Truck Fire in Georgia

[flipper123]

Never fails to amaze me, cops can climb our ladders without helmets or anything, while the FD looks on.
Cops can kick in a door and run into a bldg without gear, while the FD waits.
Now, cops pull lines of an engine?
Either the FD is becoming pretty pussified, or cops are getting dumber.

Maybe a combination of both?

[BLSboy]

There is no explaining this one away.
Complacency KILLS!!

Not to mention that just made all us professionals look like yahoos.

[cozmosis]

I find it annoying that BainbridgeGA.com is claiming Copyright to the video. Now it isn't available. To me, their website looks like a local news site. Did they buy the video from the person who took it?

If it's like one of the many "neighborhood journalism" sites on the Web today... it's possible that they were the ones that filmed it. All you need these days is a camera and some web space and you're a journalist. In some ways, that annoys me... It a lot of other ways, it makes me glad that more stories can see the light of day without having to meet the criteria of the established media in any given market.

I wouldn't try to pull over a speeding vehicle, break up a drug deal, or perform other LE duties. I do not have the proper training or the right equipment to handle those situations. Some of the police at this scene may have had the training, but they most certainly did not have the proper equipment (PPE) with them.

What you are saying is true... But at the same time, they didn't climb inside the cab or do something else insane. Honestly, they looked like the neighbors you might see with a garden hose at a house fire. They want to do something -- anything -- to make the situation better. I can appreciate that sentiment. And given the insufficient fire staffing... those cops may have prevented extension into the trailer, which would have only increased the risk for the firefighters on scene.

[cozmosis]

Too often, cities use the concept of a public safety department as a way to hire fewer police & fire personnel than they really need. It's easy to think that having one-man fire engines is okay if "all of the police officers are firefighters, too." To pull of this sort of arrangement, a city must have appropriate numbers of people on the street.

From what I've read online, Bainbridge has a public safety officer act as engineer with the rest of the suppression crew coming from patrol units on the streets. I have no idea what their normal patrol staffing is -- except to say that when this fire occurred, it doesn't appear to be enough.

There are cities that have well-run public safety departments... but I can't imagine pulling it off in this day and age. Stand-alone fire and police departments are often tasked with too many duties. I can't imagine trying to keep every officer up on Haz-Mat, DUI enforcement, EMS, active shooter training, fire suppression, domestic violence response, technical rescue, etc. When a person is asked to do everything, it's hard for them to be really good at any one thing -- especially in a small town department where the "training division" or "investigations division" may only be one or two people.

[dragonfyre]

Still available here

http://www.firerescue1.com/fire-atta...es-at-Ga-fire/

[Itshotinhere]

Don't go thinking all depts here work like this..

[HuntPA]

The LEO's certainly seemed to have a better idea of how to pull a line , flake it out and attack the fire, than the few FF's that showed up mostly after the LEO's had the fire extinguished.

........................

In my book they did the right thing.

I agree that it is nice to see the cooperation and the attitude of getting things done no matter what my job description is, but not when personal safety is that incredibly lacking. What would have happened if one of the tires had ruptured sending flames shooting out to the officers? Best cases scenario is that they have burns, more likely they will have scorched lungs, burns, or maybe worse. This is true of the FF that shows up with coat open and helmet on backwards just as much as the original attack by police.

We are all taught what proper PPE is for a reason. . . .so that we can go home alive at the end of the day.

I wouldn't try to pull over a speeding vehicle, break up a drug deal, or perform other LE duties. I do not have the proper training or the right equipment to handle those situations. Some of the police at this scene may have had the training, but they most certainly did not have the proper equipment (PPE) with them.

[kd7fds]

I find it annoying that BainbridgeGA.com is claiming Copyright to the video. Now it isn't available.

To me, their website looks like a local news site. Did they buy the video from the person who took it?

[slackjawedyokel]

Was I seeing things or was the engine still running ? I looked like it

[islandfire03]

The LEO's certainly seemed to have a better idea of how to pull a line , flake it out and attack the fire, than the few FF's that showed up mostly after the LEO's had the fire extinguished.

If they had waited until enough FF's showed up they would have had a fully involved tractor and trailer contents fire to contend with. Who knows what cargo was in the trailer and if it might have turned into a huge hazmat issue if it caught fire. Add in they would have needed to close down the road and need much more than an engine to deal with it. As it was they needed a wrecker to tow the burnt tractor away and could drive the trailer away with no damage by putting a new horse under it.
Many Fires of that magnitude have been extinguished with nothing more than a few dry chem hand extinguishers long before a fire apparatus arrived on scene.

In my book they did the right thing.

[BoxAlarm187]

According to the article I read, they DO have the PSO model in this area, but reportedly, the LEO's you see on the handline weren't PSO's. Odd, indeed.

[HuntPA]

I would almost have to think that this was staged. How else could you explain the completely foolish things that were done?!?! According to the article I read, the cops were trained as firefighters as well. First bit of training should be about safety.

Then you have the people that are supposedly trained for these events show up and look more like the 3 Stooges Fire Brigade than a public safety organization. Helmets on backwards (the one that was actually on), opening the hood with no gloves (but chicks dig scars), coats open, no SCBA, and lets got on the opposite sides of the truck so that we can spray each other to keep cool.

I guess the training there is a little different than what we do here.

[no1special]

Omg

There is so much wrong with that Video. The Firefighters should think about joining the Police department because they were doing better job than the firefighters.
Was it me or did the First firefighter come up and have his helmet on backwards?
The Second member or maybe it was the same learned that the hood of a burning truckis hot when you touch it with your bare hands.And he should think about closing up the coat too.
If it stays up online this might be a video I use in my Safety Lectures.

[FWDbuff]

I have never been big on MMQB'ing but seriously.....Say it with me...."WHAT THE FOOK?"

I think I would rather have had the Cops on the lines, than that moron with no gloves, no SCBA, coat open, and helmet on backwards.....If I were his Chief Officer, and he pulled a stunt like that (never mind the fact that it was videotaped for all the world to see) he would need a toothpick to get the bits of my size 13 out of his teeth, because thats about how far up his *** it would have went.

[len1582]

Is this FD and PD playing well together?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct6-oOf4Krw