Senseless acts of Firefighting?
I heard a new saying around the fire service today. “There is no common sense in the fire service, “Everything that we do is a learned behavior that must be learned, relearned and drilled on over and over again. So is it true, is there no common sense in the Fire Service? Does this statement apply to us and what we do every day. Is it fair to say that the thousands and thousands of men and women that pull on their boots and roll out the door looking to help their fellow man and protect the property have No common sense. It seems like this couldn’t be true, but let’s spend some time analyzing it from one point of view. Let’s use the view from the jump seat that’s where I am riding and let’s use it for a starting point to determine if the fire service “Has no Common Sense”.
Help, Help, my house is on fire! This is a statement that you and I would say if indeed your house were to catch fire. We probably be saying it as we are running or crawling out the front door or looking for a place to jump. But here they come, like knights in shining amour on the BRT(Big Red Truck) or whatever color your trucks are, they jump off grab a hose and into a raging out of control force that is looking to destroy everything that comes in its path. So, is there any sense to what they are doing? Just like the old adage states “Why do they go running in while everyone else is running out”? Well it’s this simple we have chosen to serve our community and been trained in how to mitigate emergencies or is it that we are all adrenaline junkies looking for the next high? Maybe a little bit of both. I think that we can have common sense while doing senseless acts as long as we revert back to our training, experience and COMMON SENSE!
