By David Johns
Assessments center testing can stress you much like a real call can. However, if you are a competent fire officer and incident commander the stress and anxiety can be reduced greatly. As we take a look at the tactical portion of the assessment center, the focus of your training should be on becoming a competent fire officer and incident commander. We will explore the various testing formats you can encounter and look at some tips on how to increase your score as we relate the test world to the real world. When I train promotional candidates I always focus on teaching them how to actually do the job. If we are mindful of the fact that the purpose of an assessment center is to select the most capable person to perform in the role being tested for you can understand why I train that way and quite successfully I might add. Keep this in mind as we take a look at tactics in the assessment center.
The Emergency Operations or Tactical Exercise is part of nearly every promotional assessment center for fire officers. Given the standard rules that apply with all exercises, you must know what your time constraints are so you can triage what information you will present to the raters. There is a big difference in having 10 minutes to run the exercise compared to 15 or 20 minutes. Once you understand what your specific dimensions are, focus on making sure those dimensions are met. Most fire exercises at a minimum will want to measure: your ability to evaluate a fire scene, ability to plan and direct a fire attack, knowledge of: fire ground, search and rescue, ventilation procedures, and command presence. Most departments also have specific benchmarks required on fires such as: working fire, offensive mode, primary search, etc…and those should be added to your presentation as well.
Now lets break down this exercise:
Typical Info Given may include:
–Building information, Pre-Fire Plan, Diagrams
–Time, Weather (wind/temp),
–Fire and smoke conditions, exposures.
–Response levels, other info: occupants, etc.
–Who you are, when you arrive
–Pictures, computer-generated graphics, video, or just a written description.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SIZE UP- (ability to evaluate a fire scene)
Size up is one of the most critical components of a real emergency and the same is true for an assessment center scenario. Due to its importance on real incidents and assessment exercises we are going to go more in depth on size up. The acronyms listed below are used to remind you what you are looking for as you do your size up. Regardless of the size up tool you use, it is critical that you are looking at all information given you because everything effects the actions you take as well as the decisions made and plans you make to mitigate the emergency. The information given can be in words, pictures, or things you have to infer.
The main difference in an actual emergency and an assessment center scenario is time. For example, a trained incident commander most often does a size up and gathers all the information in COALWASWEALTH or SHECOPES© in less than one or two minutes on most emergency incidents. In an assessment center scenario you must verbalize your thought process so the assessors know what you are thinking. This is the key to scoring points, verbalizing what the information provided means to you, and how it will effect your decisions and what actions you will take.
Lets take a look at some examples: how does the wind speed and directions affect your tactics? How does the weather affect your crew’s performance if temperature is hot or cold? What decisions do you have to make to compensate for how these factors will effect your operations? If you need to call more crews due to warm weather and you know crews work time will be less, you have so state that. What does the construction, the roof design and material, the smoke, narrow streets, water supply, the egress or lack there of mean to you? Again, you have to state what things mean to you and how they affect the operations and how it affects the decision making process. TIP: You should say “WHY” you do everything so the assessors know what your thought process is. So as you can see, it will take longer to talk about your size up in an assessment center than it will take you to actually do a size up in real life. Conversely, I can say in a matter of seconds I would pull a 1 ¾ inch line into the alpha side to extinguish the fire in seconds but in real time that would take 3 to 5 minutes or more.
TIP: Don’t get in a hurry to pull lines, take your time to set up the assessment center exercise. It is not in real time.
Size Up: COALSTWASWEALTHS
C-construction of building
O-occupancy business residence both
A-area of building is it large, area of fire involvement
L-location and extent of the fire
T-terrain
W-water supply
A-apparatus and equipment
S-street conditions
W-weather conditions
E-exposures internal and external
A-Auxiliary appliance like standpipes, sprinklers
L-life safety #1
T-time of day
H-height of building
SHECOPES
S-safety considerations
H-hazards present, anticipated
E- exposures internal and external
C-construction type
O-occupancy type and status
P-protections features in place (sprinklers, standpipes, alarm panel, fire doors)
E-egress points (do we need ladders)
S-smoke: color, volume, velocity, density, changing, etc
Remember it is critical to do a thorough and continual size up, make your decisions based on the information you gather and updates you are given as the incident changes. The ability to predict the fires potential, have contingency plans and make changes when necessary are key indicators of a competent IC. Again, you have to explain why you are making the decisions you are making in the assessment center to score well.
Various Delivery Formats
There are several formats or delivery methods used in assessment center testing. The first we will discuss is the “Static” exercise. By Static we mean there is no feedback from the assessors. The candidate is given a scenario and a set amount of time to prepare. He then delivers or presents his scenario from start to finish without interruption or input from the assessors.
You are typically given a set amount of time to prepare and deliver your presentation of how you would mitigate the situation given. The challenge with the static is you have to verbalize everything with out any prompting from the assessors or role players and you assume your actions produce a positive outcome. You will also need to run through different possibilities or algorithms since there is no feedback. Candidate should address both positive and negative outcomes. i.e. If the fire is knocked down I will…if fire extends I will…
“Modified Static” is similar to the static with the addition that all candidates will be giving the same additional information if they elicit the response from a static role player, meaning the words are always the same to each candidate. An example would be if you say you would do a 360 you may be shown the back and sides of the building, or if you say you would do a primary search, the role player would simply state “candidate you have found a victim”. You would then state what your next actions would be with this additional information. Conversely if you fail to ask for a 360 or primary search you would not be given the additional sides of the building or find your victim and therefore not score as well. You must return from this interruption and complete the fire scenario.
Another form of “Modified Static” is you will run your fire for a set amount of time, and you will then be given additional information which could include many things such as a change in conditions which requires you to address the remainder of the exercise with this “new” information. You could also be given 3 or more updates at predetermined times. With the multiple updates the scenario usually escalates, one update normally will be something significant that taxes your resources like a collapse, RIC operation with a down firefighter, explosion, etc. TIP: You should be prepared for these changes and practice handling the different problems you may encounter in the field and on test day. When the incident happens is late to be thinking about how you would handle different situations you could be faced with. Preplanning is always going to help your emergencies run more smoothly in the field and on test day.
“Interactive” this may be done with radios and roll players and will run more like a real emergency. The actions you take determine the algorithm the role player takes. If you say something, it elicits a certain response and line of actions by the role player. In some incidents there may be a steady decline regardless of your actions, don’t let that worry you. The key here is command presence and running the scenario like a real call. There is an effort to give consistency to all candidates from the test providers for fairness.
EMERGENCY TACTICAL SCENARIO BREAKDOWN
Think about what you would actually do when a call comes in and throughout the call to the end of the incident and that will help you follow along with the outline below. It isn’t something that takes a great deal of memorization if you think about it this way. Use this information to create your own outline to fit with your SOG’s, policies, benchmarks, etc. In order to score well you have to take ownership of the material and fit it to your level and your department. Once you have done this, practice, practice, and then I recommend one on one tutoring with a qualified coach.
This may all seem a little overwhelming at first, but so is being an incident commander, and the purpose of an assessment center is to help try and predict who will be a proficient IC. With practice and study it will become second nature to you, just like it does to a competent IC. Now it’s time to look at some scenarios and start your outline and begin the practice of verbalizing your actions.
Competence creates confidence and this leads to great command presence. Use your department’s policies, guidelines, and standards and run your test scenarios like you would your real life calls with the exception of they are not in real time. With practice, training and coaching you will be scoring at the top of you promotional roster.
BIO
David Johns has served since 1990 with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue where he is a District Chief. He is an active fire service instructor and a principle in Fire Assessment Center Prep where is has successfully prepped hundreds of candidates for their promotional exams.
