To add to your list of professional challenges, commercial and “heavy” vehicles are changing too. Everything from school and transit buses to garbage trucks, cement mixers, and even fire apparatus is changing dramatically.
What, exactly, does “new technology” or “new rescue technology” really mean?
Simply stated, in the same way that what we don’t know or what we don’t keep up on regarding what goes into new vehicles (that we are tasked to perform extrication ops on) can kill us, so too can new vehicle car fires.
Changing SOPs is a painstaking job, but it seems to me that we will all be better, be healthier, and live longer as a result of those changes. Stay safe, and be a part of the solution.
Simply stated, there are ever-evolving changes and new things that we should know about before we get busy “making space.” The absence of knowledge about the advances in technology and vehicle construction can cause and have caused catastrophic events at real-life extrication scenes.
There are professional and financial obstacles for firefighters on this island that most of us could never begin to imagine. The dedication shown to expand their knowledge base and hone their craft in spite of these obstacles and challenges reminds me of why I continue to love this “sharing of knowledge.”
Last year while teaching in southern Louisiana, I learned of an innovative way that one volunteer fire department has turned the tide on volunteer recruitment and retention.