Accountability Roundtable
I want to add some additional thoughts on accountability (Roundtable, May 2000), which is among the most important aspects of maintaining a “safe as possible” working environment for firefighters. As seen in the Roundtable discussion, many systems are being used; however, these tools are only as good as the people using them. An effective accountability system is the result of discipline and communication on the fireground as well as training.
Discipline addresses attitude and behavior on the fireground. The attitude is geared toward safety and aggressiveness (not always mutually exclusive) in that you know what your role is on the fireground and that you accomplish it efficiently. It must be present whether your department uses dog tags, tactical checklists, or suggested operating guidelines (SOGs). Communications and training also play large roles in achieving accountability, the loss of which ultimately increases the risk for injury or death.
Firefighters and officers must know their roles on the fireground-the first step toward a disciplined and accountable fireground. Each member must know the tasks he must perform, his company’s function, and how both relate to the larger strategic goals. The simultaneous coordination of multiple tasks leads to a successful operation. This can happen only when companies are given different assignments to accomplish and perform them under the direction of a commander who is in control of the whole scene. Every firefighter should know for whom he works, and every officer should know who works for him. That way, all members are accountable to one supervisor and for one aspect of the total operation.
SOGs and riding assignments are effective ways to spell out roles and responsibilities. However, your department determines these roles on the fireground, they need to be filled, and guidelines need to be followed to ensure all aspects of the operation at hand are completed. Members need the discipline to accomplish their task, report their progress to their supervisor, and wait for reassignment or at least communicate the next action they wish to undertake. This helps the IC keep track of the company’s location and progress. Freelancing and deviation from operating guidelines lead to missed or duplicated assignments, missing firefighters, and lack of company integrity.
Decreased staffing levels make each firefighter responsible for more tasks and negatively affect the company’s ability to stay together. When discipline is lacking, accountability and company unity are lost-too few firefighters are scattered across the fireground and are trying to do too much. Keeping the company together or at least in assigned positions (i.e., roof, fire floor, floor above) is the only way to account for your members’ locations. If staffing levels are below the level at which company integrity can be maintained, it is essential to call for more resources. Whether that means calling additional companies, striking another alarm, or calling mutual aid, the IC needs to have enough people to get the job done safely and keep companies together.
The loudest argument against predetermined roles or SOGs and company integrity is that they don’t give the IC flexibility on the fireground to deal with the different types of fires we face. Of course, no fire is the same, but our incident priorities of life safety (including firefighters), incident stabilization, and property conservation, in that order, should never change, and all our tactics should be aimed at these goals. In rare instances where the incident priorities call for a deviation from SOGs, communicating the actions taken is essential.
A coordinated effort on the fireground and better accountability can also be attributed to communication. Communication on the fireground is a two-way street. All members on-scene, particularly the IC, the FAST, and members operating in remote locations, rely on communication for information about what is occurring inside the fire building. The IC relies on communication from the companies inside and at distant locations to determine whether operational benchmarks are being reached. This allows the IC to adjust strategy and call for resources accordingly or to let resources not being used to return.
Likewise, companies must be aware of the progress of others on the fireground and the IC’s instructions to better understand what is required of their unit. Again, discipline to follow orders and communicate essential information is required so that all tasks and personnel are accounted for.
Training is the cornerstone of any fire department function, and its relationship to accountability cannot be overemphasized. The decrease in fire duty and staffing levels, the increase in job diversification, and the increasingly hazardous conditions we face on the fireground make on-the-job training an outdated method of preparing firefighters. We may respond to fewer fires and get less actual experience than in decades past, but every time we respond to a building fire, we engage in the most labor-intensive and dangerous part of our job and should train diligently in this area to maintain effectiveness and safety. Training is a powerful, yet safe, way to mold firefighters’ attitudes and to instill discipline as well as knowledge. Not only should companies train and drill on skills they are typically required to perform, they should also have capabilities in tactics outside their normal range of operation. This is where understanding of the “big picture” comes from and where the importance of accountability can be seen.
Perhaps the most effective way of accomplishing awareness of roles and responsibilities is through the multicompany drill. An engine company and a ladder company working together through a realistic training scenario will gain knowledge of each other’s function and will work together better on the fireground. This type of drill can be a good training tool for any multicompany or multiagency response. Having everyone switch roles for evolutions also creates a greater awareness of the mutual dependency of units on-scene and creates well-rounded firefighters. Members learn the tasks for which they are responsible, with whom they are working, and to whom they are accountable.
Any system of accountability is successful only when it works for the firefighters who use it. The least expensive and most effective way to improve accountability is to train our members to be disciplined and to operate effectively and safely. I’d like to thank Fire Engineering for providing a forum for the exchange of information and the participants for sharing their knowledge and experience so that we all might live and work more safely.
Christopher P. Fleming
Firefighter/EMT
Portland (ME) Fire Department
Firefighters on aerials
A number of articles published in Fire Engineering over the past few years have recommended that guide ropes or halyards, rather than a firefighter on the aerial, be used to direct a ladder pipe stream. The advertisement on the back cover of the June 2000 issue of Fire Engineering provides strong support for this recommendation.
Having a firefighter on the aerial increases the chance for serious injury or even death. Using guide ropes during defensive operations would have prevented the thermal burns and associated pain the firefighter in the above-mentioned ad suffered. The damage to the ladder truck, which another report placed at approximately $200,000, might have been minimized or prevented. The time and effort other firefighters expended, rightfully so, to save one of their own could have been used to protect and relocate the ladder truck if the firefighter were directing the stream from the ground rather than from the aerial.
Using firefighters on aerial ladders to direct ladderpipe streams is, unfortunately, not uncommon. The usual explanation is that the practice is safe as long as the firefighter is “locked in.” I disagree with this assessment.
Alan Freedman
Asheville, North Carolina
RIT Roundtable
I read with great interest “Rapid Intervention Teams” (Roundtable, July 2000). FAST (firefighter assist and search teams), as they are known here, have gained much popularity in my area of southeastern New York State over the past few years, partly because of the publicity the Fire Department of New York (NY) has provided on the subject and the implementation of a state firefighter survival class based on FDNY Battalion Chief John Salka’s seminars.
There is no doubt that the FAST plays an important role on the fireground and should be used more, especially in my area. Although most agree on when the FAST should be implemented, I found it interesting to learn how the FAST is used around the country.
Some ideas were excellent (e.g., having a FAST kit on responding command vehicles and apparatus). Others seemed impractical (e.g., having a FAST ready with a charged handline)-sounds like a job for an additional engine company. Some departments appear to be obsessed with “looking good on paper” or “satisfying OSHA’s two-in/two-out ruling,” while another department seems to like a FAST assembled at a dumpster fire or “ellipse all incidents where a 11/2-inch or larger line is deployed and where SCBA is used.”
Staffing is another concern, as it seems there is no definitive answer to how many members should make up a FAST. Larger departments use four; smaller departments use two. Granted, a larger department has more personnel available, especially in the vital first 20 to 25 minutes, but the IC should use the local mutual-aid plan as early as possible to ensure his members’ safety. The team should have at least four members to be fully effective. Additional teams should also be activated if needed, as many of the departments represented in the article state.
Another area that differs among departments is that of the tools and equipment the FAST selects. The basics are important [i.e., the “irons,” hooks, thermal imaging cameras, radios (which no crew should be without), additional SCBA, air bottles, ropes]. I like the idea of differentiating the FAST with different-colored helmets and setting up colored tarp for the equipment cache.
Buffalo appears to take a proactive stand against the most common firefighter killer with the AED. I did not like the equipment one department used: the team standing fast with “a charged hoseline, portable radio, and thermal imaging camera.” The first-due firefighters should take these things through the door for the initial attack! Hopefully, their SOP allows them to “think outside the box” and use other tools more suited for the duty assigned.
Regardless of which members are assigned this “boring” task of protecting their brothers and sisters-whether an engine, ladder, or rescue company; a squad; or a mix-and-match unit-it is one of the most important duties on the fireground, and the members inside count on you when it hits the fan. The popularity of the FAST will increase as we progress and the skills, techniques, and its role will improve tremendously until it is as common as the vent crew or search team. Thanks to Fire Engineering for bringing this topic to the “table.”
Daniel W. Shultz
Training Officer/Firefighter
Dover Fire Department
Wingdale, New York
480-Volt Electrical Equipment Awareness Video
On June 11, 1999, Northbrook (IL) Fire Department Assistant Chief Wayne Luecht was critically injured in an unpredictable, 480-volt switchgear explosion at a shopping center. Luecht died June 21, after 10 days in a burn center where he was treated for third-degree thermal burns on 93 percent of his body.
The state of Illinois awarded Luecht the Medal of Honor for his heroic and unselfish actions following the explosion. Despite his injuries, Luecht provided command direction to hysterical bystanders on how to treat other injured citizens until firefighters and paramedics arrived at the incident scene. Further, Luecht denied himself treatment until others were treated first. He directed the first-arriving engine company to rescue and treat a trapped electrician, who later died.
Although the incident’s investigation remains open, the Northbrook Fire Department felt it important to spread the word about the hazards of 480-volt electrical equipment. We have found that 480-volt equipment is quite different from 110- and 120-volt equipment. According to electrical engineering experts, it is usually predictably violent.
Accordingly, we have produced a video for fellow fire officers and firefighters that promotes 480-volt electrical equipment awareness, including information that the fire service may never have seen or heard before. I personally hope that every firefighter in the United States sees this video.
I hope the video might prevent another firefighter’s family, department, and chief from going through such a sad event. It has already prevented two such fireground tragedies.
The video is offered free to departments and allied agencies through a cooperative effort between the Northbrook Fire Department and the Illinois Fire Safety Alliance. The Alliance is a nonprofit agency that includes fire service, hospital burn unit/emergency room, and social service professionals. An informational document provided with each video includes the Alliance’s address and an educational summary reprint from the National Electrical Manufacturers Association.
The video may not be sold or reproduced. To obtain a copy, send a written request on agency letterhead and a self-addressed, 81/2- 2 11-inch envelope with $1.65 postage affixed to: Fire Chief, Northbrook Fire Department, 740 Dundee Road, Northbrook, IL 60062.
Although the video is free, recipients are encouraged to send a donation to the Alliance:Illinois Fire Safety Alliance, P.O. Box 911, Mt. Prospect, IL 60056, Attn: 480-Volt Awareness Video.
James P. Reardon
Chief
Northbrook, Illinois Fire Department
