Acting up

[OscarTango]

Any good war stories/advice for new JOs starting out acting up/newly promoted?

It's such a massive step, how do you deal with getting experience to new bods on your stations? Any memorable first shouts in charge? 

With the big slew of new recruits across the country and retirements after no recruitment for so long I imagine there's lots of people finding themselves in the front near side seat for the first time...

[Luminoki]

Not mine ( different watch ) but the initial Incident commander of this had been in his CC role for 20 minutes

House fire

No war stories for me, first shout in charge was an RTC rollover where the driver was out of the car ( and out of their head on Nos ) Second set left in charge we had two separate fatals before lunchtime

Dont be afraid to ask for advice. From everyone around you, even the trainee if they have a skill outside the job

[BurtMacklin]

lead from the front. when you can, make sure you’re still helping make up the kit, getting your boots wet and gear dirty and generally be prepared to do anything you ask your firefighters to do. 

[Messyshaw]

I would say don't worry about arriving at a decent job first/alone, but instead prepare for those crappy 'nothing' jobs that can catch you out

A smell of burning from an unidentified source, an apparent malicious false alarm from an area where they are frequent, the rubbish chute you've attended a thousand times before.

They may be bread & butter shouts when you are in the back of the pump, but now they feel a slightly heavier load now it's your backside that will be kicked if it goes wrong

My first shout as T/Lfm (as it was then) was a daytime school fire. I knew the school was empty as the building firm I part timed at were converting this beautiful victorian structure to flats

When we arrived it was a former WW2 aur raid shelter. It had brick walls and a single 6" thick concrete slab as a flat roof

The builders had loaded it with rubbish and torched it to crack the slab and make it collapse

Do I put it out or leave it? The LFB aren't a fan of burning out under control, but commiting a crew under the slab wasn't an option and it wasn't doing any harm. Plus I knew the site foreman who I could trust

So we left it to burn under the condition if we were called again, we would put it out

Its a nothing job, but making that decision - my first as oic - was really stressful 😳

[SB6089]

Don’t discount the experience you have in the back, a rank doesn’t necessarily mean you know best in the politest way possible. Your colleagues may have seen, done or been to something similar so don’t be afraid to pipe up and say I’ve not seen this or do you guys have any ideas. Seen too many ICs shut out the ideas of FFs on the basis they (the ic) know best. 
 

Calling your fellow ICs on the watch or at neighbouring stations for solutions at a sticky incident is great too. Often as LF or CCs on a pump, we pick up the weird and wonderful thinking jobs. Fires and RTCs are the easy ones would you believe it! 
 

You’ve got this dude 👏👏

[JonnyHolbs]

My first job acting up was a shut in lift. ‘Pretty standard’ I hear you say. It was at a hospital, there were two people in there- a patient who was mid surgery, and a doctor shouting about ‘if we don’t get him out of here quickly we’re going to have a cardiac event’. It was all a bit 5p 50p if you know what I mean.