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By Frank R. Myers

With the Millennial Age in full swing, there is no reason for your department to “not” have a software program in place that gives instantaneous information and updates for your SCBA and PPE gear for your personnel. Your department needs to invest in such a program. The advantages are endless. To name a few: regular routine cleaning; maintenance or damage issues that can be immediately resolved (IMPORTANT); and obtaining and documenting equipment after an unfortunate incident occurs to discover what the cause was and then subsequently, learn, develop SOPs, and educate others so prevention can be obtained.

There is no better way of sending a message to your department, its members, the public, and the legal community than by showing that you have the latest and greatest resources available when it comes to your members’ health and well-being. This is not only advantageous for the front-line personnel, but it assures this equipment is going to perform when it comes to those we took an oath to serve and protect. Firefighting inherently is a hazardous and dangerous occupation. That is why the first line of defense when going into a hostile environment is to assure your PPE and SCBA are operating and performing flawlessly.

Much of this flawless performance occurs prior to actual use. It comes from the regular maintenance, inspection, and checks. These assure that the gear is always in a “ready” state and will perform without hiccups. Software programs and instantaneous notifications (to the proper and responsible persons) are invaluable to assure that no one is missing these critical safety checks, equipment and parts replacement, and routine maintenance. If your municipality goes out of its way to get your members the “latest and greatest” in PPE and SCBA, then your members and those in charge of the records and maintenance need to also “pay it forward” to assure you continue getting the best the industry has to offer.

There is nothing more embarrassing than to have “the plug” pulled on funding for new gear acquisitions because of lack of enthusiasm, laziness, and inability to perform the minimum requirements for maintenance and testing. With more and more advancements in technology, advances in PPE and SCBA are more complicated and complex, and therefore require a high level of expertise and a watchful eye for trends that may begin.

Being proactive to assure your members get damaged items replaced expeditiously speaks volumes. Even though the legal community and those seeking restitution always will try to find loopholes when it comes to a tragic event, if you have the best resources available and they are being used as instructed through your SOPs, then you have done the best you can—period. All this could go out the door if there are irresponsible personnel or acts of negligence by those given the responsibility to assure these preventive SOPs and the programs/software are being utilized properly, correctly, and to their fullest potential.

These positions must have responsible people performing the day-to-day operations. They must care sincerely to assure that their fellow crew members are fully protected “without compromise.” They cannot be flexible or skimp when it comes to others’ PPE, SCBA, and equipment. No shortcuts are allowed here! If these selected persons cannot perform or do not fully understand the importance of their position, then they need to be replaced without question.

The beauty of having a software program available that gives you instant access to information (cloud-based) is that it is readily available from practically anywhere for any reason. It sho

By Carl J. Haddon

It’s no secret that fire departments/fire districts in some rural communities or areas throughout this country are far better budget wise than others. Some areas, (like mine) fight, bite and scratch for every new piece of equipment or technology that they can get. Fundraising certainly helps, but it only goes so far. As a result, we have to “make do” with what we have and very often employ the “adapt and overcome” philosophy.

Last week, I returned from a training assignment that forever changed my thought processes about “making do” and “adapting and overcoming.” My fire training assignment was to the communist Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.

Before I dive in, allow me to set the stage a bit. Although Vietnam is a communist country, you would be hard pressed to know it from the outside looking in. Additionally, having been blessed to travel the world teaching firefighters for many years, I can assure you that “firefighters are firefighters” the world over and communist or not, these guys in Vietnam are no different. We’re family, period.

Our assignment was a week’s worth of live fire training according to National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1403, Standard on Live Fire Training Evolutions, in two live fire trainers that Vietnam purchased from the United States. We were tasked with training the trainers, and that is where the real story starts.

Here at home, I’m pretty confident that we have certain “givens” when it comes to even rural departments. It’s usually a given that at some point in time, we will be issued personal protective equipment (PPE), or bunker gear, right? I would also venture to say that many (hopefully most) departments issue individual, proper fitting SCBA face pieces—at least to those members who are qualified for fire operations that require the use of an SCBA. Having gear that includes helmets, firefighting gloves, and eye protection issued to each active member is all fairly standard practice here at home. Our apparatus and equipment may be another bag of cats. Some of us have newer trucks and equipment, and some of us have older equipment and trucks that we have to “make do” with. At varying levels, we all strive to “work toward” meeting NFPA standards with the understanding that we may never be able to fully meet said standards. The same ideology holds true for training. Some of us train daily, some weekly, and some monthly. But, the goal is to meet or exceed a minimum standard that we set for our department, or that we have set for us.

Not wanting to be ignorant American fire instructors, we realized that our first task in Vietnam was to assess the fire apparatus, the equipment we’d be using, and the skill level of the instructors/firefighters that we would be working with. Offering them a training program that depended on them employing methods, tactics, and equipment that was different than what we used could be a challenge. Little did we know just how challenging that would be.

We had no plans to get crazy. We would be working with them for a week, in two 53-foot live fire, two-story training trailers. Each trailer had two burn rooms, flashover prop, forcible entry door, roof and ceiling prop, and a multilevel confined space prop built into each unit. We figured we’d need an engine, water source, hoses, nozzles, irons, hooks, ladders, saws, and whatever else they wanted to throw into the mix as part of THEIR training SOPs. We admittedly took for granted that this great group of Vietnamese fire instructors would have all of