We continue to offer prayers and thoughts of support to our brothers and sisters that respond to calls for help. Especially our firefighting brothers out west fighting the wildland fires that our ravaging our country. Many of our fellow first responders are facing challenges in work lives. We ask they keep their faith, focus on their purpose and stay strong. This year started out with many great plans, all to go to the wayside with COVID-19. We have experienced many challenges, many changes and many trying times. Only through a united path of overcoming will we get through this pandemic. Don’t be ashamed or afraid to reach out to others for support and a sense of being wanted.
Basic Rapid Intervention Team training is planned for March 12 and 13 at the “Slinger House.” Friday night will be classroom with a new segment dealing with Firefighter Down CPR and Saturday will be filled with Hands-On training. Watch your e-mails for registration forms.
The weekend of April 16 and 17 our association is hosting an Agriculture Rescue Seminar with the Fillmore Fire Department. Friday evening there will be number of lecture sessions to prepare the participants for 6 practical stations on Saturday. Our hosts for Saturday’s program will be the Golden E Dairy Farms.
Congratulations to the Cascade Fire Department and First Responders for the move into your new facility on the north side of Cascade.
As we are approaching the end of the year and the Christmas Holiday, the board of officers wishes each and everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Uneventful New Year.
A REMINDER that your annual dues are to be paid for the annual meeting. If you need an invoice, please contact Secretary Ron Naab.
From Ron Givens’ 10 Deadly Sins for Fireground Failures
INABILITY TO FORECAST WORSENING CONDITIONS
Along with experience, comes that hidden sense to detect what’s wrong and what’s right. Whether it’s in a fire, or on a vehicle accident on a highway. A firefighter must always have their head on a swivel, and detect the possibility of worsening conditions. There are many situations that could arise, but detecting them beforehand is much better than to have to deal with the consequences later.
INATTENTION TO DETAIL
This one is mainly for the IC. Inattention to detail for the sake of this article is in reference to having too many radio channels that need to be attended to, and not being able to hear/understand all radio traffic. Another portion of that would include the ever-so-frequent radio transmission that no one understands, and everyone on scene is looking at each other, scratching their head, with the “what did they just say?” look on their face. Hopefully it wasn’t a MAYDAY. Hopefully it wasn’t a, “We’re out of water” transmission.
All in all, every department is different and run by different people of the same title. Our main goal is to provide the best quality of care, in the worst imaginable of times. We all have the same end goal in mind. Stay safe, protect property, stabilize the incident, and make sure everyone goes home. Every single one of us can find something that needs to be fixed along our career path. For the tenth deadly sin, I ask that each of you look at yourself. Find at least one sin that you need to fix, that could potentially ruin a fireground’s production rate. Let’s all take the time, and better ourselves, before something happens that can have disastrous consequences. It’s awfully easy to arm-chair quarterback a fire on YouTube, but it’s all irrelevant if you can’t do the same for yourself. In the end, it makes you a better firefighter, and it gets you to take the time to provide some self-realization in what can be fixed. We can change a lot in the big picture, just by making small adjustments in our own lives. Stay salty.
– The “Irons”
Strive to be better, faster, safer, and smarter,
Badger Firefighters Association Officers