05 Tactical Response Procedures Flashcards
What is the most important component to our fireground success in our mission of life safety?
Our procedures
Procedure
An established or correct method of doing something.
Emergency response operations must be based on a structured and standardized system of procedures to bring __________ to the tactical operation.
consistency
SOPs should provide procedures for these seven emergency response conditions:
- Outside odor of gas
- Locked building
- Building explosion
- Excavation damage
- Inside odor of gas
- Leak with fire
- Transmission line emergencies
Four Understandings:
- Must plan to be operating on your own for the maximum amount of time you expect it to take for the local gas tech to arrive on scene.
- The lone gas tech cannot be at your command post and running procedures to help mitigate the leak at the same time
- You have no communication with the gas tech (unless a FF is assigned to him or he is given a radio)
- We can do multiple tasks at once because we have a crew.
SOPs should be framed around these concepts:
- Life safety is the FDs mission and responsibility
- The FD is in charge
- Size up is the critical step in determining life safety
- Establish the kill box early and update it. Limit members in and out
- Different leaks need different procedures
- Air monitoring guidelines - who does it? what do they look for? Where do they look for it? When do they look for it? Why do they look for it?
- Action levels are the points at which SOP specifies members’ or officers’ actions.
- The hierarchy and tenants of ICS must be maintained.
What is one of the most effective procedural steps you can institute to improve both civilian life safety and our safety at an NGE?
Defining a kill box
One of the first size-up priorities is to determine what?
If there is a life hazard.
Recognizing gas leaks by sight:
- Marks out in the street (indicating an upcoming repair)
- Asphalt patches in the roadway indicating recent work performed on previous gas leak
- Dead or dying vegetation over buried lines
- Unusual changes to soil (blackening, mildew, drying out)
- Dry, blowing dirt near a gas line
- Bubbling water over a gas line
- Extensive corrosion on the meter set
- Unusual swarms of insects or piles of dead insects that may have been attracted to and killed by the leaking gas
- Bar holes: 3/4”-1” holes in the pavement or soil
Procedures must be based on a number of important sources:
- Local utility’s procedures
- Best practices of gas industry
- Types of buildings and NGE responses
Conditions indicative of a major gas emergency:
- Serious damage to major components of the gas infrastructure
- 10% LEL or greater detected outside or inside
- Elevated natural gas reading (20%+ LEL) in an unvented, subsurface structure (manhole, sewer, etc)
- Gas present in two or more subsurface structures
- Indications of gas migrating into a building from an outside source
- Gas leaking inside of a structure and the controlling valve cannot be located or is inoperable
- Gas leaking or present inside of a wall or void in a structure
If leak is found and controlled inside a structure, continue to operate up to _______. If leak isn’t found, ________ is safest and best.
80% LEL / 10% LEL
Limited Tactics within blast zone:
- Quick evacuation of likely occupants
- Minimum exposure to members
- Minimum time spent in kill box to obtain first objective.
When evacuating and going house to house, you should ___________ on the doors, never ______________.
knock / ring doorbell
Critical parts of SOP (minimums):
- Response policies and a clear mission statement: life safety.
- General guidelines with enough latitde for on-scene officers to use their judgement
- Specific strategies and tactics to guide on-scene officers to use their judgement
- Action levels to ensure safety of civilians and members
- Clear command-and-control methods and decision points.
- Enough information to provide solid understanding and guidance to all responders.
