sometimes in-your-face ones. They have their special use, some for training, some for conversation and some for business. This one below titled “Waiting for Water” sparked the usual amount of comments the page gets. Some were real winners or should I say whiners?
Here are a few gems,
“Where is his face mask?”
“No air mask on? Training? If so he should still have his mask on.”
“And when it comes that open line is going to smack him in the face.”
“He should be waiting for someone to slap his dumb ass! Where is his mask and flash hood? It’s obviously staged? But it’s like a find 10 things wrong with this picture.”
“Your bail should be closed rookie mistake.”
“I’m Chicago and that’s a horrible pic. Spend many years in a hi rise still district. 80 I’m my district alone. That pic is frightening.”
“Right in front and too close to thr door and where’s his backup + no scba mask on breathing air.”
“No mask? Drill or no drill you train like you fight. The more you sweat in training the less you bleed in combat!”
“Waiting for water and ready to go in ? Not ! No scba = stupidity ….. The cylinder on his back looks pretty though … Wtf!”
“Not to mention he has no back up or his nomex even on !!!! This is a what not to do pic !!!!”
“Going into a scene without a charged hose? Dangerous”
“Should have water on before even entering the building – basic stuff!”
“Waiting for water means you have a fire and your ready to do battle. This guy ain’t ready”
“What’s wrong with this picture? 1. Going into a building with out a charged line 2. Does not have hood on 3. Does not have SCBA on 4. No back up man 5.To much hose on stairs 6. Too close to door”
It is what is it, people freely commenting based on what they visually interpret and combine with their own experiences as well as strengths, fears and knowledge. That’s fine, but for the rest of us who have an SOP that allows stretching dry to the fire floor, as conditions allow, in a five-story walk-up and then masking up prior to entry of the fire room, let it go. How do you condemn what you don’t know? How do you castigate what works for one department and not for yours? Why not jump on the question bandwagon and not the criticizing one? That’s where we learn from each other.
And for the ones who find fault with the “bail” being opened, first it is written bale, B-A-L-E, and when you are bleeding the line of air, while waiting for water, you open it all the way to allow the air to escape, to hear the sound of the line being charged and to allow any debris to freely pass through the opening of the smoothbore nozzle.
Keep that in your “basics.”
Photo courtesy of Unsplash.
Data Not Drama 