Session fosters safety

A New York City fire officer helped develop several escape techniques.
By SEAN BARRON
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Regardless of how long firefighters have been on the job or how refined their skill levels, certain core tactics of safety and firefighting must be reviewed, fine-tuned and reinforced.
And it never hurts to throw in a few new life-saving escape techniques for good measure.
Those were the main ideas behind Sunday's eighth annual Mahoning County Fire Chiefs Association Fire-Rescue Symposium at the Southwoods Executive Center, 250 DeBartolo Place. About 160 firefighters from 27 departments in Ohio and Pennsylvania attended the eight-hour program, which featured two workshops.
The keynote speaker for both seminars was John Salka, a battalion chief for the Fire Department of New York in the Bronx section of New York City.
Salka's morning session, "Training Your Firefighters to Get Out Alive," focused on a variety of procedures for getting away from dangerous, hostile conditions in a burning structure. Salka, who lives in Blooming Grove, N.Y., discussed several techniques he assembled during his 26-year career with the FDNY, including breaching a wall, a ladder bail and the rope slide.
How techniques work
Breaching a wall, he explained, is placing a hole in Sheetrock or similar material using ordinary firefighting tools. The technique can help firefighters escape more quickly from deteriorating conditions, he said.
A ladder bail is going down an outside ladder head first and using your feet to grab onto the rungs. Firefighters swing their legs around and climb the rest of the way down once they're out of harm's way, Salka noted.
A rope slide allows firefighters to loop a 35-foot piece of rope around a tool near a window then around themselves, he continued. All three are effective life-saving skills, Salka said.
Search and rescue
Salka's afternoon session, "Battle Ready Firefighters," centered on tactics such as hose line operations, search and rescue, forcible entry and fire ventilation.
Salka laced his fast-paced second talk with humor and several anecdotes and examples to illustrate effective ways to conduct search-and-rescue efforts and to work as a team.
While performing search and rescue in a room that's not on fire, firefighters should get in the habit of counting the corners of the room they're in and estimating a half-way point, Salka stressed.
"If you have to get out of a room and you're more than half-way, you keep going forward," Salka told his audience.
Ventilation
Salka said one of the more dangerous situations firefighters face is when they are above a fire. This is when it's critical to know how and when to use ventilation procedures, he continued.
Salka cited the example of a blaze that broke out on the 16th floor of an apartment building in the Bronx. A woman in an apartment across the hall opened her door and that, combined with 40-mph winds, "completed the circuit," by supplying oxygen to the fire, which resulted in her residence catching fire and three firefighters being killed, he recalled.
"Ventilation is the most misunderstood aspect of firefighting in America," he said.
Hose line operations
Salka also discussed hose line operations, saying that firefighters should know what type of hose is appropriate for a given blaze and how to conserve water.
He added that checking the line to make sure it is clear of debris also is important.
Salka recalled an instance when firefighters failed to check a pipe and, as they were attempting to extinguish a fire, their water pressure was suddenly reduced to a trickle. It turned out several mice had nested in the pipe and got into the line, he said.
Credits
Salka also teaches several classes at the FDNY academy and is a contributing editor for Firehouse Magazine. His book, "First In, Last Out -- Leadership Lessons from the New York Fire Department," is used for college studies and at fire departments, universities and elsewhere.
Salka also assisted in search and rescue at the World Trade Center site in the days, weeks and months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Springfield Township Fire Chief Brian Hughes praised organizations and businesses in the Mahoning Valley for helping defray about $5,500 of the event's estimated $7,000 cost.
The seminar was set up to "reduce the loss of life and loss of property," and to provide continuing education to those in attendance, Hughes added.