Great post bro. I’ve been super busy so this comment is coming in a little late. I appreciate you sharing this with those of us who follow, it surely drives the point home about several things, knowing your still alarm territory being the most important.

My still is in a socio-economically depressed area, otherwise known as “Da Hood.” We have a mix of structures, ranging from 800 sq ft. shotgun shacks, to Section 8 Garden Apartments, to sprawling single story windowless (and vacant) commercials. Everywhere we turn in our residential settings, we find extended families living in dwellings that number up to 10 to 12 people living under one small roof. We have a Type 3 hardwood flooring store where the owners live in a converted apartment off the back. In one of our biggest vacants (a run down Lowe’s) we have a half dozen vagrants with the same setup as you have discussed in the photos of above. Needless to say, we search. We search! WE SEARCH!!! Not based upon order of arrival, SOG’s, or on a whimsy. We search because it’s what we signed up to do. We search because fires in vacant properties don’t light themselves. We search because it’s our duty.

Are we pulling out victims at every fire? Nope, in fact most all searches turn up negative. Is that a reason to forgo that vital fire ground function? Heck no. People forgets things, firemen are the world’s worst. They forget basics. They forget fundamentals. They forget that in their first course revolving around fire ground search that we search for 2 things. Life and FIRE! Nothing makes an engine company look better than a good truck company providing recon and holding the fire in check. So what if you can see it blowing out of a window? Where is it headed? Can we find the seat, and do a rapid search of the most threatened areas giving the possible trapped occupants a chance to survive? Can we justify a search for life that proves negative? We should be able to answer yes to all of these, and if we can’t then perhaps it’s time to return to the academy for some remedial firemanship training.

I did not mean to turn this into a diatribe, only to echo your sentiments. When we become passive window blasters that, in the aftermath, sift through the rubble for skeletons, I’ll go back to hanging drywall for a living.

Scott Richardson
South Metro Fire Rescue
On the Job Emergency Services Training, LLC.

Thank you for the great class and conversation afterwords. It is obvious that the three of you have a great deal of passion for the fire service and what we do. I look forward to other classes from Irons and Ladders.

Scott Richardson
South Metro Fire Rescue
On the Job Emergency Services Training, LLC.

-From the book, On Combat, by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman