For firefighter accountability, most departments combine a comprehensive status board and individual name tags to list active crews and their assignments. This does little more than enable the incident commander to call the roll.

There is no factual, foolproof way for the incident commander to determine the whereabouts of any firefighter engaged in offensive firefighting efforts at any given time short of very expensive and sometimes technically anemic electronic systems. In fact, crews for the most part can be identified only through radio traffic, but they may rapidly travel from one location to the next without transmitting that information. Due to short-staffing, firefighters are expected to roam to accomplish multiple tasks — frankly, there are those incident commanders who feel they need that flexibility to accomplish tasks.

An incident is like a football game. There are plays, routes and purposes of function for each offensive and defensive member that everyone knows. Players just don't run wherever they please, nor do they jump in on other players' assignments. Above all, the coach doesn't just pick a player to go do something else, unlike command freelancing (also known as the “hey you” syndrome), where the incident commander grabs a body or crew and just sends them some place. This can have adverse effects, as an interior officer may have identified the problem already and assigned an inside crew to it, so when the new company arrives they must find something else to do without orders.

Full coverage

The best we can usually do is identify that a crew is inside, but crew members could be strung from one end of the occupancy to the other at any moment. In case of a critical emergency, the status board functions as a source to identify a member in trouble by eliminating those who aren't. In other words, whoever doesn't raise a hand or answer up is missing.

Think about the chance of replying to a personnel accountability report if a three-person crew is split up to cover all bases and there's only one radio among them. If there's a catastrophic event, the only person we know the status of is the one with the radio. The other two could be perfectly fine, but we have no way to know that. Valuable time and the efforts of a rapid intervention team can be wasted looking for the needle in a haystack.

Hopefully we realize scenarios in which we aren't necessarily as safe as we thought we might be. It shows us that without seriously enforced and practiced SOPS, our efforts may be repeated, and in the short-staffed scene that can significantly affect our productivity by tying up multiple people for a single task when they could be better used.

With all this in mind, how do we sort out the necessities from the options, the need-to-have from the nice-to-have? Again, we can take a page or two from the sports world. Football teams perform based on a system of a planned strategy, personnel roles, player assignments and trained execution of tactics to a successful achievement of goals. Similarly, military, law enforcement SWAT, hazmat and special operations units also use such systems for safe and effective operations. Most departments' fireground procedures already make assignments for apparatus responses and responsibilities. This is nothing more than procedure for each member riding a vehicle.

Line fire operations can follow the same paths to success. You may argue that “we've never had a problem here in doing our job,” which translates to “nothing has happened” which then equals “nothing can happen.” But with significant changes to our workplace in the form of new personnel, new construction and new information, the old rules may not fit the new incident. Some new hires are not from the local area, so they may not be intimately familiar with the unique situations we have experienced.

Much like any need for transition, there will always be the negative attitude of “Why change?” This may be based on that person's own perception of not being able to grasp the new concept, or of feeling less knowledgeable or adequate when a new role is required. However, keeping up to speed with the experiences being presented almost weekly is crucial to our success.

Lessons lost

With the line-of-duty deaths hovering near 100 each year in the United States, there is the chance to learn a critical operational, cultural or safety fact once every 3.6 days. How often do we use this vital information to educate our members so it doesn't happen to them?

In many LODDS, a lost, trapped or injured firefighter became a statistic. Who's to say how many of these would be alive today if a plan was initiated, roles assigned, and training for successful execution had been in place? How many times did a lack of coverage due to duplication of effort or freelancing contribute in some fashion to these tragedies?

National studies show that a mayday call is sounded on an average of seven minutes into a fire operation, usually during primary search and offensive attack. In many cases, only one or two crews are on the scene, and the incident commander still may be some distance away. Even if the IC is on scene, there can be many issues that need immediate attention with water supply, utility control, arriving and staging apparatus, and general fireground needs. Throw these in with the good possibility of crews searching for an unknown number of victims with a lack of familiarity with the structure and short staffing, and there can be a problem. Again, without hard information, the incident commander will have little idea where crews are working except somewhere inside.

Rules of engagement

Let us examine the significance of the riding assignment. The riding list addresses multiple concerns. It ensures that all members on the response know their jobs prior to arrival, eliminating confusion and redundancy. This, coupled with the present fireground procedures, guarantees all responding members begin the operation with a like mind. Keep in mind that all personnel on all shifts must be consistent and follow the assignments to the letter for this initiative. There is no room for flexibility — that means no freelancing.

On a larger scale, not only do we need to continue following the procedures for placement of apparatus and assignments at the company level, we also need to look at individual assignments. Take a very hard look at every shift's food locker or volunteer station's duty board. There is more concern and detailed information, almost an SOP in itself, as to the assignments of daily firehouse duties — who's driving and cooking, or who is washing bay floors and emptying trash — than there is to assigning critical fireground tasks to the members of the crew.

Where is the concern about having each member know his or her function with an engine or ladder company on the fireground? That should be the paramount subject on the mind of every member on duty.

For many departments' four-member ladder companies, task completion assignments are a crap shoot. One shift, station or crew leader will give assignments differently than another. This is a great way for freelancing and loss of accountability to begin. Once and for all, this is something that all shifts must do the same. There can be no “Hey, we don't do it that way” just because a chief or lieutenant doesn't like the rules or the person who happened to write them. No company officer, battalion chief or other person in charge of an incident or crew can vary from these policies except in threats to life.

For example, imagine if all responding personnel knew that the first-arriving ladder company would be:

1. The officer (radio designation “Ladder 22”) going inside with a radio, light, search line and halligan bar.

2. The member in the seat behind him (radio designation “Ladder 22 Entry”) entering with him, and carrying a flat head ax, 6-foot pike pole, light and radio.

3. The driver (radio designation “Ladder 22 Driver”) either setting the aerial or placing ground ladders on the front side of the structure, and turning on lights and auxiliary power.

4. The member behind him (radio designation “Ladder 22 Outside Vent”) preparing to go to the rear to control utilities, force entry, place ladders, open up a horizontal or vertical ventilation point, or possibly perform VES (Vent, Enter, Search).

If this were the case, every single person on the fireground would know who and where these members are and what they were doing. There are person and task identifiers that even define location so even if an IC who isn't on-scene knows within feet of where each member of the fireground is working. If a member is working alone on the exterior, it isn't freelancing when the company officer and the commander know where the member is and what the member's task is. Bear in mind that if we don't get a member to the rear, the incident commander will never know of any signs of life or other conditions than the ones he or she is seeing.

Standing orders

All of this can be easily compared with the establishment of standing orders for EMS responses. The EMS provider knows what to do with each action and effect. The algorithm clearly defines this through sometimes four tiers of information. And, before these assignments can be posted, it will be necessary to identify the critical tasks for each structure in order of priority and put these in the SOPS.

Also, it must be realized that in some cases, certain tasks may be suspended to provide rescue but the conditions must be carefully weighed if going outside the SOPS. If a life safety situation exists, for example in a nursing home, is suspending all assignments in favor of rescue appropriate, or is completing the tasks to facilitate fast water on the fire, thereby reducing the hazard, the appropriate effort?

If there is truly nothing for an assigned person to do, there are second- and third-tier tasks to accomplish. The trick is that when a task is or isn't completed, the company officer must be notified. It is then up to him or her to request assistance for that task, or to disregard it if there's no significant impact on the incident. Additionally, if the commander knows the crew is short-staffed, immediate additional assignments can be made from crews arriving to supplement the short crew.

Such riding assignments are only completed with listing appropriate tools and equipment for that task. A member may take more, or vary the assignment if there's reliable information that will support such a change.

In closing, the significance of being a professional lies in preparation, training, and execution of tasks. With the advent of many new influences in our operations, having a workable plan will help to ensure the safety of our members, and excellence in service delivery to our citizens.

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Lt. David Gallagher is a 28-year veteran of the fire service, having served in volunteer, part-paid and career departments. He has served since 1979 with the City of Huber Heights (Ohio) Fire Division, where he is a company officer. Gallagher instructs nationally on a variety of topics including truck company operations, firefighter survival and rapid intervention. He is an Instructor at Sinclair Community College's Fire Academy in Dayton, Ohio.