Repetition and Exception
FIREGROUND OPERATIONS
Standard operating procedures cover the first so the fireground commander can concentrate on the second.
Perhaps the greatest problem faced by the person in charge at a fire scene is decision-making. Since people have the propensity to do what they darn well please, command and control can’t be left to chance.
How will the person in charge be able to make all the decisions needed in a timely fashion under extreme pressure? Now that we have the incident command system, the fireground commander can delegate sectors of the operation. That changes the decisionmaking point, but it doesn’t make the decision-making process any easier.
Fortunately, there is a way to solve command and control problems: Create standard operating procedures.
There are two basic types of decisions, and one lends itself to SOPs better than the other.
You have the routine, repetitive decisions which will have to be made at every fire, regardless of type, size, or location. Questions such as w’hich apparatus will respond, where they’ll position, and what they should do will have pretty much the same answers whenever there’s the normal, structural fire—our meat and potatoes operation.
On the other hand, you have the threshold decisions which require the full treatment using your favorite decision-making system. They require you to analyze data, discover the real problem, develop solutions, select the best option, carry it out, and then evaluate its effect. These types of decisions can really tax your brainpower.
The fireground commander should have as many decisions made ahead of time as possible, then apply the theory of management by exception. This will leave the mind free to respond to the unique combination of variables of the particular fire the incident commander happens to be fighting.
This is what SOPs allow you to do. They’re guidelines for how’ you should function in a given situation. They concentrate on what you’re supposed to do by leaving the specifics of how to do it up to you, based on the variables in a given fireground situation.
A typical example might concern apparatus response in a volunteer fire department that has found that daytime responses can be light in personnel. To ensure that the initial attack on all daytime, structural fires is as strong as possible, this department sends out its combination pumper ladder unit first, because it has water, self-contained breathing apparatus, hose, ground ladders, and the aerial. It can do more with whoever is available to respond.
From the top
Who writes the SOPs? It’s up to the fire chief to decide on procedural matters.
The basis of fireground SOPs is how the person in charge—and ultimately, that’s the chief—would like to have the responding units operating when the incident commander arrives. It’s a lot better than having to spend time bringing the units’ free-wheeling operation under control. Things are beginning to work the incident commander’s way even before that person’s first decision. Therefore, that officer is free to devote more time to size-up.
In a large department, the job of writing SOPs can be detailed to the planning and research or training division. However, as the size of the department shrinks, the circle of responsibility grows ever smaller. In a smaller department, it could be the chief who ends up doing all the thinking. If that person’s smart, the chief will share the work with fellow officers or a committee of officers and other members.
Any problem, situation, or operation that’s likely to recur is a candidate for SOP status.
A good place to begin is with basic operations. If you’re to respond at the level recommended by the National Fire Protection Association, at every fire you’ll have a minimum response of two pumpers and one ladder company (or a unit that can perform the truck company’s functions), with 10 firefighters, 2 company officers, and a chief officer.
By way of example, let’s set up some SOPs for this standard NFPA response:
- First-due pumper. The firstdue pumper at a working fire will run free. This pumper will locate the fire and stretch whatever hose lines are necessary to confine and extinguish it. The size of the lines used will be determined by the volume and intensity of the fire found upon arrival.
- Second-due pumper. The second-due pumper at a working fire will be responsible for establishing a source of water supply for the first-due pumper. The driver of this unit will ensure that this source is in place in a timely fashion. Two members of the seconddue unit will be responsible for placing a back-up hose line to support those placed by the first-due unit.
- Truck company. The truck company will be responsible for providing forcible entry, ventilation, overhaul, and salvage support as needed. Its members will place ladders at positions they find to be advantageous. At all working fires, they’ll perform such additional duties as the fireground commander may require to support the work of the pumper crews.
- Self-contained breathing apparatus. All members of the firefighting team will wear SCBA whenever they’re participating as members of an interior structural firefighting crew. There will be no exceptions to this SOP.
- Apparatus response. Between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily, the following response order is mandatory for structural fire incidents:
SOPs shouldn’t be too specific. Crews deserve to have the chance to decide just how to do the tasks at hand.
- First out, pumper/aerial.
- Second out are the department’s 6,600-gallon tankers.
- Next out is the 1,250-gpm pumper.
- Next out, air cascade unit.
- Next out is the 1,250-gpm pumper.
SOPs shouldn’t be too specific, however. They shouldn’t tell firefighters how to raise the ladder— the crews deserve to have the fun of deciding just how to do the tasks at hand. Just make them aware that at working fires in dwellings, aerial devices shall be positioned for use and that laddering objectives shall be the fire floors and floors above, the roof, and the rear of the building.
As you can see from the examples, SOPs give department members a good idea of what’s expected of them, and they give the officer in command a good idea of what the troops are doing before that officer arrives. That frees the commander to concentrate on the exceptions that must be addressed at every fire.
