Latest / Firefighter Nation Podcast / Fireground Priorities: Ditch the Acronyms, Drop the Ego
Transcript
- speaker-0: Raindrops keep falling. The cry is not for me. speaker-1: Listen, this is the part of the show where I introduce the show, but our poor producer is is busy instructing Chris on on how to act. speaker-0: I'm like a weatherman. It's like there's a look, the chance of ⁓ Stephanie not reviewing anything that I send her is high. This is six in a row, but I just wanna point that out. speaker-1: Our producer Nat ⁓ made Chris go ahead and factually change that, folks. He originally had 27. But hey, this show isn't actually about Chris, despite what he thinks. Bye Nat. Welcome to the Quick Knock. I am your host, Stephanie White. I have a lot of opinions, which is what this show is about. And then we have Chris Scott, my co-host. He is ⁓ full of opinions that no one asked for. He's just the follow-up question at the end of the day that that no one asked for, as we're all trying to r to leave. That's that's the human equivalent that you are, Christopher. speaker-0: Mm. Yeah. ⁓ y once again, Chris Scott, ⁓ other host of the Quick Knock and ⁓ but but once again it goes back to the editorial standards. You can't edit me out, which is, you know, embarrassing for you. But anyway, we've tried speaker-1: We've tried. It doesn't work. Mm-hmm. speaker-0: All right. What's your quick knock? What go ahead? Hot take? Hot take. Quick knock. You want me to start it out? Go for it. All right. So this one speaker-1: We first did something in life, so We're gonna give you this moment. Yeah. speaker-0: All right. ⁓ I need horrible. I hate it. ⁓ all right. This one goes out to Brian LaFleur. He was my Cajun, ⁓ my Texas transplant, but my Cajun buddy. He ranted, and I completely agree with him that they have too many acronyms in the in the fire service. Yes. There are I looked it up, I did like a little a little check, and there are something like four hundred acronyms. speaker-1: Now to start keeping a scoreboard. speaker-0: ⁓ it's it's an absurd amount. Maybe it's two hundred. It may be two hundred, it may be two hundred, but the the point is there's so much junk to remember that you cannot be reasonably expected to remember all these things on the fire ground. If you hop off of a truck as incident command or, you know, a first due engine and you're like, Okay, let's do ⁓ slicers. Okay. ⁓ we gotta do okay, okay, size up first. Can Okay, we're not gonna do gotta do a sli okay, now we gotta okay, locate. Okay, we've gotta locate the fire. All right, we gotta identify the fl like what are you doing? What are you doing? I think if you've gotta go back to slicers on a fire ground, you suck. You don't know what you're doing. I'm not saying all acronyms are bad. What I'm saying is we have inundated ourselves with a bunch of useless jargon. And I don't know who's making this crap up. I don't know what you know, person with some doctorate in public safety decided like this is what we need to do. ⁓ but they're they're essentially worthless. I it's almost like busy work for people that live in books. It is an absolute garbage way ⁓ to run a fire ground with how many we have. Either A, they all need to be thrown out, or B, if we are going to actually use these acronyms, then we need to train and consistently use these acronyms within our fire ground operation. But I personally have I can't remember a single acronym that I'm ever like, okay, gotta do this. Yep. Got it this letter checks off with this box and it's it's all it's garbage to me. Which speaker-1: Brian set me up to agree with you again. I think he saw that I hit like on that post and he was in your ear, like, Chris, you should use this, because he knew I agreed. When I was going through recruit school, I want to say the only one we had to learn was back then it was VES. And then I remember when Slicers, Rio, and it all came out. And it it is i it is, it's too much. Some make sense. VES speaker-0: Thanks, Brian. speaker-1: makes that was a quor a short, quick, hey, you guys go V E S that window made sense. But the longer ones, it's just no, I'm I'm gonna agree with you. God damn. speaker-0: I know that sucks for you. I hate that for you, truly. speaker-1: It it does. It does. That's why we're not having that that duo scoreboard. Okay. Well speaker-0: What about hey, wait, real quick. What about for yeah what about for the medical side? Like you you're are you a medic? You're a paramedic? I am. Like how much were you really you 'cause I'm not. Like how much were you using it on the medical side? Was it kind of nonsense on that side too? Or did you feel like there was some usefulness in all the jerk, all the ⁓ all the jargon? No. speaker-1: ⁓ everything really got spelled out, which is an interesting point to bring up. Everything really got spelled out in paramedicine. And I wonder, is that because details matter so much in paramedicine? But guess what? Details matter so much on the fire ground. So that's something that's something interesting to consider. speaker-0: Yeah. All right, what you got? That's mine. Here's what I got. speaker-1: I will always learn more about human beings, and this this is all of us, from how you handle the little things, the small things, the failures, the setbacks, then how you handle the wins. Because everybody can be gracious when life is easy. Everybody can be kind when life is easy. Life is easy, life is easy, right? ⁓ This past week, I had a conversation with a buddy. FDIC notifications went out for those who didn't didn't make the cut for classes. And this year the response was very different than it has been in the years past. And and we were kind of trying to figure out why people were having such negative reactions compared in the past of, all right, I'll try next time. And it really had me thinking. Are we as a fire service becoming this machine of, and I blame it on social media, right? Likes, followers, all of that stuff. Numbers became a thing. And are we viewing our worth, the knowledge we have, the passion we have, all that on numbers? And we're putting so much of our our stake and our worth in that, then when we don't get the big number. you know, we we have a bad reaction to it when in reality I had a class recently that turned out to not be any of what it was supposed to be. The numbers of people that were there weren't so it was supposed to be, I think, about 120 people. It got mismatched. I had a room of 30 people. None of them were firefighters. It was all family. I wasn't told it was gonna be that. Like all the info I had gotten because it was coming to me through A middleman was wrong. And it ended up being the most fun class I've I've taught in forever because it was a smaller class. And it got to be a I threw everything out the window and it was intimate conversations with family members of hey, here's some stuff to consider, here's some science to consider about what your family's family member who's a firefighter's brain and body is going through. And it's we have to be viewing that smaller room. as change just as much as reviewing this big room over here as change. In fact, I would like to challenge people and say that smaller room is more important because you get to give more info. And you also get to get feedback from the people in your audience, which makes you grow as a presenter, writer, podcaster, whatever. We are going to be in a dangerous place if we keep viewing numbers and everything else. As value. It's not. It's just numbers. That is it. That's all it is. Speaking on a bigger platform is just a chance to speak on a bigger platform. It's an honor. It's cool. But that doesn't make it any better or different than here. And we cannot lose the sight of that. And how you treat not getting to be here tells me that I might not want to listen to you when I hear you here or hear. And I definitely wouldn't listen to you here then. That's just it. It's my quick day. speaker-0: Quick enough. ⁓ there's some ⁓ speaker-1: There's some fired up people ready, ready to go and ready to be passionate and teach. speaker-0: No, I'm talking about great ones that did not get accepted. They are very humble and ⁓ you know, appreciative of the opportunities that they j ⁓ just getting them putting themselves out there, even if they've never been to FDIC and also the people that that aren't coming back. We have some gracious ⁓ losers, quote unquote, right? Air quotes for this. speaker-1: fired up and ready to teach, I meant they're still gonna go forward in speaker-0: And teach. ⁓ yes, yes, yes. They didn't like yeah. I think the the ones that didn't have the great reaction, for me, it look I just it goes back to ego. I feel like, you know, the people that they ⁓ it my opinion it is a like they feel like they're deserving of some larger platform and it feels in my opinion a bit organic and a bit ⁓ forced and I don't yeah, I don't like that I don't like that ⁓ that overall reaction. So yeah, you're right. speaker-1: I I really feel it's social media driven. And so to say again, listen, a platform just means people. That's all a platform is, is how many more you get to reach with your message. That's all it is. All right. Ready for a start. speaker-0: Sure. Sorry. All right, first story. ⁓ out of the Lebanon Fire Department and Maine, ⁓ they called this an unusual call. We were gonna use this as a silly story, and it turns out it actually has some maybe some learning lessons behind it. Hold on, hold on. speaker-1: And Nat can back me up. You were gonna use it as a silly story. I pointed out the training value. This is where Nat Nat nods her head. Yeah, I pointed out the training value in it. So anyway, continue. Yeah. Thank you, Nat. speaker-0: gonna start you know, for narcissists they call it greystoning, where you just like don't acknowledge anything that you're doing. I'm just gonna start I'm gonna speaker-1: That just just paddles signs to hold up during speaker-0: I'm gonna start ignoring you. You're gonna make your little sh take your little shot and I'm just gonna not respond to it. speaker-1: We're gonna get Nat a whiteboard. Little ps speaker-0: Moving on. The audience doesn't want to hear this. They would like to hear the story. Are you okay with that? Can we get to that, please? Continue. Go ahead. Okay, thank you. A skydiver managed to get himself tangled up in a tree. And so they needed mutual aid from the Sanford Fire Department, ⁓ using its ladder chuck to get up there and reach him. ⁓ that's essentially it. Now, so often we get the the trope. speaker-1: We'll allow it. speaker-0: Cat and tree, cat and tree. That's been a thing for so many decades. ⁓ people ask me all the time, have you rescued a cat from a tree? I have not. But I I one of the one of my first calls as a fireman, I rescued a person from a tree. ⁓ it was a man working on a tree with his ⁓ with his it was like a father-son duo, and he cut a limb, the limb came down and pinned his arm up against the trunk, and we had to get up there. They completely crushed his arm. It was a na it was pretty nasty. And we had to get that branch pulled away from them and ⁓ yeah, and get him out of the tree and rescue him. In this case, it just so happens to be a skydiver. But as you mentioned, because you're so smart, Stephanie, and you're so forward thinking, and you're just so wonderful with everything, ⁓ is you had brought up that if you are a in an air That's it? That well, that's all I can lie about at one time without my soul like hurting. So I'll pause it there. ⁓ so If you're in an area that has a lot of skydivers, maybe this is a problematic call for you. And it just so happens. I was in Delane, Florida, ⁓ several days ago. ⁓ and the guy that I was kind of cruising around town with, he is a a truck boss. ⁓ shout out to Nate Carn. Love you, bud. And he said they have a t they have one of the highest incidences of ⁓ rates of ⁓ not rates, overall skydiving death and injury and that type of stuff because ⁓ The the parachute, ⁓ it I don't want to say the parachute, but there is something about I think the modern day parachute was invented in the land. So skydivers go to this area as like a mecca of skydiving. ⁓ speaker-1: Which is more than I've ever run. speaker-0: Right. I was like, I've been here, I've been in the service for twenty years. I haven't been to a single skydiving incident. So that's not even on the radar, but for the land that would absolutely, that should absolutely be on there. Hey, if they get stuck in trees or if they get stuck in whatever, that should be included in your in your training at some point as like rookie year. Hey, specific to the land. is this problem that you are going to run into in your career. It's not even a guess. You are going to run into a skydiving incident. Maybe train for it. So speaker-1: That wasn't even my point. My point was, listen, we get so caught up in repetitions and doing the same thing over and over again so that it's flawless on the fire ground. It's okay to throw in some random drills every now and then because you will be surprised what happens in life in this job. So to piggyback off of that, I believe it was in Vegas and Nat will attach some of the footage to this. ⁓ speaker-0: Yeah. So speaker-1: They were trying to rescue a guy who fell into the water. It was rapid moving water. Ropes and throwbags weren't working. So they rigged up a a lowering system and they had a firefighter literally tarzan swing across the water to pick this guy off. So listen, you train for the you train for the low frequency but but high stakes event every now and then. speaker-0: Yeah, we I look I I'm not a rope nerd by any stretch, but I am tech one and tech two and I'm gonna I'm gonna have to talk to the instructors that taught me and say why didn't we get to learn the rope Tars and swing because this is you they're gonna go, Well, that's not a realistic thing and then I'm gonna pull that video up. speaker-1: You to Tarzan swing the crowd. speaker-0: Strong as he can be. Watch out for that tree. speaker-1: Listen, the the boots, the unzipped boots with the pants tucked in alone made me kind of want to go trot a little bit. But had I known I could Tarzan swing across, I definitely would have ⁓ driven it home. All right, here's our ⁓ here's our weird story of the day. It's not weird because I I feel like we kind of hear this similar story every couple years. Out in Toledo, cops arrived at a home to find a gentleman handcuffed to a staircase. And ⁓ it turned out to be some sort of a domestic issue where originally he was consensually handcuffed to the staircase and then ⁓ the female individual would not let him go. Turns out they were firefighters. So we're we're here to say ⁓ you can go look up the humorousness of that story on your own, but don't do it. Just ⁓ just don't do it. Firefighters, cops, there are a lot of other people to date out there. ⁓ they don't have to be nurses. ⁓ they don't have to be other cops, they don't have be they don't have to be firefighters, they don't have to be EMS workers. There's there's people who work in restaurants. some people are lawyers. You know, you just you don't have to do it because I feel like it it ends up in the news sooner or later. So speaker-0: you literally just talking to yourself at this point? Like who are you talking to? This is what are we doing here? Are you liter speaker-1: I've married fire marshal, whole different world. We don't count them as firefighters. speaker-0: Who who you talking to? I married my high school sweetheart who's a f who does he's in finance. Like speaker-1: You don't count. speaker-0: Like how many d like let me not ⁓ Lord he had mercy. First ⁓ up. speaker-1: Where's I don't know where my reading glasses are. I can't even read what's on that what w what what are you whining about on your it's dead now. It's dead. speaker-0: ⁓ no, ⁓ yeah. Yeah, the the computer restart. I don't even know why it restarted. speaker-1: It realized how useless it was and it was like, you know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna turn this off. What were you whining about on your background? speaker-0: ⁓ the ⁓ the the well run whining, we said in the beginning, whining because speaker-1: picture of me, two great pictures of me actually. So thank you for, you know, for doing that. I realize I'm a little shluffed up today. So thank you for showing people that, you know, I can shower. Thank you. speaker-0: You whine online incessantly about write more articles, write more articles. Do you want to go teach an FDC? Write more articles. And then yet I write an article and we are on episode six and that ⁓ you have not even bothered. I bet you can't even find it. I have sent it to you. I bet you can't even find the article that I sent. I might just keep s I might just keep writing and pile up a backlog of articles. There'll be ten of them and I can just hang that over your head because your hardheadedness will not allow you to the review them because it's me and then I'll just hold that over your head. Like the the editor in chief, air quotes with short speaker-1: Was it supposed to be the is this title humor or just a placeholder? You want us to rewrite it. You know, so I listen, I talk a lot about AI in writing. Sometimes maybe some people are better off using AI. speaker-0: Lord have mercy. You haven't even read it. ⁓ speaker-1: One of those people, I'm just saying. This is our first episode that we've ever finished under twenty minutes. I don't even know what to do with ourselves. So you guys, audience, you get a minute and twenty seconds of your life back unless Chris finds something useless to to say to drag it out. Which again speaker-0: No, I wanted to congratulate you A for being on time. Congratulations. I was actually speaker-1: No, was I on time or were you just eight minutes late? speaker-0: Well, you could have also been late. I have no idea. I have no idea. I was building the AI picture that is gone now, which is very unfortunate. ⁓ but anyway, back to the point. ⁓ congratulations for being on time and congratulations for not having a single guys, mark this down, not a single technical difficulty. It only took six episodes for her to figure out internet and ⁓ speaker-1: No, because you were late. speaker-0: ⁓ you know, ⁓ internet and camera issues and her sounds not coming through the right thing. I've never had a single hiccup by the way. I just wanna point that out. But she got it together. Congratulations. So speaker-1: I I did have technical so you'll notice I don't have a mic in front of me because I realized it just wasn't interfacing with my laptop. And then I tried AirPods today and those didn't work. But you weren't on because you were so late. So Nat Nat and I worked out all the technical difficulties. speaker-0: You see, I tried to give you credit. I tried to give you credit for the fact that your technical difficulties weren't and you you're conscious. speaker-1: I n I know and I wanna accept I wanna accept that credit, but my need to trash you is stronger than than my desire to be compliment. speaker-0: That says so much about you. speaker-1: And that is why you'll never defeat me, Chris. speaker-0: Defeat All right. You know what you need to do? Look use this next ten minutes to go find a counselor because you need you need therapy. Ten minutes. Well t yeah, I've just like we you you need to get you need a f speaker-1: Our show's only supposed to be twenty minutes. you announcing to our audience that you plan on droning on more from now? speaker-0: No, we just need to get you we just need to get fixed what's going on in your brain. That's all Steph. 'Cause you know, I care about you. speaker-1: That's called Neurosurgeon. I think they made a show about that. Something about Pinky and the brain. ⁓ I I'm I'm gonna tell you that I'm the brain, so that that leaves you to figure out who you are. speaker-0: Narf. Sh shout out for anybody that gets it. speaker-1: On that note, folks, we'll see you in two weeks. speaker-0: Yep. See you in two weeks. Thanks for listening. speaker-1: Thanks for listening.