This week I am speaking about all of the aspects of construction that might relate to roofs. You could take this training idea and use it in any number of ways but we will throw out some suggestions for argument sake.

Make sure your troops know that in many cases the roof of a building is designed to keep the rain out and not much else. Of course it adds stability to the overall building but it is really not designed to take significant weight loads above it’s design maximum. Obviously in the Northeast and points where it snows, roofs are designed for snow loading as well.

Framing up a drill for roofs (no pun intended) would go something like this:

* Go to the local building department and determine what weight per square foot residential roofs are supposed to be able to hold in your area.

* Discuss and define the following terms with your personnel: Concentrated Load, Dead Load, Design Load, Undesigned Load, Distributed Load, Live load, impact load.

* Find out from building department what local materials are being used in roof construction in a typical residential.

* Take photos of buildings in your response area during and after construction so you can show your members what the roof support structures really are.

* Review all of the various types of roofs with your personnel and the characteristics of each, how you change your operations for each and any peculiarities which could lead to failure.

*Roof Types: Gable, Gambrel, Hip, Mansard, Shed, Lantern, Butterfly

* Discuss truss construction. Not every type of truss is bad, but primarily prefabricated truss construction materials may be. Truss construction using large substantial members has been used in churches for years. That is not what the fire department has concerns about, but really the engineered truss. Discuss the following bowstring truss, engineered wood truss, open web steel joist.

* Discuss Engineered wooden structural members such as the wooden I beam type.

* Discuss parapet walls as roof attachments and facades and their failure.

* Discuss and review existing roof loads such as HVAC and other machinery.

* Discuss heavy sign loads that may be creating an eccentric load pulling a parapet wall forward.

* Discuss commercial roofing such as membrane roofing that may have to actually cut away to get to subsurface areas. Also discuss the rapid fire spread that may occur with this type of roof covering.

* Discuss fires that have occurred while roof repairs were being made to commercial roofs using hot tar, and liquid propane burners up on the rooftop.

* Talk about the tools and equipment that should be brought to the roof.

* Talk about the dangers of locating the roof edges in heavy smoke conditions.

* Talk about two means of egress for crews operating and a number of other safety tips.

This is not all inclusive but you should have enough material to research in IFSTA or Delmar publications, coupled with your own digital pictures of your own community to create a good drill and get the personnel to focus on just this one aspect of building construction.

Pete Lamb
Copyright 2013

If training is the road map and the basis for making things happen in your department where the hell are you headed? You should be headed for a place called “prepared”.

I have been having many discussion with lots of folks and what I am seeing disturbs me. I see that in many departments the training officer might be the junior guy (or gal) who has a lot of zeal and zest but gets put into this position by default.

I see a lot of departments that are “pencil whipping” training programs. That is to say that they have written procedures which require training hours per day or per shift or before riding and they are complying but there is no real meat. I also see “pencil whipping” in the fact that departments today are attempting to train only for the sole purpose of complying with some regulation and conducting a mandatory training will relieve them of some liability or make them comply with some regulation.

In some states there are other benefits to training that become more important than the training itself. In some states firefighters receive EMS re-certification credit for attending fire training. In the last seminar I ran I had a department call me and ask me if there were EMT recert credits being issued. I said no. That department chose not to send anyone to the training. I guess training is only good if it prevents me from having to go to any other training??????

Departments are also becoming too trendy with their training. Please do not mistake me we should be aware of the hazards that surround us and we will certainly be the ones responding on the front line, but should we make this the priority or should we insert it into our training plan or road map as one of our regularly scheduled stops on our trip for knowledge.

We seem to plan our trip for knowledge to our destination a place I will call “prepared” and every other week we keep getting side tracked on this journey.

I believe that sightseeing is good on vacation, and once you arrive at your destination you should take little side journeys, but what I am seeing is all of the sightseeing is going on along the way.

A small department with limited resources should be able to REACT to an incident of terrorism. I m not sure if any fire service agency is going to PREVENT one.

Let us make sure we know what could happen, let us preplan and Targets we have have in our response district and let’s do a whole bunch of what ifs.. but also lets us do post incident reviews of our current responses and make sure we are doing what we do every day correctly.

Our road map should start with making sure we know what we are doing in the first place.

Look at your current responses and decide what categories they fall in.

Look at what things and responses you handle really well.

Look at how well your department’s sops are being followed on routine emergencies. ( I know I know nothing is routine, don’t get hung up on semantics on me now….see you were getting lost again, back to the map now!)

Plan your training to get your members to that place you call prepared and maintain a steady course and a time frame for arrival.

The training officer is the travel agent, and the firefighters are the passengers on a trip booked by the chief.

As the travel agent remember the following:

You won’t please every passenger.

You should be well prepared yourself and keep to a schedule.

The journey should be interesting, exciting and involve all.

As the tour director (training officer) fill your own tank frequently and you won’t run out of gas. (Make sure you keep going to training yourself so you are current)

Decide what is nice to see and what must be seen.

Never every tour group is ready to climb mount Washington!

(Figure that one out yourself!)

Passenger safety is always important.

Don’t keep changing directions it makes the passenger motion sick!

It is OK to change modes of transportation. (Slides, hands on, field trips, PowerPoint, simulation etc.)

Proper preparation prevents time delays and breakdowns.

Training should be the road map that your department follows on it;’s journey to prepared.

There I fueled you about, you are now free to move about the website!

Have a safe trip!

Pete Lamb
Copyright 2013

What do we want for our professional reputation? If our reputation is being built each and every day by our actions, what do we want others to think of us?

This question applies to us if we are firefighters, fire officers, fire instructors, people in general as human beings, and the agency we work for. Our personal and professional reputation also breeds the reputations of persons around us and our acceptable culture.

Remember also, your perception of your reputation and what others may think are vastly different.

Let’s start at the department or agency level for a minute and think about some reputations…

XYZ department is extremely professional, they look and act smart, and they are very effective in doing their job.

XYZ department looks professional, has great equipment, but boy those guys couldn’t fight a fire if it was their own station.

XYZ department is small, has limited equipment, low manpower, but boy do they train every week. I am surprised at how good they perform given the tools that they have.

XYZ department, all those guys are just there because it is their second job.

XYZ department are great firefighters, but they do nothing with inspections and code enforcement.

XYZ department…..What a great bunch of guys.

Now the above were just a bunch of views, and you could probably put names on them all, but the point was if you recognized, your department in there ….are you proud to say that is the one you belong to?

As firefighters….

FF. XYZ is a great “Jake” that really knows his job.

FF. xyz really doesn’t give a damn anymore.

FF xyz works his side job while he is on duty.

FF xyz is all smoke and mirrors, he really cannot do the job.

FF xyz would help anybody at any time.

FF xyz is my friend.

FF xyz is a no nonsense level headed person.

Which of those do you want to be known as?

As fire officers….

Lt. xyz forgot where they came from.

Lt. Xyz understands.

Lt. xyz really knows his job and he will never get us hurt.

If you have a technical question, or a personal problem go talk to Lt. xyz you will find help.

Lt. xyz is a sneak and a liar.

Lt. xyz is book smart, studied hard, but cannot do the job.

Lt. xyz hides and shy away from tough problems.

Lt. xyz won’t make a decision.

Which of these officers do you want to be?

It applies to training, life in general and all around. After you read this week’s column, take a few minutes, sit in a chair and think about how you are being viewed, and think about how your agency is viewed by others.

Heck if you have the least amount of intestinal fortitude, ask your boss, officer, or supervisor how they perceive you, and maybe if you are steering wrong, they might have the nerve to tell you honestly and help and guide you.

If they seem too timid too answer or evade you….print this column and leave it for them, maybe it will help!

Pete Lamb
Copyright 2013