By ROBERT GOPLIN
According to the results of a 2009 survey of 187 firefighters across several Midwestern states, most firefighters felt that their coworkers wouldn’t know when to call a Mayday. Almost half said they would not call a Mayday even if they were in a flashover or a backdraft. The research project, “Human Factors Affecting Mayday Decisions,” asked questions that, although not scientifically developed, were intended to determine how firefighters decide whether to call a Mayday and how comfortable they were with calling one.
Sixty-four percent of firefighters believed that there are nationally recognized situational parameters that instruct them as to when to call a Mayday. No such parameters exist.
One of the research project’s more positive results revealed that about 92 percent of firefighters felt they knew how to call a Mayday; at a minimum, this means that we are doing our jobs with regard to Mayday training. Unfortunately, these same firefighters said they felt only about 50 percent of coworkers know when and how to declare a Mayday. So, although we are training our people, we aren’t making sure that they have faith in each other’s abilities. This is very important. If you don’t think the member next to you knows how to get you help if you need it, how confident will you be when going through that door?
Part of the reason firefighters might believe that nationally defined Mayday parameters exist is that, in many cases, they have been defined locally. Seventy-three percent of the participants said that their department has a policy that defines when they should call a Mayday. If you don’t have locally defined situational parameters, your firefighters might not be certain when your department expects them to call a Mayday, which will delay the call. When they do decide to call, the situation will be worse for them and the rapid intervention team sent in to help them.
Too many of us may feel that it’s obvious when a Mayday should be called; therefore, there is no reason to define Mayday parameters. However, when asked if they would call a Mayday if they were caught in a significant fire event, which was defined as a flashover, backdraft, or “smoke explosion,” only 54 percent of firefighters said yes. Additionally, research into the theory of recognition primed decision making (RPDM) shows that firefighters must have experience with a given situation to ensure that they will recognize it as a danger. Gary Kline discovered RPDM in 1984 when researchers were studying how people make decisions. Klein’s researchers studied a group of fire department incident commanders who had to make critically important decisions in very short time frames. The researchers learned that firefighters use previous experiences to successfully make decisions at an unprecedented rate. To get the experience necessary to ensure an understanding of these dangerous situations, firefighters must be involved in hands-on practical training that will mimic real-world scenarios to the safest extent possible. The key here is to reproduce these situations in a safe environment conducive to learning.
The survey revealed that firefighters do use and agree on environmental cues to determine whether or not to call a Mayday. In fact, many firefighters agreed on several cues that would result in a Mayday. However, almost 25 percent of respondents stated they had witnessed or been a part of a situation in which a Mayday should have been transmitted but was not. The question now becomes whether or not the firefighters in these situations recognized the environmental cues when they occurred or in hindsight.
What are the repercussions of calling a Mayday? With any luck, it would be that everyone goes back to the station. However, one part of the questionnaire revealed that almost 50 percent of firefighters feel that some of their coworkers would look down on them, judge them unfairly, or make fun of them after calling a Mayday. What does that say about fire service culture? This isn’t exactly news. In its 2005 Report of the National Fire Service Research Agenda Symposium, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation stated that fire service culture is a contributing factor to line-of-duty deaths (LODDs). Additionally, more than 25 percent of respondents said that not all of their chief officers encouraged them to call for help when needed.
Are we so unwilling to admit that firefighters sometimes get in over their heads that we don’t want our people to call for help? Maybe we just aren’t encouraging it because we naively think it will never happen. Maybe we hope that if we never talk about it, it won’t happen. As for being judged, looked down on, or made fun of by your peers for calling a Mayday, get over it. If you are in trouble, call for help.
How will firefighters begin to call for help when they need it? Start by changing your organization’s culture. Support and encourage Mayday training as well as firefighters calling a Mayday when needed. Also, develop a safety culture that eliminates all opposition to Mayday decision making. Reports and logic both indicate that a lack of safety culture contributes to firefighter LODDs. Removing these cultural roadblocks will lead to safer organizational operations. Help everyone to understand when, why, and how to call a Mayday. Have them train on it repeatedly so they won’t get it wrong in a real-life scenario. Once you’ve done that, figure out why your firefighters aren’t calling Maydays. When doing a postincident analysis for an incident where a firefighter should have called a Mayday but did not, talk about it with that firefighter. Find out why he did not call for help, and use this information to train the rest of your firefighters.
Next, ensure that your firefighters are maintaining situational awareness during incidents; this will help firefighters recognize Mayday situations more readily. Early recognition of these situations should lead to avoidance of the hazard or requests for assistance so that the potential for injury or death is reduced.
Develop a policy or guideline outlining situational parameters for calling a Mayday. Train all of your firefighters on those parameters in realistic, but safe, practical skills evolutions. Maintain skills by providing annual refresher training on Mayday parameters. Research suggests that RPDM is integral to firefighting. Refresher training at least annually will keep firefighters familiar with the defined parameters while enhancing RPDM skills. The fire service should also work with nationally recognized agencies and organizations to advocate the development of standard situational parameters for Mayday calls. Not everyone will agree on these parameters, but they must be developed. This would assist in standardizing training internally and with your mutual or automatic aid departments.
There is certainly more that we all can do. The fire service in general would benefit from future study of Mayday-related issues. The best way to ensure that our firefighters make the right decision on whether or not to call a Mayday is by training them not to get themselves in that situation in the first place; but this isn’t always possible. Make these changes now. Like a firefighter who needs help, they can’t wait.
ROBERT GOPLIN is the assistant chief of operations and training for the Green Bay (WI) Fire Department and director of the Brown County (WI) Hazardous Materials Response Team. He has an A.A.S. degree in fire science from Madison Area Technical College and a bachelor’s degree in fire and emergency response management from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Goplin participates in the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program and teaches firefighter and hazardous materials training through Northeast Wisconsin and Lakeshore Technical Colleges.
