One sentence from a recent conversation continues to stick
in my mind. “If it weren’t for that
sprinkler in the townhouse, we would’ve had a good fire.” It was stated only partly in jest, the young
firefighter, like many, always wanting more of the challenge of a “good”
fire. No one, save the psychotic, wants
to see someone else’s property destroyed much less anyone injured; but this is
juxtaposed with the firefighter’s inherent desire to perform their craft and
test themselves in that environmental nightmare we call “inside.”
We need a partial shift in balance to begin better educating
the younger firefighters as to the desirability of residential sprinklers. For the most part, their response to
commercial sprinkler alarms and fires is something they accept as common and
normal. The expansion of residential
sprinklers, however, is newer and something which reduces the size and number
of their bread and butter—the house fire.
Understanding is one thing, but acceptance is another. Sliding the scale so these aggressive young men
and women buy into the importance and value of these systems is a critical
leadership task.
It is difficult to see, accept, and support technology which
if (or hopefully when) it becomes widespread, can eliminate much of the reason
many of us came into this business to begin with. It’s like the people version of steam
replacing the sail or the car replacing the horse; not gone, but much
reduced. Just the same, pushing for
these systems over the construction industry lobbyists and their pocket politicians
should be continued. That, and educating
the younger generation of firefighters— so they can succeed where we haven’t.
No comments:
Post a Comment