Situational Awareness: Standing in a Tornado & Other Distractions

 The human creature, in spite of its enormous brain power, can often glitch just a bit. For Example: looking for your car keys and realizing they are in your hand. Or, the moment you walk into a grocery store, you forget what you were planning to get.
Some street hustlers and politicians use this tendency we have to hyper focus on one thing to cause us to miss something else. Like a pickpocket team – while one bumps into the mark from the front, the one in the back lifts the wallet – the mark doesn’t have a clue that soon they will be canceling all their credit cards. 
Or sometimes there is the one who is in - head over heels – in so much that they can’t see that the other is just not that into them. Everyone else can see it – how did they miss it? 
There are times when distraction grabs us, and then we miss something critical. It can be a genuine problem.
This little parable comes from personal experience as a firefighter. The time I found myself standing in a tornado of fire - and not having a clue. 

Transcript

 Standing in a Tornado 

You are listening to An Ounce, Season 6, Episode 16, Standing in a Tornado and Other Distractions 

This ounce is a revealed in a personal experience. 

The human creature, in spite of its enormous brain power, can often glitch just a bit. For Example: looking for your car keys and realizing they are in your hand. Or, the moment you walk into a grocery store, forgetting what you were planning to get. 

Some street hustlers and politicians use this tendency we have to hyper focus on one thing to cause us to miss something else. Like a pickpocket team – while one bumps into the mark from the front, the one in the back lifts the wallet – the mark doesn’t have a clue that soon they will be canceling all their credit cards. 

Or sometimes there is the one who is in - head over heels – in so much that they can’t see that the other is just not that into them. Everyone else can see it – how did they miss it? 

There are times when distraction grabs us, and then we miss something critical. It can be a genuine problem. 

Back in the Day 

As an Old Retired Aircraft Firefighter, I can share with you that In years past, for training and practice, we used to use a shallow but rather wide circular pit. This pit was filled with liquid fuels – like jet fuel. **Generally, this pit was 50 to 100 feet across – and on occasion we’d create a metal mockup of an aircraft crash and place it in the center of the pit – for realism. 

Then, the “pit” was filled with flammable fuels. Aviation fuels and other liquid chemical waste. Stuff that was contaminated with a little water or other “stuff” (sometimes that other stuff really burned with pretty colors). Stuff that would have needed to be disposed of anyway kept the cost down.  These training ‘pit’ fires were absolutely realistic in the way they behaved during extinguishment. But if somebody did that today – I’m pretty sure the EPA would lose their ever-loving mind. 

I doubt anybody has any idea what kinds of pollutants we liberated into the air, and ground, during these training scenarios. ** 

These were really hot fires. Without protective clothing, you’d want to be 50 to 100 feet back to be comfortable. The bright orange flames could good 100 or more feet into the air, with lots of black billowing smoke. They would even produce their own weather. Because of the heat of the burning fuels, and the cooler air, we usually always got spectacular fire tornados.  **But, as we laid down the water and foam blanket, the flames would -begrudgingly- go out. ** 

The industry rightly stopped using such technics for training many years ago.  But, I digress. 

Progress, But We Still Got Tornados 

The state of the art for -simulated- realism now, are propane fired systems with burner nozzles and heat sensors. It works a little like a very oversized, backyard, Bar-B-Q grill. Its built with a grid of burners and sensors covering a few thousand square feet. ** Over the grid there is a layer, 4 to 6 inches deep, made up of 3-inch or larger gravel and rock to protect the gas lines and sensors. ** 

The system also has a control tower to overlook the entire simulator. From there, different patterns and difficulty of extinguishment are programmed into the burner grid, and the fuel is ignited. And there is in the tower, a big red ‘all stop’ button to shut everything down – with 3 or 4 seconds, if needed. 

Unlike the old pit fire technique of the past – there was not as much smoke **, your protective pant cuffs didn’t soak up liquid fuel, and nasty unknown pollutants didn’t seep into the ground, and… well, it didn’t smell quite as bad because the newer gear was more compatible with air tanks and facemasks to protect your respiratory system – this wasn’t a practical option back when. ** 

Like the old pit fire, we still got lots of heat. We even got a few fire tornados. This astonishing phenomenon would appear within the mass of the inferno, and swirling fire would powerfully roar a hundred feet or more into the sky. 

Unfortunately, with this giant gas grill, there could often be a little surprise. In places where the fire had stopped burning, unburned propane gas could percolate below the surface through the gravel and pop back up several yards from the fire. Then ignite on the still super-heated rocks, and just swirl a pillar of flame into the heavens in a whirlwind. After a minute or so, this rouge twister burned out by itself, or someone put it out. 

Doused Just in Time 

As a firefighter at the Airports Authority in DC, I got the chance to help train some of my peers from a neighboring jurisdiction.  This crew didn’t have much experience with really large flammable liquids fires – like jet fuel. Such a fire was a marked departure from house and other structures they usually dealt with. 

Their job was, in a three-person team, to discharge water (which the simulator would interpret as foam) through a hand-held hose line and nozzle. Then put out the fire as they dragged everything forward, and further into the simulator. If the work was done correctly, the fire would recede and eventually go out. But you really had to work at it. 

As we began, and they advanced, I was a bit in front of the hose line crew and to their left. I was watching and urging them on when one of those rouge fire’nado’s burst up engulfing my entire left side. 

Probably should have been startled and moved – but, I didn’t see it – or really feel it. I kind of remember hearing it woosh, and noted that my left side started getting warmer. But other than that, I was completely clueless. I felt no sense of danger. My face was turned away from this explosion, looking to the right – watching the crew advancing the hoseline, and one's field of vision is not that wide when wearing an SCBA facepiece. 

I recall a lot of unintelligible yelling over the radio – didn’t make sense, so I ignored it. Then, I was surprised and befuddled when I realized my team was turning the stream of high-pressure water on me. 

“What the heck?”, I thought. “Is this some kind of joke?” Thankfully, the firefighter in control of the nozzle adjusted the water stream into a bit of a fan shape, instead of continuing a very hard-hitting straight stream, which would have promptly put me flat on my butt. And then, standing there confused in a deluge of water, the left side of the lens of my facepiece began to craze (a common reaction solids often exhibit to being super-hot, and then instantly cooled). Moments later, the entire raging training fire went out – thanks to that red ‘all stop’ button in the control tower. 

I really didn’t comprehend what was happening to me. I felt a little threatened and confused by getting hosed down, and put out – once I understood, I was grateful. 

Fortunately, due to the amazing technology in the protective gear, an attentive observer in the tower, and a quick acting hose team – I was fine – a little bewildered, with first mild 1st degree burns on the left side of my neck and face – but fine. 

My protective gear was, however, another story. The extraordinary heat and fire-resistant materials had begun to turn black and contract. The reflective surfaces had burned completely off where they were in contact with my little pet fire’nado’. And my breathing-air face piece had lots of tiny little cracks on the left side – a few seconds more, I expect the formerly crystal-clear lens would’ve been done. 

As a quick aside - Those of you who have spouses and loved ones working in dangerous jobs – maybe now you know why sometimes they don’t talk about everything that happens. 

I told my wife this story for the first time a few days ago – after 15 years have passed. She said – “That’s frightening! its good you didn’t say anything when it happened, you wouldn’t have been allowed to go back to work.” 

Well, just as with any tale, there are many little “ounce-sized nuggets of wisdom” to be uncovered here. But, for now, might I suggest just this one. 

Here’s An Ounce from our little story about being oblivious to the obvious fire tornado, and the other important things that we might be blind to, or distracted from. 

Having established the fact that obvious events can be occurring that we are completely blind to – it’s important and comforting to have someone watching your back – someone who is willing and able to frustrate and confuse you, and to yank you out of the fire you didn’t know you were in. 

Thanks Guys! 

And, that’s it. An Ounce, submitted for your consideration.