> - never give up your tool. basically, if you are working to force a door, but it's taking some time and someone says "let me give a try", don't take the bait. If someone else pops your door for you, you will never live it down.
So macho! I wonder if you could expand on that as far as the culture in being a firefighter a bit. The only thing I know about this is obviously what I see on TV and in movies. I suspect that it's actually beneficial rather than detrimental to the necessary camaraderie in the group.
Firefighter culture/behaviour, at least on my department, is very complicated. It often resembles toddlers fighting for toys in a sandbox and I mean it... calling us Toddlers is being nice. Literally 2 minutes later it can resemble team-work that would make General Patton proud. I do not watch firefighter shows or movies as a general rule, so I can not comment if they mirror reality.
I don't think I could write about fire service culture in a comment on HN that would satisfy myself or my brothers and sisters in the service. It is just too complicated, at least from my perspective.
The example he gave is day one stuff. Never give up washing the dishes, never give up the nozzle, never give up rolling hose, never give up tools, and so on... especially if you are the junior guy/gal. Seniority plays a big role in my department.
"...never give up rolling hose, never give up tools, ..."
This certainly provides insight into the deaths of 27 wildland firefighters who died disregarding orders to drop their heavy tools (so they could outrun a wildfire):
Long time lurker on hacker news. This topic inspired me to finally register.
Wildland operations are a completely different skill set from structural firefighting. That is why there is a separate certification (red card).
While I never was red card certified, our small town department in Colorado was asked during the occasional summer to provide structural support (or wildland if certified) for some of the mountain towns (lodgepole pine beetle kill). This freed up the wildland folks to do their thing.
We got enough training to learn that basically the only tool that should be carried when speed is of the essence is your portable shelter. Granted it looks like out training came a decade after the above fire, so lessons learned are being disseminated.
Sad to hear about the 27 brother and sisters who lost their lives on the line.
Regarding admired fire departments, Phoenix fire seemed to show up a lot in our trainings as a source that really focused on data driven strategy and tactics.
Superb article, thank you. Makes me think about my resistance to a manager telling me to drop a particular piece of software or tooling in favor of something else.
Agree 100% with everything you said: toddlers, teamwork, not-watching-movies-as-a-rule, and not giving up your tool is more an attitude to complete what you started.
Partly it's because murphy's law says that you "loosened it" for the next guy.
But also because confidence is a big part of the job. Once you start second-guessing yourself and listening to too many suggestions at once, you'll start to suck. Obviously all people have insights to give, and you should listen and absorb what you can, but most doors are unique and your opportunity to learn is proportional to your immediate involvement with the door right in front of you.
> Once you start second-guessing yourself and listening to too many suggestions at once, you'll start to suck.
Wow do I ever agree with that and it's one of my bedrock principles actually. Having started and run my first business (years ago) with nobody to ask any questions and further not even knowing the business (not like it is now) and having to figure it out all on my own. Tremendously helpful to learning (but then again lives weren't at stake..)
So macho! I wonder if you could expand on that as far as the culture in being a firefighter a bit. The only thing I know about this is obviously what I see on TV and in movies. I suspect that it's actually beneficial rather than detrimental to the necessary camaraderie in the group.