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13 October 2023
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Featured FRI Magazine article: Everyone goes home: Fire fighter life safety initiatives programme by Lenny Naidoo (FRI Vol 1 no 6)
https://www.frimedia.org/uploads/1/2/2/7/122743954/fri_vol1no6_lr.pdf
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: Everyone goes home: Fire fighter life safety initiatives programme by Lenny Naidoo (FRI Vol 1 no 6). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
Everyone goes home: Fire fighter life safety initiatives programme
By Lenny Naidoo
There is nothing more tragic than fire fighters losing their lives when such loss of life could have been avoided.
South Africa had a horrible year in 2007 when 11 fire fighters were killed in the line of duty. A great percentage of fire fighters lost their lives whilst responding to calls. Sadly, many of the deaths could have been prevented.
The fact that we do not lose as many fire fighters in comparison to the United States (US), gives us a false sense of where we are with respect to our standards. It is more ‘luck’ on our side that keeps the number of fatalities amongst fire fighters fairly low. The US will obviously have many more fatalities due to the frequency of fires, the predominant use of gas as a power supply, the use of wood for construction, large numbers of high rise buildings and extreme weather conditions.
The US has initiated the ‘Everyone Goes Home’ fire fighter life safety initiatives programme to stop unsafe acts during fire department operations. The programme also strives to ensure responsibility to maintain operational safety.
Key to the success of the programme is the stressing of the fact that it is everyone’s responsibility to have the courage to be safe and ensure that EVERYONE GOES HOME. It takes more than just fire officers or the leadership to ensure safety; it takes every member looking out not only for themselves but for other members of the team.
The ‘Everyone Goes Home’ programme uses fire service experts that are termed ‘advocates’ to represent for example a province in all matters pertaining to fire fighters life safety initiatives.
Networking and newsletters go a long way to prevent recurrences of mishaps in the fire service. There are lots of positives that can come off when best practices of fire services are shared amongst the fire fighting fraternity.
Safety and training go together and at present training is a ‘nice to have’ due to various setbacks amongst the fire services in our country.
Safe fire fighting procedures are passed along from veteran to rookie fire fighter by setting an example at fires and by conversation and explanation at the fire station
As fire fighters, we are the custodians of safety, however, safe techniques are taken for granted.
Vincent Dunn of the fire department in New York (FDNY) listed 60 fire fighting survival tips for the most dangerous fire fighting operations. Here are some of the ways to stay alive that are applicable to our situation in South Africa.
We, in South Africa, should mirror the programme that the United States has used with great success. There is not much cost attached to a programme of this nature.
Unquestionably there is no price that can be attached to the life of a fire fighter. Let us not lose another fire fighter due to negligence.
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: Everyone goes home: Fire fighter life safety initiatives programme by Lenny Naidoo (FRI Vol 1 no 6). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
Everyone goes home: Fire fighter life safety initiatives programme
By Lenny Naidoo
There is nothing more tragic than fire fighters losing their lives when such loss of life could have been avoided.
South Africa had a horrible year in 2007 when 11 fire fighters were killed in the line of duty. A great percentage of fire fighters lost their lives whilst responding to calls. Sadly, many of the deaths could have been prevented.
The fact that we do not lose as many fire fighters in comparison to the United States (US), gives us a false sense of where we are with respect to our standards. It is more ‘luck’ on our side that keeps the number of fatalities amongst fire fighters fairly low. The US will obviously have many more fatalities due to the frequency of fires, the predominant use of gas as a power supply, the use of wood for construction, large numbers of high rise buildings and extreme weather conditions.
The US has initiated the ‘Everyone Goes Home’ fire fighter life safety initiatives programme to stop unsafe acts during fire department operations. The programme also strives to ensure responsibility to maintain operational safety.
Key to the success of the programme is the stressing of the fact that it is everyone’s responsibility to have the courage to be safe and ensure that EVERYONE GOES HOME. It takes more than just fire officers or the leadership to ensure safety; it takes every member looking out not only for themselves but for other members of the team.
The ‘Everyone Goes Home’ programme uses fire service experts that are termed ‘advocates’ to represent for example a province in all matters pertaining to fire fighters life safety initiatives.
Networking and newsletters go a long way to prevent recurrences of mishaps in the fire service. There are lots of positives that can come off when best practices of fire services are shared amongst the fire fighting fraternity.
Safety and training go together and at present training is a ‘nice to have’ due to various setbacks amongst the fire services in our country.
Safe fire fighting procedures are passed along from veteran to rookie fire fighter by setting an example at fires and by conversation and explanation at the fire station
As fire fighters, we are the custodians of safety, however, safe techniques are taken for granted.
Vincent Dunn of the fire department in New York (FDNY) listed 60 fire fighting survival tips for the most dangerous fire fighting operations. Here are some of the ways to stay alive that are applicable to our situation in South Africa.
- When stretching a hose line to an upper floor of a building, do not pass a floor on fire unless a charged hose line is in place.
- Notify your officer when going above a fire to search for victims.
- If you enter a smoke filled room above a fire and suspect flashover conditions behind you, locate a second exit or window leading to fire escape or portable ladder before initiating the search.
- Crouch down and keep one leg outstretched in front of you when advancing an attack with a hose line in a smoke filled room. Proceed slowly, supporting your body weight with your rear leg. Your outstretched leg will feel any hole or opening in the floor in your path of advance.
- Self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) must be worn before entering a cellar of a burning building, even if there is a light haze of smoke. Carbon monoxide, a deadly, gaseous by-product of combustion, is colourless, odourless and explosive and quickly builds up in unventilated low areas.
- At any collapse, stretch a hose line and charge it to protect possible victims and rescuers from sudden explosions and fire.
- A fire fighter entering a room from a ladder should first place any tools inside the window on the floor before entering. Then, with both hands free, he/she should grab onto a portion of the window and test its stability. If it does not move, the fire fighter maintains his/her grip on the window while moving through it from the ladder.
- When necessary a fire fighter climbing an aerial ladder should use a ladder belt to secure himself to the rungs. A leg lock will not help if a victim jumps out a window and down the ladder.
- Fire fighters should never be up on an aerial ladder while it is being raised, rotated or extended. The ladder must be in position before climbing: that means making sure the ladder locks are set too.
- Whenever there is a danger of wall collapse, an officer in command must establish a collapse danger zone. A collapse danger zone should be equal to the height of the unstable wall. All fire fighters should be withdrawn away from the building to a distance at least equal to the height of the wall.
- The officer establishing the collapse danger zone must take into account not only how far outward the wall may collapse but also the horizontal span of possible wall collapse.
- The fire fighters best protection against injury and death by a fall during overhauling is a properly charged flashlight. No fire fighter should respond to a fire without a personal light.
- Fire fighters should not walk on a peaked roof with a slope greater than a 30 degree angle from the horizontal. There should be a roof ladder in place.
- Fire fighters should know the warning signs of flashover. When smoke and superheated gases force you to crouch down below half the height of the room, there’s danger of flashover. Rollover is also a sign of possible flashover. Rollover is when flashes of flame mixed with smoke, are seen at the upper part of a burning room or at the top of a door or window flowing out of the opening. When you suspect flashover withdraw to safety.
- Before responding out of the station, check behind you to ensure fire fighters are safely in the vehicle. Drive the vehicle with due consideration for the lives that are on the appliance, the public, vehicles and the weather conditions.
We, in South Africa, should mirror the programme that the United States has used with great success. There is not much cost attached to a programme of this nature.
Unquestionably there is no price that can be attached to the life of a fire fighter. Let us not lose another fire fighter due to negligence.