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Lt. Rom Duckworth and Chief Rob Wylie dig into the report that offered over 200 recommendations after a Houston hotel fire claimed four firefighters’ lives.
One of the takeaways were improved communication, which also means confessing that you don’t have the answers but are working on it.
“If you create a vaccuum of information, someone’s going to fill it,” said Chief Wylie, and more often than not, they’re going to fill it incorrectly.”
“And it’s still a difficult thing to say that you don’t know, you’re looking into it, you’re still going to get the frustration,” Lt. Duckworth added. “But it at least it let’s people know we’re staying in contact with you, and you’re letting them know that you care.”
Another recommendation was a line of duty death taskforce to be put together within the department, among others.
“Chances are, no one in your department has been through a line of duty death, God willing,” said Chief Wylie.
“The things that need to happen both from a statutory standpoint, from a human standpoint, and from a procedural and departmental culture standpoint have to be managed by someone who kinda knows the ropes.”
“How could you not want to benefit from people who have already prepared for it, have already gone through it?” said Lt. Duckworth.
They also offer some tips for company officers, including using their experience to evaluate the scene in as much detail as possible, and smoke reading.
Here are some of the articles and resources discussed in this week’s podcast:
Report: Houston fatal hotel fire committee makes 200 safety recommendations
Houston Fire Department Report
Houston’s 10 rules of survival after LODDs
Two Houston firefighters killed in house fire
