Art of War

[Christian1147]

having read the Art of War I know that people have adapted its lessons to fields outside the military such as business and politics. It got me thinking, how or if the lessons in Sun Tzu's Art of War could be applied to the Fire Service?

[FiremanLyman]

Real interesting concept. I do think that a lot of Sun Tzu's concepts could be very relevant. It was over 10 years ago when I studied Sun Tzu as an officer candidate in the Army, but if memory and a little google search holds true.

Certain principles, like knowing your enemy (ie; building construction, preplans, fire behavior, interactions of HAZMAT, etc..) and you can win 100 battles without losing a man.

Generals who loses battles makes few calculations beforehand; would relate to training, company preplans, tactics and the like.

Fighting and conquering in battle is not supreme excellence, supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting; sure sounds like fire prevention division.

He who wins knows when to fight and when not to fight. He who wins knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces; relates to risk benefit, offensive vs defensive strategies.

Look into it, I am sure that there are many ideas that Sun Tzu had that will relate to firefighting.

[scfire86]

The other great concept is the use of spies. Basically, information is critical in the decision making process on how to proceed against your adversary.

An example might be in a wildland fire would be the knowledge of current and forecasted weather patterns.

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

I can't remember the exact wording, but Sun Tzu mentioned about dealing with problems swiftly instead of allowing them to fester and being consistent.

For the fire service, that would be dealing with personnel issues on the comopany level before getting the FD brass involved.

[firefightinirish217]

The other great concept is the use of spies. Basically, information is critical in the decision making process on how to proceed against your adversary.

An example might be in a wildland fire would be the knowledge of current and forecasted weather patterns.

True. Another example on the structure side could be fire inspections and preplanning. Also knowing your neighborhoods.