Ladder Co. Ops "walking the rig in"...

[Salman1]

I'm just throwing this one out there for all the career officers and firefighters. What does YOUR officer do when you are arriving at a building/dwelling fire etc. with regards to placement? Do they get out and ALWAYS walk you in to indicate where they want you to place the "stick" (turntable), do they SOMETIMES do it or NEVER do it based on the experience of the driver/chauffer of the apparatus. This obviously always depends on condition's coming in to the scene, SOP's or GOG's regarding placement of apparatus based on type of fire, bldg etc...Let's see those responses...

[FFFRED]

I'm just throwing this one out there for all the career officers and firefighters. What does YOUR officer do when you are arriving at a building/dwelling fire etc. with regards to placement? Do they get out and ALWAYS walk you in to indicate where they want you to place the "stick" (turntable), do they SOMETIMES do it or NEVER do it based on the experience of the driver/chauffer of the apparatus. This obviously always depends on condition's coming in to the scene, SOP's or GOG's regarding placement of apparatus based on type of fire, bldg etc...Let's see those responses...

I know our officers are in the building and up a few flights most often by the time the Engine is out of the way and the Ladder Chaffuer starts to spot the turntable.

I have to ask...why would a Chauffeur need to have an Officer explain where to place the turntable? After all, a Boss is nothing more than a fireman who had a lucky Saturday, right?

I would imagine that once a guy has enough time to be a Chauffeur he should have an idea 99.9% of the time how the rig should be placed and where the ladder should go. Would an officer have to show an Engine Chauffeur where and how to hook up to the Hydrant?

Obviously if an officer see's something the Chauffeur doesn't...etc. he will order the rig to be placed x,y or z... However I've almost Never seen an officer do this.

This is a task that should be able to be handled by a fireman...the officer has a Million other things he should be worried about at a fire. This is one of many responsiblities that should be delegated to the firemen.

As for actually getting out and WALKING the rig into postion. This guy doesn't understand the importance or duties of an officer...holding the hands of your men isn't one of them!

FTM-PTB

[Halligan84]

As I posted in another thread on this, I think you are right in about 95 percent of the cases with the driver making the spot (in my case, I don;t know about yours). But there are definitely times where if you don't walk in first you will be out of position and unable to recover due to units arriving behind you.

[MEck51]

We run short, as do most places. The most I expect as an operator is what side of the building the boss wants me on. As stated above by the time you are in postion to be operating you should know where it is best used. Also as above it is nice to have that extra set of eyes if you miss something but I never count on it.

[Salman1]

I can't speak for most of you out there depending on your staffing level's etc. but on my end, some of the officers walk the rig in. My particular officer is well respected, knowledgeable and somewhat experienced within the fire service (not necessarily only at this dept.). His thoughts are that we have limited experience with the two new (gonna hate to type this...AGH!) Quints that were put on line about 5 years ago. We don't arrive specifically as truck or engine. Depends on situation (I hate it but have to deal with it). Our station is one of two that trains new apparatus drivers (medic's mostly since that's all we hire now). We do not have dedicated chauffer position's (another thing I hate but deal with) so his position is that with minimal experience by many, it should be the thing to do. I however have a problem, at times, with it because my level of experience and knowledge seems to be dummied down to the level of those who don't know because he walks most if not all calls for truck positioning. Grant this is one officer and not all do this. I do value many of your opinion's and input so keep em' coming...

[fftrainer]

Generally and it goes with every other fire service thing of not being set in stone, but we leave it up to the driver. Officer simply tells them to setup A/D corner or whatever based on his sizeup and its up to the driver from there. If its out of the ordinary then we might assign someone to direct the placement, but its rare.

[Dave1983]

Only if the rig has to be backed into the building for some reason.