Standardization of In America

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Standardization of In America
Safe Command Systems
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I. DAVID DANIELS

• Assistant Chief
• Safety and Employee Services

Seattle Fire Department
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In This Presentation

• Is There Really a Problem?
• Signs of Command System Dysfunction
• Moving Towards Best Practice

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Is There A Problem?
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The significant problems we face cannot be
solved by the same level of thinking that created
them

• Albert Einstein

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The U. S. Fire Problem

• One of the highest fire death rates in the
  industrialized world (14.9 deaths per million
  population).
• Annually, fire kills more Americans than all
  natural disasters combined.
• Fire is the 3rd leading cause of accidental death
  in the home
• 80 of all fire deaths occur in residences.

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The U. S. Fire Problem

• About 2 million fires are reported each year.
• It is estimated that over 40 percent of
  residential fires and three-fifths of residential
  fatalities occur in homes with no smoke alarms
• Direct property loss due to fires is estimated at
  8.6 billion annually
• Americans accept fire as an inevitability.

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Two hundred years of tradition, uninhibited by
progress

• Ancient American Fire Service Proverb

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American Fire Service

• To often, accepts FF serious injury or deaths as
  hazard of the profession.
• Wear most dangerous profession as a badge of
  honor.
• Being scrutinized more than ever by communities,
  employees and government.
• To often wait until we are forced to change.

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American Fire Service

• Averaged over 90,000 injuries per year in the
  1990s and was over 95,000 for the first four
  years of the decade.
• On average, 45 of these injuries occurred on the
  fire ground.
• Over the period of the 90s there were an average
  of 96 firefighter fatalities on the job.

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Duty Firefighter Fatalities
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Compared to Canada...

• Or the years 1993 - 1997, the Canadian Center for
  Occupational Safety and Health reports only 18
  fatalities total in all of public safety
  employees (police fire and EMS).
• The absence of information on firefighter deaths
  suggests that the problem is not as wide spread,
  if it exists at all.

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Explanations for the Problem

• Most of the firefighter fatalities are
  volunteers (Does it matter?)
• Firefighters arent as tough as the once were
  (Neither are the structures they enter)
• Over half of the fatalities are heart attacks
  (Another example has tough we are not?)
• There are too many inexperienced chiefs
  (Welcome to the 21st century!)

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Signs of Command System Dysfunction
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Command Dysfunction

• Is a systemic failure in the incident management
  system of an organization or jurisdiction.
• Has six major symptoms.
• Contributes every instance of multi-firefighter
  emergency scene fatality and a significant
  majority of single instances.

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Dysfunction's Impact

• The American fire service averaged 96 fatalities
  a year in the decade of the 90s.
• from 1995- 99, averaged 17 instances a year when
  more than one firefighter died at the same
  incident.
• 71 of the multiple firefighter deaths during
  this period can be traced directly to command
  dysfucntion.

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Single vs. Multiple FF Fatality
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Six Symptoms

• Lack of Risk Assessment
• Lack of Responder Discipline
• Lack or Misuse of the Incident Management System
• Ineffective Incident Commanders
• Lack of Accountability
• Poor Communications

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Risk Assessment

• Service level expectation and system capacity
  often dont match.
• Heart vs. Head response
• Recognition and acceptance of levels of risk at
  the scene.
• Resource allocation inconsistent with level of
  risk and potential benefits.

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Responder Discipline

• Predetermined tactical operations despite the
  situation presented.
• Self deployment of responding units without
  direction or coordination.
• Tactical insubordination.
• Responders are not self limiting.

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Lack or Misuse of IMS

• System design or implementation.
• Recognition of span of control issues.
• Practice and real world conflicts
• Tactical addiction

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Ineffective On-Scene Commanders

• Inadequate training
• Little or no strategic focus
• Incident Micro-Management
• Urgency addiction

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Accountability

• Lack of a system.
• Unwillingness to use the system.
• Realism of system expectations
• Coordination with incident activities

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Communications

• Incident organizational structure
• Scene communications plan
• Technological challenges
• Information overload

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Moving Towards Best Practice
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If you dont know where youre going, any road
will get you there

• Unknown

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Incident Management Fallacies

• Command personnel will learn through experience.
• If an individual does an exceptional job as a
  firefighter or company officer, they will make a
  an exceptional incident commander.
• IMS slows the progress of putting the fire out.

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Incident Management Facts

• Fire prevention advances in the 20th century have
  minimized the opportunities for experience in the
  21st century.
• The command skill set is different from the
  task orientation of a firefighter.
• IMS makes emergencies more efficient and
  effective.

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Safe Command Systems

• Begin prior to the incident with physical and
  emotional fitness as well as quality training for
  all members.
• Increase level of safety for responders by
  increasing the functionality of command.
• Increase survivability for fire occupants through
  more efficient use of resources.

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Where Do We Lack?

• Enough actual emergencies to hone the skills of
  command personnel.
• There is no widely accepted standard of care
  for IMS.
• Specific training for Command Officers to
  increase their command skill.
• Verifiable methods of ensuring that command
  personnel are competent.

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Best Practice Models

• Common frames of reference for the development of
  organizational policy.
• Common foundations for performance standards.
• A template for training standards.
• A tool for evaluation of performance in the field.

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Who Must Lead the Move?

• National Fire Service Incident Management
  Consortium
• National Fire Protection Association
• Firescope/National Wildfire Coordinating Group
• IAFC/IAFF
• Intl Fire Service Accreditation Congress
• Intl Incident Management Foundation

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Natl Fire Service IMS Consortium

• Continued development of IMS model procedures
  guides.
• Continued research and development into IMS
  improvements such as the upgrade of the Safety
  Section.
• Continued leadership in the coordination the
  efforts between other important IMS organizations.

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NFPA

• Development of a professional qualification
  standard for the American fire service can best
  be implemented through the NFPA consensus
  process.
• The decision on how to address this issue will be
  made at the Fall 2000 meeting of the NFPA.

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Firescope / NWCG

• Should cooperate with the Consortium and the NFPA
  to ensure that necessary upgrades to the IMS are
  instituted.
• Must be willing to assist the American structural
  fire service as it moves through the development
  process.

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IAFC and IAFF

• It is important that the leaders of both
  management and labor recognize the connection
  between safe command systems and firefighter
  safety.
• Cooperation between the two is paramount to any
  successes that might be achieved in the IMS arena.

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IFSAC

• Is the entity best suitable to formalize the
  certification process once an NFPA consensus
  standard exists.

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International Command Foundation

• World wide efforts to collect and identify IMS
  best practice will be critical factors in
  addressing IMS issues in America.
• It is possible that the American fire service is
  not able conquer the many years of tradition
  through a single, internal approach, thus an
  opportunity to affect that change may exist.

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Other Needs

• IMS specific training opportunities
• IMS specific conferences and information
  exchanges
• IMS training curriculum
• IMS research and development efforts