It’s just good Common Sense

[caveman]

It’s just good Common Sense

I sit here at my PC thirty some years into a fire service career and I am still haunted by the words of one of the greatest fire service mentors any apprentice could possibly serve.
My fire service career began as a volunteer in a small south central Pennsylvania fire department. The year was 1972 and the department held the distinct honor of being led by a Fire Chief named James W. Cutchall. Chief Cutchall was not only a great mentor but also an outstanding human being and a remarkable motivational instructor. During our frequent training events he was very well known for making statements that would leave lasting impressions. One of the more notable statements he would leave us with is that “99% of the fire service is common sense and the other 1% is knowledge we receive through education”. Some may argue that it is actually 90/10 but I am sure that 99% had a better punch when making his point. The Chief’s words haunt me because we are now well into 2007 and I still see many areas in which the fire service totally avoids, renounces, or just plain refuses to utilize good common sense.

Let me digress for a moment and explain this for those of you that may be a little “CS” impaired. Many of you my recall your grand parents speak of Horse Sense, mother wit or maybe you herd the word rational before. Webster’s lists “common sense” as a noun defined simply as “Sound practical judgment”. The analytical Euripides once wrote that the best prophet is common sense, our native wit. The philosopher Henri Frederic Amiel said that “Common Sense” is calculation applied to life” and the distinguished professor Thomas H. Huxley stated that “science is nothing, but trained and organized common sense and that all truth, in the long run, is only common sense clarified”.

One of the best definitions I have found is; “Common sense”: the basic level of practical knowledge and judgment that we all need to help us live in a reasonable and safe way:

All across this great nation there are fire departments, volunteer and professional, being managed by people with noble intentions but it seems in some cases we are failing to utilize sound rational judgment when making critical decisions. In 2007 we still read about departments feuding over territory and hostility at incidents concerning procedures. There are many departments that lack proper response protocols to insure safe operations and we hear all the time about departments allowing untrained personnel to ride apparatus and might I say there are cases of improperly trained officers calling the shots.
I realize that many volunteer and career fire departments are experiencing severe manpower crunches but what kind of sense does this all make?

I believe that common sense and safety go hand in hand. When you look over a cliff and think “falling all the way to the bottom could hurt”; that my friend is using good common sense. Why aren’t the rest of our thought patterns that simple? Maybe we all have a little Evil Knievel in us when we look at that cliff and think, “if I hook a rocket to my ass I could make it!” Unfortunately, I think that too many of us are thinking this way anymore.
We try to educate our apprentices on everything under the sun to prepare them for this great profession but many of us are failing miserably when it comes to the subject of common sense and its application to firefighter safety. It is unfortunate though that we find it necessary to put many “common sense” issues in written form so that those of us that are “CS” impaired have a point of reference.
I fully understand that our culture has drastically changed since the seventies. In fact, numerous laws have been implemented over the years that make a serious attempt at abolishing any need for any sense at all. We now have laws that mandate corporations to attach labels to everything anyone might have the remote possibility of injuring themselves with, on or in the performance of… But honestly, those of us in the fire service should be above all that, right? Do we really need to see the graphic sticker of amputated fingers projecting out the side of a running lawn mower to know better? Don’t tell me you haven’t observed these warnings and shook your head. But seriously; are we above all that?
Leaving the station on apparatus with out wearing a seat belt is not good common sense. The lack of a good, up to date training program doesn’t make sense either. Sending perfectly healthy firefighters into or on top of an unstable, unoccupied structure isn’t close to rational but obviously we need to be told this over and over again.
Ever since I took my first step into a firehouse I was instantly aware that this profession is defined by honor, tradition and valor. I feel it is this generation’s duty to add the word “responsibility” to that definition.

In March of 2004 I had the privilege to meet with many of our nations top fire service leaders at the first National Fallen Firefighter Foundations Life Safety Summit in Tampa Florida. This summit was with out a doubt the most gratifying experience of my fire service career. We assembled to focus on the extremely important subject of how to prevent fire service line-of-duty deaths. After being instructed on what we were gathered to accomplish, I clearly remember one distinguished fire chief asking the question; “but isn’t this all just “common sense”? The moderator gave a very insightful reply to his question but basically the answer is yes. The initiatives produced at the summit are very well thought out and especially significant to all of us in the emergency services. Since then, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation conducted a second summit in Novato, CA in an effort to ‘move forward”. The NFFF convened the Novato Summit to review the progress since the initiatives were first written and identify the most successful implementation strategies from across the United States and Canada. Participants in Novato were asked to focus on each initiative and on what individual fire departments and agencies should be doing at the local level to ensure the essential changes occur. They came together with a tremendous range of knowledge, wisdom and experience to keep the monumental effort to reduce firefighter fatalities alive.

Now, more than ever, I feel it is time for those of us in the fire service to take a good hard look in the mirror and ask ourselves a few questions. First; am I doing everything I can to ensure the safety of those I am associated with in the fire service?
Secondly; am I doing the very best I can for my department and the community we serve? And last but not at all least; am I doing the best I can for myself? I define this last question as physically, spiritually and emotionally.
Personally, I don’t know if I can answer all three of these questions with a positive response but I feel it is time we all conduct a personal inventory and strive to insure the safety of ourselves, our brother firefighters and the communities we aid.

Be proactive and assist your department with implementing all NFPA safety standards and the 16 life safety initiatives; after all, it just makes good “common sense”.


About the author:

Scott Reichenbach is an Assistant Fire Chief with the New Cumberland Federal Fire Department in Pennsylvania. He has been active in the fire service in the capacity of volunteer and professional for over 35 years. Scott has contributed several articles for Fire Engineering in the past.

Past articles include – Venting Single Ply Roofs, published in the February 1992 issue and How Well Do We Know Our Neighbors?, published in June of 2002.

Scott Reichenbach
Assistant Fire Chief
Federal Fire Department
New Cumberland, PA 17070
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