Not long ago, JIM made a remark about offensive vs. defensive philosophies when comparing Dutch and American firefighting methods. That rang a bell in my brain about an article I had read a while ago, but it took this long to remember where I had read it.
Here's a Wired magazine article on the concept of "3-D" firefighting. I don't know if this concept has anything to do with what JIM was referring to in that old message, but I thought it was an interesting read. For forum readers in the fire service in the U.S., I'm curious if you have ever been exposed to these techniques yet? From the article, it sounds like most haven't, at least not more than simply hearing/reading about the techniques. The article says that this is the now the standard method used by the fire services in the UK and Sweden for structural fires. I have no idea if it's also true of Holland.
I'm almost half afraid to post this since I figure that some readers will feel very passionate about the topic and the article (like referencing an article that denigrates your favorite caliber of ammunition as being "inadequate"), but I think it's an important concept to expose people to if they haven't already and it's an interesting article even for non-firefighter people. I know we have readers from the fire services of different countries here, so let's try to keep things civil and not take comments made about "your" firefighting method too personally.