Thinking Firefighters: The Theory Behind the Action

November 26, 2024 mosorno1 in Uncategorized 69

By Brian A. Carr

Firefighting is a practical discipline. Men and women trained to the highest levels work together to solve problems affecting people, places, and community. Firefighters and emergency responders “put the wet stuff on the red stuff,” package the injured for “diesel therapy,” and secure ropes and rigging to hoist, move, or anchor something. To make situations better. Firefighting and emergency response actualize in a world of things and tangible processes—against structure fires, in car crashes and collapsed buildings, through flood relief, and during lift assists.

These are examples only. The real world of cause and effect can challenge firefighters with regular or unpredictable calls-for-service. We never truly know what’s coming next. What we do know is that when tones drop and apparatus are requested, our interaction with the world begins. We manipulate trucks, tools, and bodies, engaging in work defined both in its everyday sense (i.e. effort for a purpose) and in its scientific meaning of transferring energy to and from an object via the application of force. We sometimes sweat, sometimes hurt, losing or winning according to the circumstances, knowing in the act that firefighting isn’t conceptual. It’s applied, it’s real, and it matters.

Like any discipline worthy of pursuit for its results (e.g. putting the fire out, transporting a patient to a hospital), firefighting benefits from theory, from abstract thinking about phenomena…about all the disorganized worldly things we as firefighters are asked to fix, mitigate, or counteract. Ignoring the theory of firefighting and emergency response predisposes all ranks to errors of assumption and makeshift reaction to emergencies. Firefighters ignore theory at their own risk.

THEORY AND REALITY

The good thing is that firefighters are already using theory. It’s packaged for us in acronyms that prompt strategies and tactics at a wide range of incidents. It’s codified in textbooks about fire dynamics and behavior. It’s validated by scientific studies that distill fire behavior down to probable firefighting actions. Theory has always been part of the application of firefighting’s craft. Without it, effective firefighting wouldn’t have the real-world impact it does.

An important next step is that firefighters recognize when they’re thinking theoretically. As company- and command-level officers, helping our crews recognize this is itself part of our service to them and the communities we serve.

We need firefighters to think about why something happens and ask how the action they might take makes a situation better or worse. Firefighting victories don’t happen in the classroom or at the tail-end of an insightful question or incisive argument. They happen in the field, in the dirt and grime. They often happen with sweat, courage, and conviction, sometimes with blood and sacrifice. Success happens with a lift, stretch, cut, drag, or hoist. Firefighting is practical (what Aristotle referred to as praxis), but we will never free it from the benefits of contemplation (Aristotle called this theoria).

None of us should ever want to unyoke the practical from the theoretical. Our practical, task-oriented actions are not only possible because of theory, they’re better off because of it.

When firefighters think beforehand about what could happen—how events could present themselves and into what categories they can assign contingencies—they gain an appreciation of the nature and character of general emergency response. Generalities offer several benefits that firefighters, and especially company and command officers, can use every day and over the course of their entire careers.

LIP

Generalities become universal principles over time. Universal principles are useful across the board. No matter how different an emergency appears, universal principles capture all contexts and situations in one net, from fires in unexpected places presenting crews with surprises to highest-risk rescues with multiple lives hanging in the balance. Although it’s possible to identify several universal principles, the single principle embodying fundamental guidance in the fire service is usually the one all firefighters learn early in the academy, LIP: life safety, incident stabilization, property conservation.

This principle is at the core of our industry and guides each of us through our careers. When we first learn it as recruits and get the chance to use it on fireground, LIP provides a life-centric approach to tasks and tactics. Life matters—ours, our crew’s, and the lives of the civilians we’ve sworn to protect. As we rise through the ranks or gain field experience, LIP grows more—not less—applicable. Where new firefighters use LIP reflexively to “risk a lot to save a lot” and “risk little to save little,” company- and command-level officers use LIP’s guidance to develop a hierarchy of objectives to support decision making on the fireground. When, where, and how to commit teams to address aspects of emergency response depend on a studied approach and thorough understanding of LIP and the vast expanse it covers. Critical needs come first (life safety). Behind these, other priorities (incident stabilization, property conservation) are developed.

Although LIP isn’t anythingfirefighters take out of a truck and deploy, its abstract guidance affects every action on the fireground. As a universal principle, LIP helps us structure an emergency’s chaotic environment into a more manageable set of objectives. Objectives are targets, and targets are what firefighters aim their tasks squarely at. The hand that acts follows the mind that thinks.

DECISION-MARKING MODELS AND ACTIONS

Theory also helps us establish common ground. Generalizations again are key. While we know that no two calls are identical, we say this within a mental framework conditioned by a blend of both recognized prime and classical decision-making models. Ready for the unexpected, we arrive on scene and begin assessing clues, recognizing gaps, and matching goals to capabilities. Officers grasp critical aspects of the scene instinctively. How can our firefighters negate immediate risks to life? How will the fire’s location and presentation change over the next few minutes? How can our firefighters lessen the fire through hose placement and water application? How is the building’s construction our enemy and how is it our ally? We answer these questions automatically and based on our levels of experience. These factors are cornerstones of recognized prime decision-making (RPDM). Experience and intuition drive immediate actions.

But we need to be clear that our experiences on scene are also informed by methodical evaluation of strategic and tactical options. This involves balanced consideration of multiple actions, risk-benefit analysis, and predetermining what factors will mitigate problems and support safety. These methods belong to the classical decision-making model (CDM). When compared to RPDM, CDM is structured and rational instead of experiential and intuitive. It’s analytical, requiring a heavier cognitive load, and it’s less adaptive to the rapid pace when inside an emergent response. But CDM is no less important. In several ways, it’s essential to RPDM.

RPDM shines in the moment and when manifested by seasoned firefighters. RPDM is the gut-check and flash of insight. This model of decision making thrives in immediate change and, despite patterns developed over time, is itself subject to change based on the emergency. Compare this to the stability of CDM, which is structured by reflection and by a reliance born from systematic review of options and data. If RPDM is the lever of action, CDM is the fulcrum on which it pivots. CDM is foundational, has a far-reaching perspective, and offers starting points for ongoing investigation into firefighting and emergency response strategy. CDM is useful because it helps us predict patterns, suggests actions irrespective of situations, matures under multiple points-of-view, and supports flexibility. CDM optimizes strategic and planning procedures over time and through the combined effort of our industry. The classical decision-making process excels by harnessing the power of collective firefighter research, structuring, and reflection. CDM and the methodologies it produces are instances of theoretical doctrine.

ONE APPLICATION OF CDM

The most recognizable and adaptable of all of these is RECEO-VS. Developed by Lloyd Layman and first published in his 1953 book, FireFighting Tactics, RECEO-VS embodies the value of theory and its benefits. Endlessly applicable and flexible, RECEO-VS gives every firefighter a cognitive tool to tackle every fireground situation. Although not context-specific, the acronym provides a time-tested structure, generalized priorities, and ordered goals. No fire is the same. We tell our crews this to guard against the unexpected and to remind them that what we saw last time may not be what presents itself this time. This means we expect changes in particular situations, like the layout of the house, its fuel arrangement, and fire load. We expect different challenges in water supply, delivery, and application. We know (or should know) that the job we’re going to will be like ones we’ve been to before, but it will never be identical to one of those. Things similar on the surface will challenge use with key differences. RECEO-VS’s non-specific, theoretically developed framework helps us all. It gives every fire officer precious space for deliberation and a strong scaffold on which to hang RPDM’s snapshots and decision maps. RECEO-VS’s adaptability and predictive power theoretically guide RPDM’s recognition-action coupling and experience-based knowledge.

Theory never stops developing. The power of theory is iterative and constantly evolving. As leaders in the fire service, we must demonstrate this to our firefighters. We can do this through both sharing techniques derived from theoretical reflection and by emphasizing that firefighting—proudly a craft and applied profession—nonetheless thrives in an environment of intellectual investigation.

Brian Carr is a battalion chief with Jackson Hole Fire/EMS in Jackson, Wyoming. He holds degrees in fire science and classical literature. He is currently enrolled in the Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy.