You Never Want To Run Out Of Water When It’s Avoidable
I ran out of water as a new captain. We were clearing a medical aid call and a group of people rounded the corner of a residential street frantically waving us down. We were caught off guard to say the least. As we rounded the corner, I saw a single vehicle fully engulfed in fire with two cars immediately adjacent to the blaze. I called it in on the radio and my firefighters quickly got in their turnout gear. The firefighter that pulled the hose line was a brand new probationary firefighter, and he opened the line on full gallons per minute lobbing water from a long ways away. Too far away (rookie move). Myself and the engineer encouraged him to move closer. As the firefighter moved closer in, the fuel tank on the car ruptured, sending burning fuel running down the street, igniting brush on an embankment. Some of the flames lapped up to the undersides of the uninvolved cars. It was about to be a three car blaze…plus a vegetation fire.
Usually for car fire, 500 gallons off the tank is plenty of water, but this time was different. The new firefighter strained against the force of a full gallon per minute hose line awkwardly (he should have gated the gallons per minute down). It all happened so fast that I didn’t have time to scout out any hydrants on my computer. I focused all of my energy on making sure this kid didn’t kill himself. I called for another engine company to respond and shortly thereafter we ran out of water. The engineer, dressed in his blues (non turnout gear uniform) looked panicked. He grabbed some four inch hose and took off barreling down the street into the darkness. I could hear him cussing up a storm. He had made it 400 ft. to the closest hydrant, dragging a total of 332 lbs. of 4″ hose to the hydrant. I helped him connect the hose to the rig, we got a water supply, and with our tails between our legs, proceeded to make quick work of the car and the burning fuel before the other engine arrived. It was humbling. Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. I was pissed at myself. Embarrassed. It was avoidable.
An Appreciation For The Engineer
Any one who has ever sat in the driver’s seat of the humble fire engine can appreciate this post and if you haven’t been there, that’s OK. I’ll do my best to explain the job of a fire engineer on the fire ground. You’ve already heard about the absolute horror of running out of water when it truly does matter. I thought I’d use this analogy because it is only from this position of absolute desperation can we truly appreciate the magic of passive income in firefighter’s terms.
The job of a fire engineer is quite possibly the most fun position in the fire service. If you are mechanically inclined and like to drive “big red,” the amount of pride you take in your work directly influences your performance at a magnitude greater than any other position in the fire service. No matter the call, if you know your district and can get the crew there safely, you are a hero in my book. The best engineers are always thinking proactively on scene, getting equipment put in place that the crew might need before they ask for it. They are a one person show of extreme logistics and can make the difference between a smooth call and a day long epic emergency that could have only lasted an hour at best. They are truly the unsung heroes of the fire service, and in the first few minutes of a fire, they are 100% the make or break factor in success.
Once at scene of a working fire, the one of the engineer’s main job is to get the firefighters water to whatever hose line they pulled. They ensure it’s adequately pressurized. Not too much and definitely not too little. After this, it is usually a race against time to find a water supply. During most of our fires, the first arriving engine responds directly at scene and provides initial water from the on board water tank. For our apparatus, this amounts to roughly 500 gallons of water. At a minimum, the firefighters need to flow at least 150 gallons per minute, but often max out their gallons per minute setting to 200 gallons. What does this mean?
This leaves the engineer a little over two minutes of flowing water to figure out where they are going to get their next water source from. If no other apparatus or personnel are around to help, it can be chaos. It involves a frantic look for the closest hydrant, followed by a strenuous pull of 4″ hose to the hydrant, a mad dash back to the rig to make the connections, another dash to the hydrant to open it up, and finally a home run sprint to the pump panel to introduce the new water supply. This evolution, known as “the changeover” in SDFD, is the crucible for all firefighters aspiring to promote to engineer. Although rehearsed often, the evolution is still stressful in training, and damn near white knuckle during a real fire when it counts. Once the change over is completed though, the apparatus is tapped into virtually unlimited water, and the engineer can breath a momentary sigh of relief before moving onto the next task. It shouldn’t be this stressful on the fire ground, or in our finances.
Many of our training evolutions put us in the most trying of situations. We tangle firefighters in wires, blindfold them and give them a half full air cylinder and make them disentangle themselves before they run out of air. We practice tying our ropes upside down and behind our backs so no matter how we are oriented, we can get the job done. As firefighters, we thrive on excelling in the worst of circumstances and we train accordingly. “The changeover” is the engineer’s version of this, yet showing up to a fire without a reliable water supply is an error departments nationwide make all of the time. We are essentially throwing our engineers into a loosing situation. We are giving them the worst case scenario over and over. Sometimes it is unavoidable, such as when you are on the freeway or far from the reliability of a municipal water grid. All the same, it is something I have done both as an engineer, and shamefully as a captain as well.
Alternatives
As a company officer, I have committed myself to improving my water supply discipline. As we respond to a fire, I look at the incident map and identify close by hydrants for my engineer. I look at other incoming units and how far they are away from the scene. Maybe those other engine companies can help my engineer secure a water supply. Maybe there is a hydrant close to scene. However, if the equation of visible fire conditions, adjacent units, and hydrant spacing doesn’t add up, I will gladly sacrifice a firefighter to stay at a hydrant and we will lay a water supply line away from the hydrant to the scene so we can attack the fire with unlimited fire stopping resources. That worst case “change over” scenario is an acceptable risk for some situations, but not all. I want to go out on a limb to promise this to myself: when avoidable, I will do everything in my power to ensure we do not ever run out of water on a fire.
Financial Applications
What does this analogy have to do with your personal finances? Well for one, if you consider your biweekly paycheck the tank on the fire engine, and the fire your monthly bills, wanted vacation, or new toys on your wish list, how close are you to running out of water every month? How big of a fire can you handle on just your tank? I know right now, I’m relegated to small car fires, small vegetation fires, and maybe a room and contents structure fire. If you consider the flow from a fire hydrant passive income, wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to extinguish a whole city block that is on fire!?!?! Passive income is exactly as it sounds. It’s a relativity “set it and forget it,” approach to increasing your capacity to do more without having to work more. Whether it’s real estate income, dividend from stocks, or a huge number of other passive income streams, it’s all the same magic. It’s putting other resources (assets) to work, so you don’t have to. It does come with some key ideas that I want to highlight.
It Takes Some Up Front Work
For an engineer, getting a water supply takes some work up front. Sometimes you have to drag heavy hose a long ways to connect to the hydrant. You strain under the weight of the hose and the desperation of not wanting your firefighters to run out of water is stressful. Sometimes you need to rely on your adjacent crews and ask for help to coordinate a successful operation. In the financial world, you need to do the same thing, whether it is in real estate, stocks, businesses, etc. You need to put in the work up front. You need to ask for help. The stress of running out of money might be as bad as running out of water for your firefighters inside.
Sometimes Passive Income Isn’t So Passive
Engineers on a remote wild land fire can attest to this fact. Sometimes we fight fire where there aren’t any hydrants available for miles. In this case, our water supply is achieved by shuttling, which is essentially entails a fleet of apparatus whose sole mission is to fill up water at a hydrant or other water source and then bring it to the engines in need of water. Constant connecting, filling, and disconnecting is the game of that engineer at the pump panel. The financial world is no different in some cases. I currently swing trade stocks and trade options on my long term holdings via covered calls. I am working on automating things, but am not 100% there. Monday through Fridays involve a few daily checks of my stock positions to ensure my trades aren’t working against me. However, compared to working an overtime shift at a busy station, it is way more passive of an income flow.
Start Small
The engineer in the example I gave dragged 400′ of 4″ hose in a superhuman feat of strength to a hydrant ahead of the engine. That was no easy task. While respectable, I would like to point out that a car fire doesn’t usually require that much water and hydrants have 2 1/2″ discharges. 400″ of 2 1/2″ hose weighs a lot less than that 4″ hose and would get the job done. It would have been faster and easier to accomplish the task with 2 1/2″ hose. The same concept goes for your passive income streams. Consider the expenses you would like to cover by that income stream and tailor accordingly. Start small. You can always add more supply lines and you can always generate new passive income streams.
Diversify Your Income Streams
Sometimes even fire hydrants can run out of water. This happens from time to time. If you have a large scale fire, and multiple engines and trucks are plugged into hydrants that are on the same water grid series, you can easily run out of water. The most current analogy in finance that I can think of is for the landlords out there during the COVID pandemic. With eviction moratoriums, some landlord’s reliable real estate passive income streams systematically dried up over the last year as unemployed tenants exercised their legal right not to pay. Those landlords have bills to pay too, and its questionable who will be left in the poor house. Diversifying your passive income streams is paramount for peace of mind.
Plan Ahead
Driving to a fire can be stressful as hell, or if you are a professional, it can be calming. As a firefighter, I developed a ritualistic approach to riding to a fire. I’d listen intently to the radio traffic for situational awareness, take a sip of water, add any specific tools I though I would need to my turnouts, and focus on staying calm. Woooo Sahhhhh. I tried to focus on having a clear head, no matter the noise. As a captain, I try to keep a calm voice. I try to give clear directions, and I give my engineer ever single chance to be successful in getting my crew water when it matters the most. As we get closer to the incident, I call out hazards, concerns, and known water supplies. If things are looking more intense than normal, I ask for assistance in getting a water supply for my engineer so they don’t have to make that call. They have enough to deal with. Essentially, I aim to size up the emergency and make the arrangements necessary for success ideally before the problem occurs. When developing your passive income streams, identify what kind of expenses your are anticipating, identify income streams, ask for help if need be, and set yourself up for success. Be proactive. Plan ahead. It will go a lot easier.
In Closing
Learn from my stupid mistake on a nothing fire. Yes a lot did go wrong on that fire that shouldn’t have, but it did. I was responsible for not addressing ALL contingencies. Luckily this incident ended well, and I am happy to lick my wounds, let my bruised ego heal, and emerge smarter and more resilient for the next fire. As I increase my financial knowledge, I am fortunate to be in a position where my expenses are less than my income. I have never run out of water. I have family that I can ask for help if need be. I have some savings. However, I have come to realize that through inflationary pressures, future expenses, and the want for a better life and financial freedom, this won’t always be the case. Passive income is the way to go.
The Firefighter Economist 