Riding with Capt. Dave - Read blog entries from veteran firefighter Capt. Dave Fornell. He examines line of duty deaths, fireground strategies, command decision making and more
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Firefighter Safety: Don't Play with Trains
by Capt. Dave Fornell - Friday April 6, 2012
It seems like every week we read about an emergency responder being hit by a vehicle while working an incident scene on a highway. And, with each incident, we seek to ratchet up responders' awareness of operating in dangerous environments; making sure that apparatus is positioned to block the areas of roadways where we are working and mandating that each responder is wearing high visibility clothing and keeping an eye on oncoming traffic. While traffic incidents, because we respond to them quite often, are uppermost in our safety consciousness, we need to remember that there are other transportation hazards out there that we need to be aware of as well. Did you know that, according to Operation Lifesaver , approximately every three... -
Beware of the Ides of March
by Capt. Dave Fornell - Friday March 2, 2012
In 44 B.C., Julius Caesar was warned by a fortune teller that things were not going to go too well for him around the 15th of March. This meeting was dramatized in William Shakespeare's play when the soothsayer warned him, "Beware the Ides of March." Well, he ignored their advice and thinking he had things in control, went on to the Senate where he was stabbed (23 times) to death by some folks he thought were on his side. This gave rise to the famous saying, "Never bring a verbal agreement with a politician to a knife fight." Things are changing in the fire service and we too need to beware of the effects of these changes, which seem to be coming from every direction nowadays. For example, environmentalists have succeeded in... -
You Have To Understand the Problem In Order To Solve It
by Capt. Dave Fornell - Monday December 5, 2011
I received a message a while back to call a friend of mine, an officer on an aggressive Midwest fire department. He needed some advice on a water flow issue. It seems that a few days before, they had a fire that fully involved an attached garage and with flames through the roof, the incident commander ordered a two and a half inch line pulled for initial attack. Based on the amount of fire and the potential for rapid spread, my friend thought the decision was a wise one. Afterwards, some of the other officers and firefighters questioned the call, reasoning that since an inch and three-quarter line is easier to handle than the big line, it would have been easier to maneuver, and by their thinking that would overcome the... -
The tale of two holes--does an eighth of an inch make a difference?
by Capt. Dave Fornell - Monday October 31, 2011I was having a discussion the other day with some members of a nearby department about increasing the flow and safe handling ability of their 2-1/2” preconnected line. The officers gathered about decided to replace their 100-PSI combination nozzle with a smooth bore that would operate more efficiently at a lower pressure, and would provide more flow while being a bit easier to handle due to reduced nozzle reaction forces. So far, so good, but when it came time to determine the tip size, the discussion became somewhat derailed when someone suggested picking the nozzle bore based on what the big cities use. I suggested that it might not be the right way to go about things. For example, if you decide to use the... -
When the Towers Fell
by Capt. Dave Fornell - Sunday September 11, 2011
When the dust started to clear hours after the collapse of towers No. 1 and No.2 of the World Trade Center, it was apparent that the Fire Department of New York was in serious trouble. Three hundred and forty-three members were dead or missing, the top commanders including Chief of Department Peter Ganci Jr., First Deputy Commissioner William Feehan, and Assistant Chiefs Gerard Barbara and Donald Burns were dead. To make matters worse, practically all of the on-duty personnel assigned to the department’s rescue and squad companies were missing as well, including their commander Battalion Chief Ray Downey. In addition, the collapses showered millions of tons of debris down on two fifth alarm assignments of FDNY...
