March | 2016 | FIREFIGHTER RESCUES

Words below from West Metro (Colorado) Firefighter Ben Shultz complimenting the rescue posted earlier made by Denver FD.

Why do I share and “like” this photo? It is not to perpetuate a “cowboy” mentality or because I congratulate DFD guys for being “in the shit” and being “salty”. No, it’s because they did their job. They did the job they signed up for. They took serious risks to save an unprotected civilian’s life. They put “them” before “us”. I do not, and never have, advocate walking through a wall of flames without any regard to our well-being. But I absolutely advocate training, training, training, learning, learning, learning so that when presented with such dire circumstances we can take steps towards a successful outcome. Some have looked at these pictures and said what they did was “too risky” (without having been at the fire, mind you). It’s important that we understand the difference between risk and consequence. Consequences don’t change, i.e. if things go poorly I could die on the job. Death is a consequence of a bad day on our job. Risk is a game of odds that we can affect. Risk can be mitigated. Hence, if I choose the recliner over the drill ground, I increase my risk of meeting up with my consequence. Once again, we can mitigate risk. We can have a say in how likely we are to meet our consequence or not. We do this through training, knowledge and experience.
I share and “like” this photo not because they were “getting after it”, but because I want them responding to my house when my family is trapped. We’re not only the unprotected citizens’ best chance, we’re their only chance if they haven’t made it out on their own. Train and act accordingly. Nice job, DFD.

Below are Additional Words and Photos from 5280 Fire:

Additional photos of the firefighting gear used during a civilian rescue and fire attack operations at a suspected wind-driven fire event in a 3 story occupied multiple dwelling fire in Denver, Colorado on 3/14/16.