I have never been one to profess my loyalty or preference for the engine or the truck. I just wanted to excel at whatever assignment I was given.
However, at the start of my career, I certainly placed one of those assignments on the back burner. As a result, I spent years building a house full of knowledge on a weak foundation. I hope I can keep new firefighters from making that same mistake.
I entered the fire service with a background in rock and ice climbing and mountaineering. Additionally, I had spent several years working for a SCUBA shop in New Jersey.
The combination of lessons learned from these pursuits and passions has served me well in my fire service career. What they also did was condition me to pursue the more technical aspects of the job very early on.
The “simple” 1.75” hose with the smoothbore tip was no match for the bright, shiny carabiners, descent control devices, shoring struts and extrication tools associated with technical rescue. Add to that the myriad of truck function skills required to work on the heavy rescue, and I was hooked. Mistakenly, the engine took a back seat.
I found myself assigned to the technical rescue station shortly after I completed probation. That station housed a heavy rescue, an engine, and a medic unit.
Between the intriguing specialization of the heavy rescue and the fact that I was also attending paramedic school, of the three apparatus, my time on the engine was the least fruitful – and I only have myself to blame for that.
Unfortunately, my lackadaisical approach to engine work was only reinforced by the training trends of the time. In the early 2000s, engine operations were not considered “sexy.” In general, there were far fewer conferences and classes than there are today, and for those that did exist, rarely was a class devoted to engine work.
Truck classes were much more prevalent and popular. And the consistent messaging at those truck classes, while certainly tongue in cheek and rooted in decades of good-natured ribbing, was that engine work was simply not that difficult or complicated.
I am sure we have all witnessed the seasoned truck instructor who boils down engine work to two simple actions, “On. Off.” as they perfectly mime the actions of the shutoff bale. The combination of my internal biases and these exterior influences all but assured that I would remain undereducated and undertrained on arguably the second most important task on the fireground for years to come.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I was clueless on the engine. I could stretch our modified minuteman in a variety of ways. I was well versed in my role in standpipe operations. I was comfortable by myself on the 2.5 in a solid Comella position. I was comfortably skilled at what I knew, yet at the same time completely unaware of how much I didn’t know.
Thankfully, about five years into my career, Aaron Fields and Dennis LeGear served up an epiphanic moment. I attended my first Nozzle Forward class around 2010, and my eyes were opened. In addition to learning the designed objectives of the program, what I really learned was that I knew very little about being a good nozzleman.
It was made abundantly clear to me that my knowledge of fire behavior, my ability to stretch in various situations, my ability to operate as an efficient and effective heel, and my ability to flow while moving were all severely lacking, and I had a lot of work to do.
While Nozzle Forward focused on what happens beyond the pump panel, Dennis LeGear opened my eyes to everything else, including, but not limited to, equipment, apparatus design, master streams, and water supply.
For any of you that have had the good fortune to speak with or attend a lecture by Dennis, without trying he makes it very clear that most of us are grossly mis- and/or undereducated about the equipment and medium with which we work.
The combination of these experiences represented a watershed moment in my career. My deficiencies, both academically and physically, were quickly brought to light and slapped me awake. I was left with the realization that while I had gained a high level of skill early in my career in both truck functions and technical rescue skills, I had, in fact, wasted my time on the engine.
The timing of these clarifying moments was followed shortly by some key advances in the fire service – UL studies on fire attack, the push for true internal diameter hose, dramatically increased information sharing via social media, entertaining debates about what difference a sixteenth of an inch could have on fire attack, and the rapid rise of homegrown fire conferences.
Thankfully, the combination of these influencing factors gave way to a rebirth of engine company operations, and I took full advantage.
Moving forward from my awakening, I set out to right my ship, as I had years of ignorance I now had to correct with more education and training.
One of the most effective steps I took towards improving my engine company knowledge was to simply write down a list of the requisite knowledge that goes into being both a good nozzleman and a good engine company. Below is just a portion of that list:
- Building construction
- Fire Behavior
- Hose construction & performance
- Nozzle types & performance
- Line selection
- Preconnects vs Bulk beds
- Stretching long
- Stretching vertical
- Nozzleman position
- Heel position
- Water mapping
- Hit & Move vs. Flow & Move
- Interior attack
- Exterior attack
- Basement fires
- Attic fires
- Standpipes
- Deck guns
- Ground monitors
- Hydrant to pumper supply
- Pumper to pumper supply
- Hydraulics
As you can see, I was clearly moving beyond the over-simplified “On. Off.” lesson plans of the past. Each of the topics above, and many more like them, can and do represent a full body of work. Books are written, lectures are recited, and props are constructed to address each one.
It took me years to get caught up and make up for lost time. I was approaching my tenth year on the job and was just now learning what it meant to be a good engine firefighter.
It was around this time that my efforts were reinforced once again by a growing wave within the fire service – a renewed focus on saving the citizen. UL studies, the early phases of the Firefighter Rescue Survey, and the increased prevalence of search related lectures and classes nationwide were moving search back to its rightful place at the forefront of our discussions and operations.
What has been made abundantly clear through this growing body of work related to both attack and search is this – the public has a small, rapidly closing window of survival when they are exposed to smoke and/or heat.
Locating and removing the public to begin care as quickly as possible is vital to providing them with the best chance for the best possible outcome. Rapid, thorough searches are best facilitated and supported when fire attack is occurring as well. Search is the most important task on the fireground, attack is the most important task in support of search. Want to save lives and make the fireground safer? Learn to search and be great at engine work.
So, to the new firefighters, I offer you this advice… Sink your teeth into engine operations. Fire attack has the widest impact of all the tasks on the fireground. It removes heat, maintains existing searchable space, creates new searchable space, changes ventilation, protects your fellow firefighters, protects the unprotected, saves property, stabilizes the scene, and historically makes a significant number of rescues, second only to primary search.
You have a long career ahead of you and plenty of time to dive into special teams and truck work. So, before you allow the draw of colorful carabiners and ropes and the attraction to running a chainsaw on a roof to pull you away, learn the engine. I promise you a foundation built in this fashion will only make you a better firefighter later in your career should you decide to cross the floor to the truck or the heavy someday.
Ben Shultz is a career lieutenant with an urban south Florida fire department. He began his career in 2004. He has worked in rural, suburban, and urban districts in California, Colorado, and Florida. Ben holds an associate’s degree in fire science and a bachelor’s in business management.
