Keeping Your Fire-Ground Ops On The Right Path

Arriving at and quickly organizing a fire scene can be quite difficult especially when the system you’re putting in place to manage it isn’t as efficient and effective as it could be. The last thing we want at an incident scene is to have anything that we are doing or any of our personnel adding to the chaos of an uncontrolled incident.

Self-discipline coupled with appropriate, effective and continuous training and education are two of a myriad of ways that we can help to prepare ourselves to quickly bring order to the out of control scenes that we often arrive to.

Upon arrival an orderly size-up of the scene and transmission of that size up over the radio, followed by a 360 of the incident and subsequent transmission of the 360 report over the radio, will help us to understand the problem we are facing and the environment within which that problem exists.

Well thought out and attainable standard operating guidelines that members understand and have drilled on will aid in getting the pieces of the response and mitigation puzzle in place.

Task level skill set training, as well as education on overall strategy, realistic tactical objectives and individual tactics for the situations that we may encounter are paramount for keeping an incident on track.

However, there are still times that we creep from our overall or individual missions within the scope of an incident and or lose track of the overall clock or pace at which an incident is progressing.

The introduction and utilization of operational benchmarking is a way that we can build in both checklists and an additional timekeeper to our operational structure for any given incident (the first being an incident timer managed by your comm center).

Operational benchmarking is a systematic logging of critical incident actions in real time via portable radio communications and command post documentation.

The related transmissions are short and to the point. They are literally brief markers used to track the actions and progress or lack thereof within an incident. They are not, however, full progress reports or CAN reports, which both provide a wider scope of information and may require some and back and forth communication. Benchmarks are simply a transmission that indicates a specific task has been accomplished. They are designed to be briefly acknowledged by command.

Operational benchmarking manages several areas on the fire-ground.

1. Maintaining an incident clock

2. Coordination of operations

3. Time stamping of incident actions

INCIDENT CLOCK

Keeping track of time on the fireground is a challenge for personnel at every level. The ‘fog of war’, as it is called in battle situations, is a scenario where members do not keep accurate track of or lose track of the passage of time
in their heads for one or several of the following reasons.

1. Sensory Deprivation
2. Hyper Focus
3. Auditory Exclusion
4. Mental Uncertainty
5. Lack of Communications
6. Physiological Responses

Sensory Deprivation

On the fire-ground our brains are making hundreds, if not thousands, of decisions a minute, if not per second. The brain is constantly taking in information and processing it in order to determine what is needed and what is not. The information that is determined to be not needed is discarded, the information determined to be required is further triaged and processed. In many cases, we are completely unaware that these decisions have occurred.

Our brain uses all of our senses to help gather this information and process it. When we deprive it or limit the use of its information gathering tools, it can lead to misreads and poor decisions. Keep in mind, some of the choices our mind is making subconsciously are designed to keep us alive and safe. Your brain’s response can be anything from developing a hunch or intuition, to entering a full-on fight or flight mode.

So, with a sensory system that is deprived of information by virtue of our PPE, facepiece, hoods and helmets, it places us in a position of disadvantage. This coupled with the fact that
we often work in the dark and that smoke can deaden sounds, leads us to a state of decreased situational awareness. There are also many other factors that can decrease our situational awareness. Things like department culture, personal biases and heuristics, ego and other incident factors are just a few of the things that can work against us while operating at an incident.

Hyper Focus

In our department, as in many others, tasks are most often assigned to companies and firefighters based on the apparatus they respond on. This leads to members being assigned
tasks that they repeatedly carry out over and over at the fires they respond to. This, along with the potential for extreme conditions or circumstances, can lead to members becoming hyper focused on the particular tasks that they are assigned and exclude everything else going on around them.

Auditory Exclusion

Our brain, in its goal of managing the immense amount of information being thrown at it during a fire response, works to filter out what it determines to be unneeded information.

Unfortunately, this can lead to critical input
being missed from time to time. For example, the sound of a fire alarm sounding in a building that’s on fire. While it is not always a critical piece of information, it could be, and it is a needed part of the fire report and investigation. Was the alarm sounding when we arrived?

Missing this information could cause us to not consider if occupants were given any warning of a fire and subsequently remained unaware of it or became trapped by it.

Certainly, we conduct searches regardless, but this information is still a piece of the puzzle and effects our decision making whether we realize it at the time or not.

There are cases where firefighters have arrived, seen fire out the windows, had people jumping from windows, entered the building and encountered fully involved apartments with fire coming into the hallway and never heard the 12” fire alarm bell operating on each floor of the building.

So, how does that happen? It happens because our mind is so good at processing information, it very quickly realizes that we are firefighters who have been sent to a fire, which we can see, hear and feel, and that upon our arrival there are people jumping from the windows with fire behind them. We quickly determine and acknowledge subconsciously that yes indeed this is a fire.

Your brain says further acknowledging the fire alarm would take critical processor space for something it has already determined to be fact. So, it dumps it in favor of picking up on something else.

Similarly, radio transmissions on the fireground can be missed because we are used to hearing the ever-constant chatter on the radio. This situation has been cited by firefighters and fire officers many times during investigations of how things have gone wrong on the fire-ground. They simply never heard the transmissions of other firefighters on the scene.

Mental Uncertainty

Mental uncertainty comes in two basic forms in regard to responding to fires. First are questions like, am I going to be ok, is this dangerous, can I be injured or killed, should I be going in there, why would I go in there, etc. Secondly, your mind must process the unknows of the incident that is unfolding before you. Where is the fire, are there people trapped, how can I get to them, is the fire extending, etc.

This uncertainty and the processing of thoughts related to it, requires time, effort and capacity to work through. That in turn leads to decreased ability to see, hear and process the information coming at you whether it be unfolding before you or overheard on the radio.

Lack of Communications

Sometimes even though we know we are experiencing a lack of situational awareness because of all of the points above, we still like to complicate it further by not communicating in the way we should on the fire-ground. For many years many of us have had it drilled into our heads that we should stay off the radio. Some go so far as not even turning it on.

Not transmitting information can be a critical issue on the fire-ground, not doing it simply because you don’t want to talk on the radio can be downright negligent. Of course, there is a balance between not enough and too much radio communication, we’ll leave that topic for another article.

Because we are not always effectively transmitting timely bits of information, some of our members can be completely oblivious to critical fire-ground occurrences and can end up in dangerous or life threatening positions. As well, it hampers the smooth flow of a well operating fire- ground because members will likely be operating independently of the incident action plan.

Physiological Responses

In his book On Combat, Lt. Col. David Grossman outlines how physical and emotional stress manifests in the human body and the bodies seemingly uncontrollable responses to it. Heart rate and breathing are two key body systems that we can very quickly lose control over during stressful situations. Once these systems are sufficiently elevated, simple tasks begin

to become complicated tasks. Our motor skill decrease, our vison more tunneled and our cognition clouded.

Learning techniques to slow, manage and overcome these physiological responses, along with using job aids such as checklists allow us to manage complex scenarios under extreme levels of pressure.

COORDINATION OF OPERATIONS

Modern materials in both legacy and modern construction as well as large voids and increasingly volatile contents set the stage
for rapid fire development and potentially catastrophic fire behavior. Coordinating our truck and engine operations is a key component to mitigating the potential for these types of situations, as well as removing us as a link in the chain of events which could lead to sudden hostile fire behavior.

A simple example of this would be having a line in place and operating at the main body of fire prior to major ventilation operations.

TIME STAMPING

Though this is much lower on our list of priorities, having a time stamp of when operations occurred for post incident review and for investigative and documentation purposes is an important part of the management of an incident. I will also argue that timestamping will assist in the evaluation of our individual, company and shift performance in real time. There is value in knowing under ‘real ‘life’ circumstances how long it takes us to carry out our specific tasks and tactics.

Benchmarks on the Command Sheet

These are the basic benchmarks on the command sheet for a routine fire. There can be others added and deleted based on the type of fire that you face, i.e. industrial, high-rise, etc.

There are however additional incident benchmarks that can be applied. Not all of these benchmarks must be verbalized over the radio however. Some can be personal benchmarks that you develop to keep yourself on track throughout an incident.

Here is a quick look at each of the basic incident benchmarks and a typical related transmission that could be used to notify command of meeting each.

Layout / Water Supply: “Wagon 4 laying out from 16th and State” or “Wagon 4 to command we’re on positive water”

360: “Command to all units, 360 complete, (list conditions found)”

Entry: “units are making entry to 1820 State St.” Basement Check: “Lt. 8 to command, 1820 State basement check complete, negative”

Primary Start: Tower 1 search to command, conducting a primary on the second floor of the fire building”

Water on Fire: “Wagon 3 calling command, water on the fire”

Ventilation: Tower 1 roof calling command, 4x8 vent open on the roof of the fire building”

Ladders: Ladder 2 Chauffeur to command, ground ladders to the second floor on the B and D sides”

Primary Complete: “Tower 1 search to command, primary complete and negative on the second floor of the fire building”

Back Up Line / Exposure Line: These are more checks that need to be accomplished than benchmarks that need to be verbalized as well.

Secondary Start: “Ladder 2 calling command, conducting a secondary on the second floor of the fire building”

Utilities: “Command calling the county, PPL on scene”

Fire Knocked: “Wagon 3 calling command, the fire is knocked down, we’re checking for extension”

Secondary Complete: “Ladder 2 calling command, secondary complete and negative on the second floor of the fire building.”

Incident Control: “Command calling the county, mark control at 1820 State St.”

Loss Stopped: Not often used, but “Command calling the county, loss stopped at 1820 State St.”

Salvage: This is most often a check that needs to be accomplished rather than a benchmark that needs to be verbalized.

Fire Out: “Command calling the county, the fire at 1820 State St. is now out”

These are a sample of benchmarks that could be utilized, naturally you have to use terminology and tactics that meet your departments requirements and mission and follow its operating guidelines.

CAN reports contain more information than a quick benchmark update.

For purposes of clarity and tracking I think adding UL to the CAN acronym to form a ULCAN report makes good sense.

U- Unit
L- Location

C- Conditions

A- Actions
N- Needs

CAN reports help to organize our thoughts into succinct information packed transmissions in
a standardized form that can be utilized by everyone on the fire-ground. They also serve to assist in keeping everyone operating informed as to the location, conditions faced, actions being taken and needs of everyone on the fireground. This leads to reducing frivolous or duplicate transmissions.

A typical ULCAN report might sound like this: “Wagon 3, second floor main fire building, we have heavy fire throughout, we’re attacking the fire and need a second line up here.”

Taking the time to speak the same language in an organized and expected way will clean up radio transmissions and aid in accountability on, and in organization of the fire-ground.

Codifying this simple system of common incident benchmarks (tactical objectives) with associated radio transmissions (language) is a simple way for everyone on the fire ground to work together

at keeping everyone oriented and aware and the incident on track. It also aids in helping to slow us down a bit and thinking about what we are going to say before we key the mic.

This system does require that all of its users are both feeding information into and gleaning information from it. If you are not already mandated by policy or aren’t doing this on your own it takes time, dedication and discipline to fully implement.

Start small and introduce these communications over time. As you move forward and members begin to see the concept working and understand that it serves to improve fireground operations and not frustrate them, adding additional benchmarks will become easier and less disruptive to the ‘That’s not how we’ve always done it’ crowd.

Utilizing a system of benchmarks and associated communications will help the fireground become less chaotic and organized more quickly and help to keep it on that track through it’s termination.

In the future we’ll look at personal and position specific benchmarks for a typical structure fire response.