By Isaac Frazier
While speed during extrication is often critical, it comes at a high price if not accompanied by efficiency. Before the speed, we must first learn the tools, develop the skills, learn the how’s and why’s, practice teamwork, train, and become efficient. Whether at a fire, an extrication, or a special operation, it takes efficiency and training to foster speed. Advocating an increase in the rate of activity or speed on the emergency scene should not be interpreted as an excuse to disregard safety by fast driving, sprinting on calls, or taking unnecessary shortcuts. The increase should be the result of teamwork and the purposeful actions of a crew.
Efficiency: Achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense.
Every crew can stand to improve its emergency scene productivity. For those who strive to deliver a high level of performance on every call, there is always room for improvement. Efficiency boils down to your approach to training, knowing your job and responsibilities at the scene, your ability to work as a team, and how you execute a given task. If you haven’t analyzed your on-scene operations, it will be very difficult to make improvements to reach your peak performance.
Recall your last wreck or fire. What was the first thing you did? How many missed steps or trips did you make back to the rig? Consider if your crew has a coordinated plan, or do they rush like maniacs to complete a task? Keep in mind that training in efficiency is a strong candidate for reducing the time of your emergency operations. If you are striving to improve your crew’s efficiency-speed balance, try the following approaches.
Prioritizing Your Movements
Have a plan to prioritize your movements prior to the call. Expect the unexpected on all scenes; something bound to come up and throw you off. As a rule, try to have a systematic approach to any extrication or fire scene prior to an event. Consider the mandatory tasks, the equipment needed, and a plan to get them accomplished. Make a rough list of tasks in order of priority. Good organization and planning will streamline your job and provide strong motivation for crews to work hard. A supporting quote from Benjamin Franklin, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”
Limit Multitasking
Many firefighters assume that they are good at multitasking. In reality, very few people can solidly focus on more than one or two tasks, particularly if they require skill. Many fool themselves into believing they are getting more done, when in reality they are accomplishing less, and the quality of the work is poor. Efficient people know that concentrated effort with few distractions leads to a better work product with less use of energy and better use of time.
Build Solid Communication
Poor communication results in a huge waste of time. True masters of efficiency take a little extra time to think through their plans and provide good communication to their crews. They consider their objectives prior to moving forward. I am referring to purposeful communication, not unnecessary talk. You can develop the art of using precise communication to get the desired task accomplished. Good communication results in all team members being confident and able to react efficiently to achieve all the objectives in a timely manner.
Apply Structure
Efficient officers create standard routines so they can achieve a disciplined approach. For example, on any fire, upon departing the unit, the backseat firefighter has the irons and, as the officer, I will have a six-foot hook and a thermal imaging camera. This routine allows me to consider tactics and strategies instead of telling my firefighter what to do. While basic, one would be surprised at how many crews in the fire service don’t operate this way. Most crews like having a flexible, but designated, operational plan. This basic concept will increase your productivity and the overall efficiency of the call.
Build Muscle Memory
On most emergency scenes, there are strong distractions such as screaming bystanders, tangled wreckage, or heavy fire conditions, which make it easy to lose focus. As a result, it is easy to justify the importance of strong muscle memory. Muscle memory is enhanced by repetition and strong organization. Firefighters can greatly increase efficiency by being organized. Organize your actions, gear, and equipment in a way that you can consistently complete the skills safely and effectively. Simple patterns, such as having the backseat firefighter responsible for the irons, will be a key to successful operations. Each call gives crews an opportunity to embrace and build muscle memory.
Time Activities
Have you ever sat down and thought about how much time you spend productively on an emergency scene vs. how much time you waste? Early in my career as a lieutenant, I found through timing fire and extrication drills that most people easily lose track of time during operations. An easy way for improving the time required to complete a task is to have crews develop a schedule of tasks with specific times for each emergency scene activity (i.e., advancing a fire attack line) and use those times for a base line. Work to improve those times by prioritizing actions, better communications, better organization, and applying a structure to the tasks. As crews train and begin applying these principles, they will be pleasantly surprised as the required time is reduced. Efficient firefighters set a general time frame for each of their tasks and train hard to maintain the schedule.
Efficiency can lead to increased operational speed; however, it takes a solid effort of the company officer and crew. Each call type can be broken down into basic steps with the routine necessary actions and then moved forward on implementation efforts for improvement. These steps include prioritizing your movements, limiting multitasking, providing solid communications among crewmembers, creating structured operational routines, and improving the members’ muscle memory by continued repetition in training and on calls. The final step is to time these routine actions to develop a base line that will make it easy to reflect any improvements. This method will improve your crew’s success consistently. Training in this manner takes time and effort, and it is a work in progress, but you will become more efficient (and dare I say, better?) as a result.
ISAAC FRAZIER is a career special operations lieutenant with St. Johns County (FL) Fire Rescue. He is assigned to Squad Company 4, which responds to working fires, specialty incidents, USAR, and entrapment vehicle accidents. He is a lieutenant, paramedic, Florida fire officer, special operations team officer, field training officer, Florida hazmat/USAR specialties tech, diver, and Florida state instructor. He is the owner of Tactical Advantage Training LLC. He instructs in tactical extrication. He conducts fire service product video reviews for more than 40 companies.
