Tactical Safety: Improving Your ISO Rating

By Ray McCormack
from www.fireengineering.com

Your ISO rating could be slipping right out of your hands if you don't take action to correct it. Your ISO rating should be important to you and every member of the department. Your ISO rating is a good barometer of how effective you are at putting out fires. Your ISO rating is your "Interior Stream Operation." If you're not so hot with a nozzle, then your ISO rating will go down in flames and the fire area will go up in flames.
Being part of a solid engine company is not only reassuring, it is the baseline of your extinguishment culture. An excellent engine company operation is not created out of thin air; it comes from dedication and hard work. The firefighters that make up a highly effective extinguishment team, besides having a shared dogged determination to defeat the fire where it lives, will incorporate solid nozzle techniques along with proper hoseline management.

The Suppresion Agression Olympics

By Ron Kanterman
from www.fireengineering.com

The fire service, especially in the U.S, has been discussing aggressive interior attack (AIA) for what seems like forever. In other areas of the world, exterior attack is the norm (unless a mother is standing outside screaming that her kids are trapped on the second floor). As we discuss this topic yet again, let’s look at some defining factors that lend themselves to successful interior fire attack and rescue operations. I titled this article “The Suppression Aggression Olympics” because firefighters are similar to Olympic athletes. Following are some parallels:

• Training is the key to success through teamwork.
• We strive for perfection each time.
• There is very little room for error.
• We shoot for the top. (For athletes, it's gold; for us, it's a life saved.)
• Camaraderie and peer support helps the process.

As we delve into suppression aggression AIA, know that I am still a staunch supporter of AIA firefighting and rescue for our collective tool boxes. AIA is a necessary tactic that has saved thousands of lives over many years. This article will hopefully give some perspective on how we may be able to improve how we operate while injuring and killing less of our people.
Am I waving the safety flag? Maybe, but my goal is to make you rethink how you operate and how and why you and those around you make the decisions you make. We can be aggressive, but to the extent that we remember that life safety is part of the job, and it includes us.

Keeping Track

by Nick Martin
from www.fireengineering.com
 
We all love going to fires.  We'd all agree we learn something at every fire we go to.  So how do we track what we've experienced and what we've learned?  If we don't track this, how can we know where to focus for improvement?  As a company, most of us keep log books, Firehouse Software reports, NFIRS reports, or other official documents.  These track the official details of how our organization deployed at an incident.  But what about you personally?  Where is what you've done and how you've evolved tracked?

About a year ago, I began informally tracking the incidents to which I responded.  Using Evernote, a simple piece of free software that I can access on any computer or my phone, I began quickly keeping some personal notes after any significant incident I went to.  As the training chief for my Department, my initial goal was to have a system to track incident actions and trends and to over time be able to identify any recurring gaps between our expectations and performance so that we could address them through training or guidelines.  

It worked, but I also began to find that I also tracked what I had done personally.  Since on the scene I function as any other battalion chief would, where was I falling short personally? If I was the IC did I manage the scene well? Communicate well?   Did I miss something important in my size-up?  Did I have a mis-step with my PPE?  Was there an SOG I wasn't fully up to date on?  In addition to tracking performance at the Department level, I quickly found that I was identifying gaps in my own actions.

What to track?  As much as you can I suppose...  As soon as the incident is over, I brain dump my thoughts into a note in a bulleted list - you can always come back later and add to it, or clean it up.  The nice thing about Evernote is that I can easily access it on my phone, so I can often start this brain dump while still on scene.  I'll add a picture of the scene or any important action areas so I can recall the situation later.  If I was the IC, I'll scan in a copy of my tactical worksheet.  Later I can attach parts of the incident audio.  

Seeing this information all in one place makes it easy to reflect on later.  As you build up a list of incidents, you can look back on them and see what keeps popping up.  Maybe your companies need to work on deploying more ground ladders.  Maybe YOU need to work on how to speak on the radio more clearly when wearing an SCBA.  One of the benefits of this system is that it's private.  We'll all naturally be a little more candid when we know it's private - we'll particularly be more honest about our own shortcomings.  And even that private acknowledgement that we have an issue will help drive us to fix it.

The benchmark for a good job is not "the fire went out and everyone went home" - that'll happen even if we don't show up.  The details are what matter.  By tracking those details we can see where we need to improve.  Whether you are a backstep firefighter, company or chief officer, keeping track of your performance on incidents over time will help you identify where you can improve.

The Greatest Risk, Taking No Risk At All

from www.backstepfirefighter.com

There is a debate that rages, on a daily basis; aggressive versus safe – interior versus exterior – searching versus waiting.  Depending on where you work and what your experience is, you no doubt have an opinion about these topics.  Some hold a very strong opinion, that the safety sallies (you know, those that advocate safety above everything) are ruining the fire service and that there is no room for their thinking.  There are others that feel the nomex hoods and bunker gear are the equivalent of standing outside on the front lawn and think transitional attacks are two steps below selling Mary Kay Cosmetics.

There is a whole section on Backstep Firefighter dedicated to “Why We Search.”  In this section there is example after example of good firefighters making rescues from buildings.  Many of these rescues are from buildings that are vacant, or would otherwise be assuming to be vacant.  How can that be?  You ask.  The book says that boarded up buildings are unoccupied and unsafe.  Unfortunately, these people that were rescued didn’t read the book.  That is how this happens.

Happy Birthday Marines