This clip is out of San Bernardino in California. Look at those greedy, lazy, overpaid scumbags sucking on the government’s teat. I say we close at least half the fire stations, and cut their hefty pensions off too. Check out the scumbag cop at the end, working for the 1% as usual.
A few points for civilians, in case you’re curious:
1. Everybody’s working in an orderly, professional, workmanlike manner. No panicking, running around shouting like people generally think they should.
2. At 0:35, we see that there’s more to this than generally meets the eye; they’re coordinating to secure a downed power line, which could be an epic disaster in itself, while preparing to (a) put out a burning house surrounded by other houses and (b) taking instructions about a trapped subject from the medic.
At 0:55 we see that they can’t make entry to the windows or back door closer to the trapped person, because of the homeowner’s security measures. Again, taking an orderly, professional approach to this emergency.
Please keep this in mind next time you hear some civilian idiot like The Young Turks criticizing the on-scene actions of a fire crew.
3. At 1:15 they’re communicating with dispatch and each other about who’s going to do what, and how. Again, there’s more to this than meets the eye. I know, everybody thinks they could just grab a hose and do it themselves, because they haven’t tried it.
4. At 1:28 they’ve got the hoseline charged. The nozzleman is waiting for his partner so they can make entry. Note that they’ve taken something they found laying around, i.e., a radiator, and used it to prop the door open. This is an example of “adapt and overcome.” Again, professionalism and common sense abound.
5. 1:48, now you know what it looks like inside a burning building. It’s crazily hot, too. That thick, black smoke rolling out the front door is the top of the thermal layer. The fumes and particles inside of that will often catch fire themselves, and fire will roll across the ceiling and out. That’s called “rollover.”
6. 2:14, looks like the floor’s on fire. I was trained to do search and rescue in a low crawl. (Fortunately I never had to do it!) You use the hose as a sort of breadcrumb trail; it always leads out of the building. The firefighters maintain physical contact with the other person in front of them along the hoseline. You need to maintain physical contact with both the person in front of you and the hose at all times. If the person behind you lets go of your leg, make sure they haven’t fallen through the floor.
7. 2:55, quick and dirty emergency move. Git’r done. San Bernardino FD, hell yeah.
8. At 3:06, first available crewmember starts CPR, before the others can get their gear off. By the book, you’re supposed to check for a pulse first. However, it’s probably obvious that he’s not breathing, and if his eyes are open and he’s not breathing, you can’t get on the chest compressions fast enough. Note the teamwork, the one who did the rescue moves out of the way so his coworker can get into proper CPR position without any words exchanged.
9. At 3:35 he does some old-school CPR, giving a rescue breath, because the medics don’t have the oxygen on him yet. This is above and beyond the call of duty in 2012.
10. 3:45, they’re establishing an IV, getting him onto a backboard so they can move him, holding his airway open, and coordinating with finishing putting out the fire without disrupting CPR.
11. 4:10 they’re getting the bag-valve mask on him. This allows the rescuers to breathe for him, by squeezing air into his lungs while they do the compressions. High volume 02 with CPR is the only chance this guy’s got.
12. 4:12 “I need accountability” – firefighters have dogtags that hang from a little clip on the back of their helmets, which are given to someone before making entry. This is how the chain of command can check that everybody who went in came back out.
13 4:20 Note that there’s one crew working on the patient, another crew working on the house on camera, one off camera (probably the one cutting the hole in the roof), and at least one other crew en route. THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T CLOSE FIRE STATIONS. At 4:37 he notes that there are two crews ready to rock, and the power line is still an issue.
San Bernardino FD, PD, and AMR, I salute you.
1:25 PM PT: I realize that people may not get where my sarcasm is coming from due to the whole lazy/greedy/overpaid firefighters "let's close some stations" meme being more of a libertarian thing. This will give you some insight: http://claycord.com/...
Also, unfortunately the victim did not survive.