FHWorld18: Training to Avoid No-Way-Out Situations

March 7, 2018
John Cagno shared his near-death experience to help firefighters understand why gaining knowledge should never stop.

A veteran Rhode Island firefighter used his near-death experience to tell Firehouse World attendees why they need to train to prepare for the unexpected and limit the chance that they get caught in a tough situations.

John Cagno asked students why they chose to sit in on his “Avoiding No-Way-Out Situations” class Tuesday morning when there were numerous speakers presenting at the same time.  

Cagno, a retired battalion chief from the North Providence, RI, Fire Department, said firefighter conferences were not available to him at the start of his career and how lucky they were to have the ability to attends shows like Firehouse World.

“We didn’t have fire academies, conferences and things where we could get the lesson before we got the test,” Cagno said.“I had a situation in my career where I got the lesson before I got the test.”

Close call

The then-18-year-old firefighter was climbing an aerial ladder that was located in close proximity to high-tension power lines near a vacant mill building during a training drill. Firefighters were practicing stretching hoselines up the aerial, which was common in that part of the region.

“So I’m climbing up and intuitively I see these power lines,” Cagno recalled. “I was always told you need to be a certain distance from the power lines for it to be an issue.” He knew he was in a safe zone because of the distance from the power lines at the time.

As the hoseline moved up the aerial, a coupling got snagged on the aerial.

“I raised my hand to signifying that they needed to hold up on the hose and I got my lesson.  I got hit with 14,000 volts of electricity that shot through my body.”

The electrity entered through his left hand and exited his right leg, leaving him in serious condition.

He spent four months in the hospital, but returned for a 35-year fire service career.

“When I got hurt, you know what they called it? An accident. I got hurt, simply because I was inexperienced and didn’t know what I was doing. I was operating above my level of experience and expertise.”

“So, I got the test before the lesson.”

Street smarts

“My purpose here is to show you how to become intuitive…becoming a street smart firefighter using mental alertness and key mind functions is what we all need.”

“Don’t do what I did, don’t make the same mistake," Cagno added.

He said recognition prime decision making, situational awareness and incident intelligence all account for better prepared firefighters and officers. The better prepared that the responders are, the less likely they are going to be stuck in a no-way-out situation, Cagno said.

He said the following factors are often found in no-way-out situations:

  • Relying on others to reduce risks
  • The failure to maintain awareness of your surroundings and location, including doorways or areas of refuge
  • The failure to exit on time because you are running low on air
  • The failure to identity construction hazards that put firefighters in bad situations
  • The failure to minimize risk potential
  • Allowing for a false sense of comfort to exist when it comes to skills and knowledge
  • The failure to identity anomalies on the fireground and day-to-day operations.

“What is luck?” Cagno asked when he discussed situational awareness. “Luck is something you run out of,” he said, stressing that firefighters need to sharpen their skills and pay attention to the buildings when they are out on medical calls or fire alarms. Knowing the layouts can help you when the halls are filled with smoke.

Cagno told students that they need to be mentally and physically prepared for the next run, including checking their apparatus, gear and equipment. He added that the daily checks include firefighters asking their partners how they are doing, mentally. 

If the crew has a spare pumper for the day, the driver needs to start the shift off learning the new apparatus inside and out because it may be put into service right after the shift begins.

He said preparation starts well before firefighters get their mission and that firefighters needlessly place themselves in situations that result in maydays because they don't work to gain the experience they need.

“It’s our job to take personal responsibility for what happens…and if we do that we can stop the maydays.”

Multi-tasking

Cagno asked the students if humans can multi-task and be effective. Half the class said yes and he quickly replied, “We cannot multi-task.”

“If we are multi-tasking, or believe we are…if I am doing two things at the same time, I have to concentrate on one thing more than the other, so no, we can’t be effective and multi-task.”

Cagno said firefighters need to develop a threshold for when they determine that things are going bad and their tactics need to change. He said firefighters can set indicators to help them realize they have reached the threshold, such as construction flaws, smoke or flame behavior and increasing audio levels on the radio.

“If firefighters find more than two indicators, it signifies it’s time to change,” Cagno said, adding it leaves them with too little time to react because the split-second thinking and processing could be clouded with too many factors.

He said there are three priorities when firefighters need to change what they are doing:

  • Remove fear from their mind—fear can cloud judgement and prevent them from thinking clearly
  • Consider immediate actions to improve or increase their chances of survival—it should start with calling the mayday, but can include exiting the structure or finding an area of refuge.
  • Use the environment to improve the situation—closing a door can buy time, or using a window for egress.

The simple things

“The problem is, we’re forgetting about these simple things,” Cagno said of actionable items, such as using your senses, the ability to read changing conditions and each person’s comfort level.

One slide he showed the class featured a firefighter entering a second-story window as heavy smoke pushed around him. The first floor was boarded up. He said the structure appears unoccupied and told students that they need to think about what they would do if they were going into that structure.

“If I get into trouble up there, will they be able to get in quick with all of those windows board up? Probably not,” he said.

Cagno cautioned firefighters not to get overly confident in their skills, sharing the story of an early morning automatic alarm at a bank that turned into something much bigger.

The run came in at shift change, so firefighters were still getting into the station and their gear ready and when they arrived nothing was visible. They haphazardly entered the structure to a smell of smoke and heard noises from the attic.

“What was it? It was a fully involved attic, but nothing was visible…those noises were the gussets in the roof popping from the heat. The crews went scrambling.”

He used that story to illustrate the importance of being prepared as soon as you enter the station, but cautioned that the preparation never stops. 

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