Officially, the first fire department based rescue service started here in Jacksonville on November 9th, 1967. Around the same time SCBA’s were beginning to appear as well. Many of you may have heard when the JFRD first bought SCBA’s, they stayed in the shipping boxes, in a compartment, on the engines. The reason: everyone was comfortable with canister masks. So what got Jacksonville to start using them? Unfortunately it was Lt. Newton Eugene Johnson. On August. 6, 1970, Lt. Newton Eugene Johnson was overcome by heat and smoke and died when the roof of an A&P Supermarket at San Juan and Hershel streets collapsed while he was fighting a fire inside. It was his first day as a roving officer assigned to Engine 14. Lt. Johnson was posthumously honored as the Fireman of the Year. He died from anoxia as canister masks did not provide oxygen. The very next day, Chief of the Department, John J. Hubbard gave the order to remove all canister masks from service and began to use SCBA’s. Voila, we’re still using them today and with the improvement in breathing times with the SCBA, and the quality of our structural gear, we are fighting fire longer, hotter, and more aggressively than ever before.
Rescue had its issues too. In the beginning it was cool to go to a scene and get covered in blood and guts. For rescue, that was a badge of honor to have blood all over you. Then in the 1980’s and 90’s blood borne pathogens began affecting EMS workers here and in other places. Many of our veteran Rescue workers, those who started Rescue in America as we know it, began being diagnosed with these diseases. Know what came next? Latex gloves. It’s hard to believe that it wasn’t until the mid-1990’s that Universal Precautions were accepted universally. We still were responding to calls and getting blood & guts all over us. After Universal Precautions policies came out, it was updated to B.S.I. and now, we avoid body substances like it’s the plague….that’s probably because it could be! We have gloves for our hands and feet, sleeves for our arms, shields for our eyes, filters for our patient A/C unit, HEPA-masks, and the list goes on.
What is the badge of honor for firefighters at structure fires? Smoke and everything that comes with it. Think about this: the minute you get a new set of gear or a new helmet, you can’t wait to go to a fire to dirty it up! I know, I’ve been there too. As a rookie, you would do snow angels on the floor of a burned out house just to make your gear look cooler; I hope your laughing, but you know it’s true. Even today, if you don’t come back with soot and char all over your gear and body, the assumption is you didn’t work. I’m here to tell you the blood and guts of the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s are the products of combustion we all wear after a fire today. Instead of air and blood borne pathogens getting you, it’s the carcinogens, but just like Rescue, not everyone got sick, and the same is true with firefighting, not everyone will develop cancer but why risk the chance? So what do we do about it?
This is just the beginning of some information I will be sending your way to get you to think about how we are approaching fires forty years after we switched to SCBA’s.
Until the next email comes out I want you to think about this: What do you envision is a hazmat call? Do you see a spill, leak, or fire? What is the product you’re thinking of? Propane, natural gas, methyl-ethyl-death stuff? Is it coming from a pipe, tank, container, semi-truck, or warehouse? Is it a liquid, a gas or some type of solid like powder calls?
In Structure Fires Part-2, I will begin to challenge your perspective of what a hazmat call is and what it looks like. Don’t worry, there won’t be quiz.
Respectfully,
Kurtis R. Wilson
Chief of Operations
Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department