As part of the kick off to this week’s fire safety week, the International Association of Fire Chiefs is urging all chiefs and officers to immediately issue a fire and EMS stand down in their departments due to two separate — but similar — confined-space rescue incidents that nearly took the lives of several firefighters. During a stand down, personnel are directed to postpone non-emergency tasks to focus on critical safety training, said Chief Billy Goldfeder, chair of the IAFC's Safety, Health and Survival Section.

“Within the last month, there were four firefighters critically injured in Ohio and Indiana,” Goldfeder said. “Anytime we see a significant event occurring where it impacts several firefighters, it merits an order because of its prevalence over a certain period — this time for firefighters getting seriously hurt trying to remove victims from underground situations.”

Stand-down notifications are the red alert/lookouts for major emergency safety issues that arise during the year. During the stand down, chiefs are asked to have all personnel immediately review and discuss applicable departmental policies and procedures to minimize the risk to firefighters in confined spaces and related technical-rescue incidents, Goldfeder said. For example, he said in Ohio and Indiana, firefighters rushed into structural fires and put their lives at risk to save victims who already were dead.

“We are so used to rushing in,” he said. “So we felt that we needed to remind firefighters to size up the situation before entering confined spaces to save victims. Just take a few seconds, and it could save a firefighter’s life as well as a victim.”

The section has identified a number of online resources for fire and emergency service leaders and personnel to use in the stand down and in their ongoing efforts to educate personnel on technical rescue operations, Goldfeder said.