Fire Thoughts

When my son was young he played tee ball. It was a blast to watch but there was always something missing: The thrill of victory. Yes, they were all young and impressionable kids, but what was wrong with winning? At the end of some games teams had monstrous leads–30-12 wasn’t unheard of. So, by the time our late dinner rolled around, the rules dictated that no team lost–everybody wins!!

I never really minded, but even back then something bugged me about this practice. I knew what the score was. The rest of the parents knew the end result. And for sure the kids on each team knew who was victorious. In the back of my head I kept thinking the winning team was deprived of “feeling” that win–a great feeling.

As my son grew older he finally was able to play “meaningful” games. He experienced the thrill of victory for the most part. On occasion his teams would come up on the short end. He always took this in stride. Some of his teammates took it…not so much in  stride. I started to think a bit more.

Those early tee ball lessons teach us sportsmanship, that its the way you play the game and not if you win or lose. I finally figured it out–what a bunch of BS!!

Our society is messed up because of this “be nice” concept. Revisit the tee ball games–how in the world can you teach good sportsmanship if you never lose? Its easy to teach sportsmanship when you win! Somewhere in our politically correct past we screwed up how we learn.

In general more mistakes are made than are correct decisions. Think about how many times the light bulb didn’t work–then one time it finally did. We learn from our mistakes–plain and simple! How else do we know things? The right things? By coming up short on the decision end, thats how!

Decision-making is a very interesting topic. One I will cover during the Duneland School of Emergency Response (www.dunelandfireschool.com) April 10 & 11. Our brain picks up on the things we do and the mistakes we make. We make good decisions based on prior mistakes (there are exceptions). Our brains quickly learn what we don’t even realize we are learning. This turns out where our intuition comes from. Intuition is really a fact-based “behind-the-scenes” process that is so fast we instantly feel that something isn’t right (or is right).

On the fireground this is what makes the difference between a fireground commander and a great fireground commander. Where does the great FG commander get this intuition? Has this commander made that many mistakes? Hopefully not–it comes from training, reading and thinking. Observing in person or through white papers/magazine/Internet and other articles can enhance that intuition. We learn from others’  mistakes. We must continually improve in order to build up that intuition.

After all it is how you play the game–and in our game losing is not an option. Start winning by learning about mistakes.

Mike Bucy
Owner
Red Devil Training

I have been looking at jobs across the country of late—and a few hits have even popped up. That’s not the reason for this article. The reason is this: Most people ask where I apply and I tell them mainly in the Northwest (do we really have to add “Pacific”?). They ask why not in Indiana.  And this is the reason for this article.

The fire service as we know it in Indiana is on the endangered list. I think over the next 20 years that this could be a good thing. But in the mean time the transformation is going to be ugly.

It all starts with Governor Mitch Daniel’s attempt at restructuring State government. He has so far failed in getting any action on eliminating the township form of government. Let me say here that eliminating that form of local control is not a bad thing. Governor Daniels is attacking the way local jurisdictions are funded—the tax caps. These caps are set to become constitutional law in the near future. It has already panicked local cities and towns into submission. Cuts to services are everywhere (well, except in Portage where the police officers have a nice new lounge, the Chief’s secretary has a 52″ HDTV in her remodeled office and consultants are still hired for everything in the city).

What is going to happen is that by further cuts and submission the township form of control will be forced to go out of business. This means for most counties, 10-15 or so fire departments will technically cease to exist—even those that claim “private corporation” status. Most areas will have to immediately fall under that county’s umbrella.

Now, here in Porter County, the politicians can’t get their own jobs right. Can you imagine them trying to run a fire department? I didn’t think you could. They will be rushed into appointing someone to run this new “county department.” With what equipment I am not sure. Some townships still own their fire equipment—most do not as they contract with “private” fire departments.

The counties will not contract with these entities any more as that would go against the main plan of reducing overhead and relinquishing control. This means a shortage of fire apparatus and personnel (ask any of your people if they will become volunteers for this new county system).

So the three wise (wo)men who are elected as commissioners will appoint someone to run things. Who will this someone be? Probably another political hack who has none to little fire experience but is owed a big favor. Again, if you are trying to improve government, fix this problem! But that is a whole other issue. So things get more screwed up. It will take 10 more years to fix this mistake.

So what happens to the big city departments? That is a very good question. Logic follows the Daniel’s plan will require cities to give up their departments and thus eliminating overhead as well. In Porter County that translates to around 150 paid firefighters. Do they all stay in their home jurisdictions? Do they get spread out all over the county to cover areas with shortfalls? Who pays them now? Remember that most politicians only think in 2-3 year nuggets as their election cycles come and go.

Some counties with no or just a few paid guys will have an easier time with this—a lot of these counties are already set up as de facto county-run departments. It is most of the other entities that will suffer greatly. After all, most fire departments are already ignored by the taxing district in which they serve.

I give you this free advice (which would probably run about $10,000 in Portage): Start getting everything lined up today and plan for a county-wide department. Don’t wait until the last minute. I have—and those pine tree forests are looking and smelling awesome!

Mike Bucy
Owner
Red Devil Training

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Red Devil Training would like to welcome everyone to “FireThoughts” , a blog on what is going on in the world of fire, EMS and leadership. There will be hard-core themes, there will be subtle themes, there will be tangents of the general subject matter but hopefully there will be thought-provoking words through the writings here.

While the object is not to offend anyone, good, solid observation will sometimes do that–only because the truth hurts.

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As you read these postings–we truly hope you don’t agree with 100% of them. Otherwise we wouldn’t be doing our jobs now would we?

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Thank you for your visit.

Mike Bucy

Owner

Red Devil Training