LESSONS LEARNED

The name of the article I chose is Lessons Learned from a Civilian Rescue. The article tells of a Cobb County, Georgia Fire and Rescue that is dispatched to a report of home fire. The report given is pretty vague, as the emergency call consists of, “my house is on fire”, nothing more; nothing less. When the fire service arrived the search crew members were in store for a greater encounter than what they imagined, and more importantly what they had trained for.
This article supports the course material, in ways that in chapter 8, it talks about ways to negate public panic. Although this article depicts the story of a search member, they were placed in an environment that could’ve excited panic within the crew and could’ve led to a deadly rescue attempt for the civilian, and well as members of the crew. In chapters 6 and 7, the course materials cover the importance of continuous training on all facets of fire safety. As this relates to the search and fire crew members, when the rescue crew discovered a 240lb male unconscious inside the burning home, they quickly realized that he wasn’t as easily removed from a burning structure of high heat and low visibility as the training dummies with handles were, especially while they themselves were in full gear. A real life body, as the crew member explained, was like trying lift a, “240lb slippery noodle“. Due to the continuous training the crew members received, they did not panic as even after their first few attempts to remove the civilian had failed. This was particularly important, because they knew that they did not have much time and they still had other things that had to be done. The crew did not panic and quickly figured out a way to remove the civilian from the structure and went back into the structure to continue their search. In all, the call was a successful one, but what proved to be more valuable was the experience they gained from it. Even more so, to further support the importance of training, the crew members began training with real live people to simulate civilian rescue.
References:
1. Lessons Learned from a Civilian Rescue, (2013). www.FireEngineering.com. 2. Introduction to Fire Prevention (2013). Pearson Education, (10th Ed.). New Jersey: James Robertson