The description of Dean Zipperman’s Firehouse World 2020 presentation, “How to Use Your Aerial,” referred to sharing the experience and knowledge of past and present aerial truck operators to assist with the ability to understand where, when and why to properly use an apparatus for any emergency. Zipperman, who is a battalion chief for the Los Angeles Fire Department, certainly delivered in that regard. However, his discussion was just as much if not more a petition of officers and chiefs to facilitate extensive training for aerial operators.
Zipperman is a full-blown proponent of using an aerial(s) whenever and wherever possible. Multiple times, he stressed the fact that an aerial is a tool, plain and simple. Obviously, its use at incidents that involve high-rises goes without saying, but there usually are more reasons than not to throw an aerial at a fire at a single-family home, a strip mall or any number of other buildings of various occupancies, he urged.
Given that, the importance of providing aerial drivers the opportunity to practice driving and spotting the apparatus and then throwing the aerial is unsurpassed. The time to encounter wires, trees, spaces between side-by-side multifloor buildings, steep-pitched roofs, graded streets, vacant buildings and other obstacles and occupancies is during the day, free of stress. “These are challenging throws, so how do you learn how to do this? You need to take your drivers out and show them all of these challenges, so at two o’clock in the morning they’re not encountering these things for the first time.”
Spotting the aerial apparatus also requires practice, from placing the outriggers, to being prepared to give an inside placement to an engine when possible, to looking for an opportunity to capture two windows via one throw.
“It’s about pre-planning, not always reacting,” Zipperman said.
He added that hands-on maintenance of the aerial by the operator feeds the training process.
Zipperman also noted that training on the apparatus must extend to others, for the times after the aerial operator throws the aerial and is then away from the controls. “Everyone should know how to operate the rigs.”
In the end, “You have to be passionate about learning,” Zipperman stressed.
Rich Dzierwa | Managing Editor, Firehouse Magazine
Rich Dzierwa joined Firehouse Magazine in 2019 after four tenures with other publications. He was editor-in-chief of Consumers Digest/ConsumersDigest.com and of trade magazine Cutting Tool Engineering. He served as the consumer products reporter for BridgeNews and began his publishing career with an 11-year tenure at Appliance magazine, where he rose to managing editor after serving in other roles. Dzierwa's experience with consumer products, including furnishings, appliances, electronics and space design, has transferred to his Firehouse work regarding the magazine's Station Design columns and the Station Design Awards. Previous work also has contributed to his supervision of several surveys of fire service/EMS members, to produce unique reporting for Firehouse's audience. Dzierwa earned a bachelor's degree in English from Columbia College Chicago.
