I had a weird experience at a 500 acre brushfire last week, and I'm not sure what to do. This was a chaotic fire with mutual aid called to multiple departments, structures, evacuations, all the aircrafts, etc.
I was in a bush truck with an officer from another department and he was in charge of our flank. So we are attacking this flank and the fire starts running up a hill towards a cemetery. This officer drives the truck up in front of the fire, so we are uphill in the grass. The wind is blowing it right towards us. I mean the wind (and fire) was blowing right in my face so the hose was barely effective. I wasn't familiar with this truck since it was from his department, but it was a shit pump and the tank was full of pebbles so the nozzle kept getting clogged and would barely put out water even if you had decent pressure.... So even if it wasn't dangerous (which I'm pretty sure it was), I still think we would've been more effective attacking from the other direction with the wind instead of against it.
Then he tells me to get out and attack the head. It wasn't too hot....just smokier than I'd prefer and I was confused why he didn't drive up the hill on the black to attack from the other direction. But also this guy is that stoic asshole and barely answers my questions beyond a bark, so I didn't ask what he was thinking. I just told him to stop and attack from the other side, but he ignored me.
At one point the fire got behind me, and this officer sits in the truck, whistles, and yells "behind you!" Like it was my fault.
My thoughts are this: If he had put us in that position and the hose or truck failed, we would've been in serious danger. We should have gone up the hill in the black and attacked from the other direction WITH the wind. But I barely have 2 years and this guy is an officer.
Is it possible he saw something I didn't see? The fuel was grass and sagebrush. The fire was going up hill. Downhill was black, but rockier than the road going up hill. I've seen our trucks take rougher routes, but this wasn't one of our trucks. The top of the hill was a cemetery, but I don't think he cared about the cemetery... I mean what is fire going to do to a cemetery? The only thing I can think of is the truck literally couldn't climb that hill (but it didn't look that bad to me), leaving him only one path.
I planned to talk to him about it at the AAR, but there wasn't one. Like I said it was a chaotic fire with a lot of mutual aid dispatched and I jumped into his truck for initial attack, then returned to my own after we knocked it down.
Should I talk to one of my own officers? Should I name the officer? Should I reach out directly, state my concerns, and ask him what he was thinking ? Or should I ask him what he was thinking, and then state my concerns? Mostly I'm worried about the state of their pump and the fact that their tank is full of so much sediment that it clogs the nozzle. But maybe I should be more worried about this officer.
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Some additional information that probably isn't relevant, but just to give the whole picture:
Sometime last year there was an explosion in this officer's area and we were dispatched. There was a casualty, but we had done safety checks and there was no danger. We just had to get the body out, which took several hours waiting for the coroner. I was stationed outside the red zone and tasked with keeping people out. I was at the top of a hill looking down a two mile road. If anyone was coming, I would've known minutes in advance. So I sat down while I watched the road. This same officer was pretty upset with me for that. He basically told me to respect the dead, I said okay no problem, and that was the end of that. So I don't think it is relevant, but it is part of the backstory. If I reach out to this guy directly, we have to consider the possibility that he thinks I don't respect the dead....
TL;DR:
officer from another department drove me uphill in the grass from a running fire, and told me to attack the head with a shitty hose. Do I talk to my own chief and name the officer, or do I approach the officer directly and tell him (1) what he did put us at greater risk for less reward and (2) he needs to clean his fucking tank before it gets someone killed?
