It is getting close to the zero hour when I'll be moving from Atlanta to Houston in a job-transfer related change. I am actually excited, but I am also sad to be leaving the friends who have managed to tolerate me for the past two decades that I have called North Atlanta home. I will carry many memories with me, here is just one:

Many of you know that I am a firefighter/EMT with the Roswell Fire Department. I will be turning in my bunker gear, boots and helmet today, and bidding farewell to a portion of my life that I never realized was such a big deal. From now on, all of my fire fighting references will be past-tense. My heart will still race when I hear a Federal Q siren winding up, but it will be someone else mashing the button.

I became a fireman late in life as firefighters go - I was 39 years old on that Tuesday night, January 4, 2000, when I first declared my intention to become a firefighter to the assembled group at Roswell Fire Station Number One. Of those assembled with me many didn't make it to the end. Even the fellow elected as our class president bailed before the finish line. Our class had an attrition rate of about thirty-five or forty percent which I'm told is about average. Finally, on a cold-but-clear Saturday morning, we were adjudicated by certified evaluators.

The first trial was to go from "street clothes" to "packed out" in our gear, including breathing air through the SCBA, in less than two minutes. I made it with about 12 seconds to spare. One of my good friends through out the class had a problem with his face mask, got flustered and missed the mark. He was so upset that he just gathered his things, hopped in his Jeep and squealed his tires as he sped out of the parking lot. I made it through the rest of the day, with only one "do-over", until the last evolution - searching the building for a victim.

The instructor has a prepared script that he reads verbatim for consistency to the candidate. He then has a list of items that the candidate is expected to say, or do, during the trial. The candidate must do a certain number of the items on the list in order to pass, however some of the items are deemed critical, and failure to do any of these will result in an automatic failure of test. For example, finding a victim would obviously be a critical element of "victim search". To come out empty-handed would be an automatic fail. But there were also other "gotchas" like not wearing the proper protective equipment, losing track of your partner, etc.

The instructions were given to me, and another firefighter, who was already on the department but was there to help out with the testing and had volunteered to be my partner. I was certain that he said that the "victim" would be in the room I was to search. I took off as lead firefighter, doing a right-hand search; my partner hanging on to my left pants cuff. There was a door in one corner of the room but since the victim was "in the room" I passed it by, thinking it was out-of-bounds. When I rounded the fourth corner of the room and got back to my point of origin without finding a victim, I was beyond worried. How could I have not found the victim? It was not a large room and we had covered it completely. The only option was to go back to that "out-of-bounds" door and look inside. There was a time limit, but we still had some time remaining so off we went. When we got to that door, we went in and sure enough, there was the victim dummy. I was relieved and angry, but mostly relieved. I had passed the final hurdle and learned a few important lessons in the process.

These lessons have actually come in handy many time since.

1. Make sure you know where the boundaries are. I could have asked the evaluator if side rooms were out-of-bounds before I went in but didn't. I would have found the victim in under a minute if I had that little piece of knowledge.

2. Listen to the advice of older and wiser partners. He suggested that we search the room when we came to it but I was certain in my ignorance that it was out-of-bounds so we pressed on. Once we had made the 360 he suggested the side room again and of course found our objective.

3. Don't give up if your first attempt doesn't yield the expected results. Re-group, re-evaluate, and revise your strategy. Seek more data and more sources of data.

4. Even if you are convinced that something is out-of-bounds, don't be so bull-headed as to ignore it. At least give it a quick glance.

These lessons learned apply to much more of life than just victim searches in burning buildings. Hopefully now that you are armed with my experience you will be able to avoid fruitlessly "going in circles" like I did that day.

Scott