Line-of-duty death investigations reveal that when faced with life-and-death situations, many firefighters don't recognize the extreme danger they're in or initiate calls for assistance, or they fail to properly employ tools and equipment. Unfortunately, some of these men and women forfeited their lives to circumstances they could have survived if they, or others working at the scene, had reacted differently.

A fire department's mayday standard operating procedures serve as guidelines to help firefighters take the correct actions in disorienting smoke and mind-numbing heat. These procedures are a foundation for self-survival training and a basic action plan for the other personnel on scene to conduct the rescue and support. It's critical that a fire department's mayday procedures be as well-defined and as complete as possible.

This point was made in a near-tragic way to the Amarillo (Texas) Fire Department when a firefighter fell into a fire-filled basement after a sudden floor collapse. The firefighter wasn't hurt in the fall, but his low-air alarm was sounding. He and his partner, who wasn't involved in the collapse, believed the basement entrance had been walled off, yet neither firefighter attempted to communicate with the incident commander about the situation. Fortunately, the trapped firefighter was able to self-extricate and was unharmed.

The department's safety officer's inquiry found that the firefighters didn't have any written protocols to follow; therefore, they weren't trained to react properly when facing this type of an emergency. As a result of this incident, the department developed an initial set of mayday procedures, incorporated them into training exercises and placed them into the Standard Operating Procedures Manual. Two years later, in 2005, the department conducted extensive research into NFPA standards and fire service practices that pertain to mayday situations and used the information to update the mayday procedures, resulting in a more complete and all-encompassing set of mayday guidelines.

Firefighter emergencies

The first step in ensuring that mayday protocols are as complete as possible is to define exactly what constitutes a mayday emergency. This is critical because there are basic human risk-perception factors that must be overcome through knowledge and training. Firefighters involved in unusual and dangerous circumstances will have a distorted sense of reality and a tendency to overestimate personal control of their situation. The Amarillo Fire Department addressed this by asking members what they thought were conditions that warranted an immediate evacuation, a distress call or both. The department analyzed the responses and compiled them into 20 ejection parameters that are now an integral part of its mayday SOPS.