rangerjim93
07-18-2005, 02:16 PM
It seems to me that one particular hazard to firefighters that does not seem to get the attention it deserves is the conduct of fire operations during a particularly nasty thunderstormm with an abundance of air to ground lightning during the storm. Given the steel nozzles on the end of each hose, I am amazed that the nozzleman has not gotten struck by lightning, which is likelly to be fatal, given the metaliic nature of this piece of equipment and the fact that there is a considerable volume of whater coming out of it, which taken together, make a nozzleman a lightning strike candidate.Though my role in my department is strictly a support role, I try to be knowledgeable enough on the goings on in my department, and to an extent the fire service in general. I do not know if any of the active duty guys have been cautioned about thunderstorms. We had one such storm in which lightning struck a house the other day. Any information on how to conduct fire ops during a thunderstorm would be a big help to my and other departments around Western New York.