Patch Learns to Crawl Before Walking

The expression you need to learn to crawl before you can walk could have been said about firefighting. 

When I led a recent search and rescue live burn drill with the Enterprise Fire Co. of Hatboro, I learned that these mighty volunteer heroes who extinguish fires, save people and rescue our pets too, do so, mostly, on their hands and knees.

I had forgotten the "stop, drop and roll" message from school and I attempted to walk in to the West Lehman Avenue home. My crew, meanwhile, was on all fours crawling through the first floor of the building looking for occupants.

Enterprise Fire Chief Keith Gordon shared that crawling–instead of walking–is safer for several reasons. First, heat, particularly from a fire, rises and firefighters can feel a marked difference from the ground to the standing position. Second, if heat from the fire has weakened the floor, it is safer to crawl in there and feel with a tool than walk in and possibly fall through the floor. 

I also learned that while wearing 50 pounds of gear, including a mask, firefighters can not walk up stairs to the second floors of buildings in the way that most of us non-firefighters do. Instead, Gordon suggested that I, like the rest of his team, walk sideways up the steps.

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