Things Are Not Always As They Seem

As responders, we go into so many calls with our own expectations as to how things are going to work. I am just as guilty of it as anyone else- it is human nature. We have to, however, shake loose some of our preconceived beliefs as to what we think is occurring vs. what is actually occurring. How do we do this? By getting facts through a proper size-up and maintaining good situational awareness. But even then, in the real world, the facts as we understand them may not be what is actually occurring.

Using a very real case in point from the other morning: While overhauling a fire the other shift, a number of us saw what looked to be an increasing smoke condition after we thought the fire was extinguished. Now there’s nothing wrong with that- the point in doing a complete overhaul is to uncover stuff like that (so we don’t have to come back later). If we had ignored the condition, or lied to ourselves about the situation and convinced ourselves that it was nothing, those decisions would have been wrong. But everything about the evidence led us to believe we had hidden fire someplace. We developed a plan to root it out, we had lines in place, but no matter what area we pulled, we found that the smoke continued.

Finally, we decided to increase the amount of ventilation in order to find out if we were dealing with pockets of smoke instead of a fire. This proved to be the case and the smoke ended. But it is a good example of seeing something you think is one thing and finding it to be something completely different.

It is almost contrary to human nature to see events unfold in a certain way 99 times, and not expect it to occur the same way for the next time. As a veteran firefighter, however, I know it will be on the 100th time that things go differently and Murphy will pay us a litle visit.

Like every other aspect of our job, we need to prepare ourselves mentally for how to overcome that complacency and act appropriately on the new evidence. This is appropriate not only for emergency response, but in our daily operations. Don’t assume for a minute that because you have seen something progress a certain way virtually every time that you have all of the facts.

Whenver you are working on solving a problem, use a good basic plan of action, know the strengths of the people who are working with you and challenge them to use those strengths, and most of all, don’t be afraid to roll with a revised plan. After all, situations change and if you fail to adjust, you are likely going to end up as part of the problem.