Safety in Responding to Alarms Starts with Leaving Station
departments
The Volunteers Corner
Traffic accidents are responsible for an intolerable number of deaths of fire fighters each year. The same thing is true of injuries.
These two facts provide an obvious clue as to where fireground safety must start—with the response of the apparatus. I know of one fire department that has a leaving quarters drill in its required inservice company training, but I have never known of such a drill in a state training program.
Basic to all response safety is a rule that operator may start the apparatus moving out of the station only after he has received an order to do so from the officer. In volunteer fire departments, where an officer may not always ride each apparatus, this order may be modified to state that the order to roll must come from the man riding the right-hand side of the front seat—fire fighter or officer.
Opportunity to check: This safety rule gives the officer time to look around and check the fire fighters on his apparatus for compliance with safe riding conditions. First of all, each fire fighter must be wearing full turnout gear—helmet, coat and boots. The additional protection that turnout gear provides against contusions, abrasions and concussions should be obvious. Would you rather be wearing turnout gear or just a shirt and pants when you are thrown off an apparatus in a collision?
By glancing behind, the officer can see whether the men are wearing at least helmets and turnout coats. At the same time, he makes certain that every member of the company is in approved riding position and delays the order to roll until that last person making a desperate dash for the apparatus gets into a riding position. With five and six-man cabs, there is no reason why everyone should not ride in the cab in paid departments. In volunteer departments that may at times have more men riding, a good rule is to require all cab seats to be occupied before fire fighters ride on the rear step—proven to be the most dangerous place to ride.
There is widespread resistance among fire fighters to using seat belts, but there is no doubt that injuries would be reduced with their use. When a department has a rule making the use of seat belts mandatory, it is the officer’s responsibility to enforce this rule. Safety belts are available for those riding the rear step and a rule can be made for their mandatory use.
Operator’s responsibilities: During every response to an alarm, the apparatus operator must be able to give his complete attention to the safety of the apparatus in traffic. Therefore, the apparatus emergency response lights must be turned on while in the station. It is inexcusable for an operator to be fiddling around with switches while entering traffic. Switches on the instrument panel can be installed so that all emergency light switches can be in the on position while the apparatus is in quarters, but electric current will flow to these switches only when a master switch is thrown. Thus, the operator can turn on all emergency lights with one flip of a single switch.
If your apparatus doesn’t have such a master switch, the individual emergency light switch toggles can be painted with red enamel. Because only a fraction of an ounce of enamel is needed, years ago I used deep red fingernail polish for this purpose and it lasted for years.
It may seem ludicrous to mention it, but the operator—and the officer—must make certain that the overhead door is fully open before the apparatus moves. There are cases on record where apparatus has taken out the bottom section of a door.
Once outside the station, the door should be closed—either by radio control or manually. In too many communities, the doors of vacated stations can no longer be left open because of the likelihood of theft. In these energy crunch days, it is also just plain stupid public relations to leave a door open to a heated station.
Starting the run: Once clear of the station door, the operator should apply his brakes to make certain they are operable and the officer should report his company’s response by radio or electronic signal button (in the cab or in the station).
Most important is an agreement between the operator and the officer on the location of the alarm. Don’t smile. Communications are prone to misunderstanding and if a street and avenue or lane have the same name, it is easy to forget which is where. A couple of words—or even an indication by hand—can confirm the direction of the response. It is SOP in some departments to repeat the alarm location when radioing the start of the response. In others, the dispatcher repeats the location in a radio message sent right after apparatus leave quarters.
As soon as he can, the officer should remind the operator of any impediments or hazards along the route that have been reported to the station. Notices of street closings, construction work, inoperative hydrants and similar things affecting fire response should be posted in the station and read to paid companies at roll call.
When a station is on a heavily traveled street, it may be necessary to have a fire fighter with a red flag or hand light, depending on the time of day, stop traffic for entry of the apparatus to the street. It’s ideal if you can have a traffic light that can be turned red from the station watch desk. However, some traffic departments take a dim view of such an arrangement.
