In this series, Fire Engineering Senior Editor Mary Jane Dittmar looks at the things that motivated and inspired instructors to present on their topics at FDIC International 2016. Segments will be posted on a regular basis up to and through the conference, April 18-23.

Tony Tricarico, Captain, Fire Department of New York

Elevator Emergencies

Thursday, April 21, 10:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

Back in 1980, a firefighter from Engine 42, Joe Aquino, fell down an elevator shaft. He was only 24 years old and did indeed survive and came back to work. I worked with him, and he told us of his experience. He worked for several years; as he got older, the injuries became too painful, and he had to retire. His story is one of many of the firefighters who have fallen down elevator shafts. Most do not live to tell their story.

As time went on and I transferred to Ladder 19, also in the South Bronx, I did a lot of elevator work. Those old salts who taught me how these elevators worked really knew their stuff. In the 1980s, things worked a bit differently than they do today, and we were doing many, many elevator rescues every year. I use the term “rescue” loosely. These were people stuck in elevators, and we were constantly getting them out.

We also did quite a few recoveries. We also responded to many fires in Project buildings elevators as well as in smaller buildings with elevators.

The FDNY has very definitive procedures for elevator operations, and I still have witnessed members from my own company just miss getting a limb severed.

As I traveled around, I realized that not all the companies are responding to elevator incidents as often as others. We all know that the less you do something, the more you need to train on that skill set and that not everyone is as good as those doing it all the time. I also realized that there are many firefighters who have elevators in their districts who never even opened an elevator mechanical room. That is the reason I started teaching elevator operations; everyone needs to know the basics.

Although my class goes beyond this information, every firefighter should at least know how elevators work, the variations on the mechanics, and the options they have when called to an incident or an emergency.  

Firefighters who work on elevators tell me how informative my class is, and they also give me additional information to include in the class. Unfortunately, there is only so much time in the class, but I change and update the lecture every year with new information I glean from the professionals in the elevator business. I have had departments of students who attended my class invite me to conduct classes for them.

In this series, Fire Engineering Senior Editor Mary Jane Dittmar looks at the things that motivated and inspired instructors to present on their topics at FDIC International 2016. Segments will be posted on a regular basis up to and through the conference, April 18-23.

Bryan Winzer, Fire Department of New York

Flashover Live and Death Decisions on the Fireground

Wednesday, April 18, 10:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

I was seriously burned in March 2004 at a private dwelling fire. After dealing with such a horrible painful injury and spending nearly a month in the burn center and months of physical therapy that, thankfully, led to a full recovery and the return to fighting fires. I felt the need to pass along the information I learned from this incident. FDIC is a great platform to accomplish this.

Firefighters are still receiving serious burn injuries at these types of fires. By presenting this information, I can make a difference in reducing burn injuries. I have also had the opportunity to work with some great fire service leaders on a burn prevention program called ‘To Hell and Back.’ We need to pass along any information we can through any means to prevent burn injuries. My class features also a case study in which a firefighter was seriously burned and another firefighter lost his life rescuing a trapped occupant. These stories hit home, and the students take the class seriously.

I have had very positive feedback from firefighters, who appreciate that the class is given by a firefighter who suffered serious burn injuries. The firefighters take the lessons learned from my experience and the experiences of other members involved in the case study presented in the class and apply them to their department to prevent burn injuries among their members.

Recently retired Seattle (WA) Captain Raul Angulo shared some more unique training scenarios in his Tuesday workshop, “More Drills You’re Not Going to Find In the Books.” Speaking to a full room, Angulo described various drills his company undertook to train on specific fire and rescue scenarios—such as a worker with his foot crushed in a steel-toe boot, an extremely long stretch in an nonsprinklered facility, and bridge jumper rescue scenarios (see video above).

Angulo, a longtime Seattle firefighter with 38 years of experience in the fire service, is a columnist for Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment magazine and a training drill contributor to the Fire Engineering Web site.

More Drills from Raul Angulo.

Evelator and Stairwell Identification Drill

Roll-up Doors -- In or Out? Drill

Tiller Tape, Stripes, Markers and Other Uses for Tape

In this series, Fire Engineering Senior Editor Mary Jane Dittmar looks at the things that motivated and inspired instructors to present on their topics at FDIC International 2016. Segments will be posted on a regular basis up to and through the conference, April 18-23.

Trevor Steedman, Captain, Ocean City (MD) Fire Department

SCBA Bootcamp: A Firefighters’s Survival School
Thursday, April 21, 1:30 p.m.-3:15 p.m.

A personal near-miss, noted training deficits that contribute to such occurrences, and an obligation to share this information to educate and protect fellow firefighters have prompted me to pursue educating on this topic.

The optimum effect of these efforts is to provide a continual mechanism for regularly evaluating individual and departmental SCBA survival and proficiency levels and to provide the mechanism to assess and make the necessary changes.

I have received positive feedback from firefighters, training officers, and fire officers regarding the improved proficiency and confidence of their firefighters in performing their duties while wearing SCBA. Many people inquire about the full program and the methodologies used.

The most gratifying feedback has been receiving reports of how applying information learned in my class helped to avert a tragic outcome. Ironically, I hope that those attending my class never have to use the methods and actions they learn in the course. However, if firefighters should find themselves in such situations, they will have the tools with which to fight for survival.

In this series, Fire Engineering Senior Editor Mary Jane Dittmar looks at the things that motivated and inspired instructors to present on their topics at FDIC International 2016. Segments will be posted on a regular basis up to and through the conference, April 18-23.

Stefan Svensson, Associate Professor, International Speaker, Lund University, Sweden

There Is No Such Thing as Extreme Fire Behavior!

Thursday, April 21, 3:30 p.m.-5:15 p.m.

By showing firefighters and fire officers how knowledge-based fire science can be used on the street, I want to bring the two communities together. From many years of experience with the fire service and in the fire science community, I find that these are two disconnected worlds that have much more in common than either one imagines. We do what we do for the same reason, but with different tools. I try to do the same at my university. There’s so much research going on, but many scientists don’t always understand the real-life impact and importance of their research.

Attendees have said that my class has helped them to understand certain things on the fireground—things about which they have thought for a long time. It’s fairly simple to use the science to solve practical problems or to create a deeper understanding of things. Also, it’s challenging to explain complex concepts in a simple manner. I often get great questions that really require a dialog with the audience. They appreciate the discussion, which I encourage. Having traveled internationally over the years, it’s always very comforting to learn that we do similar things in similar ways pretty much everywhere. There are more similarities than differences.