Part 3 ( Lessons and Best Practices) Chapter 19: Fireground Command Best Practices Flashcards
Chapter 19 is the
most important chapter in the book
Best Practice #1) Prioritize your incoming information
when subjects are under stress, the number of unrelated information a person can remember drops to 5 from 7.
The 4 critical data for residential dwelling fire decision making are
1) smoke and fire conditions
2) construction and decomposition of the structure
3) The speed the incident is moving
4) A realistic assessment of savable lives
Information about critical data in regard to smoke and fire conditions
Dave Dodson notes, the color, volume, velocity, and density of the smoke can tell you what is burning, where its burning, how much pressure its putting on the building and most importantly, where the fire is heading.
Smoke, not fire, is the predictor of the future
The 4 attributes of smoke serve as the primer for Level 3 SA
Smoke and fire follow the laws of physics which are predictable
To understand how a building behaves when it is on fire, you must first understand how the building is _____
built
Francis Brannigan said “Every building had a common enemy and that enemy is ______”
gravity
In regards to construction and decomposition of a structure
LODD reports show a trend of FF being killed in LW structures. This will continue until we change or tactics or until homes are outfitted with residential sprinklers
The speed the incident is movig
Every incident has a speed. The speed is usually assess in the terms of how fast conditions are degrading and how quickly the incident is slipping out of control for the responders.
Part of the responders mental model is to assess the speed of the incident and then determine whether responders can outmaneuver ( be quicker than) the pace of the incidents progression
It is also vital for the decision maker to look at the incident over a period of time (several minutes) to conclude how fast the situation is moving
RPD requires the rapid assessment because how fast conditions can change, the decision maker must lock onto some point of reference in order to make rapid decisions
RPD size-up is the equivalent of a snapshot in time. The longer assessment used to determine the speed of an incident is the equivalent of watching a movie
In regards to Realistic Assessment of Savable Lives
In fast-paced environments where rapidly changing conditions impact victim survivability, there is often a narrow window of time in which a responder can actually influence the outcome in a positive way
The author refers to these continuums of time as “windows of opportunity” which he states there are 3. They are
1) victim survivability
2) responder survivability
3) structural survivability
Skin begins to melt around _____
160 degrees
Most victims self-extricate but some are unable to are those who are not alerted to fire or
small children
elderly
and disabled
The victims are savable as long as the conditions inside the structure remain
compatible with life
2nd and 3rd degree burns over ___ to ____ of a persons body are not injuries compatible with life
70 to 80%
Best Practice #2) Set the strategy and tactics based on the quantity and quality of your resources
Nearly every personnel intensive incident is going to start from a position of being understaffed/under resourced
Initial staffing varies widely but will likely range from 2 to 5 personnel on the 1st arriving apparatus
Many responders are , by their nature, problem solvers with Type-A, aggressive, competitive personalities
An object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force describes
Newtons first law of motion
Best Practice # 3) Never miss radio communications form your most at-risk personnel.
having and Aide to monitor radio traffic or take noted helps to ensure that commander does not miss critical information
your brain cant presort which radio traffic is important and which is not
Radio procedures and disciplines ensure that only the most important information is shared
An example of needless overload on a commander occurs when dispatch is contacted with a request for additional resources via single call system
MABAS was founded in IL
Missed Radio traffic from at-risk personnel qualifies as a _______. Yet it is often overlooked or dismissed because there was no consequence
near-miss event
Responders think that for an event to qualify as a near-miss, someone had to either get hurt or come so close to getting hurt that its characterized as merely luck that saved them
true
Best Practice #4) Be Strategic when choosing the location for command
For reasons founded in neuroscience and cognitive psychology, the author recommends commanding from a vehicle
A commander should think strategically about selecting a command location. Being out of the action and maintaining the big picture view of the incident are TWO essential requirements when picking the command location
Commanding an incident requires a total commitment of your physical and mental resources to be oriented to the big picture
______ is the essence, or the high-level, broad concept of something
gist
Best Practice #5) Call a personal time-out
A personal time out is a way for you to pause, if only for a few moments, to ask yourself (on a conscious level) How is my SA? This is a critical task because its not something you’re likely to think about during the heat of high-risk engagement
Time outs allow a commander to walk away from the stress and action and gather his thoughts and conduct a personal SA check up
Dr Mica Endlsey suggests the progression of SA be called levels, not steps
The faster the incident is moving, the shorter your view into the future
Generally, the focus of this text has been to look at the short-term events that cause immediate and catastrophic outcomes based on rapidly eroding SA in dynamically changing conditions
true
you make a prediction of events at an incident scene and now you’re at that point in time and things don’t look good (progress you thought would be made has not happened) At this point you have to make a decision and there are 3 decisions you could make which are:
The obvious answer of which decision you choose is that it depends on the situation. The less obvious and more accurate answer is it depends on the ego and self-esteem of the commander
DECISION 1) extend the deadline by giving the crews additional time to accomplish the task ( you may also make modifications to the plan)
DECISION 2) Assign additional personnel to the task, and extend the deadline ( this too can also come with modifications to the plan)
DECISION 3) Withdrawal the resources from the situation and take up a defensive posture
Best Practice #6) Use a command team
The importance of sharing the mental workload at an emergency scene cannot be overstated.
The chauffer can be a valuable asset for a commander, as it relieves the commander from the cognitive workload needed to safely drive the vehicle to an emergency scene. It also improves the commanders abilities to process radio traffic and look up preplan information while en route to the emergency.
subconsciously stored cognitive tasks ( What am I supposed to be doin)
Muscle Memory tasks ( How am I supposed to be doing this)
The leading cause of 1st responder casualty events, second only to heart-attacks and strokes are _____
vehicle accidents
In aviation PF stands for
person flying the plane
In aviation, PNF stands for
person not flying the plane
Best practice #7 Control your distractions and interruptions
This best practice is tied closely to many of the others and perhaps is a direct by-product of the other best practices
Best Practice #8) Develop and maintain a strong command presence
Command presence is the ability of the person in charge to be in charge. This requires a person who is well trained, competent, confident, disciplined, and able to lear and make decisions
When a commander gives a tactical assignment to a crew, the commander should form two expectations about the performance of that task. 1) how the incident benefits from the completion of the task. 2) how long it should take for the task to be completed
At the very minimum, it is the commanders role to ensure a strategy is communicated, tactics are coordinated, accountability is maintained, and radio traffic of all at-risk personnel is monitored
This simply means that time gets away from you
temporal distortion
One of the best ways to keep track of the passage of time is to have the dispatcher announce ETNs which stands for ________. Ideally, ETNs are announced over the radio channels hear by all personnel operating at the incident scene
Elapsed Time Notifications ETN’s
The authors preference is every 10 minutes for ETNs and then a PAR every _____ minutes
par
Best Practice #9) Develop and train to scripted procedures but build resiliency into training programs
Generally public safety agencies perform better, are more coordinated, and have better results when they develop and use SOP/SOG. These documents ensure personnel are trained to a common set of expectations and will perform all tasks the same way.
It would be better if trainers taught personnel to perform based on the SOP/SOG and then gave the responders novel situations with little or no guidance on how to solve the problem
unless the personnel are in danger of getting hurt, failure is an important component of learning. Through the lessons of failure, personnel build ip a repertoire of experience of actions that don’t work. These lessons are just as important as the ones that do work
When personnel can fail in training without fear of retribution, and trainers can develop a tolerance for failure, the organization is well on its way to improving operational safety
true
Best Practice #10) Accelerate your command knowledge and expertise
This is done by using high-fidelity simulators and practicing decision making in high-stress environments
It can also be accomplished by training and reading near-miss and LODD reports
The more emotion you can build into the training session, the deeper the lessons seat into your memory. Any emotion will work
The incidents that you see less of are the ones that put your safety most in jeopardy. They are referred to as
high risk, low frequency events
There are 2 forms of memorization. They are
cognitive and muscle
__________ is memorizing information such as peoples names, phone numbers, emails and so on. When you memorize and practice something over and over again, it may store deep in your memory and be retrievable for life. Using memory aids can help you with this type of memory
Cognitive memorization
If you physically perform a task over and over again, you can perform that task with no conscious thought whatsoever. The ability to perform the memorized physical task resides in your subconscious.
Muscle memory
Simulators with high-fidelity, realistic graphics, and relevant audio are the most likely to air in learning
true
The final advice to help accelerate the development of your expertise is to get a ____ or _____. This person can help you develop your command skills. This person can also point out your mistakes so they don’t become habit
mentor or coach
The recipe for catastrophe is
Incompetent behavior… without a consequence (no casualty)… Leads to overconfidence…. and contributes to complacency and arrogance…. precursors to catastrophe
