[Scan-DC] Rant! Battalion Chief & radio...

[Doug Kitchener]

I need to rant...

Call goes out for a fire in a room in a nursing home.  Engine co gets on scene.  Battalion Chief (en route but not on scene) radios them:  "Battalion Chief ### to Engine ###."  Engine company officer (obviously anticipating):  "We're making our way to the room now, Chief."  Chief:  "Let me know something as soon as you can."

WTF else are they going to do?  Pee on the fire to put it out, then sit down and play cards for awhile?

Right afterwards - Engine:  "We have a dry chem extinguisher discharged."  Chief:  "Do you have the individual who discharged it?"

Engine company has just gotten there, is trying to figure out what they have, what's going on, and whether or not there really is a fire, and this guy is all over the radio bombarding them with unnecessary questions.

Note to Battalion Chief:  Stay off the fricking radio, let your troops do their jobs... they're perfectly competent and will and communicate with you at their earliest opportunity with all the information they have.  You don't need to interrupt them with all that stuff.

This is the same... chief... who did the same thing at the fire at Holy Cross Hospital the other night; all over the radio asking questions when people were just arriving on the scene and trying to figure out what was on fire, where it actually was, and how to best access it.

If they could hear themselves during these incidents...

A buddy of mine is Chief of one of the local departments and _he_ lets his people do the work and report to him... guiding them if they need it... we've talked about this stuff and it drives him crazy too.

Disclaimers:  No, I am not a firefighter... currently.  However, I was a volunteer in Montgomery County many years ago for 2 or 3 years.

But I can tell a fiasco when I hear one.

End rant.  Thanks.  Feel free to comment, flame, whatever.

(Sorry, it must be the heat!)  :)

2315, WZX-460