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“The Constant”…
By thehousewatch | October 30, 2009
One of the draws to this job for me was the fact that I knew I wouldn’t be doing the same thing everyday. Each day would be it’s own 24 hour career and I would do 122 of them each year. What I later realized however, was that there is actually a tremendous amount of repetition in this job. I’m not referring to the mundane, rather the very things we do best that we want to do every day we show up to work. It could be forcing doors, opening roofs, searching, estimating the stretch, the nozzle, et. al. Everyone has that one thing they do best, or rather, that thing they enjoy doing the most. The latter is what I’m going to talk about here.
I recently went to a fire in a private dwelling with fire that was extending from the first floor to the attic space thanks to its fire-friendly balloon frame construction. I knew the first due Truck would be taking a shot at getting a hole in the roof for the Engine; and sure enough, through the gangway came the Truck with ladders and eagerness in tow. I noticed that one of the Roof Firefighters on this Truck was a classmate of mine from the academy days. After the customary friendly its-been-a-while nods, he went about his work getting the 35′ to the eave line. The first line was being stretched while the door was being forced, clockwork. What gave me pause during all of this is that I immediately heard the saw start and sink into the roof after what seemed like milliseconds after my courtesy nod in the gangway. I took a step back and saw the Truck already pulling the roof boards as the line was getting wet after being flaked-out, perhaps the fastest roof I have ever seen.
As everyone was taking up from the fire, I made a bee-line for my classmate to congratulate him on his and his crew’s solid performance. A humble man, he chidingly reminded me that he never left the Truck or took a promotional exam like me because he simply loved opening roofs. He liked that constant about his work. And that’s not a bad thing at all; His performance was proof of that. Is he good at the other Truck acts too? Perhaps, but I know who I want on the roof the next time I’m working in the Engine.
Pictured is Matthias Schlitte, famous German arm-wrestling champion. Yes, that's his real forearm. When you get good at one thing, everyone knows it and can see it a mile away. Who would you want on your arm-wrestling team? I'd want this guy too.
The fire service often looks at things from the perspective of a generalist. The Chief on the curb has to be a generalist looking at the fireground aggregate and ensuring everything’s coming together like the last one. Others however, should look at things from a positional perspective (always thinking about the first line though). Read Ray’s latest ‘Tactical Safety’ post to see said perspective in context. For this post, I’m not simply referring to which side of the fire house you’re on or good at, the Engine or the Truck; I mean the specific thing(s) you do in these companies; the sub-constants. Everyone knows who’s the best with the irons, getting to the roof, ladders, stretching, the door position, standpipe outlets, etc. It shouldn’t mean that’s all you’ll do when you put the costume on the rig for the tour. It means that you should not keep this talent or specialty to yourself. Teach everyone what made you good at it. Brag about it to the companies in your Battalion. That way, when they need a hand filling an area of responsibility, they’ll know who can. Or who will when they can’t! That’s not elitism, that’s professionalism. And professionalism is the constant we all need to strive for.
Topics: Editorials | 1 Comment »
October 31st, 2009 at 1:18 pm
MAybe his fore arm is that big for another reason.
Kurt