Do You Know Where Your Men Are?
Volunteers Corner
Collapse! This single word can and should cause even the most experienced firefighter to miss a heartbeat. Many very good articles have been written on this subject addressing building construction, fire spread, and the warnings that fire buildings will usually give us prior to the actual collapse. Some articles have even addressed the strategies and tactics that should be employed after the collapse, such as the tight control that the incident commander must exercise during this critical time, especially if civilians and/or firefighters have not been accounted for.
Accounting for civilians can be a fairly easy task if, for instance, we are fighting a fire in a single-family private dwelling. However, accounting for civilians can be almost an impossibility if the fire is in transient occupancies such as hotels, theaters, stores, etc.
On the other hand, accounting for the firefighting force is always easy. Right? The incident commander can always get an accurate account of his firefighters from his line officers or dispatcher at any given moment. Right?
I think many of you are shaking your heads no; and most are saying, “How do you know exactly who and how many firefighters are at an incident until you see the sign-out sheet?” That’s my point.
In most volunteer fire departments, we sign out from alarms, not in. The practice of signing out, which has been accepted for many years, is fine for record keeping, but leaves something to be desired at a collapse or other emergency where the problem of accountability may exist.
The problem of accountability grows directly with the size of your department, with how your department mans its apparatus, and with the types of construction in your response district. With a small department, we might consider putting a Plexiglas-covered roster and a grease pencil on the dashboard of the apparatus. This roster can be used by the officer (or member in charge) as a simple checkoff list. After the apparatus is on the road, a double check should be made for anyone who may have mounted the truck late.
Again, the biggest disadvantage of this system comes with department growth. The list may become unbearably long, and it might be hard to find all the names. This checkoff list will also work in departments that run on a company level (ladder personnel only ride on ladder company trucks, etc.). This can, in some cases, make the list more manageable.
If a list of this nature is out of the question, you might consider a tag system. A tag can be placed on each member’s turnout coat or on a board with his name on it. The responding member removes the tag and places it in a receptacle (perhaps a bucket). If the need arises, the tags can be assembled and brought to the fire scene so that a roll call can be completed.
The first reaction to those responding in their private cars seems to present no great problem, since we know our members and the cars they drive. If the need arose, we could just send two or three firefighters down the street to make a list of names based on vehicle ownership.
As I went deeper into this area, many variables arose that might not stop you, but may slow down the information gathering process considerably;
- The spouse’s car that is not associated with the firefighter,
- Company cars that change frequently,
- And, of course, two or more members in one car.
This list of variables can be endless. And, as you see, all increase the accountability problem.
We know that the line officer has a responsibility to not only meet his fireground objective, but to know which personnel are performing which assigned tasks. We also know that strict or modified buddy systems are a must and “freelancing” is out. However, through many collapse and building construction articles, not to mention experiences, we have found that some buildings are prone to localized collapse, while others are prone to total collapse with the possibility of entrapping not only the firefighters, but also the line officer with his mental personnel list. Couple these problems with mutual aid and a horrifying problem turns into complete chaos.
Somehow, someway the incident commander must be able to account for the location of all his firefighters.
I was almost sorry that I started on this subject, for it’s ludicrous of me to think that I can solve this problem for every department with just one answer, one absolute.
The lifeblood of the fire service has always been sharing. If you have solved the problem of accountability, how about sharing your solution? If you haven’t, maybe you should.
