What do you think of when you hear the words “truck operations”? You may picture textbooks or department manuals with titles like “Aerial Operations,” “Ventilation” or “Forcible Entry.” Personally, when I think of these staple reads, I picture myself nodding off in a recliner-something I’ve done countless times while preparing for promotional tests. Of course, as most of you probably know, there’s so much more to truck operations, and that’s what I’m here to tell you about. But first, because this is the inaugural column, I thought I’d tell you a little bit about myself.
WHERE IT ALL STARTED
My early childhood memories take me back to my suburban neighborhood, which was so close to Buffalo, N.Y., I could hear the wailing sirens of truck companies I would eventually join. I’d close my eyes and picture a bright red hook-and-ladder racing down a tree-lined residential street to save the day, but I never really pictured what its crew did when they got to their destination. That was a mystery I tried to solve much later in life as a new lieutenant at Buffalo’s Hook-N-Ladder 14.
As a teenager, I joined the local volunteer fire department-the Eggertsville (N.Y.) Hose Company (with implications right in the name that it was primarily engine-focused, as are many fire departments). The department had a ladder truck and a good knowledge base to go with it; however, when a call came in, the engines were the first to respond. It has been said that if ladder trucks were all that showed up at a fire, the fire would continue to burn, and if only engines showed up, the fire would eventually be put out. It just wouldn’t be easy. And so, as a practical matter, truck-company functions at many departments (whether paid, volunteer or combination) are sometimes delayed or not initiated at all.
WHO DOES WHAT?
In many cases, truck operations are performed by those who arrive on apparatus that have names like “engine,” “tanker,” “rescue” or “chief” on their doors. These operations may even be performed by the volunteers who pull up to a fire in their personal vehicle and perform a task given to them by the incident commander. It doesn’t really matter how they got to the scene. What does matter is that someone has the knowledge, training and equipment to carry out the mission.
Having spent my first six years on an engine, I knew something of the workings of truck companies. I reaped the benefits of the things they did without ever giving much thought to how they knew what to do, when to do it and in what order. But then, a promotion to lieutenant sent me from the nozzle of an engine to the front seat of a ladder company.
My first day on the crew, I went around and asked the members, “What do you do at fires?” I sensed they thought I was joking or insincere, but I was not. Of course, I knew the various jobs performed by truck companies, but I didn’t know how I was supposed to know who does what and when. For example, your company pulls up to a residential structure fire. A frantic mother says her children are still inside, and most efforts are therefore going to focus on searching the house. But who is going to complete the other functions (forcing the doors, opening the roof, finding the fire, etc.)? The answer: incoming companies must be advised that they will have to take control of some jobs that first-in companies usually perform.
During my time on the engine, if we arrived first, we took a line off. If we arrived second, we secured a dedicated water source and then took a line off. If we were first in and I was sitting behind the officer, my job was to get the nozzle (and enough hose) to the fire. If we were second in and I was sitting behind the driver, my job was to hook up to a hydrant. Things were all very orderly and well defined until I went to a truck company.
Fortunately, the previous lieutenant had written some standard operating procedures (SOPs) for his crew and passed them on to me. They were extremely helpful to me while I adjusted to my new job, because they contained riding and tool assignments, and addressed changes to tool assortment when responding to buildings of different constructions and occupancies. I used these SOPs as my baseline until I learned my job and instituted my own preferences.
THE PROBLEM WITH TIMING
One problem I experienced while part of a truck company was not knowing how long tasks took to perform. How long does it take to pull up to the scene, grab tools and ground ladders, and then get to the roof? To answer that, we went out and did it. How long does it take to set up the aerial for ladder pipe operations? We did that, too.
With each new day, we would go over different tasks so I could get a better idea of how long they took. One day, a nearby vacant warehouse with several second- story windows all the way around was about to be demolished. I seized the opportunity to train on this structure, as I had never broken out second-story windows with a 16′ wooden pike pole before. One window alone was hard, but breaking all of them was pure torture. Who would have thought that simply breaking windows could be so hard? I did all of this training under the guise that I was the one learning my job. The fact is, the crew learned a lot, too.
CREATING A PROCESS
Another problem I faced was learning how to organize all of the required truck tasks into an efficient sequence so we could perform as many of them as possible in a timely fashion. Most training sessions and publications treat truck operations individually. You may take a ventilation course or read an article about ground ladders,and these and other subjects are presented separately. In actual practice, the same crew may be doing many or all of the different truck jobs, and this crew may even be an engine crew.
There is a definite flow to truck operations. You don’t head for the roof if the engine crew is stalled at the door, waiting for you to open it. You don’t overhaul while the fire is roaring out of control. You don’t crawl past threatened bedrooms at 4:30 a.m. on your way to the seat of a fire without performing a search.
Aside from the obvious size-up done at the time of the alarm, there’s a series of questions I ask myself at each fire. These questions usually include: Where is the fire? (This is sometimes a very difficult one to answer.) Is the building occupied? (I really only know the answer to this by searching.) Are charged lines ready so I can commence horizontal ventilation? Are people in immediate danger? Is forcible entry required? Are ground ladders needed? Not only must I know what needs to be done, but I also must know what I can physically do and what others are already doing. It’s not unlikely for more than one crew to set out to perform the same task. This, of course, is a waste of time and effort.
GETTING STARTED
Getting a good feel for what must be done and when to do it does not come overnight. It does not come from reading a book, and it does not come from experience alone; rather, it comes from a combination of study, training and experience accompanied by an honest evaluation of how each fire went and how the next one can be improved.
There is a feeling you get after your team handles a fire well and a feeling you get after things go wrong. The good feeling is definitely better, but you can only get there by learning from your mistakes. Through this column, I hope to impart some truck-company knowledge so when you pick up and pull away from the scene on run after run, the number of times you experience those good feelings will greatly outnumber the times you experience the bad ones.
