New Haven (CT) Fire Department Captain Frank Ricci, one of FDIC International's biggest draws, opened Wednesday morning classroom sessions with his class Effecting the Rescue Through Agressive Tactics: It's Your Turn to Make the Grab, which focused on, in Ricci's words, "Tactical excellence and our ability to control the building with proper staffing and tactics."

For those unable to attend the standing room only presentation, below is the class's first 20 minutes:

At this morning’s General Session, Bobby Halton, editor in chief of Fire Engineering and FDIC International education director explained how the fire service can attain the “downrange” mindset that maximizes confidence and skill at the point where, according to the military definition, we meet the enemy and the fire. Halton described how tactics fits into this process.

Firefighters love tactics, Halton said, because it is the fun part of the mission and where they best shine based on their ability to assess the scene, apply the right solution, improvise, and adapt with effortless creativity and finesse.”

According to Halton, tactics constantly evolve; they do not change. A major difference he cited between evolution and change is that some change is brought about by force and often comes suddenly and without warning.

On the other hand, tactical growth is natural and unforced, an evolution embraced by all. We do not resist it or feel threatened by it. The fire service’s successful tactics, Halton explained, have evolved spontaneously from the bottom up. The places in which we do our work have provided us with the impetus to evolve our tactics to match our threats, capabilities, and responsibilities. We do not need to be forced to change because we are constantly evolving.

Prerequisites for Correctly Employing Tactics
To employ tactics correctly, Halton explained, we must have well-trained units in the best traditions of the fire service. These units must understand that the efforts of all of the members together are much more effective than what each individual could accomplish alone. There must be a cohesiveness of thought and action in which the importance of the unit’s goals and mission is more important than individual goals.  

Firefighters will be more likely to give to their company that necessary part of themselves that builds cohesion when they feel they will benefit from the rewards—which are hard to describe but which they will easily recognize--for example, brotherhood, comradeship, trust, security, safety, and a sense of pride in knowing what that company can do under pressure.

Unity and confidence cannot be improvised; only they can create the mutual trust, that feeling of force that gives courage and daring, Halton noted. To achieve these highly trained tactical units that can achieve goals against the odds and can overcome the context of the fireground where we have limited resources, conflicting goals, limited information, and tremendous time pressure, members at every level, especially commanders, must clearly define those unit goals and demand high standards in discipline and performance and develop firefighters’ skills to their highest ability.

To achieve tactical excellence when we go, as the modern soldiers say, “downrange” to meet the enemy and engage the fire, firefighters must be assured that their well-being is as much of a concern as completing the mission. We must prove in our training and behavior that we understand and respect the risks and threats firefighters face when they go downrange.

Halton asserted that there must be a profile, a mindset, and a demeanor reserved exclusively for when the firefighter goes downrange to fight fire. Going downrange, he stressed, is more than just a mindset, self- and situational awareness, or tactics and procedures. It is a way of life, a way of being in the moment together in a highly cohesive team, a way of protecting and saving lives, a way of honoring our code, Honor Ante Omnia, no one left behind.

Halton related how these concepts contributed to the success of the rescue of Marcus Luttrell, the “The Lone Survivor” of a four-person SEAL team whose mission was “Operation Red Wings” in 2005.

One of the parachute jumpers in that rescue crew, Staff Sgt. Chris Piercecchi, worked with Halton in the Albuquerque (NM) Fire Department after P

Peter Van Dorpe, chief of the Algonquin-Lake in the Hills (IL) Fire Protection District, was presented with the 2016 Fire Engineering/ISFSI George D. Post Instructor of the Year Award at today’s General Session.

Van Dorpe has been a field instructor for the Illinois Fire Service Institute, a lead instructor for the Chicago (IL) Fire Department’s Fire Officer School, and an instructor on building construction for the fire service through the City Colleges of Chicago.

His additional accomplishments include serving as an advisory board member for the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Firefighter Safety Research Institute and as a subject matter expert for UL’s research on “Structural Stability of Engineered Lumber in Fire Conditions,” the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST’s) “Evaluating Firefighting Tactics Under Wind-Driven Conditions,” the International Association of Fire Fighters/NIST “Firefighter Safety and Deployment Study” in high-rise buildings, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health investigation into the March 26, 2014, line-of-duty deaths of two Boston firefighters.

Van Dorpe was the International Society of Fire Service Instructors (ISFSI) Selection Committee’s unanimous choice for the award. “Chief Van Dorpe has a distinguished career leading the training department of the Chicago Fire Department and is one of the most sought-after instructors in the country as a champion of the Principles of Modern Fire Attack,” noted Steve Pegram, president of the ISFSI. “He has barreled through barriers with urban departments to move the message forward, and his service to the UL advisory board has guided the research and message to create a global impact.”  

Van Dorpe recently retired as the director of the Chicago Fire Department’s Training Division after a 33-year career. He has a bachelor’s degree in fire science management from Southern Illinois University. He has made presentations on modern fireground challenges at FDIC and at the National Fire Academy. In 2012, he delivered the General Session Keynote at FDIC. He addressed the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the “Effectiveness of Furniture Flammability Standards and Flame Retardant Chemicals.”

The award, which incorporates the Training Achievement Award previously given by Fire Engineering at the FDIC, is named for George D. Post, a long-time member of the ISFSI. Post was a member of the Fire Department of New York, an illustrator of fire service publications, and a developer of instructional materials; he is considered by many to be the father of visual training material used to train fire service personnel around the world.

Jerry Tracy, a retired battalion chief and a 31-year veteran of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) and a pioneer researcher in the areas of high-rise operations, firefighter safety, and contemporary fire tactics, was presented with the 2016 Tom Brennan Lifetime Achievement Award at Thursday’s General Session.

Tracy, who previously had served in the U.S. Navy and in Vietnam, had various assignments in FDNY. Among them were Engine 90 in the Bronx and 108 Truck in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. As a lieutenant, he served with the 9th Battalion in midtown Manhattan and 4 Truck in the heart of Times Square/the Theater District. As a battalion chief, he was assigned to Battalion 49 in Queens. In 1998, Tracy formed and commanded Squad 18 of Manhattan, a new elite unit within special operations command.

While a captain, Tracy and John Salka, then the captain of 48 Engine, developed the Engine Company Operations: “Back to Basics” course for the Captains Development program, which was launched in FDNY and gained recognition throughout the fire service.

In 1997, while responding first-due to a high-rise fire, Tracy realized that there were alternate strategies to the direct frontal attack for fighting wind-driven fires. This was the impetus for his campaign to propose using a nozzle from the floor below the fire in cases where windows to a fire area had failed. He demonstrated a year later in a test commanded by then FDNY Captain John Norman that the 10-foot Navy nozzle modified to flow in excess of 150 gallons per minute could be deployed effectively from the floor below a wind-driven fire.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); Underwriters Laboratories Firefighter Safety Research Institute; the Chicago (IL) Fire Department, and the Brooklyn Poly Technical University of New York University later participated in research that would prove Tracy’s premise. A study in 2006 confirmed that portable fans cleared stairwells of smoke and maintained pressures to keep them smoke free in the majority of fires encountered in the live-fire testing.

In 2008, a study on Governors Island showed that fans pressurized stairwells, covered failed windows effectively with wind-control devices, and extinguished fires with a nozzle device from a position of safety--typically the floor below the fire. These data revolutionized FDNY’s policies, procedures, and response plans for fires in high-rise commercial and residential buildings.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is named for Tom Brennan, who was the editor of Fire Engineering for eight years and a technical editor. Brennan had more than 35 years of fire service experience, including more than 20 years with the Fire Department of New York and five years as chief of the Waterbury (CT) Fire Department. He was co-editor of The Fire Chief’s Handbook, Fifth Edition (Fire Engineering Books, 1995) and the recipient of the 1998 Fire Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award.

“Peak performance doesn’t happen by chance. It is achieved through a process that includes making personal decisions and holding oneself accountable.” This was the gist of the message Assistant Chief Derek Alkonis, Los Angeles County (CA) Fire Department, relayed to the audience in his keynote address at this morning’s General Session. Alkonis then proceeded to explain what constitutes ‘peak performance’ and some ways fire service members can prepare themselves to make those quality decisions that will “determine the future effectiveness of their departments.”

“Right now--you and I can decide to be better, to be better learners, to train more effectively, to look for better ways to do everything, to hold ourselves accountable,” Alkonis asserted. “Why continually strive to be better? We do it for the public we serve. All around us, we respond to people in their times of distress and tragedy. They depend on us. They trust us and our decisions. We need to trust our training,” he explained.

This preparation, Alkonis said, involves making the best use of your time and finding ‘real’ solutions for problems in your department. He challenged attendees to begin the process while at FDIC International 2016. “Identify a specific problem; stay focused on finding a solution, and identify an implementation strategy,” he suggested.

He related how he had used this approach at a previous FDIC to facilitate delivering a consistent training message within his department, which is spread out over 2,300 square miles with some stations almost 100 miles apart.