FIREFIGHTING EXPERIENCES

By Dave Pamah

    Imagine yourself being in a very deep sleep, when suddenly your dream is interrupted by bright lights and you are jerked awake by the loud tone of the dispatcher over the loud speaker making the announcement of the emergency code and the address.  Your body is running on auto-pilot: getting ready and getting out on the road with the light flashing and siren wailing loudly.

    Every day in this job is an adventure, not knowing what type of fire or job we would be dispatched to. It could be a family home, a commercial building or vehicle with people trapped inside or even someone having a heart attack. Every day we are placed in extreme situations where we are being challenged physically, emotionally and mentally. Our mind, body and spirit are all working together paying close attention while driving or riding the truck at the high speeds when responding to the emergency call.

    As a fire fighter I have learned a lot over the years responding to intense situations. I remember when I was going through training, we had to watch a film where a doctor was dissecting a human body, pulling out the body parts wriggling it in his hands explaining each part as he went along.

    I thought I did quite well watching it without getting sick! Until I saw the electric hand saw cutting open the rib cage and using the cutting pliers normally used to cut open a lock, then I started to feel warm and flushed. I began to sweat and felt nausea starting to sweep over me, I managed to walk away to catch my breath and regain my focus back to reality. Once I got myself back into reality, I found myself evaluating the “what if” situations, those that I would be responding to if a call came in and I would end up seeing body parts damaged by circumstances.

    I thought how can I help people if I get sick?  I knew I had to change my perspective on it.

    What I have learned is that it takes a mental shift of our mind to take over the whole body. The mind no longer becomes the observer but becomes the do-er, the body goes into awareness and intuition kicks in. The mind won't have the time to stop and wonder about the next scene you will see, you just do what you need to do.

    Normally there are no clues for us to know what waits for us at the scene.  A lot of times we risk our own body and life in hazardous situations without having a second thought. We do become adrenaline junkies when responding to a call.

Some emergencies can trigger a personal internal awakening that can change our attitude or behavior about how we view life.  I had one interesting call that I attended that would have cost me my life had I not listened to my inner voice to do something else. At the time, I did not realize that I was blessed to be alive. A few weeks later after my brush with death, it hit me when I heard another fire fighter had lost his life in a similar incident I was in. It changed my perspective on what I do and life itself daily. In a blink of an eye it can be over, our life is like a mist, I witness it happening to others almost every day.

    I enjoy being a fire fighter where I can make positive differences in people lives, it is a great honour to have the opportunity to provide the service and I feel the sense of purpose in my own life/

MOVING FORWARD

Learning experiences process steps:

1.        Knowing every day is an adventure.

2.        Making the mental shift.

3.        Use experience to change attitudes or behavior towards life.

4.        Make positive differences.

PSYCHOLOGY OF MOTIVATIONS

                By Dave Pamah  

    The biggest incident I attended as a fire fighter was the Ladbrook Grove (Paddington) Rail road incident in October 1999, which was one of the most traumatic days of my career. After a busy night at Euston Fire Station, I had my breakfast interrupted to respond to a routine call about a rail road fire.

    On route to the incident with my Blue Watch crew in the fire appliance, the severity of the fire situation hit home. Flames were punching up a good 50 feet, there was a massive dark pall of smoke and upon arrival there was fire all over the crash site where diesel had spilled. To get to the site, we used ladders to scale 12 foot security fencing before opening a gate to allow the fire appliances through.

    Once we arrived we didn’t know how many people were in Carriage H but it was burning ferociously. You couldn’t get within 30 feet of it. We knew the chances of anyone coming out alive were fairly slim. Sadly, we were ordered to redirect the fire hoses from the express train towards one of the Thames Trains coaches, where six people were trapped. I struggled to retain emotional detachment in the face of 300 or so passengers. I could see people suffering from compound fractures, severe lacerations, severe burns or metal embedded in their bodies.

    The fire was extinguished and together with my crew, we spent four long hours working with paramedics to cut free the casualties. Four survived from the Thames Train coaches. After seven hours, we left the scene and were back at work at 6pm. I believe doing the job was the best thing to do and I was especially touched, moved and inspired by the humanity showed by passengers to one another. There were complete strangers helping each other off the train, trying to give first aid.

    Many fire fighters normally risk their lives every day and are on call 24 hours, 7 days a week battling everything from an inferno to small fires. Fire fighters know that there is nothing predictable about a fire as each one has its own dangers. They don’t know what kind of danger they will be placed in themselves or any traumatized memory they will face when they are rushed out on a call. Not knowing if they will find a severely burned body, have to recover a body or save a life or they themselves be surrounded by falling debris. Then receive hugs and thanks from survivors or have to give condolences to victim’s families.

    Many fire fighters do not think about the dangers they are going to face when they run into the burning fire to search for people who are in need of help. They just do what needs to be done in the face of fear, risking their life for a complete stranger regardless of their race, gender or status. Their only focus is saving lives with their only strength, fast thinking and quick improvising skills, also their psychology as well. When they encounter people in a fire they could either become paralyzed with fear or lose the reason of purpose to rescue. It is human instinct to run away from a fire out of fear of being hurt or killed. They always remain calm in the midst of the storm knowing they could lose their life as well.  

     Earlier during the week, there were two experts in emergency behavior talking about research into what people actually do in emergencies and the psychological processes involved.  What is the ‘deeper’ psychological process behind the motivation?  It is the feeling of well-being, attitude of confidence and empowerment. 

     How do firefighters make life and death decisions under extreme time pressures.

    What motivates them to do this? Some say they are blind to the danger of the job. Actually they are trained to do the job, to keep their composure, have the focus to get the job done, and the knowing that they are surrounded by their co-workers always looking out for them. The greatest motivation is the high they feel when they are helping somebody and the passion they have for their job.

    Everybody is motivated regularly or temporary to do something that’s worthwhile or to make an offering to be somebody or to move forward in life and more.  The biggest problem is that the majority of  people are motivated to something that is once in a while or sporadically, where they take from society more than they contribute.  The difference between the givers and the takers is the regularity of their motivations.  It comes only with the development to the whole person, from their character.

    Most of my life, I have done my best to understand why people do the things they do until having the experience of being a firefighter.  Sometimes my biggest challenge is to figure out what are the motivating factors of my own behavior.  In conclusion, by my observation I have found the biggest factors that get people to do something; I have come up with these two motivators:

  1. Having the desire for personal gain.  2.  Having the fear of loss. 

    Most people have both motivators inside them, creating the action    and reaction.  Sometimes this motivator can dominate some people.  However, both motivators are reasons for the actions and responses.            For example, some people may risk their life for a complete stranger,or take a job offer for the travel involved where others would reject the offer for the same reason.  The motivator inside themselves, they see it as a gain or loss outcome.

     Having the desire for personal gain motivator…There are four desires that exist to motivate people:  Gaining more wealth, power or strength, knowledge and honor.  There is nothing wrong with any of these choices for motivations as long it does not involve doing harm to others.

     Having the desire for wealth is limited, however if it is the money that is your major motivation, you can fall short in other areas of your life.  Since wealth requires your efforts and keep in balance with the rest of your life to provide financial security and some peace of mind.  When you do not have to worry about the bills and are able to enjoy some of the fun things in life, this is good thing.

     Having the desire for power or strength can give you a feeling of security and help you to feel good about yourself.  If you have the desire for power in an ethical manner it can motivate many people to build companies, to employ others, or achieve a high position so they can do well for themselves, their families, community, country or friends.  When properly used, the strength or power motivations are good.

     Having the desire for knowledge is having the wisdom to make intelligent decisions because wisdom helps to correct the use of the truth in the knowledge you have and the wisdom assists you to make good decisions and treat people in an ethical manner.  Once you are practicing it, it will give you a chance to have good friends, better family relationships, peace of mind and greater trust that things will be better.

     Unfortunately, in today’s society many people do not use honor as their main motivator.  Having the right approach gives you a chance of being rewarded, recognized and honored for the right reasons.  People who apply honor to their life are the men and women who have lived with integrity and been the servant of others.  Anyone who has used the other three motivating factors of wealth, strength and wisdom in an ethical manner, are motivated in contributing to others and are able to do more for themselves with the extra energy and feel good factor from assisting others. What is going on in the “inside” is what drives everything else.

     The fear of loss motivator…As for us firefighters, we would leap

into the fire without a plan for escape in the fear of losing our trapped victim to save their life and to mean something to them (by letting them know that we are here to help).  Another fear motivator example is; if we firefighters get a firefighter’s life insurance policy and we get killed in the line of duty, the insurance will send our family $10,000, if we don’t get the life insurance policy and we get killed, there is nothing to be sent to our family.  Which one of us do you think that they will put in the front line first?  The ones who get killed and cost the government nothing or the ones who get killed and cost the government $10,000?  This is one of the fear motivators to get what we want or need.  In most cases the fear motivation is short-lived because we get over our fear.  Having the fear of losing your job would motivate you to perform better, however it would be temporary.

     There are fears of ignorance motivators that will cause you to seek something that can be preventable.  Example:  Fear of losing your job inspires you to be on time or perform better, fear of disease motivates you practice healthy living, fear of losing your trapped victim to the fire to motivate us to save the victim.  These are healthy fears that motivate all people for survival.  However, don’t allow the fear to control your life to the point where is becomes devastating that produces failures.  The problem is not the fear but using it to be a good motivator in a healthy way.  Sometimes fear can be your enemy; however use it as a motivator for confidence. The biggest factor is to understand your own psychology and behavior.

MOVING FORWARD:

Motivators…Do you have what it takes to be a firefighter, the skills, risk taking, managing self-limiting beliefs, thriving in challenging situations, setting your own goals, potential to succeed, adventure, courage, motivation, commitment, and confidence? 

·          Having the desire of what you want to do.

·          The willingness to make it happen and to do what it takes to achieve what you want.

·          Having the courage, is when you believe you can achieve anything you dare to do without fear of the circumstances that you will face. It is about going against odds, by doing what most people are not willing to do. Choosing your own action and taking responsibility for your own self.

·          Pursue what it takes to create extraordinary achievement in your life. You have the dream in your heart, you have all the gifts, talents, skills and resources that you need to make your dream to come true. It is your choice to take action to go through the journey of struggles. Take the step forward.

·          Achieving the potential. Make the decision to pursue what it takes in life by refusing to give up. When you choose to do something else that will keep you away from achieving, you are not being true to yourself.  The struggle we make on the way to our dream is what makes us successful by dedicating your life in the pursuit of their dreams. No matter how hard the conflicts or circumstances are; there is more prosperity in overcoming it.

·          Be adventurous. Have the desire to do something great and to be somebody. Overcome fear and explore in trying new things.

·          Pushing past self-limitations in your mind. Training our minds for any kind of accomplishment takes time.  The statements you tell yourself influence what your beliefs and thoughts are. Your statements in your thoughts determine what you do, what you repeatedly do become your habits, and then your habit becomes your results. If you are not happy with your results, you can learn to change your statements to positive ones through the assistance of Heide’s book ‘Statements of Power’ (www.statementsofpower.com) then change what you say to yourself and surround yourself with people who also support and encourage your desire. Once you apply it you will be getting different results for the better.

·          Risk taking.  Focus on the purpose, not on the obstacles.  Grabbing the opportunity before it becomes lost opportunities, the rewards will be great.

·          Thriving in challenging situations.  You will face challenges on the way to achieve your purpose.  When the challenges come you can look at them in the eye and say “I can and will do my best, there is nothing you can do to stop me”.  By not quitting along the way will transform us.  Refuse to quit when the tough gets going, only look at the positive outcomes that will happen.

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