“How we’ve always done it”
“It’s how we’ve always done it!” In the history of the fire service, there has never been a statement more overused than this. Even worse there has never been a statement used to this extent to justify complacency, irrelevance, and straight up disregard for common sense. It’s the fire service version of the infamous “Because I said so!” that every kid hates to hear from their parents. Yes I am a parent, yes I regret to say that I’ve said this, and yes it even irritates me when I say it. But why is that? I get irritated at myself when I say that because I know there are always better answers to give than that but it comes out so easy and theoretically covers all the bases purely due to the authority that I carry as a parent. Sometimes this phrase comes out when I am tired and don’t care to discuss anything else but sometimes it comes because I really don’t have any better answer, and there lies the problem with “how we’ve always done it”.
I think one of my biggest frustrations with this cop-out is when people try to masquerade it as “tradition” or just use it because they really have no idea. For instance take something as dynamic as tool placement on our apparatus. How many of you are carrying at least one piece of equipment on your rig right now that no one has used outside of recruit school in 20 years? My hand is raised high! In an attempt not to get myself in trouble I will avoid going into detail here but why is that? Why do we carry a hose clamp, I have literally never seen one used since the summer of 2002 when I was going through recruit school but it’s a piece of equipment that we’ve always carried on the rigs. I have heard someone say that it is an ISO thing so if that’s true then ok I guess but it’s still hard to logically justify how many times in 20 years that I have moved those things around to get to something else compared to how many times that they’ve been used. When does common sense get a say so in this process? We traditionally spec rigs to focus on more storage space for useless crap over low hose beds, low (non-mechanical) ladder racks, easy access to frequently used tools, and so on. These are the traditions that we should be keeping when spec-ing a rig.
Something else that I really don’t understand is that have you ever noticed that “how we’ve always done it” seems to be thrown around very selectively? Maybe it’s just my experience but when it comes to new equipment or techniques in the world of HazMat, Ropes, or EMS that statement doesn’t seem to exist. I think EMS is the perfect example of this from what I have seen and before you think I am about to dump on EMS, it’s quite the opposite. From a suppression officer perspective, I would say that I am even a little envious of how different the perspective is in the EMS world. Look at it like this, how many things have changed throughout your career as far as equipment and techniques go regarding EMS? If you’ve been on a decent amount of time I can guarantee that you’ve seen a lot of change right? From CPR compression rates, O2/no O2, spine boards/no spine boards, endless advancements to monitors and other equipment, and on and on. Why not right? If the technology and equipment improves over time to give our citizens, our family, and our friends a better chance to survive there is no way that we wouldn’t take advantage of that.
And here lies the disconnect. How are the advancements in the EMS world any different than the advancements in the suppression world? A prime example of this is a very glaring gap in mindsets when it comes to searching burning structures. The fire service has been blessed with some invaluable information given to us because of lots of hard work and commitment by the incredible people behind the Firefighter Rescue Survey and UL Studies. These 2 resources have given us information and statistics that can without a doubt save many lives if we just use them. Sadly, that’s a big “if”, many people out there either disregard this information or refuse to put any time in to learning from it. One area regarding search that I particularly can’t stomach is the mindset of not searching a “vacant” structure or a structure that a civilian declared as “all clear”. I am constantly seeing stories across the U.S. of crews pulling out victims from buildings that were supposed to be either vacant or unoccupied. This should scare the crap out of all of us, I know it does me and it is a lesson that I want to learn from others because I never want to be the one who finds out that we lost a citizen because we neglected to perform a search.
The fire service needs to start viewing the phrase “How we’ve always done it” as something highly offensive and detrimental to our citizens and our craft. We can do better! Not every new idea is a great one or one that will work for every department but not every new idea is bad either. So, keep an open mind and try things out. You’ll see really quickly that the way that we have always done things sucks compared to how we can do them now.
Keep Innovating, Keep Inspiring, & Stay Ready!
