Through listening and talking to speakers and attendees, it became clear to me that this is a time of many challenges for not only cities and states, but also for our country. As we face economic instability along with more and more natural disasters and extreme weather conditions, we find ourselves with many new challenges that require strong leadership in the emergency service field. Additionally, we are beginning to see the impact of the “baby-boom” generation hitting retirement age and how it is leaving gaps in areas where we need experienced leaders. What will this mean to the fire and EMS service? How will we maintain our high expectations and continue to grow, improve and move forward?

There are many possible answers to these questions, but one thing we know for certain is that big decisions are going to be required. Big risks may have to be taken. Leaders will have to think outside the box. Most of all, leaders will have to be accountable for how they respond and how they lead.

During the conference, the participants had many opportunities to listen to outstanding presentations offering a variety of points of view and from several areas of expertise. I found the lectures I listened to were thought provoking and value-added.

One of the speakers I listened to was Andrew Card. Mr. Card was Chief-of-Staff to President George W. Bush during the 9/11 World Trade Center terrorism attack. On that dreadful day, President Bush was in Florida at an elementary school function. When the first plane hit the South Tower, Mr. Card was the one who walked into the classroom to inform the President of the incident. After the second plane hit the North Tower Mr. Card again had to be the one to update the President. This time he told the President, “A second plane hit the North tower and America is under attack.” If you recall the President just nodded his head and stayed in the room for another 20 minutes. Some wondered why the President didn’t immediately leave the room and take command. Mr. Card explained that staying in the room was the right thing to do for several reasons. First, the President didn’t want to scare the children who were present. And, secondly, the President knew that the necessary notifications were being made. By the time the President left the classroom the FBI, CIA, Defense Department, FAA, DOT, and all the other alphabet soup departments were notified and were taking action.

There were approximately 700 people listening to Mr. Card and during this phase of his presentation you could hear a pin drop.

In summary, the TEEX Symposium provided the participants with opportunities to gain new insights, hear important and relevant information, reacquaint with old friends, make new ones, and refill your leadership engine. If you have the opportunity to attend next year you should.

Paul Stein

LADDER AND APPROACH THE INVOLVED AREA FROM THE UNINVOLVED AREA
A minimum of two ladders should be raised away or opposite the location of a fire. This allows personnel to start and return to the strongest portion of the building and their means of egress.

LADDER THE STRONG AREAS OF THE BUILDING-ROOF
Normally, the corners of a building offer personnel the ability to ladder the strongest portion of a building, and not place ladders over horizontal openings (i.e., windows, doors, etc). Other areas that offer strength are hips, valleys, ridges, etc.

RAISE THE FLY OF AN EXTENSION LADDER-AERIAL DEVICE ABOVE A PARAPET OR ROOF TO BE EASILY SEEN
If a ladder is a primary means of egress from a roof, make it easy to locate. Therefore, do not limit the extension of a ladder above a roof-parapet to 3 or 4 feet.

PERSONNEL-EQUIPMENT
Roof ventilation operations are simplified and safety is increased (accountability) when a minimum of two firefighters are utilized. The following equipment should be considered as the basic minimum necessary to accomplish roof ventilation operations:

• SCBA
• Communication capability
• Pick-head axe (used for prying, and as a back-up for power saws)
• Pike pole, trash hook, or other suitable tools for removing cut sections of roof decking
• Power saw. Historically, the rotary saw has been widely utilized as a viable roof ventilation tool, although size, weight, and the “gyroscopic” effect of the blade often detract from its effectiveness. In applications other than metal-deck roofs, the modern chain saw has proven to be a superior roof ventilation tool due to its effectiveness and ease of use-which often translates into firefighter safety.

General features that adapt a chain saw into an effective roof ventilation tool are as follows:

– Minimum engine size of 4 cubic inches (adequate power for multiple layers of roofing material
– Sprocket tip guide bar between 16 and 20 inches in length (cooler running chain and reach)
– Large air cleaner (increased time in smokey conditions)
– Muffler guard (normally a piece of aluminum on front of the muffler which minimizes maintenance and clean-up operations)
– Carbide-tipped chain (superior to standard chains)

READ THE ROOF

• Before leaving a ladder and walking across a roof, personnel must take the time to observe the roof and any visual conditions. A few considerations are:

– What is the location of fire and is fire showing through the roof?
– Is a portion of the roof sagging, are there heat blisters?
– Does the roof have ventilators, vent pipes, skylights, and are they issuing smoke?
– Communicate with interior fire attack crews on interior-attic conditions, and/or the location of fire.

DETERMINE THE TYPE OF ROOF
This can be easily accomplished by pre-fire planning (a prior knowledge of a building-roof) or quickly removing a small piece of composition (or other material) from the roof covering only. This is easily accomplished with an axe or power saw and will reveal the type of roof decking below the roof covering. As an example:

• Corrugated metal indicates a metal-deck built-up roof with open web bar joists
• 1X6-inch sheathing indicates a conventionally constructed roof
• Plywood, particle board, OSB, etc. on a newer building is an excellent indicator of lightweight construction

DETERMINE THE LOCATION AND EXTENSION OF FIRE
Prior to any roof ventilation, the location and/or extension of fire must be determined. In conjunction with knowledge of the type of roof, the feasibility of a strip ventilation operation can be quickly determined before leaving the route of egress (ladder). The location-extension of fire can be determined by:

• Visual size-up. What areas of the roof are issuing fire or smoke?
• Small inspection-indicator openings (kerf cut, etc) can be cut with an axe or power saw in the roof decking and utilized to determine the location-extension of fire. Consider the following four conditions showing from an inspection opening:

– Fire
– Black, hot, pressurized smoke
– White, lazy smoke
– Nothing

Additionally, always remember to consider pressure, color, and temperature of smoke.

DETERMINE VENTILATION FEASIBILITY
If you have a basic idea of the type of roof you are standing on (fireground time) and know where you are in relation to the fire (area of strength or weakness), there should be no reason for you to be standing over a fire area (particularly lightweight construction) attempting to cut a ventilation opening in a roof!

SOUND THE PATH OF TRAVEL
Sounding with an axe, pike pole, trash hook, or other suitable tool in front of the intended path of travel will verify a roof’s safety. Remember, if you sound with your feet, they are connected to your body.

WORK FROM THE STRONG AREA AND/OR TOWARD THE LADDER-MEANS OF EGRESS
Ventilation cuts should be designed to start in the weakest portion of a roof (toward the fire) and finish in the strongest portion of a roof (away from the fire).

KEEP THE WIND AT YOUR BACK
When possible, ventilation cuts should be planned to keep the wind at the back of personnel.

IMPLEMENT THE CONCEPT OF “TIMING” TO STRIP VENTILATION OPERATIONS
As strip ventilation operations can be a time and resource intensive operation and an opening can accelerate the travel of fire to its location, conduct strip operations as two distinct operations. The first operation is to cut the strip. The second operation is to open the strip opening.

In past pieces with this (and other) sites that I write for, I have talked about the issue of “bias.” When someone says the “B” word, many instantly default to issues surround “race” or other “protected class “ issues. That “instant default” is a form of bias in itself, but that is not my point here.

Sometimes we make up our minds too quickly based on partial information – and the bad news about your brain is that once it makes up its mind, it hates to change direction. And sometimes this “cognitive lock” can cause you a tremendous amount of grief.

If you want to read all about this in some books by some “smart” people, check out Malcolm Gladwell’s great work “Blink” or the fantastic book by James Chiles, “Inviting Disaster”.

So with the above in mind, let me give you a “cop” story that was in the news this week. Please be patient with me. I know most of you are not on the “cop” side of things but there is a lesson to be learned here for everyone in the fire community.

Here is a story out of South Dakota that caught my eye, and I am glad I read the entire piece. I have redacted the article so that it fits within this piece.

A state trooper seized 980 pounds of marijuana on Friday making what is believed to be the biggest pot bust from a traffic stop in the state’s history.”

With the help of a service dog, drugs with an estimated street value of $3.9 million were found in the bed of a pickup a 40-year-old man was driving on Interstate 90 about 11 miles east of Rapid City.”

“As far as we know, this is the largest marijuana seizure from a traffic stop,” Capt. Kevin Karley, head of the Rapid City division of the South Dakota Highway Patrol, said Monday.

Donald McCormick, who is from Ipswich, Mass., faces two felony drug charges – possession of marijuana and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, according to court documents. He also is accused of possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor, according to court documents.

On Friday afternoon, the trooper logged McCormick’s truck traveling 70 miles per hour in a 65-mph zone in the eastbound lane of I90 near mile marker 71, according to court documents.

When the trooper walked his service dog around the pickup, the dog indicated the presence of illegal drugs in the vehicle. The trooper found numerous bales of marijuana under a large wooden shelf in the bed of the truck that was covered by a topper, court documents stated.

The trooper detailed the traffic stop in the probable cause affidavit filed with the Seventh Circuit Court:

He reported several religious and patriotic decals like “Support Our Troops” magnets and a “Jesus is The Answer” bumper sticker on the 2006 Chevrolet 2500HD pickup. A mountain bike was secured to the back of the truck’s camper shell.

Once pulled over, McCormick told the trooper he was checking out Sturgis while on his way to Wisconsin from Vale, Colo. A Bible lay on the front passenger seat and a church ID badge hung from the rear view mirror.

Dressed in a long-sleeved dress shirt, McCormick appeared nervous, his hands trembling and his breath labored, police said.

The court document stated that the trooper found McCormick’s story of travel confusing and his casual conversation unusual with the driver saying he found God and that the trooper was “really a good guy and appreciated the way I treated him.”

When the trooper walked his service dog around the pickup, the dog indicated the presence of illegal drugs in the vehicle. The trooper searched the truck and found spare decals, air fresheners and a rubber-banded bundle of cash adding up to about $1,000.

The trooper searched the bed of the truck covered by a topper and found numerous bales of marijuana under a large wooden shelf, court documents stated.

Before I continue on, I have to tell you that when I was a brand new CHP officer in 1973, my “break-in” officer (now they call them FTO’s) told me to be wary of people with “Support Your Local Police” bumper stickers on their car. He explained that some bad people will put that on their car to “fool” an officer into thinking that the people in the car are “pro police” and not participating in criminal activity.

Throughout my career, I used my FTO’s line of thinking often – never using a “bumper sticker” as cause to stop someone – but rather to be cognizant that “things may not be what they seem to be” and to not let my guard down because of this bumper sticker.

So what does all of this have to do with you? As you know, I am not in your business, but I have a lot of friends and contacts in the fire service and we communicate regularly. As I listened to a “war story” recently from a Fire Chief, I got to thinking about the dangers of “cognitive lock.”

He was talking about the importance of the “size up” prior to going into a structure that is on fire and his point was that you have to use all of your senses, coupled with all of your past experiences to make the “right call” on a give incident. Again, I don’t know anything about “reading smoke” and other issues regarding “fire behavior” – but sometimes there are “external indicators” that may indicate something to you at first glance that in reality is not the full story.

Early on in my career I ran into an obvious “drunk driver” who ended up being a “very sick diabetic.” I made up my mind based on a lot of indicators that told me he was drunk, and once I made up my mind, that was the way it was going to be. I missed killing that guy by just a couple of minutes and thanks to the work of an alert Doctor, he is still alive.

My guess is you have similar experiences in fire service operations, so take the time to recall those adventures and share your “close call” with your peers, particularly the newer personnel who might not have the benefit of that experience.

Sometimes things are not what they seem to be and the smart people gather all the facts prior to making a decision. Anyhow, that is all for this piece. Again, I wish you and all close to you a wonderful New Year.

Gordon Graham
President, Lexipol

I followed Chief Castro’s presentation identifying some of the many challenges facing today’s fire officer/supervisor. My presentation was totally interactive. No PowerPoint just me and the participants having a discussion.

You can probably guess that the first topic of discussion was the budget difficulties all fire departments are presently dealing with. We all agreed that these are difficult times and many difficult and unpopular decisions have to be made to deal with the current budget crisis. Hopefully, before all these budget cutting decisions are made the department administration consults with all the major players in the organization, including the union leadership.  The decisions that are made should be based on “what is best for the department” not “politically based.”   These decisions are then sent down through channels and should be thoroughly explained. There are those that might disagree with some of the budget cuts proposed, however, it is my opinion that we as team members should do everything to support those decisions.  I will discuss this budget issue in more detail next month.

Another topic of discussion was department morale. Most agreed that due to the budget cuts morale has been impacted organizationally. However, it appears that the morale among the individual companies remains high. That’s good news.

What is morale? To paraphrase the Miriam Webster dictionary, morale is “enthusiasm, confidence and loyalty of an individual or a group, a sense of common purpose.”  Morale can also be described as a feeling of well being based on the group’s accomplishments and a “strong regard for the honor of the group.”

To me, the phrase “strong regard for the honor of the group” is where I would like to begin.  We all worked hard to get a job in this profession.  For most of us it was a dream that finally came true after years of repeated testing.  When we received word we were hired, when we graduated from the training academy, when we got our badge, our “morale” was about as high as it could ever get.  We had become part of a noble profession, and the honor of wearing that badge was not lost on us.  We also realized that at this point in our new career, we had done nothing to deserve the honor the Firefighters badge implied.  That respect and admiration had been gained by those Firefighters that came before us.

So what happens to some of us?  Do we keep in mind how hard we worked to get this career so that we can maintain that initial high personal morale, or do we become complacent?  Do we listen to the negative opinions that are often based on individual feelings or gossip and agree with them, or worse yet, say nothing?  Do we let these factors affect our morale?

Here are some of the factors that can improve or reduce morale.

• Management style of the organizations leadership
• Personnel believe their contribution is valued by their employer
• Individual & group empowerment
• The perceived value of the work being done by the organization as a whole
• Team composition
• The work culture

When morale is high, there is positive cooperation between divisions and shifts.  Our citizens receive better service, accidents and injuries are reduced, and grievances, discipline, and absenteeism are minimized.  And hopefully, this high productivity and cooperation is appreciated and noted by all management levels.

When morale is low, you will see signs of a reduced work ethic, pettiness, and an increase in absenteeism, which ultimately leads to a decrease in customer service and an increase in complaints.  Eventually, like a disease, low morale can spread rapidly, especially if no one tries to correct this trend.  At some point, it can negatively impact the positive relationships Firefighters have always had with their citizens.

As a leader, morale starts with you.  If your dedication to the Fire Department and its goals has fallen off, how can you expect your team members to be excited about their responsibilities?  If you aren’t excited about coming to work and doing a quality job, it is human nature that your team will follow your lead.  That’s why it’s called “leadership!”

“Morale is a state of mind.  It is steadfastness and courage and hope.  It is confidence, and zeal and loyalty.  It is élan, espirit de corps and determination.  With morale, all things are possible.  Without it, everything else, planning, preparations and production, count for naught.”

Paul Stein

Upon arrival, you observe a 60X200-foot one-story mini-mall (do you have any of these in your district?) with heavy smoke showing from a unit at one end of the structure, and you also can see dark smoke pushing from roof vents over two units that are adjacent to the involved unit. You quickly conclude the fire in the end unit has extended into the common attic and will quickly expose the entire structure.

Considering your options are limited, you direct one of your firefighters to force entry into several units ahead of the extending attic fire as you, your driver, and other firefighter ladder the roof in preparation to initiate strip (trench) ventilation to stop the advancing attic fire.

In this scenario, the truck officer has correctly identified a potential problem. The fire in the end unit has extended into the common attic, and will extend horizontally to the other end of the building, unless it is stopped. However, when the officer and driver reach the roof, strategic objectives will be as important as tactical operations if the truck officer is to be effective within minimal time and staffing constraints.

DEFINITION
Before we analyze the strategy and tactics of strip (trench) ventilation, let’s review the terms “strip-trench” ventilation, and the basic concept of “ventilation.”

Webster’s New Word Dictionary defines a trench as “a deep furrow, a long narrow ditch.” Conversely, a strip is defined as “to peel or take off (a covering) from something, to make bare by removing removable parts, a long narrow piece.”

When these two definitions are applied to roof ventilation operations, the definition of strip ventilation is more applicable than trench ventilation due to its focus on removing a covering from something (i.e., roof decking only) as opposed to creating a deep furrow which may result in cutting through the roof decking and supporting structural members.

The basic definition of ventilation is: “procedures necessary to effect the planned and systematic removal of smoke, heat, and fire gases from a structure.” However, this definition is too simplistic when we consider that improper ventilation operations can also enhance the extension of fire, heat, and smoke. Therefore, we can expand our initial definition of ventilation to: “specific openings that can be utilized to reduce-remove concentrations of heat, smoke, and fire gases from a structure, and/or to channel and redirect the travel of fire.”

Within this definition are the following two specific concepts:

•  Ventilation operations can be used to reduce-remove heat, smoke, and fire gases.
• Ventilation operations can also be used to strategically channel or redirect the travel of fire when properly implemented.

 To summarize our previous focus of the terms “strip ventilation” and “ventilation,” strip ventilation should be defined as “roof ventilation operations designed to strategically channel-redirect the travel of fire, heat, smoke, and fire gases by creating a long, narrow opening in the roof decking ahead of a horizontally extending fire (i.e., in the attic of a structure).” With this concept in mind, let’s examine the strategy and tactics of strip ventilation.

STRATEGY
When roof ventilation operations are necessary, strategic considerations are often comprised of offensive and defensive ventilation operations. The primary focus of offensive roof ventilation is to create a ventilation opening over or as close to a fire as possible (heat opening), and as safety permits. This type of ventilation is designed to:

•     Vertically channel a fire and its by-products
•      Limit horizontal extension in a structure
•      Raise the level of heat and smoke within a structure
•      Minimize the potential of flashover and backdraft
•      Increase the safety of fireground operations

If possible, offensive ventilation should be conducted before defensive ventilation and can be accomplished by:

• Utilizing natural construction openings (i.e., skylights, scuttle covers, etc). However, it is important to ensure the proper location of these openings in relation to the area to be vented as openings can quickly pull heat, smoke, and fire to an opening.
• Cutting an opening (in the roof decking only) with power saws and/or an axe

Once offensive roof ventilation operations have been completed, (may not be completed due to fire that has vented through a roof, and/or safety constraints) defensive roof ventilation operations should be completed if necessary.

The primary focus of defensive roof ventilation is to create an opening ahead of a horizontally extending fire (directional opening) that is designed to change the horizontal direction-extension of fire, heat, and smoke to a vertical direction, and reduce or eliminate the horizontal spread of these elements. Defensive roof ventilation openings should be considered after offensive roof ventilation openings have been completed, or have not been able to be completed.

You know that I have focused many of my monthly columns on this and related issues.  Let me start this piece with some thoughts on how I learned about money.  When I was a kid in the 50’s I did not get an “allowance.”  My parents provided everything I needed but I wanted to help out so I set upon a plan to get a job.

Both of my parents were of the “depression” era, so the topic of money and the lack thereof occurred often.  My Grandmother lived downstairs for half the year (she had a ranch up North but came to the City during the cold months) and she got a “pension” check (her husband was a Rough Rider for those of you old enough to remember that term) and monthly her treat was taking all of us to the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley for Sunday dinner.  Not to bore you but all six of us ate for less than $15.00.  It was very clear to me that I too had to contribute also.

I was too young for a paper route (I think you had to be 10 to get that job) and too young to mow lawns (young kids and mowers do not mix) and I was trying to figure out how I was going to make some money.  I thought about shining shoes – but to get enough foot traffic to make that work I would have to go someplace with a lot of people and that would require travel so that was out.

One day as I was walking home from school I saw a guy painting his street address numbers on the curb in front of his house and I saw my “fortune” right in front of me. I could do that!  So I ran this by my Dad and he had all the stuff and he built me a frame out of wood that I would use to spray paint a white “box”.   He had some stencils or numbers and he showed me how to do it and I practiced on our own curb out in front and line of the 3 and the 2 and the 7 and that was my first job.

So I would go door to door and solicit business and I did pretty good at this.  For the job of painting your address on your curb I charged twenty-five cents.  To me that was a fortune.  Early on in my business life, I came home with something like ten quarters and I thought I was rich!

We had a savings plan at grade school (no joke, the Bank of America would send someone to the school on a weekly basis and collect envelopes of money from the kids and make an entry in the ledger) and I was on top of the world.   I showed my parents my savings passbook and they were impressed. 

And then I got some advice from my Dad that sticks with me even today.  “Twenty-five cents is a lot of money.  Make sure that your customers think the job you did is worth more than what they pay you.”

I took that line of thinking into my first “real job” when I got a job at Swensen’s Ice Cream when I was in high school.   Then I was making $1.10 an hour (the state minimum wage at the time) and my Dad gave me the same advice.  Make sure that Mr. Swensen thinks you are worth more than $1.10 an hour.

I had a dozen other jobs in high school and college but that thought of “dollar value” was always with me.  And when the CHP hired me in 1973, I was making $505.00 per month and I always wanted my Sergeant to know that I was worth more than that to the State of California.

So why am I boring you with this?  First, it is always fun to think about the old days when life was so much simpler and I did not have a worry in the world.  But there is another reason I mention this today.  Here is something out of a Northern California newspaper.

MILLBRAE—Santa Clara County Sheriff’s deputies already patrol a handful of cities, and in the past year San Mateo County took over policing for two Peninsula towns.

Millbrae may join those ranks, but before that happens, city residents will be able to weigh in at a community meeting on Saturday. Millbrae, like many cities, has seen consistent budget shortfalls in recent years. Now its leaders must decide whether they can afford to keep spending roughly a third of the city’s $17 million budget on the police department.

Residents and police at a meeting earlier this week questioned whether their community would still be protected. They also were afraid of losing officers who know their community best.

Money, or lack thereof, is at the root of the decision. Millbrae’s withered department has had about 25 percent of its officers cut in the past decade, leaving it with the equivalent of about 21 officers.

Rebuilding the department will cost an extra $410,000 a year, money the city would raise by laying off employees from other city services. The alternative is hiring the sheriff’s office, which would save the cash-strapped town roughly $1.1 million over what it’s spending this year.

Residents, elected officials and police themselves remain divided on what to do. A majority of Millbrae’s police are in favor of the sheriff’s proposal, said Millbrae officer and union head Robert Raw. They have seen a decade of cuts and are suffering from low morale. But many police are committed to keeping their stand-alone department.

Mayor Dan Quigg said outsourcing is the only and best option for the city. But he’s just one of five votes.

“I feel the Sheriff’s Office will keep the community safe,” he said.

The meeting on the future of Millbrae’s police is set for 9 a.m. Saturday in the Chetcuti Community Room at 450 Polar Ave.

I don’t know a thing about Millbrae Police Department (although I dated a girl in college from Millbrae), but I know this scenario is playing out around California and the nation.  This is not just a police department issue, but it also concerns fire departments nationally.

I am wrapping up this piece but here is a question for you.  Take a look at the pie chart your city or county has regarding budget expenditures and look at how big the “piece” is for police and fire protection.  In some jurisdictions this “piece” is very substantial.

Now ask this question.  Do members of your community think they are getting dollar value from your organization?  You and I both know that there is a lot of “negative” news in this regard, so what can be done to enhance the image of your Department?

There are so many things that can be done to improve our image – and simultaneously there are so many things that can damage our image.  In the news this week out of Florida are two stories.  One involves the FHP Trooper stopping the Miami PD cop for 120 MPH in a City PD car while he was in route to his secondary employment at a private school outside of the City of Miami.  The entire contact was videotaped from the Trooper’s car and it is quite an embarrassment.

This was all over the news in Florida – until it was replaced by this story that I edited slightly for purposes of brevity.

WPLG-TV reported yesterday “The Village of Key Biscayne has launched a massive investigation after Local 10 cameras spotted on-duty firefighters playing tennis outside the village limits.”

The point of the story is that the entire shift of Key Biscayne Fire Rescue was found by the reporter and videographer playing tennis a little less than a mile outside the Village limits on October 20 at the Crandon Park Tennis Center. The officer in charge has now been asked to write a report to interim Village manager John Gilbert. (Gilbert is still listed on the Village of Key Biscayne website as the Fire Chief.)

If the firefighters were doing what they were supposed to as part of PT, they probably shouldn’t have run from the cameras the way they did. The reporter says they gave the indication they were responding to a call on the radio, but Village officials say that was not the case.

Gilbert confirms there was no specific policy the crew violated, except possibly using common sense. It looks like there soon will be policy. The report indicates the firehouse has a gym and basketball court.

This is another good reminder that cameras are everywhere. Make sure you can justify your actions and don’t have to run from them. Whether you like it or not, little things that everyone used to get away with will likely come back to bite you on the local newscast or YouTube.

The last paragraph is so true and everyone working for Government needs to be aware of this.  

Gordon Graham
President, Lexipol

 PLACEMENT OF VENTILATION OPENINGS
Offensive ventilation openings are normally placed over or as close to the seat of a fire as possible. Defensive ventilation openings are placed ahead of a horizontally extending fire to change the horizontal direction to a vertical direction. In this scenario, let’s assume the roof ventilation team discovers that fire is just starting to extend into the common attic of the single-story structure. A strip/trench should be cut in the roof of the single-story structure and as close to the two-story structure as roof integrity will allow. If there is one advantage of lightweight construction, plywood/OSB materials can be rapidly cut with power saws.

 Note: Remember that the success of strip/trench ventilation openings are dependent on completing the cut from one side of the building to the opposing side, and coordinating with engine company operations to ensure personnel can pull the ceiling area under the strip/trench opening to be able to use a hose line to extinguish any visible fire and/or begin to extinguish the fire back to its source. A strip/trench opening without a coordinated attack from below can be ineffective!

DON’T BE A ROOF SHEPHERD
When roof ventilation operations are finished, personnel should not spend unnecessary time admiring their handiwork as there are stronger and safer areas to rest in addition to other fireground priorities that likely need to be completed. When roof operations are completed, exit the roof in a safe and timely manner.

PATH OF EGRESS
Always know how to exit a roof safely. Generally, leave the roof the same way that you climbed onto it. Unless conditions have changed, consider the original path to be the best way off. If your path to the roof was safe, it should still be safe for your exit from the roof.

THERMAL IMAGING CAMERA
Lastly, more departments are successfully using this tool for roof operations as it can locate an area under a roof that is exposed to fire and it can also locate some structural members (larger members retain more heat than their surroundings). However, the value of this tool is based on the expertise of the operator.

**SIDEBAR**

MODERN WOOD AN ADDITIONAL FIREGROUND HAZARD?
Most firefighters are well aware of the inherent hazards of lightweight construction as it has been commonly used by the building industry in various configurations since about 1960. These hazards are a result of the reduced size of structural members in tension and compression configurations and the use of gang-nail plates or glue instead of 8/16 penny nails, or steel plates and bolts in older truss construction. However, it is easy to overlook the fact that the wood currently being used is significantly different than the wood that was used in older construction. From a logging perspective, old growth trees are just a memory with “new growth” trees (or 2^nd growth trees) and “plantation trees” normally replacing the older trees. This has resulted in wood that is not only different, but wood that burns significantly hotter and faster. Interestingly, about 1986 the lumber industry changed their rating system from Utility (utl), Standard (std), Construction Grade (cons), and Select (sel) to #3, #2, and #1 (best).

Old growth trees produced a wood that was denser and had a reduced level of pitch (which burns like a petroleum type product). Additionally, it was not uncommon for wood — particularly wood that was to be used for structural members — to be cut from the “heart” of the tree (maximum density and minimal pitch). Interestingly, Douglas fir was the standard for exterior bearing walls (the good stuff), with White fir or Hemlock used for interior walls (the cheaper stuff). Conversely, new growth trees are less dense and have a higher concentration of pitch as compared to old growth trees. This has resulted in wood that is lighter in weight, is capable of burning more rapidly and with a higher BTU heat level, and “cheaper” types of wood used for structural members. When these factors are combined with this type of lumber being used in various lightweight configurations in modern building construction, it should not be a surprise that modern buildings are collapsing faster and burning hotter than the buildings of yesterday.

Let me start with this thought for today – and then I will move onto my focus for this piece. I am preparing this piece in New Hampshire at a beautiful location on Lake Winnepausakee. As I look at the license plates most common in this State, I see the motto “Live Free or Die.”

Apparently these people take this seriously for I have never been in a state where the seatbelt usage is so low. I know many states have a usage rate of over 90% – and I would be shocked to learn if this state had a usage rate of anything higher than 50%. When I checked online about this I learned that thirty-two of the fifty states have a “primary” seatbelt law (meaning that a cop can pull you over for not wearing a seatbelt) and seventeen of the states have a “secondary” seatbelt law (meaning that you can be cited for not wearing a belt, but the reason for the traffic stop cannot be the seatbelt violation) and if you are doing the math on this – forty-nine states have a law regarding seatbelts.

And then there is the Granite State. “Nope – no one is going to force me to wear a seatbelt and we will fight any attempt to make that a law.” Unfortunately for the citizens of this state, the “laws of physics” still apply and without the restraint device in use a minor collision can result in a major problem. You will not be surprised to learn that this state does not have a “helmet” law for motorcyclists. “Live Free or Die” indeed.

For some reason the above makes me remember a conversation I had with the Governor of Wisconsin years ago at a traffic safety conference. Apparently his staff briefed him on who I was and my position on things related to traffic safety, and just before my presentation he asked me to “respect” the anti-helmet law people present at the conference.

At the time I was still employed in my career job in law enforcement and the last thing I need is the Governor of Wisconsin calling the Governor of California and telling him that I did not heed his wishes – that would not be good – so I made no comments about motorcycle helmets to the conference attendees.

But when I identified the group in the audience who was “anti-helmet” I noted that many of them had motorcycle helmets with them. I found this a bit confusing so when I was done with my talk I made it a point to talk to the “anti-helmet” people (who were a very nice bunch including many Veterans of the armed services) and the conversation went something like this. “We are opposed to helmet laws, but only a fool would get on a motorcycle without a helmet.”

All of the above is remotely tied into to my focus for this brief piece. Every state has different rules for different things – and what is a crime in California might not be a crime in Nevada. You can insert any two of the fifty states in the prior sentence and it would be accurate.

Within any state – each jurisdiction has different ways of doing business and what might be a “crime” in Los Angeles County may not be criminal behavior in Orange County. And once again, you can substitute any two of the fifty-eight counties in the previous sentence and it would be accurate.

With respect to police and fire operations, each political subdivision (read: city or county) has a different way of doing business and there is no “standardization of best practices” in our respective professions. Almost every fire department and police department has a different way of doing business. I comment on this issue regularly, and in my last writing I proposed a solution – but this is not my focus in this piece.

Obviously I am leading up to something. You would have to be living under a rock to not know that Tiger Woods has lost his edge and Charlie Sheen has lost his “sitcom” and that there is an ongoing “re-engineering” of government going on around America. In past pieces for this and other websites I have talked about “regionalization and consolidation” of public safety agencies and this has generated a lot of comments from people. Whether you are “pro or con” on this issue is inconsequential. It is going on around America and inside each of the fifty individual states.

So what is my point? I was recently perusing a copy of “USA Today” (September 27) and there was a piece in there about the merger of United Airlines and Continental Airlines. The title of the story was:

United pilots cite fears on safety.

Here is the gist of this story. Apparently, every airline has a different way to fly their planes. Commercial airline pilots follow precise directions from everything including who talks to ATC and who does what if something goes wrong. Pilots at two different airlines might follow different procedures even if they are flying the same type of plane. So now that United pilots may be flying with pilots formerly with Continental – and even if they are each “checked out” on the 757 they are operating – they might have a different way of handling a given situation. I can think of dozens of scenarios in which this “different way of doing things” could end up in a less than desirable situation.

So with all of the above in mind here is my summary for this piece. If your department is merging or consolidating with another fire department – please be aware of the “risk” that members of other departments may have been trained to handle a given task differently than you have been trained. This is an “identifiable risk” and as such it is a “manageable risk” and it must be addressed.

I guarantee that it will be addressed by the “lawyers” after some tragedy occurs, but having the lawyers fix out problems is usually too late. All of us in both of our professions need to address these issues before they become problems.

Anyhow, that is all for now and as always I welcome your comments.

Take care and stay safe.

Gordon Graham
President, Lexipol

SIZE-UP
In no particular order, consider the following:

• What is the type of structure?
• What is the age of the structure?
• Where is the fire, and what is the smoke telling you?
• As you approach the structure, check to see if the rafter tails are exposed, and if they are, are they 2X4-inch in size which indicates 2×4-inch truss construction (remember that this primarily applies to residential structures. Commercial structures can be modified to make their roof construction appear larger).
• Determine what type of roof ventilation will be necessary, and in which order (heat hole, defensive opening, etc).

LADDERS
Consider two ladders per roof to be the minimum for roof operations. Try to ladder away from the fire which allows you to start from the strong area and work back to your means of egress. Always know where and how to exit the roof and whether or not you have an alternate means of escape. 

BASIC EQUIPMENT
The following tools and equipment are recommended as a minimum for performing vertical ventilation – - full protective clothing, breathing apparatus, pickhead axe-pike pole-rubbish hook-or other suitable tools such as a halligan, hook, etc, power saw (chain or rotary saw), and communications (walkie-talkie). When taking power equipment aloft, work in teams of two as a minimum and emphasize safety.

FIRST MEMBER TO THE ROOF
The first ventilation member to a roof should have a sounding tool. Is the roof strong enough to support the weight of personnel, or has the decking been burned away under the roofing material? Always evaluate the integrity of a roof before stepping onto it. Additionally, when the first ventilation member sounds a roof to determine its safety, that member also determines the path of travel for other firefighters.

READ THE ROOF
Before venturing off the ladder, personnel must take the appropriate time to read the roof. For this discussion, some factors to consider are:

• Is the roof of sufficient pitch to require a roof ladder?
• Is the roof covered with composition shingles, wood shingles, tile, etc?
• Is visible smoke of moderate color, density, pressure, volume, and where is it issuing from (roof vents, etc)?
• Is there a good chance of extension of fire into the attic if it is not there already?
• You remember to consider the building and roof may be under demolition in addition to gravity wanting the building.

DETERMINE VENTILATION FEASIBILITY
Now we get to the primary roof ventilation rule of whether you should be on the roof or not and this can be termed “Determining Ventilation Feasibility.” Prior to committing personnel on a roof for ventilation operations, personnel must (not should, as the word denotes optional) determine whether or not ventilation operations are feasible. This entails knowing the type of roof construction, and the location of fire in relation to the roof structural members and roof personnel. When these two factors are known, then roof personnel should have a basic idea of the structural stability and amount of time that is available for a roof ventilation operation. Since the introduction of lightweight construction, the days of randomly walking out on a roof and cutting a ventilation opening are over! 

DETERMINE THE TYPE OF ROOF
Before personnel venture away from their ladder, it is essential to know what the roof that is supporting the ventilation team is comprised of (if you don’t already know from your size-up). Remember that guessing can be deadly. Some items of consideration are what type of roof is it, is it conventional construction or lightweight construction, is the roof covered with slate or tile which can make it difficult to traverse, and other similar considerations.

To underscore an important point, consider the following – a flat roof is a very common roof. It may be found in many areas, usually covered by composition-type materials. However, unless personnel are familiar with a particular building and roof, the structural members that will support it are an unknown. The roof may be of lightweight concrete, 2×12-inch joists and 1×6-inch sheathing, 2×3-inch I-joist and half-inch OSB, or open-web construction covered by corrugated metal. All of these roofs may look similar from the top, yet each will react differently when exposed to fire. Therefore, before committing personnel on an unknown roof, determine the type of roof and whether it will provide adequate time to perform the intended ventilation operations.

I spend a lot of time going around giving presentations on my favorite topic – Risk Management.  In these live presentations, I occasionally comment on an issue “confidence vs. competence” and the dangers of “hubris” and how some of our “tragedies” in public safety get down to someone who thinks they are highly competent when the reality is they are clueless – and they attempt to do something that is way over their skill level and something terrible happens.

I like to back up what I say with real life examples that are in the news and derive a little bit of laughter, but I am aware of the dangers of “anecdotal” stories.  And I could give you a ton of examples and fill up the rest of this piece with stories about Doctors.  But I won’t do that, but I will milk the Doctor thing for a page or so.

In the news, there was a tragic story of two M.D.’s who died in Yosemite.  California lucked out this year with 160% of our necessary snowpack and that is good news on the water/drought front (although our problems are still huge and stand by for major water issues in the world in the next decade or so), but our snowpack is higher than I can recall. 

Anyhow, the snow is now melting and the rivers in California are alive like you would not believe.  It is almost a daily event that someone drowns because they get in the water and are swept away.  Many of these are kids who don’t know any better and that would include the three we lost in Yosemite who hopped a barrier to get a better picture of the waterfall.  The barrier was there for a reason!

But two Doctors?  Come on now – you have to be kidding me!  So that would be eight years of grade school and four years of high school and four years of college and five years of Medical School so that is twenty-one years of education.  Certainly, they are smart people and I have no doubt about that.  So along with some of their peers, they go for a hike in Yosemite.  They come upon a foot bridge which has rushing water coming over the top of it.  You guessed it – they over estimated their abilities and two Doctors are dead.

For my aviation friends reading this piece (and another reference to Doctors), what was the nickname of the Beechcraft Bonanza?  Oh, that’s right – they called it the “Doctor Killer.”  Doctors at that time had some disposable income.  So, they got their pilots license.  They wanted something faster and plopped down a lot of money for the Bonanza – getting in with a limited amount of flight experience, but a ton of confidence.  I guess it killed enough Doctors to get that nickname.

 From Wiki:  “It earned the nickname “Doctor Killer” due to a series of fatal accidents. The V-35 Bonanza is expensive, high performance, and a very popular personal plane among high-class professionals, such as doctors. However, it is extremely difficult to fly due to its high-speed flutter, and inexperienced pilots with low hours are more susceptible to making an error resulting in a crash.

“The tails have been known to shed, so the early Bonanza’s have actually added cuffs to the base of the ruddervators to strengthen the structure. The aircraft is known for being faster than most personal planes due to the effort in decreasing the dampened area of the airframe to increase speed.

“A lot of accidents occur due to error in judgment on the pilot’s part. Pilots have been known to take off into snowstorms, thunderstorms, or just any conditions in general that warrant danger.”

I see a lot of this in the car world also.  People think they have the skills, but they don’t.  I have a dear friend who used to have a high-end car dealership in Los Gatos.  He was telling me about the dot.com multi-millionaires who never drove anything faster than an eighteen-window VW bus.  They slaved away in their garage, made some breakthrough in the tech business, offered an IPO and walk away with a ton of money.  Then, they would go out and buy a rocket ship car like a Turbo Porsche or Lambo whateverits and end up dead on day one.

You have all witnessed this with kids and high-speed motorcycles and jet-skis (PWC is now the appropriate name) and I could go on and on and on about boats and guns and rock climbing and other high-risk activities.

I see a lot of this in Public Safety – and the results sometimes are tragic indeed and it has involved paramedics and dispatchers and cops and firefighters and everyone in between.  I just got off the phone with a Fire Chief from back East with this issue.   He had a firefighter end up severely injured (he will live though thankfully) who thought his skills on a ladder were greater than they actually were.

With all of the above in mind and out of the blue, I get some correspondence from someone in one of my programs about the “Dunning-Kruger” effect. 

Justin Kruger and David Dunning researched this and wrote extensively on this “confidence vs. competence” issue.  Take a look at this – again from Wiki.

The Dunning–Kruger Effect is a cognitive bias in which unskilled people make poor decisions and reach erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence denies them the meta-cognitive ability to recognize their mistakes.  The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their ability as above average, much higher than it actually is, while the highly skilled underrate their own abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority. Actual competence may weaken self-confidence, as competent individuals may falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. As Kruger and Dunning conclude, “the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others.”

 Kruger and Dunning proposed that, for a given skill, incompetent people will: 

1. Tend to overestimate their own level of skill
2. Fail to recognize genuine skill in others
3. Fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy
4. Recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill, if they can be trained to substantially improve (more on this later in this MR)

I can tell the stories about the tragedies in my profession – but know now that there is an official name for this and I thank Mr. Dunning and Mr. Kruger for their work on this.

And don’t forget the reference in the above “Dunning-Kruger” report to the value of training.  Every day has to be a training day – and even if all you do is talk about this “effect” with your people it might do some good to wake people up as to the true nature of their skills and abilities.

That is it.  I hope there was something in here for you.  Take care, stay safe and remember the words of Harry Callahan.  “A good man knows his limitations.”

Gordon Graham
President, Lexipol