Pride and Ownership

Every now and then you hear people talk about pride and ownership. This can be pride in your possessions, your work, your hobbies, or their families. Ownership plays into that because if you own it you should be proud or have pride in what you have. Fire Department use this term as well. It usually involves their members and the way they treat the equipment and apparatus.

Taking pride and ownership around the station can be as simple as washing the truck after you use it. Making sure that all the equipment is cleaned and ready for the next call would be another way. But yet we all need those constant reminders that we need to put fuel in the truck, make sure equipment is put back in working order, airpacks are filled, water put back into the tank, and medic supplies restocked after a medic run just to list a few. If you don't do that, does it mean that you don't have pride in what you do? Probably not, unless it continues. But how many times do you have to be reminded to do the simple things? At some point someone needs to take ownership for what they have or have not done. Our customers depend on us to respond in their time of need. How can we do that if the apparatus was not properly taken care of after the previous response? What would be even worse is that response coming days after the last run that apparatus went out on and nobody had checked it since then. Whether we label ourselves volunteer, paid on call, or full time, we all do the same job with the same goal, to serve the public.

It is easy to make excuses for why it was not done. We have all used one or two excuses at some point in time but just taking those few extra moments to make sure that the job is done right is becoming extremely important. We need to take pride in our equipment and apparatus. Again, it is as easy as washing the truck when it needs it. We need to take ownership and pride in the apparatus that the community is providing for us. They expect us to be ready to respond when they call and we should expect ourselves to have everything in working order after we are done with our call. When something gets damaged or needs repair, report it and let the officer(s) know about it. If apparatus is damaged, let it be known. Some people might blow it off and think it was no big deal, WRONG! It is a big deal. We are not taking pride nor ownership by letting them think that way. It would be no different than say I take your car out and get in a wreck and then give you back your keys and say "oops! I damaged your car. Sorry!" and then walk away. So why do we think it is ok when we damage apparatus and think it is still taking pride and ownership in belongings. It is not.

Pride and ownership is shown by people in different ways. The end result is a better department because the people care about the job they are doing and the equipment provided to them. Apparatus is ready for the next call because it was properly taken care of after the previous call.

Tragedy

Again, it has been a while since I posted anything. The last time I posted was after the tragedy in Lake City and encouraging people to check their smoke detectors and replacing the batteries at least once a year. It is still important to continue to make sure that you have working detectors and that you have had changed your batteries.

Now the fire news is been more with the fire service experiencing Line Of Duty Deaths (LODD). The West Texas fire department experienced a significant loss of life with the explosion. One of the people killed was also on the Dallas Fire Department. Then two days ago Phoenix Fire Department lost a member in a fire. Now this morning the eyes are back in Texas and the Dallas Fire Department as they had a member killed in a condo fire.

Then locally we had a near miss reported a few days ago when we had a few people partially fall through the floor in a house fire. Fortunately everyone was alright and were able to walk away.

What lessons can we learn from these tragedies and near misses? It is our job to learn from the past and make improvements for the future. We look at a house fire where a civilian dies and say check your smoke detector and change your batteries. But yet when a fire fighter dies, we express our condolences and most do nothing. Lets make the change and start to focus more on how we can be more aware of our situation.

Smoke Detectors

     Each year we are reminded to "Change your clock, change your batteries", meaning either in the spring or in the fall that you need to change the batteries in your smoke detectors. There are numerous departments across the state that have received batteries to assist in going out and changing batteries for residents and even some are providing detectors to homes that do not have them. But yet you hear about fire fatalities and how it could have been prevented if only they had a working smoke detector that would have warned them early enough so they would have had a chance to get out. Personally I hear about them and think how unfortunate it is and move on to the next email or tweet and don't think much else about it.
     The other night in the small town of Lake City, they had that scenario where 4 people died and doesn't appear that there were working smoke detectors in the residence. This one hit close to home. It is like most of the other calls where I could move past it but this town is where a lot of my wife's family lives. And yes, that was one of my first thoughts as the news was breaking the story was that it somehow involved one of them. Fortunately it was none of them involved directly, but Lake City is a small town and pretty much everyone is involved because they knew the victims directly, or know a family member of the victims. So I have paid a little closer attention to this story and feel bad for the family and community as it lost a young adult and 3 children.
     I know that the town has rallied around this family as most small towns do in a time of need and have there daily needs taken care of. But yet, I still feel like I could try and do something. Maybe not so much for this family directly but to spread the word so maybe we can hear about a family saved by smoke detectors. Those stories are out there but don't get the headlines. I briefly spoke to the State Fire Marshal the other evening and asked him if he had made it to Lake City and he said that he had and such a tragedy but maybe something good can come from it.
     So, here is my attempt to make something good come from this tragedy and to give to this family. I am asking all my friends, co-workers, and family to please make sure your smoke detectors are working properly. Make sure that you have changed your batteries in them at least once this year and you do it on a regular basis. If you have smoke detectors that are about 10 years old, think about replacing them. Most manufacturers recommend that you replace them every 10 years. Once you have taken care of yours, pass it along. It is that time of year when people are reaching out to others, so reach out and remind them to take care of their smoke detectors.
     Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read this and then act upon it. Even more thanks if it gets spread either by forwarding the message or by word of mouth.
 http://www.kcci.com/news/central-iowa/3-children-1-adult-killed-in-house-fire/-/9357080/17384698/-/11duicqz/-/index.html#.UKu80aeh41s.email

A Different Perspective

In the fire service there are numerous on the job injuries. At one department I try and prevent the injuries and review incidents that happen to involve injuries or near misses. When I am working at my full time department, I try and maintain a high level of awareness and situational surroundings to avoid injury and keep others safe as well. One little misstep and boom, twisted knee and standing at over 3 weeks so far on light duty watching the trucks roll out the door. Good news is there is no tears and will start physical therapy and hope to be back on the truck within a couple weeks. It does serve as a good reminder that accidents happen and to always try to be careful because you never know when you could become one the numbers.

If you do happen to get injured, no matter how minor, you need to report it to your officer and have it documented. Follow your departmental policy and do the steps you need to do. If you have a Safety committee or officer, discuss with them what happened so that they can evaluate it to determine if changes need to be made. One way to prevent injuries is to look at previous injuries.

Congrats to the Honor Guard

I would like to take a moment and say a job well done to the Honor Guard! A year ago they were looking at increasing members to support the different activities they were doing and with that came an idea of going to the National Fallen Firefighter Memorial service. After some discussion, they came up with a plan and set forth to raise the money to support their trip. They have done numerous activities and fundraisers to help cover their costs plus maintain a busy events schedule. While not everyone associated with the Honor Guard were able to go on the trip, it was a job well done by all members of the Honor Guard and something they should be proud of. I hope that they enjoy their time and experience while representing the State of Iowa and the Indianola Fire Department.

Seat belts

I saw this article (click on Seat belts to view the article) and was impressed by the department and the stance that they took. You hear about departments across the U.S. that say their departments are going to wear their seatbelts and how departments say they are grateful after an accident that their members were belted. But here is a department that made their members accountable for their actions. The personnel on the truck were not wearing their seatbelts, they had an accident, and after the reviews were performed, suspensions were passed down. The suspensions were made to say "Buckle UP!" and to make the engineers and officers take note that they are the people responsible for the crew and they need to make sure that everyone is buckled up before the truck moves.

Can we learn from this? You bet we can. We don't necessarily have a problem not buckling up, I think we do a pretty good job. But we can always do better! Again, it goes back to the engineer and the person in the officers seat to make sure everyone is buckled in prior to the apparatus moving. IF something would ever happen, you can bet that is going to be one of the first questions asked.

So, key point from all of this: BUCKLE UP!!

So How You Been?

I have posted a new video or two since the last time I updated but guess I haven't paid much attention as to when I last posted. October!? Wow. Have I been slacking or what? Lets see, what has been going on since I posted last? We have made it through all the holidays, had a record year in the number of calls that we responded on, hired a new full timer, got two new members trained and have become regular members, got the SOG's done and posted, and the annual dinner has come and gone. Good job to everyone for all the work that they put in last year and so far the first part of this year. Obviously, it is because of your dedication that we make all those calls and get the trucks out the door to handle the emergency.
If you haven't been to training lately, we are trying to simplify things a bit and FF Sadler has designed a program that is taking the first 5-10 minutes of the fire call and breaking into down into different roles and responsibilities. We have been through accountability and riding positions and have VES (Vent, Enter, Search) coming up this month. If you haven't made it yet, these are really good classes and I encourage you to come and check it out for yourself.

Pizza!!

Just a reminder that this Wednesday is another attempt with Pizza Ranch in spreading the word about fire safety. We are helping deliver pizza and checking smoke detectors and promoting the department all in one night! Please come and help support the department.

Fall

The season is starting to change. Gone are the 90+ degree days with excessive humidity but that does not mean that we can't become dehydrated quickly. You need to remember to drink water as much as you can and be proactive in doing so. If and when we would have a fire, it does not take long for the body to become dehydrated. This would also be a time to think of putting together a little bag or something to carry some extra clothing that would be dry. The cool air blowing over your wet clothes will take away your body heat a little quicker than the summer time air.

Fun game

If you are interested in checking you knowledge on Water Safety, Rehab, and Heat Emergencies try out this fun little game from FireRescue1. To play, just click on the title above, Fun game and it will redirect you to the game. Enjoy!

Changes

I have done some remodeling of the blog. Not much has changed other that the colors and updated the counter on the bottom. Feel free to look at the previous posts and I did add two new videos. One for training looks at the triple load vs. regular hose load and the safety clip talks about staying hydrated in the heat.

Speaking of which, just a reminder to be drinking plenty of fluids ie. water! It doesn't take long in this heat to become dehydrated, so keep drinking the water and try to avoid alcohol and caffeine.

Have a Safe and Fun Holiday

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Holiday weekend. If you are around fireworks, please use caution and take safety measures to ensure that nothing happens.

Reminder, we will have our medical meeting on Monday night as usual. We don't have to move this drill to Tuesday night.

Health and Safety Challenge #7

Our final challenge for the Health and Safety week is renewing your commitment to safety. It is all too easy to just say "It won't happen to me" and do something without thinking. In looking over some reports from injuries we get complacent and lose focus on the potential problems. Other times we having training things that we cut corners or don't even think of what we are doing and use poor judgement. All of which opens up the chance the something could happen that shouldn't of because we didn't stop and take a moment to think about our actions.

Try to keep these things in mind:
1) Wear your PPE. It is there to protect you and need to have it on and being worn correctly.
2) Buckle Up!! Just holding that truck a split second longer so you can buckle up could mean life or death.
3) Remember, if our feet are on the street, the vest is on our chest.
4) Use common sense. I know that comments about some people just don't have any, but we all have it. We just need to use it.

Health and Safety Challenge #6

Counting today's challenge we only have two challenges left. Has anyone tried to follow along all week? If you have been following along, how are you doing? Feeling any different?

The challenge for today one for people to work on tonight and into the weekend and it deals with alcohol. Actually it should be for both alcohol and drug use but really hope that it will just pertain to the alcohol. In this heat yes it is nice to sit back and grab a cold one and enjoy but it is about one of the worst things we could do for ourselves. The alcohol needs to be in moderation and for every drink you have try to take in at least a glass of water so you don't dehydrate. Best case would be not to drink for a while but I'm a realist and know that probably isn't going to happen. So at least try to cut back and drink water to go along with it. Plus eating food will help, don't drink on an empty stomach.

Health and Safety Challenge #5

This one could be one of the easiest challenges for the week. This challenge is one to try and relax yourself. To many times the hustle and bustle of everyday life gets to be to much and we need a break. So find yourself a nice cool, quiet place to sit and relax. Put on some of your favorite music and just work on taking on some nice deep breathes and close your eyes and like Happy Gilmore, find your happy place. Just taking a few minutes and relaxing will make the day seem to go a little bit smoother.

Health and Safety Challenge #4

This one goes out to those who are smokers and tobacco users. Try and go a day without having to light one up or put in that chew. Smoking causes lung damage and we need our lungs to breathe, even more so in our field of work. Over time between the smoke exposure from the cigarettes and fire calls increases the risk of lung cancer. This can drastically reduce your time spent in the fire service and life in general.
If one day is to hard, then try and cut it back by at least half and try to continue until you can say you have gone a whole day, then shoot for two days, and so on.

Health and Safety Challenge #3

So if you have been doing the challenges upto this point, you should know where the bathrooms are by know. Drinking more water equals more trips to the restroom.

Challenge for today is to change out some food. Try to exchange your candy bar or bag of chips for some fresh fruit or vegetables. This is a great time of year to find a lot of the fruits and veggies in season. So find one you like or one that you have wanted to try and enjoy!! Then wash it down with some more water and headed out for another walk.

Health and Safety Challenge #2

For your next challenge, try to make the time to be active. Try and go for a walk, go for a jog, or even hop on your bike and go for a bike ride. Shoot for 30 minutes worth of activity. Then when you get home make sure that you drink plenty of water to rehydrate yourself. While you are drinking your water and relaxing, make sure you log your activity in the Healthy Firefighter if you are still keeping track of your hours. Try and do this a couple times this week and work in Challenge #1.

Health and Safety Challenge #1

Today is the official start to the Health and Safety week. I will try to come up with a challenge for people to try and see if you can do it and then stay with it.

The first challenge is try to cut back or cut out soft drinks. If you are able to cut back or cut out the number of soft drinks you have in a day, you are taking in less sugar! Try to drink more water instead. Try this for at least the week and see if you can tell a difference at the end of the week.

Safety Week

Next week is the Health and Safety week. We tried to do some of the activities a couple weeks ago at drill and really all we got done was having a lecture on healthy eating by the nutritionist from Hy-Vee. That was a good class and did seem to spark some interest from those who attended but my guess is that no one took that class and went home and said, "I'm going to make some changes!" Am I right?
We all have to look at ourselves in the mirror and decide if we are who we truly want to be. We are here because we want to serve our community and because to us this is fun. We enjoy being firefighters and medics. But on the other side of the coin, the jobs we do are very dangerous and can cause serious injury or death if we don't pay attention to what we are doing. Now most everyone would automatically probably think of something going wrong on the fireground as the number 1 thing that could do something to us. Actually, about 50% of the deaths each year are from heart attacks or strokes. That is not saying how many people have chest pain or something similar that is not reported each year. The Health and Safety week is trying to stop and make us think about us this year. How can we change ourselves to make us more fit and prepared to continue doing what we enjoy doing?
Couple things I would like to see people do to:
1) Watch what you eat. I am guilty of this as much as the next person. I have done better the last couple months on making better choices and eating smaller portions. The better you eat the better your body feels and has the right nutrients it needs to give us the energy we need.
2) Watch what you drink. Now that we are into the warmer months, you should be drinking plenty of water. If you are on the fire scene and have not had any water to drink prior, you are probably already dehydrated and playing catch up. That means longer time for your body to recover and longer time that you are sitting on the sideline watching others doing the work. So make sure that you are drinking water and try to cut back on the pops and alcohol.
3) Get more exercise. This might mean that you go for a walk or a run. It doesn't mean that you have to run a marathon or anything but it does mean get up and do an activity of some sort. We have weights and a treadmill here at the station that could always use more activity but if you can do something outside, great. JUST DO SOMETHING!!
4) Rest. Make sure that you are getting adequate sleep at night. This might sound funny and don't see how that ties into what we are doing but if you are tired, your body doesn't respond the way it should and is drawing energy that you could use to do the work.

I just want people to be aware that as much as we try and make sure the fireground is safe for everyone to be on, it is up to you to make sure that you are safe to be on the fireground. Doing something for yourself and try to come up with a plan to make sure that you are "Fit For Duty!"