Experience or Explanation

March 11, 2004
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to share a fairly important thought with you this week.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to share a fairly important thought with you this week. As you may know, I have been an advocate for fire training for a long time now. I have seen death and injury up close and personal. While there are a few true accidents, most of the deaths and injuries I have encountered stemmed in some way from a training-related malfunction.

In the week just past, my volunteer fire company faced a fairly severe structural fire. Once again I was lucky enough to be on the first-due pumper. As we rolled in on the job, we were greeted by a fairly strong loom-up off in the distance. Upon arrival, we were met by a well-involved structure, with fire in possession of the rear of the building. The requisite attack lines were stretched, and we began our attack.

It was at this point that the value of our training program began to pay off. As we attempted to make entry with our two attack lines, we were greeted by a wide array of trash, junk and debris in the front hallway. Very wisely, we held our position at the front door and held off on making our entrance.

We had encountered what many in the business call a Collier

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