Ok readers, this new column titled “Lessons Learned” will be my attempt to write about my experiences.
Just to put my experience into perspective, I am a career firefighter with 10 years on the job. My current rank is Lt. (driver) at a station with an Engine and a Ladder (I drive either and ride the right seat when the Officer is off). Prior to that I worked for 1 year at a big city EMS department and volunteered for 5 years for a semi-busy fire department.
Tunnel Vision
About 2.5 years into my job as a firefighter I was moved from an Engine/Medic station to an Engine/Ladder station. We received a call for a house fire only about a mile from the station and the Engine and Ladder rolled out.
At this point, I figured I was a pretty decent firefighter. I had worked at a busy house and had caught many fires while I worked there. Now I worked at a slower station, but we still ran fires.
It wasn’t complacency, I blame it more on getting wrapped up in the moment. I was one of four on the ladder that day, riding backwards. We don’t normally run with 4, but that added to the fun of catching a job with full staffing and we were having a blast.
We turned the corner on the street and could see smoke, we knew we were going to work. That is where I stopped paying attention. For some reason, I got tunnel vision.
The engine driver stopped in front of the house and the ladder pulled into the short driveway, we were right there. I was dressed and ready to go. hooking up my regulator to my facepiece was the last thing to do. I grabbed a tool and we headed for the door.
As we went in the door, one by one we tripped over the recliner right inside the front door. It was like dominoes. The ladder Lt. went down first, then the firefighter in front of me, then myself. The smoke was thick, we didn’t see each other do it otherwise we would have learned from each others mistake. We got up one by one and went to work. We searched while the engine company made quick work of the room and contents fire.
Here is where I realized I had screwed up. I didn’t know type of house I was in. I couldn’t have told you the color, size, or anything about it. I realized this because I had to ask if there was a second floor. There I was, working next to a firefighter who was hired right after me and I didn’t know if I was in a house with a second floor. I knew what street I was on and if I wasn’t so messed up from my tunnel vision I would have remembered that every house on this street is a small one level ranch…no basements.
Luckily for me, my brothers, and any potential victims there was no one in the house. They had gotten out prior to us getting there.
I learned a huge lesson that day. All that talk about taking a second to do a sizeup, not just for the IC but for everyone. All that talk about getting a game plan. All that talk about being safe. All those things I had been taught I had finally learned. On that day I learned so much. It wasn’t a big deal because nothing went wrong, but it was a huge deal because I could have become part of the problem.
I work in a very aggressive department. Progressive doesn’t really come to mind, but very aggressive. We go in! We go in fires some other departments don’t. We go in fires we probably shouldn’t. However, I have noticed a change in the past several years. It seems as though we are getting smarter.
Maybe that same tunnel vision that I had that day is the same tunnel vision others have experienced. Let us get rid of that tunnel vision and start working smarter!
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