By Matthew Tobia
Understanding the importance of knowing your job
In the fire service, one of the most enduring compliments that can be bestowed on a firefighter by another firefighter is that he is known as “a good firefighter.” Fundamentally, this is meant to communicate that the individual is a skilled operator, that he knows his job and performs it incredibly well, particularly under pressure. I have known apparatus operators, for example, who have a reputation for being able to pull and maintain a draft from a heavy dew on the front lawn of a house and, while some reading this will characterize it as a gross exaggeration, being able to deliver water on a fire cannot possibly be overstated.
Another oversimplification of the role of the apparatus operator is the maxim, “water in, water out, throttle up, stay off the radio,” which is intended to distill the job down to four basic components. Although truth can certainly be found within the framework of the description, it conceals the genuine complexity of the position and reinforces the myth that somehow pumping fire apparatus is simplistic or easy. I recently received an e-mail from a good friend who queried a group of trusted colleagues about a hydraulics issue he had encountered 30 years earlier!
My friend had been operating an engine on a fire, had one attack line off, and had supply lines coming into his pump. He had not had a chance to set the relief valve (a recirculating one) and was concerned that his failure to do so resulted in injuries to a firefighter who was slammed against a wall after the supply engine charged the lines to 300 psi and sent a water hammer through his engine. A most fundamental rule is that water is incompressible and, when sent down a supply line, will either travel through the pump (as in this case from a long time ago), blow the pump apart, or perhaps dump on the ground if the apparatus is equipped with a relief valve located on the discharge side of the pump piped to the outside air. Astute students of hydraulics should, at this very moment, be querying the type of relief valve(s) on their engines. Wait … engines can have more than one type of relief valve?
The point of this missive (with a nod to my senior mentor friend) is not to open the door to what could easily be a pages-long article on hydraulics and pumping apparatus. The goal is to remind all of us that there is a profound difference between an individual who can pull levers and a pump operator. Pump operators are artisans. They are students of their craft, spending years learning the core concepts of hydraulics, commonly understood as a branch of science that deals with practical applications (such as the transmission of energy or the effects of flow) of liquid (such as water) in motion.
Not everyone should be a pump operator. The logic that every firefighter should be required to know how to operate an engine is as flawed as demanding that every firefighter who rides an ambulance should become a paramedic.
I wanted to become part of an urban search and rescue (USAR) team. I successfully completed the Federal Emergency Management Agency two-week structural collapse technician course, but by the end of the program, I knew that structural collapse training required a knowledge of math that I did not possess and the ability to drive a nail, something I was sorely lacking. Just as everyone is not meant to be a member of a USAR team, not everyone should be required to become a pump operator.
I have similarly witnessed fire departments operate under the dogmatic requirement that ascension to an officer rank demanded a trip through the rank of pump operator. The mistaken belief is that, on any given day, the officer might have to take over for the apparatus operator. Or, more commonly, the argument put forward is that unless an officer understands the basics of hydraulics, he cannot make reasonable requests of his apparatus operator and may demand the impossible, setting the stage for a vocal and combative disagreement in the middle of a firefight. By that same logic, every officer should be a paramedic because, in supervising paramedics, they can only understand their jobs if they have been trained to perform the same tasks.
Lever pullers are individuals who have received some minimal level of basic pump training and are cleared to function as an apparatus operator. In reality, these well-intentioned tenderfoots are extraordinarily dangerous because they hold only enough knowledge to function successfully under a defined set of parameters. Imagine a commercial pilot who is released to fly an airplane … as long as the weather is clear and sunny and the ambient temperature is 84°F. Not a problem … unless you are boarding the plane he is flying in Minot, North Dakota, headed for Bozeman, Montana, in the middle of winter. Take the bus.
Technical competency requires work. Skills infrequently used should be practiced with greater frequency than those that are used regularly. Students of the fire service, ones who want to be known as “good firefighters,” will understand this and make learning a priority through their very last day of service.
Matthew Tobia is an assistant chief with Loudoun County (VA) Fire and Rescue and is a 29-year veteran of emergency services. He can be reached at matthew.tobia@loudoun.gov.
