It was a thing of beauty on that brisk February evening in 2003, as witnessed from the jump seat of the arriving engine. From the hip of a 10/12 pitched porch roof hung a roof ladder. The rungs and beams shone aureate in the late evening sun; the factory finish worn through to the pock-marked raw aluminum below by thousands of hands performing thousands of "Friday Rig Cleanings" or perhaps in reticent massage after a good first-in worker. This was a ladder, like Jacob’s ascending to the heavens, and holding firmly to it by his left hand, a man, no a Titan. Fresh air breathed from the SCBA on his back he heaved and snuffed as with one arm outstretched he stabbed a chainsaw baying at full RPM into the composite covering of the opposite hip. This was truck work, from the gods through man.
Likely, it didn’t happen in such dramatic relief. Likely, this was one of many holes that this firefighter had cut. Likely, this was the job, and he was there to do it. It is not to argue the safety of it; by today’s standards probably the event would not have occurred the same way. What is most important regarding the event above is the steely determination of the firefighter tasked with cutting the hole, venting the fire, relieving his comrades below who were fighting the good fight and winning and now forcing the devil out of a hole to be shown in the light of the setting sun.
This was truck work. Truck work is not dead.
When true trucks aren't available
This will be an examination of truck work as it pertains to fire departments not large enough or well enough staffed to allow for a full complement of personnel responding on rescue or ladder apparatus. This will be an examination of the "truck spirit" as it pertains to engine companies in the current scope of most fire departments in the majority of cities in the United States. This spirit guides good truck companies to operate instinctually and aggressively to support the fireground or to "make the push" be it down a hallway or headlong into a window for vent, enter, isolate, search (VEIS) to rescue the victims of fire events. In the current configuration of most fire departments, this instinctual, aggressive spirit will guide good engine companies to do sound truck work.
In an effort to ease the probable outcry, forsaking the title of this article, it must be stated that in fact truck work can never die, and as a result it has certainly not been removed from the fireground as a priority. To be truthful, the most important truck priority, that of rescue, should be the most influential of motivators on the scene of a working job. The job is different though, as it pertains to those departments where trucks are staffed with three or less personnel. A company of this size cannot be split into two groups providing for the safe operations of both rescue and ventilation—command will have to prioritize the fireground and assign a truck company to one or the other of those vital tasks.
For the reader, it is cut and dry. Search and rescue and then ventilation and fireground support. For a command presence, perhaps navigating the nuances of the scene, the decision to utilize a truck company of three personnel or less requires that they disseminate personnel deliberately. The Incident Commander (IC) will have to address the issues all the while basing decisions on the most efficient means. For command this means placing the right personnel in the most effective spot on the fireground to accomplish the most time sensitive matters and assumes that the balance of truck functions left undone is their responsibility.
In larger departments in which truck companies are five or more, those companies are responsible for a large portion of forcible entry, search and rescue, ventilation and to some degree extinguishment using the can which is of such great value at even fairly sizeable incipient stage fires. "Bread and butter” truck functions are performed in this manner and again omitting unusual scenes the members are operating autonomously and yet in concert and each truck function is addressed speedily and efficiently. This cannot be accomplished by a single complement of three personnel or less, it is therefore essential that departments of this size and or manpower cultivate a “truck mentality” even in their engine companies.
Largely fire departments nationwide are staffed by engine personnel. The bulk of the manpower is assigned to engines as these are the most widely used fire apparatus. NFPA 1710 requires four firefighters on each engine, rescue or ladder for compliance with the standard. A four person minimum allows for the safe splitting if the task or tasks required while providing the minimum staffing for entry into a hazard. Essentially, one truck company of four personnel can affect VEIS and simultaneous roof venting if the company is split in half. Obviously this is not ideal, as more members would always be preferred, but per the "two in/two out" standard, it is highly important to keep at minimum a team of two.
At a recent VEIS class, three smaller Oklahoma City metro area municipalities participated with all the zeal that would be expected of the best of firefighters in the nation. Each department present brought with it the staffing issues faced on daily rides. This class in particular accentuated a deficiency in the performance of common truck functions, as it was centered around the rapid search and rescue of viable victims remote from (yet occurring simultaneously with) another crucial fireground task, extinguishment. It was clear that truck functions were not practiced to the point of muscle memory as they lacked the assertiveness and aggression that would normally occur if a well-practiced truck company were performing. The search aspect was less direct as well and though the times for victim recovery were good, the entire process was performed as if the students were reciting the acronym in their heads “I just vented the window, so now it’s time to enter, then I’ll isolate the door….” and so the process was without the efficiency of an operation rehearsed until it could not be improperly performed.
It can be reasonably assumed that engine companies across the country are experiencing similar stagnation in regard to training and expectation of operational tasks outside the norm for “bread-and-butter” type fires.
Commonly manpower issues are exaggerated in municipalities that operate a single station and rely on neighboring communities to balance their first-alarm assignments and requires direct communication with and complete faith in the skillset brought by those inbound companies. Often personnel from these smaller areas are operating with their daily staffing already divided to allow for more of their apparatus to respond. It is imperative that those companies from neighboring departments bring with them the skills and abilities to fold into the scene priorities as the IC decides. Perhaps this scenario more than any other highlights the need for all personnel operating to be cross-trained and capable of multiple functions, because engine companies cannot be specialized when staffing is low. In this scenario vital truck functions may be necessitated and the first-due truck may be staffed by a single firefighter who will require knowledgeable and skilled assistance.
Preparing the engine firefighter for truck work
What can be done to prepare engine companies for performing the balance of truck work (that is the result of smaller personnel compliments on rescue ladders) on a working fire?
It must be first accepted that engine companies that are not assigned to direct handline firefighting could be required to perform some sort of truck job assignment. If, for example, an engine were in staging and fire attack and back-up assigned to first-arriving engines with a rescue or ladder performing search or VEIS, it could reasonably be assumed that said engine could be assigned to ventilation. This is a contingency for which the fireground will suffer if that assigned engine company cannot efficiently act as a truck company. In fire departments that use vertical ventilation, in coordination with water on the fire, it is evident that this is a vital function requiring the conviction to task of a true truck company. This conviction can only be forged in the direct practice of the task to assure speed, clarity of mission and professionalism in the face of the adversities of a dynamic fireground.
For engine companies assigned search and rescue or VEIS, are the skills for laddering a building sound? Laddering is a basic skillset dating back to the inception of the fire service, yet often this is the crucible upon which even hardened firefighters are broken when the time comes. Engine companies should be proficient in throwing ladders and manipulating the device along with a tool for each hand. Company officers should assess an engine company’s knowledge of tool attachment points on ladders, including a hook or Halligan and perhaps a flat head axe along with a chainsaw in the “down hand” if personnel are proficient in carrying the ladder "high shoulder" with a single hand. Every firefighter should be capable of a single-person deployment of a 24-foot extension ladder.
Acting as rapid intervention teams (RIT), engine companies must be assiduous at forcible-entry techniques and capable of multiple aspects of the task on both the front side of the event as crews are working at various scene tasks, and also under the duress of a scene that has suddenly exploded into chaos with the announcement of a firefighter in trouble.
While this is in no way a comprehensive list, perhaps it is one that will allow an engine company that is working toward truck work proficiency to have a starting point toward that end.
Rescue
VEIS Techniques and Positional Responsibility:
A. Know how to operate on multiple windows (coordination with multiple searchers can be accomplished from first floors and or porch roofs on the second division). Multiple spaces searched simultaneously will maximize manpower.
B. Throw ladders proficiently
- Discuss/perform different carrying techniques such as the “high-shoulder carry.”
- Discuss tool placement for efficient transport to ladder insertion point.
- Discuss proper angles for rescue vs. other assignment.
C. Proficiency in quick don or rapid don techniques for SCBA. Because the only time that can be made on a fireground is the time it takes to get to battle ready.
D. Victim removal techniques.
E. Firefighter safety and survival techniques (bailout maneuvers).
Ventilation
A. Vertical—discuss indications for "over the seat."
- Know saw functions: start, stop, break.
- Sounding, cutting, pulling—who will do what, and when. Practice tasks on rooflines for proficiency.
- Cut patterns.
- Coordinate with water on fire—radio communications.
- Indications to get off the roof or to cut more holes.
- Smoke vs. flame presentation from the vent hole. What are the likely scenarios unfolding? Command should be notified of vent hole presentation.
B. Horizontal—assess the need for rear openings, glass breaking, coordination with fire attack to prevent adversely affecting flow paths.
RIT
Conduct a 360-degree scene examination by as many sets of eyes as is possible. RIT must be active!
A. Throw ladders.
B. Remove bars from windows and doors.
C. Power tools: hydra-rams, saws.
D. Forcible entry: who will do what and when? Proficiency in conventional entry.
E. Firefighter safety and survival. Rescuing a downed firefighter. Bottle/mask swap (RIT bag), drag techniques.
F. Communication benchmarks.
In closing
Of course, the possibilities wherein an engine company could be called upon to function as a truck company are vast and ever changing. With the demands of the fire scene, and perhaps most often the limitations placed on departments by budgetary and or manpower scaling, it is paramount that the engine company of today be proficient in truck skills.
MIKE EMILLIO is a lieutenant with an Oklahoma City metro area fire department where he has served since 2002. Emillio is a rescue technician with the Oklahoma City Fire Department Task Force, a safety diver for his department's dive team, an EMS instructor, and Fire Instructor Level 1. He is a devoted husband for 17 years and a dedicated father of four.
