50 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR PERSONAL SAFETY
BY RAY McCORMACK
Firefighters can help ensure their personal safety in various ways. Following are 50 safety tips.
1. Wear all your assigned fire gear.
2. Activate your PASS device at all structural fires.
3. Carry a 50-foot length of personal search rope.
4. Size up all buildings before entering them.
5. Carry at least two door chocks and use them.
6. Carry an extra flashlight in your turnout coat.
7. Critique all fires and unusual jobs.
8. Wear a hood.
9. Report all hazardous conditions to your officer.
10. Regularly inspect your tools, and know how to use all of them.
11. Fully open your SCBA air cylinder valve.
12. Monitor all radio transmissions.
13. Use infection-control equipment on all medical calls.
14. If operating remote from your officer, keep in touch.
15. Go to and cover your assigned position.
16. Use tape or barricades to cordon off unsafe areas.
17. Climb down fire escapes facing the stair treads.
18. Watch out for moving vehicles as you dismount the apparatus.
19. Leave the building immediately on orders to do so.
20. Stretch hoselines out of the path of falling glass.
21. Use a search rope in large areas, even in light smoke.
22. Remove any door that you have to squeeze through for entry.
23. Butt or secure all portable ladders.
24. Know your response area.
25. Cross roofs at the front where they line up.
26. Test the flooring with a tool before entering from a window.
27. Be aware that some old elevator doors open outward; apartment doors open inward.
28. Shut down gas appliances at pipe connections, not flex lines.
29. Find an area of refuge first when operating above the fire.
30. Maintain control of the door to the fire area.
31. Keep your riding list up to date and a copy on the apparatus.
32. Perform inspection activities that could affect your safety.
33. Drill on infrequently occurring topics as well as common responses.
34. Cross train: know both engine and ladder company operations.
35. Post a guide at the apartment door during searches.
36. Use a guide when cutting a roof or flooring.
37. Ride in an enclosed position and use restraining devices.
38. Crawl on a roof surface if visibility is zero.
39. Let the tool do the work, and use the right tool for the job.
40. Keep your booster tank full at all times.
41. Use lights and fans during overhaul operations.
42. Take a blow; let others have a piece of the job as well.
43. If injured, tell your officer and seek medical help.
44. Don`t overload fire escape landings or porch roofs.
45. Avoid making standpipe connections on the fire floor.
46. When climbing unenclosed stairs, stay close to the wall.
47. Use the proper terminology when reporting conditions.
48. Know your location in the fire building.
49. Develop hand signals when working in high-noise areas.
50. Keep in contact with your partner while searching.
All of these points revolve around a central premise–“knowing your job.” To increase your personal safety, you must do the little things that when added together increase the chances of a safe operation. By incorporating these tips into your regular routine, you can be assured that you`ve done the right thing. n
RAY McCORMACK, a 13-year veteran of the fire service, is a lieutenant assigned to the 16th Battalion, City of New York (NY) Fire Department. He has a bachelor`s degree in communications from the New York Institute of Technology and is a New York State-certified fire instructor and emergency medical technician and P.A.D.I.-certified in advanced scuba diving.
