Getting to the call...Think that's important?

I want to take some time and talk about area familiarization. I know we are in a very high tech world these days but there is absolutely no substitute for knowing your area like the back of your hand. I feel it's becoming a lost art in the fire service. I have a challenge I give every new recruit we hire. I call it the Pepsi challenge. The concept is simple. Learn every street in our city in seven tours. That's about two months with our schedule. There are about three hundred streets to learn. I then give them a fifty question street test and they have to score a 100%. If they can do it I'll buy them a Pepsi or any beverage of their choice. It's not the free soda that they are working for. It's the knowledge, satisfaction, pride, and ownership of the job. Needless to say over the past 10 years not one person has passed the test. A year later I'd say 90% are still struggling during street drills. I find this very sad and pathetic.

Learning the streets is just the first step into a whole new world. What happens after we turn off the streets? We find ourselves in large apartment complexes, high rise subdivisions with commercial strip malls under townhouses, swimming pools hiding in the middle of complexes, as well as, innumerable hazards and pitfalls just waiting to be discovered during an emergency incident. Then what happens after you get to the buildings? Where are the hydrants and the connections? When you enter the building what floor are you on? Where are the elevators and stairwells? How do you access the attic or the roof? The questions are many and the time to determine the answers is not during the emergency incident.

The public expects us to know where they are when they call. When the sirens are getting louder they do not want to hear them fade away before they get louder again. This is extremely poor service and completely unacceptable. The best fireman or paramedic is useless unless they first arrive on the scene.

If you feel this is important I would suggest you get out a map book and start learning. Pick the neighborhood immediately around your station. If you can drive to the scene faster than you can look it up then you should know where it is. A good driver knows the streets, splits, and hydrants of the area immediately surrounding the station. If you think learning hydrant locations is extreme try finding one during a deep snow.

I challenge you to learn your area in 7 steps.

1) Streets

2) Numbering system, are the odd or evens on the right side of the road.

3) Splits: Do you have to drive a different way to get to certain addresses of the same street?

4) Hydrants

5) Connections

6) Subdivisions: What’s the layout? Are the buildings numbered and clearly labeled?

7) Get into the buildings and learn what’s inside. Where's the stairwell? Hallway splits: Apt 1-8 is to the right, and 9-14 is to the left. Finding the fire apartment will be easier and faster.

As you can see there is a lot to learn after number 1) Streets. It's not rocket science. Just learn something new everyday and before you know it you will be a wealth of knowledge.