The fire service is neither a sprint nor a marathon; it's a long-distance relay race. Each generation of fire chiefs and officers passes the baton on to the next.

There's a lot of baton-passing going on these days. With the lowering of the retirement age and the concurrent increase in retirement allowances, institutional knowledge is exiting the fire service at a rate unheard of even a few years ago. This loss is felt everywhere, but nowhere as critically or as strongly as in emergency operations.

U.S. Army research confirms the long-held suspicion that experience is the key component to effective fireground command. The Army developed the recognition-primed decision-making model from a psychological study done to understand how fire officers consistently make competent decisions under stressful conditions with time pressures and a rapidly changing environment. Some years ago, Larry Miller, the former chief deputy fire chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, described this phenomenon as being similar to having a slide tray in the fire officer's head. When the fire officer responds to an emergency, he or she quickly reviews all the slides in this mental tray, finds the one that most closely fits the current situation, and uses it as the starting point for developing a strategy. Upon conclusion of the incident, based on that experience, the fire officer can add another slide to the tray. [Ed.: See “Make the Right Call,” available at www.firechief.com.]

Due to many factors, not the least of which is improved codes, fire officers have fewer opportunities to practice their craft as fireground commanders on structure fires. The fire officers who are retiring had many opportunities to develop their command skills because they inherited communities that primarily consisted of buildings built before the 1950s, when codes started to have an impact on fire. Whereas responses to emergencies are way up, in many jurisdictions, responses to fires are way down and dropping. While that's reason for applause, it also gives us pause to consider how to prepare the next generation of officers and chiefs to be fireground commanders.

Firefighters simply aren't getting the experience necessary to fill up their slide trays. It's common for a firefighter in a modern city to be on the department for six months or more before encountering a fire of some consequence. Over a 30-year career, that's not a huge experience base. The members who currently are retiring often have 10 or 20 times that experience. Their slide trays are bulging.

Fire chiefs are struggling with this predicament. As part of succession-planning, departments need to prepare this generation for fireground command and its awesome responsibilities of making correct decisions and maintaining cool. Development of fireground commanders is simple; however, it requires a long-term commitment to fireground command.

This will take steadfastness on the part of the fire chief. There are a million and one distractions, all of them important. Because even with all the emphasis on leadership, management and administration that's in vogue for fire chiefs, the simple fact is that it's only the fire department that puts out fires, and only well-trained and well-grounded incident commanders get it done correctly.

Prepare a plan

As with anything in life, some people are natural-born fireground commanders, and others struggle with it their entire careers. Most fall in the middle and grow and develop their craft.

The first step in developing future fireground commanders is to develop a realistic action plan. While there will be some broad similarities for everyone involved, the plan needs to be tailored to the needs of each individual officer. This requires the chief and senior staff to do the painful work of realistically assessing the fireground command strengths and weaknesses of each officer. Firefighters tend to be sensitive about their fireground abilities, but it's unfair to potential officers if the department fails to do a straightforward assessment.

The plan for each individual should consider the following components:

• Attending training courses,
• Previewing pre-plans,
• Mentoring,
• Simulating and
• Doubling-up.

This plan needs to be comprehensive and include the appropriate components for each individual's development. For example, one officer might only require a couple courses and a mentor, while another might need to have a lengthy development process that includes all of the components. Remember that we are talking about people making some of the most important decisions of their careers. A mistake in the budget or being late for a council meeting may seem important at the time, but a correction or an apology can usually fix it. You can't say the same for a mistake in fireground command; it's impossible to undo the loss of a business or house or the death of a firefighter or civilian.

Attend training courses

This is so obvious it hardly seems worth mentioning, but every potential company officer and chief officer should attend training in fireground command. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. If there were a legal requirement for all command officers to have a fireground command license similar to a pilot's license with classroom training, practice in the field with a training officer, and a graded first solo fire, a lot of current practitioners would be grounded.

Fire chiefs need to demand that all officers attend fireground command training and ICS courses. The National Fire Academy offers a number of excellent courses both at the academy and regionally. Most states have similar training available, and private vendors offer excellent training as well. Virtual training over the Internet also is becoming popular: More than 2,000 firefighters use the USFA's “virtual campus” every day. Fire chiefs should not allow officers who do not take advantage of training courses into command positions.

Training courses provide the foundation for the formation of fireground commanders. It's no different from the basic training we provide for new firefighters. Until someone shows a recruit firefighter a gated wye, for example, all the practice in the world about the use of gated wyes is meaningless. The development of fireground commanders requires that they have a basic understanding of the terminology, expectations and best practices. It's only the first step, but it's an important one.

Preview pre-plans

Chief Ronny J. Coleman calls this the Walter Mitty approach: “If I had a fire in the back storeroom of the Zydeco Zinc plant, how would I handle it?” New fireground commanders need to get out the Zydeco Zinc's pre-plan that has languished in the files and imagine how best to handle that situation. They should follow up with a visit to the facility to get firsthand, up-to-date knowledge.

After senior officers decide which pre-plans are the most critical, the pre-plan preview then can be a topic at the monthly staff meeting, where junior officers orally present what they observed and learned. This will provide an opportunity for feedback and challenges, with the added bonus of everybody learning the game plan for the Zydeco Zinc plant.

If the real thing strikes, a new officer will be able to think, “I already fought this fire in the pre-plan.” To accomplish this pre-plan preview, the chief has pull officers off other critical tasks, such as rewriting an SOP or managing the hose-purchasing budget.

Assign mentors

Some departments have the tradition that the first lesson a new recruit receives is how to make a good cup of coffee. The wisdom of this approach, while not obvious, is nevertheless valid. After making a good cup of coffee, the new recruit can sit down with the seasoned captain and learn how the fire department operates.

Before the corporate knowledge gets completely out the door, provide opportunities for up-and-coming fire officers and chief officers to ride-along with the more senior officers. Tour the territory, or as we used to say, “Go chiefing.” Identify both everyday and target hazards. Talk through the possible situations. For certain facilities, there often has been more than one opportunity for the fire department to demonstrate its prowess. Those definitely should be on the list. The senior chief can explain how they did it last time and the time before, what worked and what didn't, and why.

The mentor also provides the new officer with a confidante who can provide honest feedback, not only on the operational outcome but also on the new officer's style and demeanor. Both of these are critical to the formation of good fireground commanders.

Many retirement systems allow the jurisdiction to hire back retirees on a limited basis without affecting retirement status. For a relatively low cost, the department can re-capture some of the institutional knowledge and put it to work mentoring new officers. What a tremendous opportunity to take advantage of experience!

Conduct simulations

In the old days, an aspiring railroad engineer spent years as a fireman in the cab of a locomotive learning the craft of starting and stopping a train. With today's diesel locomotives, there's no fire and no fireman to tend it. Today's railroads teach their new engineers train-handling through simulators. Airlines have been doing this with pilots for years. Simulators allow students opportunity after opportunity to crash the train or plane until they get it right, with no cost in lives or property. Simulation allows the instructor the occasion to throw every possible curve at the students. From this training, command officers gain experience and confidence.

Fire department simulators have been around for a long time, but the fire service hasn't taken full advantage of them. Even now, most departments use them sporadically, even as simulators become increasingly refined. The advent of computer-controlled simulation adds a greater dimensions of realism, with the promise of future simulation products offering a real-time, three-dimensional perspective.

Even with today's computer-assisted simulations, a small army of support personnel is required to play the roles of dispatcher, simulator operator and on-scene and off-scene resources. An overall simulation manager controls the activities of this support system to coordinate the system. In addition, an instructor ensures that the training effectively targets the student's needs. Many departments have difficulty finding the funds that this requires and are reluctant to commit this level of resources.

Require doubling-up

Assign two chief officers to every fire alarm. This doubles the exposure of officers to the command experience. The second officer can play a critical role as well by serving as the planning section chief, taking a large burden off the back of the incident commander. In other words, the position can be considered “planning in the street.” The planning section chief provides the IC with the status of the situation and resources. He or she helps formulate the plan and, as an added bonus, earns more fireground experience.

Cooperate with others

The development of effective fireground commanders is a problem for the entire fire service. Departments, particularly smaller ones, can work cooperatively on this issue. Does it really matter that much if an officer from one department learns the craft at another department? Do fire departments really do things that differently?

Combining resources to provide simulation is a good example. Sending firefighters off to training academies is another expensive proposition. Often departments can work through a local chiefs or training officers association to bring the trainers to the area. Then all the fire chief needs to do is commit the members to the training.

It's usually general knowledge in an area who the sharp fireground commanders are. I had the pleasure of working alongside one of these people most of my career. People from other departments also knew this individual and respected his reputation. Over the years, he has mentored firefighters from many departments. If such a person works nearby, but for a different department, use his or her skills to mentor.

While one department may not be able to set up a big simulation program, by working with two or three other adjacent departments, perhaps enough personnel could be committed to train all the officers. This may require an instructor from one department commenting on the member of another department; fire chiefs will have to abandon their parochialism.

For some small departments there's only one duty chief. To get the advantage of doubling-up, the second officer will have to come from an adjacent department. However, the converse is also true, and both departments still gain from the experience. Doubling-up on alarms may require reciprocal-response agreements with the neighboring departments.

Fireground command is a crucial skill set of the fire service, but the members who possess the institutional knowledge have either left already or are about to depart. The formation of fireground commanders is a long-term task. Making certain that there are officers in the future who can perform these tasks in a credible fashion requires planning, commitment and cooperation. Fire chiefs can't afford ignore this important obligation.

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Bill Sager is currently working as a fire protection consultant and trainer after a 32-year career with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, where he served as a CDF team incident commander, planning section chief on a National Interagency Incident Management Team, the Butte Unit chief and the Butte County fire chief. He is a designated chief fire officer, a state-certified fire chief and a graduate of the National Fire Academy Executive Fire Officer Program. He has taught for the NFA, National Interagency Fire Center, the U.S. Coast Guard, the CDF Academy and community colleges in California. A retired naval officer, he graduated from the University of California — Berkeley in 1966.