—————

Carrying a rich history of America's earliest presidents and great thinkers, the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, VA, provided a gorgeous venue for the event. Groundbreaking for this memorial took place in 1922—stoneworkers completed the structure ten years later, undeterred by the Great Depression.

Presenting to the largest group ever to attend the event, organizers and speakers were happy to see so many hands go up when the crowd was asked who among them is a "first timer."

The opening presentation was provided by Robert Morris, the current Captain of FDNY's Rescue Company 1 (located in midtown Manhattan). A true veteran, and lifelong student of the fire service, Captain Morris has been one of New York's Bravest for over thirty years.

All firefighters are taught that a Halligan bar is one of the most useful and versatile tools in the fire service; however, a morning spent listening to an instructor with decades of first-hand experience provides a new respect for a tool that many new firefighters are never taught to use properly.

"When I started in the fire department, we didn't have fancy hydraulic tools or these new gadgets. All we had was an axe and a halligan bar, so we were taught how to make it work. When the Rabbit Tool [a hydraulic forcible entry tool] showed up, it pushed forcible entry training back by, I don't know, ten years. Guys were coming on with no knowledge of how to use the irons, because they thought they didn't need to."

As Captain Morris clearly shows, even verbally teaching forcible entry tactics is not a stationary activity.

Organizers and instructors stand amid a pile of goodies while selecting the winning raffle tickets. Prizes included a collection of Andy's writings, coffee mugs, and even a brand-new forcible entry tool for one lucky attendee.

Alexandria's fire safety mascot dog slides across the stage, much to the crowd's enjoyment. [Note: I felt it only appropriate to capture this hilarious, action-packed moment in the same style that won me the promotional poster contest. Thanks again! /RL]

FDNY Battalion Chief Thomas Dunne presents a new way to work your brain on a fireground; "Think Like an Incident Commander" aimed to keep everyone involved in an incident looking at the same big picture on the very same page.

Another multi-decade veteran of the FDNY, Batt. Chief Dunne has an easygoing manner that lends itself well to teaching. Practicing what he preaches, some of his first words to the crowd were about a person's presence and demeanor.

"The way you carry yourself, the way you act, the way you communicate, and the way you project yourself, are all going to affect everyone else. In life, in a fire… whatever you're doing, most of us have to take it down a couple notches."

Participants return from a short break rested, well-fed, and eager to continue. The Training Days will continue through Wednesday, covering additional topics such as high-rise fires and Rapid Intervention Team tactics (taught by Lt. Tony Carroll, of DCFD Rescue Company 2).

—————

Everyone in attendance seemed to be excited for more of the top-notch instruction afforded by the speakers; there will certainly be more to come soon, as I take in more of this invaluable knowledge! I will unfortunately be unable to attend tomorrow's session, as I'm back at work. I will, however, be attending on Wednesday; follow the live Twitter updates from @AndyFredericks to keep up with what's going on as-it-happens, or check out the schedule to discover what topics are being discussed.

—————

*** UPDATE: DAY 3 ***

Attendees participate in a donut-eating competition for the last of two highly-sought-after items; a Training Days challenge coin, and a bound collection of Andy's numerous firefighting articles.

Captain Dave Barlow of the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department begins his presentation on attic and basement fires. The increasingly prevalent use of lightweight construction poses a hazard not only to Barlow and his crew, but to all firefighters in rapidly-developing areas.

A clip from the 1991 movie "Backdraft," a scene well-known to most firefighters. One character's monologue was loosely utilized by Barlow to explain that crews must understand how fire behaves in different situations in order to effectively extinguish it quickly and safely.

"Small spans, smaller compartments, smaller rooms. Access the attic from [these places] and exploit what you know about trusses to attack it safely… the important thing is to understand the principle of firefighting, not just the procedure. Don't be a cookbook firefighter!"

Captain Barlow stresses using hoselines in the right places as one of the key factors in firefighting.

"The problem isn't getting in there; we can do that. It's mis-application of water. See this house? We burned the roof off of it with two inch-and-three-quarter handlines already inside."

Lieutenant Fred Ill of the FDNY explains one of the funnier stories from the seminar; a very active storyteller, his body language is outdone only by his New York accent.

"So a buddy of mine and I are visiting the firehouse, about to head over to Rescue 1's company picnic. We're late, we've got all the beer, they're waiting… we find out from the guys that there's a job up the street; I grabbed my gear, but he didn't have his. He grabs the first thing he sees… and it's the Chaplain's turnout gear. I mean, this stuff is pristine. So we got over there and went in… it was a good one. He came outta this fire, and this gear looks like it's had thirty years on the job."

Lieutenant Ill and Lieutenant Chris Reynolds (pictured, also of the FDNY) presented a basic approach to garden apartment fires. These low-rise, multiple-dwelling buildings present their own unique complications from a firefighting perspective, especially since the quality of their building construction has been diminishing with each passing year.

"These things are built with math now, not mass. Used to be when you had to hold up a heavy load, you used a heavy piece of lumber beneath it. Now, they use protractors and compasses to hold these buildings up. They're just not as strong, and they fail on ya faster."

Just a couple of wiseguys.

—————

Unfortunately, I was unable to finish out the rest of the day, and so missed two of the presentations. I wish to thank all the coordinators and instructors of the Training Days for putting on such a wonderful three-day event (which I will certainly be attending next year!)

For more updates on the rest of the day, dozens more photos, and links to Andy's articles (definitely worth a read), follow #AndyFredericks on Twitter or find them on Facebook.

4:15 a.m. – Everyone else is dispatched to deal with what they found.

A great video clip can be found at this link; credit to Vernard Green on Medic 8 at the time.

(As usual, click for full-size images.)

Motir Services, Inc. is (was) a consulting firm serving the DC area; clients include The Library of Congress, Arlington National Cemetery, The U.S. Department of Agriculture, and a whole slew of DC government organizations. Their self-description reads:

"A MULTI-SERVICES FIRM WHOSE PRINCIPAL STRENGTH IS THE ABILITY TO TAKE THE WORLD’S MOST SOPHISTICATED MANAGEMENT SKILLS AND APPLY THEM IN ORDER TO YIELD ONE CONSISTENT PRODUCT – WORLD-CLASS SERVICES."

Perhaps the folks at Motir could offer some upper-management-level advice regarding the best placement of this ladder (not that Truck 7 needed it).

The fire eventually went to two alarms, and took approximately thirty minutes to control. At one point, there was fire to be found on every one of the four story building, including a large wooden lean-to structure on the roof.

—————

Do you know what the best part was? Nobody cared what we were wearing.

Alright, that's it. I'm finally going to bed.

/RL

You know what they say… the best camera is the one that's with you.

What's amazing about the advancement of technology is that the iPhone actually has more resolution than the first "pro"-level Nikon digital SLR (The D1, with a hefty price tag of almost $5,000 and a weight to match, sported a groundbreaking 2.7 megapixels). In comparison, my iPhone 3GS has 3 megapixels—I'll concede that the sensor size is different, but without going too much into the mechanics of it, it's still pretty damned amazing. Plus, I can do some post-processing in-camera by using an app called… wait for it… "BestCamera," created by photographer Chase Jarvis' awesome team. It's only $2.99, but you can get some amazing results with it. In fact, Chase's vision has started something of a neat community of iPhone photographers, whose work you can browse here.

Plus, this Apple hardware seems to have held up pretty well kicking around the inside of my bunker coat pocket, along with some door chocks and a few random tools. (Thanks, OtterBox.)

Regardless, it's always with me at work, and I enjoy those "ohmygodIwishIhadacamerarightnow" moments. Because I do! And I revel in going through my phone's photos every few months, because I forgot about most of the ridiculous stuff that's on there.

So here ya go. As always, click to embiggen.

Burn Foundation Fundraisers: a good excuse for firemen to get together and bowl at 8am in the morning.

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A poorly-built third story addition in NE… on one hell of a windy day.

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An early morning fire in our first-due area, from a few tours ago.

He had just put a new helmet in service that day, and said that he wanted to burn it up a little bit…

—————

Basketball, anyone? I think it adds a genuine Southeast touch to our firehouse.

—————

Potomac Gardens, up in Capitol Hill. An apartment off on the 3rd floor displaced quite a few residents. The woman from the fire apartment was (quite literally) dumped in my arms by Truck 7 for medical care, as she was found in the apartment with significant airway damage from smoke and heat.

View from the courtyard; the windows that weren't smashed out were coated with a thick, greasy soot.

I was pleasantly surprised to see other locals bringing coffee and hot chocolate to the displaced elderly residents who had to sit outside in the cold for a while; it looks like people from Capitol Hill have hearts, after all!

—————

Every firefighter in the city knows exactly what this is… but what it's doing sitting in someone's yard on Park Rd in NW, I have no idea.

We received dozens of submissions featuring photographs from all over the country.  In the end the photo we choose came from Alex Capece who is a firefighter in nearby Washington, DC and a talented photographer to boot. While his photo didn’t show a raging inferno or a dramatic conflagration I liked how it showed firefighters moving a hose line.  A simple task that we all need to be proficient performing, and perhaps most importantly, something that speaks to Andy’s legacy — mastery of the basics.

A few weeks ago, a fellow blogger alerted me to a photo contest, the winner of which would have their photo utilized as the promotional poster for the three-day conference in Alexandria, VA. I sent a few of my best their way, and I received the good news this morning.

Thanks to Bill Carey over at BackstepFirefighter for the heads-up… the May 2011 conference has some great speakers (no, seriously… read this list) and is shaping up to be quite the event. Register to attend here! There’s deals on lodging, and the registration fee is a steal in itself for everything that you get.

It looks like a wonderful legacy from a great man—more info on Andy Fredericks is available on the homepage. Three days of learning more about the greatest job in the world? Plus helping out a heartfelt charity organization to boot? Sign me up, buddy.

“Victim, if you can hear me, keep tapping on something!”

It started slowly, almost imperceptibly. I pressed the headphones tighter to my head with one hand and turned the volume up.

tap… tap… tap…

It was definitely there, and it was clear as day.

tap… tap… tap…

Whoever was under the rubble had heard us, and their soft taps of flesh on concrete were the only indication that they were still alive.

Nobody else could hear it—-only the Delsar operator wearing the headset. I turned on the electronic filters designed to eliminate electrical hums and the rumble of apparatus, and started to triangulate the sound.

We had placed three of the sensor “pucks” out in a three-pronged attack on the pile of destroyed concrete and rebar beneath us. The other rescuers stood dead still, avoiding making any extraneous noise during this most crucial of times.

Hmm… it’s not so loud on Number 1. A bit stronger on Number 2; and all quiet on Number 3.

“Alright, let’s move ‘em around; it’s loudest near Two.”

And so the process went, calling and tapping and moving and listening.

—————

Con-Space Communications, Ltd., the makers of the Delsar LifeDetector Seismic/Acoustic listening system (as well as the SearchCams we utilized that day to find our “victims”) was a company started in the early 90′s as a high-tech revolution to the methods of urban search and rescue in use at the time. Today, they’re one of the largest manufacturers of audio, video, and acoustic devices used to locate trapped victims in environments all over the world.

Utilizing the Delsar system and SearchCam devices, the Engine and Rescue Squad trained on finding victims in one of the simplest, yet most intriguing training sites I’ve been to yet. In Crofton, MD, there’s a pile of concrete and rubble that amounts to about one city block of destruction.

Arranged in a giant U-shape and up to twenty-plus feet in height in some places, the site offers plenty of void spaces for us to practice in.

—————

“I got one!”

The firefighter crouched down on his haunches and shouted back to the group. Cazo—our trusty K-9—had located a victim and alerted us; shortly thereafter, a SearchCam probe inserted into a dark hole revealed a human form. He was dusty, but he was there.

After we had removed the random mixture of pallets, old carpet, and torso-sized hunks of what was once a building, Mike stood up and smiled at us.

“Man, it’s dark as shit down there!”

We laughed as we helped him out of the hole, and moved onto the next evolution. Three hours later, it was clear that we have some very powerful tools at our disposal for the various situations that we may encounter on a true building collapse.

But the emphasis, as with most things, can be placed back on basics. Fancy toys are nice, but don’t always take the place of tried-and-true methods like hailing–just shout to any victims who can hear and listen for a response. Anyone trapped can then be triangulated by rescuers placed strategically around the site.

A special thanks must be offered to Sgt. Holmes and Lt. Kauffman, who helped all the companies out with the drill (especially the Lieutenant, who spent most of the day wedging himself into tight spaces as the victim!)

Also, we can’t forget Cazo! Some of you may remember my post about two of our own working in Haiti. He’s one badass dog.

This bike is not, as they say, adult-sized.

I heard it in Crocodile Dundee’s voice: ‘That’s not a frying pan. This is a frying pan!”

Around 2nd and Constitution Ave, a worker fell into a hole. The Squad(s) and several other companies extricated the banged-up (but otherwise alright) patient in this fairly small construction site.

We came in one morning to find that not only had #2 run two fires (an apartment, and an upper floor off at St. Elizabeths Hospital), but they had burned clean through a section of supply line.

Firefighter Baldino says, “Safety First!”…especially on medical locals, haha.

The Great Race! These four pictures are from a competition posed between the Engine and the Squad. The challenge: Run a crosslay from the wagon to the back parking lot. Run back to the wagon, grab a rack, and extend the line out the gate to V St. First to call for water wins.

He almost had him, too. Our guy’s line got wedged under the metal gate in the parking lot, so he was hemmed up for a few seconds. Unfortunately, they were so neck-and-neck that a few seconds was all his competitor needed to pull ahead.

With an uneasy creak, the spools began to move.

The chains could be heard pinging as they tightened and eventually held fast—little by little, the heavy wrecker began to lift the mammoth monolith of masonry that lay before us in a jungle of weathered stone and twisted rebar.

Yes, it’s drill time again; however, instead of going down into a trench, we’re going up in the air. E15′s collapse drill focused on shoring up ceilings, breaching concrete, and using our behemoth of a heavy rescue crane/wrecker to elevate the chunks of concrete that are piled haphazardly behind the Training Academy.

I have not yet attended the Collapse Rescue class that is afforded members of my firehouse; however, I have always found the physics principles that are inherent in technical rescue fascinating.

That’s right. I’m a classical physics and engineering mechanics dork at heart. Reading about formulas put together by the Army Corps of Engineers is one thing, but applying them in a real-world situation and seeing the results happen in front of you is entirely another.

Today was certainly no exception to my eager thirst for geeky science stuff; pictures, as always, can be clicked for a larger size.

Our concrete jungle, complete with… all sorts of junk.

The big bad boy wrecker. The boom itself is rated for 60 tons, and each of the two cable spools is rated for 16,400 lbs.

Rigging our strangely-shaped concrete tube of choice.

The Captain looks on…

Success! Yes, this is what I did at work today. I love my job.

One of the unique things about being assigned to Engine 15 is the occasional need to support Rescue Squad 3 in their technical area of expertise: trench and collapse rescue. We’re expected to know more than the average bear about the various tools and concepts within the scope of these topics, and to be able to assist the squad guys with various aspects of each while on the scene of an actual incident.

Sure enough, I found myself back at the Training Academy on a dreary mid-week morning, slogging through the mud and dragging various lengths of lumber around.

It’s an entirely new set of skills (and a language that goes along with it, to boot) that I have yet to learn. Although from what I saw during this drill, I think it’d be something I would enjoy—hell, I’ve always loved building things, so combine that with some ropes, a bit of math, and a whole boatload of physics? I’d be a happy guy.

(Haha, you’ll have to forgive the weird vignetting on some of the photographs. I’m using a digital camera from 2004—which makes it electronically ancient—and the shutter leaves over the lens get stuck sometimes. I think it’s kinda cool, actually.)

The gallery collection is organized alphabetically by team, and can be reached by clicking here or on any of the photos below. Enjoy, and thanks to all the participants for some great hockey!

/RL

]]> http://raisingladders.com/2010/05/hockey-tournament-pictures-still-up/feed/ 0 http://raisingladders.com/2010/05/recruit-class-362-quick-photo-set/ http://raisingladders.com/2010/05/recruit-class-362-quick-photo-set/#comments Tue, 04 May 2010 21:14:09 +0000 raisingladders http://raisingladders.com/?p=529

This past Friday, I was given the distinct pleasure of accompanying Recruit Class 362 to the Fire Boat for their class picture. They seemed excited and appeared in good spirits, seeing as their graduation is just over two weeks away.

(We all remember how that felt, don’t we?)

Long story short, they seem like a great group of recruits and I’m excited to attend their graduation later this month. Keep it up, guys—you’re almost there!

/RL

As everyone boarded the boat, I heard a voice from somewhere in the crowd: “Huh. I should probably learn how to swim.”

We couldn’t have asked for a more gorgeous day; I wish we could have stayed out longer!

The recruits had an admittedly great idea for their photo, so they all piled onto FB 1 and puttered off into the river.

I, meanwhile, headed out on the water aboard FireBoat 2.

After a little “umm… more to the left… can he back up some? uh… now can you go forward?”, we finally had it. Many apologies to Blake, the (probably) greatly-annoyed pilot on my boat… photographers can be a real pain in the ass, but he stayed patient with me.

The end result.

Many thanks to the instructors for a) letting the recruits out of their cage for a few hours and b) allowing me to come with them.

(Lastly, in true fire department fashion, what would an attempt at a nice portrait be without a shameless prankster?)