Sorry its been so long since my last post. Things have been a bit hectic lately. I am trying to get back on a more regular schedule for posting.
Recently I got the opportunity to see the film Burn for the second time. Let me first say that I enjoyed the film and I think that the filmmakers did a wonderful job putting this film together. I don't want to be critical of my brothers in Detroit or downplay the struggles they are going through but there are a few things about the film that concern me. Detroit is a fire department that is rich in tradition and has a very established culture. They are in a situation I don't wish on any other department. They are short on staffing, short on equipment and the city has a significant arson problem. They are in a terrible situation that probably won't get better anytime soon. I don't wish their situation on anyone and I think they have quite an uphill battle against them. The film does a good job bringing awareness to their plight and I think we should support them however we can.
With all that in mind, the film does raises some concerns for me. Detroit is a unique department, in a unique situation. They have done things a certain way for a very long time. The film wasn't necessarily focused on tactics but there were several times where the Detroit firefighters mention that they fight fires aggressively and from the inside. They say something along the lines of with Detroit fires you see water spraying from the inside out when everyone else has water spraying from the outside in. I am not going to sit here and tell the Detroit FD how to fight fires. Personally, I am a believer in using the risk/benefit approach to fighting fires and I don't believe every fire requires an aggressive interior attack. I think you need make sure there are lives or property to be saved prior to making an interior attack. I got the feeling from watching the film that with Detroit, it is aggressive interior attack all time. If that is how they want to do it, that is their business but I don't have to agree with it. What concerns me more is that there are a lot of impressionable firefighters out their seeing this film and I am afraid they will see this as the only way to fight fire. There is a time and place for an aggressive interior attack but firefighters need to be trained how to recognize those situations. We can no longer to afford to take a singular approach to every fire. Today's firefighters need to be taught how to recognize a situation and deploy the correct tactic. I don't think the intent of the film was to promote a singular approach to fighting fire but it does to an extent glamorize that approach and that might not be the right message to send to today's firefighters.
The second thing that concerns me about the film is that I got the impression that a majority of the Detroit firefighters see themselves as the victims and that they don't share any fault for where the department is at. A new fire commissioner was hired to work to change the department. He was working to bring a new attitude and new approach to this department. He was met with resistance at pretty much every level which can be expected when trying to make a cultural change in a department that has been doing things a certain way for so long. The Detroit firefighters are victims to an extent but they also share in the blame. There were several instances in the film where trucks were damaged and no one seemed willing to take the blame for it. In fact, it almost seemed to be a joke when something got damaged. You have a department that is strapped for cash and when you do things like park a truck on train tracks or drive under an overpass that doesn't have enough clearance obviously people are going to be upset. The department can barely afford to fix trucks that are breaking down just from age and wear and tear, now you add in unnecessary damage how do you expect things to get better. They just don't seem to want to take responsibility for their equipment and the damage they cause to it. Even in a department that is financially sound, firefighters need to take responsibility for their equipment and make sure they are taking care of it. This is not your equipment, it belongs to the city and the citizens you protect but you need to treat it like is your own. Obviously money doesn't grow on trees and you shouldn't be surprised if someone is upset if a truck is damaged. To me, the attitudes in the film promote the wrong message and these guys need to start taking responsibility for their equipment. They need to work to be the solution to the problem, not another problem on top of it.
With all that being said, I enjoyed the film and would recommend it to other firefighters. I would just ask that you keep an open mind and watch the film for what it is. We need to take it as a a chance to learn from a bad situation. We need to work to ensure we don't allow our departments to go down the same path. We can't become so entrenched in tradition that we can't see any other options out there. The world is changing, the fire service is changing, we have to be ready for it.
