This is the first in a series of articles explaining how imagery and promotion cultivate a fear about vertical ventilation that is not found in other firefighting tasks. The detailed information is from a presentation given during the Maryland State Firemen’s Association Convention and Conference in 2023.
By Bill Carey
15 October 2023
Past and present research has repeatedly affirmed vertical ventilation’s value and positive effects. Oddly, when tragedies and close calls occur in fire attacks, search, and vertical ventilation, vertical ventilation is the one task where reactions to the activity, especially online, call for it to be thrown out of our repertoire. Natural reactions and emotions weigh heavily when tragedy or near tragedy occurs, but why are they so intense and why does this not happen to our other tactics?
Firefighters have been killed and severely injured by extreme fire behavior and structural collapses while advancing hoselines and searching for occupants, yet when those deaths occur there is no extreme reaction by individuals and organizations to stop fighting a fire from the inside or to stop searching for occupants. Instead, we are encouraged to consider new strategies to initiate and complete fire extinguishment and searches that may better manage the level of risk and degree of safety, except when the dramatic involves roof ventilation.
Why is there such an extreme reaction towards tragedy and near tragedy when it comes to vertical ventilation? Until now there has never been a specific, logical pursuit of this emotional reaction that calls for an end to the tactic. No matter the department involved or even if there was not a close call, there is an aversion to this tactic. The reasons for this are imagery; fear, propagated by anniversary promotions; and misunderstood fatality data.
Images play an important role in our education, beliefs, reasoning, cognitive biases, and decision-making. The image of fire as we know it is not favorable. Burned coats and pants, melted facepiece lenses and charred frontpieces testify to the damage done despite the latest personal protective equipment. Yet we know, personally or otherwise, that this protection has no guarantee. Firefighters have suffered severe injuries and death despite being fully encapsulated. The image of being caught and enveloped by fire is also not favorable, but unlike the damaged personal protective equipment, it is rarely seen except in the case of vertical ventilation.
Firefighters on the roof of a burning structure are easily seen, for the most part, by readers and observers. Videos from buffs, bystanders and news helicopters can capture the footage as we have seen over the years. The view inside is not so clear and this is how imagery plays its part in the reaction. We don’t see the firefighter being overwhelmed by a fire while searching for occupants, the firefighter shielding another during a flashover, and the firefighter plunging through a floor and into a burning basement. But if a firefighter falls through a roof we can see that easily. That image plays a powerful part in affecting our emotions and reasoning.
Jonathan Edward’s well-known sermon ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ is an example of the early use of fire as imagery to cause a change in people. Edwards writes, “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire. He is of purer eyes than to bear you in his sight; you are ten thousand times as abominable in his eyes as the most hateful, venomous serpent is in ours.” [1] Edward’s view of the Great Awakening led him to use the image of being suspended over fire to have his congregation understand both the positive and negative images of God’s power and not just think about it but feel it.
The imagery of damnation and hell has all types of representations however the common one is fire. The usual visuals are a lake of fire, pit of fire, flames all around, surrounded by flames, and falling into fire. It is common to many people, no matter their view of religion, and emphasizes fear. Consider in our own time the general imagery of fire and tragedy. It is both a tool and a terror. As terror, it is something we fight and usually defeat, something we rescue innocents from, and something that overtakes us and consumes us. Compared with asphyxiation or being crushed, fatally struck, or fatally shot, burning alive is torturous.
The effectiveness of photojournalism lies in its ability to evoke an instant emotional reaction and leave a lasting impression on the viewer. Images that are particularly remarkable or unforgettable are often referred to as having a significant impact. Artists and professionals in the media industry have long acknowledged the captivating power of visual representations, giving importance to the impact of an image when creating and selecting pictures for use in art, media, and advertising [2].
In cognitive neuroscience, studies investigating memory and attention towards emotional stimuli have primarily centered around the involvement of the amygdala. It is widely believed that the amygdala plays a significant role in directing attention towards emotional stimuli and subsequently facilitating the recollection of emotional material. In short, we can be conditioned to have a significant reaction to an image.
The available evidence substantiates the hypothesis that emotionally significant stimuli play a crucial role in directing attentional processes. In particular, research that has investigated emotional picture processing, as well as studies that have employed the threat-of-shock paradigm, have demonstrated the preferential processing of emotional stimuli [3].
In contemporary society, where media plays a dominant role, the portrayal of excessively thin body ideals poses a significant threat to the healthy body perceptions and self-esteem of adolescent girls. Despite the well-known fact that peers are highly relevant to adolescents during this developmental stage, and that social acceptance is a crucial aspect of social development, there is limited research on how media portrayals interact with peer opinions. The study “Brain activation upon ideal-body media exposure and peer feedback in late adolescent girls” [4] looked to explain the underlying mechanisms that influence late adolescent girls’ responses to peer feedback on their ratings of media model images in terms of normal or too thin, using neural measures. Specifically, how peer feedback that is consistent or deviates from the girls’ own ratings of bikini models’ body sizes affects their responses.
Researchers found that found that late adolescent girls with lower self-esteem were impacted more by contrary feedback from peers when directed toward what should be considered normal body shapes.
This is similarly found in the fire service with confirmation bias through social media. Media, photos, or videos, of a firefighter falling or nearly falling through the roof of a burning structure are generally the most commented on, except abandoned structure fires, for the perceived recklessness and poor training of the firefighter and fire department involved. These posts have the greatest engagement due to the visual, image, or video of the falling firefighter. Commenters generally use the media to support their belief of how dangerous vertical ventilation is as well as point to the actions seen as the reason they believe hundreds of firefighters die each year.
The comparison of adolescent girls, firefighters and peer pressure, can explained this way: A firefighter with minimal experience, in a department with minimal experience in vertical ventilation, constantly sees media about how dangerous this task is. The firefighter’s peers also emphasize the danger. When the firefighter sees a post showing firefighters on the roof of a burning structure, their initial reaction is to consider what they see as very dangerous. Comments from others with the same thoughts give confirmation to the firefighter and so they believe they are correct in their thinking as confirmed by their peers. [5]
This confirmation is replayed, reemphasized – without conscious thought – each time the firefighter sees similar media. Knowing the effect of imagery on the mind (to be explained in a later article), the firefighter does not have to think to themselves if what they are seeing is dangerous; their mind has already made the determination.
This cyclical affirmation also lends to firefighters promoting false information. Two examples of this with regard to vertical ventilation involve the FDNY and Phoenix Fire Department.
Absolutes are few in the fire service but when it comes to discussions about line-of-duty deaths they often appear as a defense of the confirmation bias above. Statements about fire departments, the FDNY in this example, are grabbed and used without critical thought into the why the department operates the way it does. The statement fits the confirmation bias and so the position is defended. It is correct that they FDNY does not operate on top of peaked roofs but it is not an absolute. From time to time you can find firefighters on top of peaked roofs because the situation at the time led them to having to operate that way.
A contradictory image does not negate the risk just like a low number of fatalities in a task does not negate the danger. Instead, all it offers is evidence to the contrary of a confirmation bias that is often repeated. The same is seen when the subject of Blue Card training is interjected into a discussion about vertical ventilation. Many firefighters who are not fond of being on the roof will refer to the Phoenix Fire Department following Blue Card and not going onto the roof of any structure. This is simply not true as shown by the Phoenix Fire Department.
Like the FDNY example, it is relatively easy to find photos and videos of Phoenix firefighters on the roof of a burning structure.
Summary
Images carry emotions. They also carry memories, information and biases. The repeated use of an image with a repeated message, such as “this is how we kill hundreds of firefighters,” creates a consistent belief. Images are superior over words when it comes to recalling and recognizing information, and word and image association influences readers’ thinking.
An incorrect but constant and consistent message of fear, without proper context, keeps an irrational belief of fear alive.
Next: Picture Superiority Effect.
References:
- Edwards, J. (1741, July 8). Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/edwards_jonathan/Sermons/Sinners.cfm
- Ewbank MP, Barnard PJ, Croucher CJ, Ramponi C, Calder AJ. The amygdala response to images with impact. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2009 Jun;4(2):127-33. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsn048. Epub 2009 Jan 17. PMID: 19151376; PMCID: PMC2686226.
- Bublatzky F, Schupp HT. Pictures cueing threat: brain dynamics in viewing explicitly instructed danger cues. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2012 Aug;7(6):611-22. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsr032. Epub 2011 Jun 29. PMID: 21719425; PMCID: PMC3427861.
- Veldhuis, J., Braams, B. R., Peters, S., Konijn, E. A., & Crone, E. A. (2017). Brain activation upon ideal-body media exposure and peer feedback in late adolescent girls. Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 17(4), 712-723. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-017-0507-y
- Ghani, Ahmad & Rahmat, Hawa. (2023). Confirmation Bias in Our Opinions on Social Media: A Qualitative Approach. Journal of Communication, Language and Culture. 3. 47-56. 10.33093/jclc.2023.3.1.4.
Data Not Drama 
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