Fireground commanders never know when a mayday will occur at an emergency scene. The statistics tell us that it will be at the beginning of an incident, it will involve ride-out or overtime officers, combined with younger inexperienced firefighters or entire crews that don’t work together all that much.
The focus quickly becomes the rescue of the co-worker. Those events have been described as loud, faster than normal events that create anxiety and stress for everyone involved, especially the incident commander. Unusual events tend to draw the attention of everyone at the scene. It’s the fireground version of distracted driving. Everyone is focused on the mayday and that makes sense as we care for the well-being of our co-workers. However, sometimes the obvious (the actual fire itself) is missed, because we are distracted.
In 1972, an Eastern Airlines passenger plane crashed into the everglades killing 101 people on board. It turns out that during the flight, a light bulb for the landing gear had burnt out. The three pilots on the flight deck were so distracted by the malfunctioning light that they did not notice they were in a slow descent. Distracted flying.
In most mayday trainings, instructors take the time to mention that we still need to fight the fire while the mayday rescue activities are being conducted. That is easier said that done, but it is good advice. Helping firefighters and company officers not involved as the rapid intervention team train to fight the fire and not concentrate on the burned out light bulb should be part of every mayday training. It will take some extra effort, but may well be steps we need to take to avoid a second problem on a mayday fireground. As unnerving as a mayday may be, we still need to fly the plane.
The Third Bugle 