Sometimes you just have to wonder what people are thinking.  In the fire, rescue and EMS service a good, persistent training regimen is vital.  And I believe that the great majority of first-responders not only desire good training, but they genuinely want to learn and benefit from that training.  That’s why hands-on classes and seminars are routinely filled and popular.

For that reason I am puzzled when I hear about people taking shortcuts or otherwise ignoring the training that they take the time to acquire.  Recently we posted an update on the EMT certification scandal that is ongoing in Massachusetts (HERE) where re-certs were handed out without any actual training going on.  There’s no argument that what those “instructors” did were criminal acts.  But what about the hundreds of EMT”s who went along with it and accepted the bogus certifications?  Have they no conscience?  Are they void of any personal integrity?  Why would you want to work alongside somebody who has such little concern for their own performance?

Now comes another eye-opener, this time from the fire side.  A preliminary report has been issued from Spotsylvania County, Virginia, following a house fire where not only were the tactics dubious in themselves, but they had a victim inside who perished even though the responding firefighters knew she was there.  I won’t rehash the event now, but the revelations of what went on are astounding.

Chief Billy Goldfeder summarized the report yesterday in Firefighter Close Calls HERE and it is simply inexplicable what happened.  The report is filled with instances of excessive free-lancing, disregarding commands from the IC, not following established procedures, and blatantly ignoring basic fireground tactics and practices.  In other words, all the training that these firefighters have received was left in the classroom after they piled out from the last session.  They received the training (presumably) but they never learned.  You don’t absorb that stuff by osmosis, you have to (a) apply yourself to learning what is being taught and (b) you must have the self-discipline to apply what you’ve learned and to follow the rules.

This type of behavior is alien to me and I am puzzled that so many people are behaving this way.  This culture of carelessness and disregard for the people you are supposed to be helping needs to be nipped NOW.

*  *  *  *  *

At yesterday’s Lineup we spent a couple of minutes looking at HP’s new feature being added to their printers called ePrint.  If you missed it, go back and read about it HERE because I believe it will be sweeping the computer world rapidly and become a staple of all printers with more and more people using wireless devices for their web work and browsing.  You’ll recall that it allows you to send commands to your printer back home from your laptop or smartphone from wherever you are.  Neat stuff.

The reason I’m bringing up the subject again today is because later I got to thinking.  If HP is rolling out this new advanced design in all of their printers, they just might be discounting the remaining stock in their warehouses and giving incentives to the retailers to knock down the prices to clearance levels.  I checked around and I was right.  I looked at the all-in-ones because that is the most practical choice if you’re going to buy a personal printer these days, and if you think you’re going to be needing one soon, think about getting one now.  HP’s all-in-ones are already knocked down by as much as 40% HERE.   So take a look.

Before we plan on how to spend the paycheck though, let’s get this equipment checked out.  I’m going to start another pot of coffee.