r/Firefighting • u/The_Road_is_Calling NH FF • Nov 25 '24

News Ohio fire department confronted about response to double fatal fire

https://chroniclet.com/news/411559/wakeman-fire-board-meeting-ends-in-shouting-match-over-fatal-fire/
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u/PerrinAyybara All Hazards Capt Obvious Nov 25 '24

That was I thought based on the neighbor's being on the phone, it's a bit sloppy in the writing. I highly doubt volly response was that quick if there were complaints about it, unless someone untrained said fully involved when it wasn't. The whole thing is weird without more info

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u/[deleted] Nov 25 '24 edited Nov 25 '24

It’s entirely possible if it’s a smaller community, it was also around 8 am so people were up. There could have been delay getting the dispatch to them. So it could be 3 min from dispatch it all depends.

FWIW the public never think you’re there fast enough in my experience. In the city adjacent to mine, a safety officer literally on-sited a building fire less than a block from the first due engine and ladders station, and the neighbors were complaining that it took them forever to get there. They were there as fast as humanly possible 🤷🏻‍♂️

It’s also a pretty touchy thing when shit like this happens and you don’t have full time employees, or the department is full time but not adequate in size.

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u/cderka Nov 25 '24

I don't know what happened here but I've witnessed in the past a lot of volunteer fire departments will show up with one or two guys and an engine and the rest just respond to the scene directly. Could be that they didn't initially have enough people to be more aggressive at the start. Just a possibility based on first hand experience.

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u/BnaditCorps Nov 25 '24

Can we please let this mentality that limited staffing means you can't be aggressive. Where I work every single engine has two person staffing, a couple of engines are 3 person. These are all career fire departments, one of the departments has more structure fires per capita then Stockton. Rarely do structure fires ever go beyond the initial four to five engines dispatched. 

Being aggressive has nothing to do with staffing and everything to do with mentality. A two-person staffed engine arriving on scene quickly and taking action swiftly will do more to mitigate the fire then a four-person staffed engine that arrives on scene and takes forever to stretch hose. Making an aggressive push without 2 out is dangerous, however sometimes that's what you need to do to mitigate the emergency and you have to balance that risk with the reward. 

And don't say that no where should have two person staffed engines because where I work there's not enough tax base for any more staffing, and it is pulling teeth to maintain current staffing.