February 13, 2025 • 47 mins
This episode features Josh Blum, Chris Stewart and John Vance.
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This episode was recorded on February 11, 2025.
Worcester Fire Department demonstrates what effective communication and incident management look like in action. With a robust incident action plan and seamless command transfer, every member of the team is prepared, engaged, and ready to respond to challenges, ensuring success in real-time crisis management.
• Worcester Fire Department's journey with Blue Card incident command
• Importance of initial radio reports in setting the tone
• Effective incident action plans guide the team's response
• Continuous training and improvement pave the way for excellence
• Smooth command transfer maintains operational continuity
• The impact of cohesive communication on firefighting outcomes
• Engaged leadership promotes accountability and professionalism
• Community service enhanced through superior preparedness
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to the B-Shifter podcast.
Today we have myself, johnVance, josh Bloom and Chris
Stewart here in the studio withme in Phoenix and we will be
doing some incident audio on anincident that happened in Woosta
.
Am I getting that right?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Is Gary going to chastise me for not saying it
correctly?
All I know is, for the last twodays, since we said we were
going to do this, I've beenthinking about Gary critiquing
our ability to say Worcester.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Can you say it Josh?
Speaker 4 (00:41):
I'm not saying it.
I'm not going to get yelled at.
It's not Worcestershire sauce.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Well, I probably there's a lot of things I don't
say correctly, so I'm sure he'llget us.
Yeah, we'll just add this to thelist this incident in Worcester
, which we'll get to in a second.
We've got a lot of great thingsgoing on right now with B
Shifter and Blue Card.
If you are not getting the BShifter Buck Slip, make sure to
check the show notes whereveryou're getting this and
subscribe.
(01:07):
This week we have a great10-minute drill.
We also have links to our AfterAction Review webinar that we
did earlier in the week and allof the podcasts that we do.
So get the B Shifter Buck Slip.
It goes to your mailbox everysingle week on Tuesdays and if
you are subscribing to it andyou don't see it, check your
(01:28):
spam folders, because Outlookjust changed everything that
they did as far as the way thatit helps you try to sort your
mail and a lot of our folks aregetting the mail sorted right
into junk, since it's sent outto about 30,000 people every
week.
So check that.
If you're not subscribedalready, please subscribe.
We also have some other eventscoming up, of course, the Blue
(01:50):
Card Hazard Zone Conferencecoming to the Sharonville
Convention Center, and this yearwe've got a great lineup, along
with some other workshops,including the May Day Management
Workshop we're doing a CERT Labthere Strategic Decision-Making
Workshop and also we have theSafety Workshop.
That is going to do like atrain-the-trainer and do the
(02:14):
folks get the prop, or how doesthat whole thing work with the
Safety Workshop, because I knowthere's some hardware involved
in that.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Yeah, so if they come to the class at the conference,
the two-day workshop, they'llget all the classroom parts and
pieces and then they have theoption to buy the prop at a much
reduced price, because if wetrain several people there at
the conference then really onthe other side of it we're not
(02:43):
sending instructors to theirfire department.
So, yeah, they have the optionto get the prop.
So they get the two-dayworkshop, the classroom part.
And then, john, we're alsodoing that expanded command
workshop also that we have gotquite a few people, I think,
signed up for it actuallyalready.
So, from Engine 1 all the wayto supporting the IC and the
(03:06):
command vehicle senior advisorand actually taking it a step
further than that.
So, tim Schaubel and KevinAlexander putting that together,
what does that look like whenit goes beyond that five, six,
seven, eight hours and you startto reach out further, to grow
in the system and maybe evenconnected it back to an EOC type
(03:27):
of an event?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And we talk a lot of times in our Train the Trainers
and other classes how we can gofrom Engine 1 to a pretty big
command team, all the way to aType 3 incident and beyond.
So this will help get you thereand those guys will deliver a
great class.
For that, go to bshiftercom tosign up and get all the
(03:50):
information and we'll probablyrun out of seats.
So do it sooner than later andget locked into the Blue Card
Hazard Zone Conference.
Coming back to the SharonvilleConvention Center, september
30th of this year,pre-conference and then the
general conference October 2ndand 3rd.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
The May Day workshop.
John, the May Day workshop isalready it might be halfway full
already, I think.
So we had 100 people last yearand we're cutting it off this
year to just have probably goingto cut it off at 50.
And I think we have about halfthose seats you know already
spoken for.
So we're just going to keep itsmaller, just so that we can
(04:32):
keep it connected a little bitbetter, you know, keep it
personal for people as well.
So, yeah, we're looking forwardto it.
This year was fantastic and Ithink this coming year is going
to be even better.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Great, anything else you want to add today before we
get into the meat of the podcast.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
No, you said it about the Microsoft update.
I think between that update andthe Apple update and all the
updates that the buck slipped.
Today it ended up buried.
I had to go looking for it.
So usually it pops right up inmy email and I could not, when
you sent that to me to look atit earlier.
I was like I didn't get it andI had to go looking for it.
So that's definitely somethingfor people to pay attention to,
(05:15):
that.
If you find it, make itsomething that you want to
accept into your system soyou're not missing it every week
.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Good information system so you're not missing it
every week.
Yeah, I think, with this newsystem that they have on here
the new, whatever you call ityou know to go through there's a
primary and then there's atransactions updates and then
promotion.
It might either be in junk orpromotion.
So those will be the two placesto check it out to see if
you've got it, but please docheck it All right.
Today's audio.
What are we going to listen to,josh?
(05:49):
What do you know about this?
Speaker 4 (05:50):
incident.
Yeah, so it's the WorcesterFire Department.
They started engaging in BlueCard really pretty recently
really, and Gary Fleischer hasbeen a key part, I think, of
them rolling it out and pushingit out and, you know, staying
connected with us.
As far as what are we reallygoing to do with this and what
(06:12):
does it look like?
And when you, if you listen tothat fire department four years
ago and you listen to it today,it sounds like a totally
different fire department.
How well organized and managedthat it is.
So I spent a very cold winterin Massachusetts there at that
(06:33):
fire department doing someback-to-back training, the
trainers with them and someother training as they were
rolling the program out.
And if you haven't been thereyou don't know much about it.
It's a metro, you know, metrotype of population, and then
their staffing model is, uh,very um, dense, I think you
(06:54):
would say also.
So a lot, of, a lot of stationsthat are uh, double stacked up
with apparatus and, um, they can, they can, they can put a lot
of boots on the ground in a veryshort period of time and you
know, part of that is, I thinkyou know, the population driven
and then the density of.
You know there's three and fourstory wood frame buildings that
(07:14):
are, you know, sometimes rightnext to each other and if they
don't get on top of it they'llburn down a city block.
So you know, we all knowthey've always been a really
good fire department and youknow they they've engaged with,
you know, blue Card and they'veengaged with doing more and more
with the fire science and Idon't know.
(07:36):
There's like 25 things thatthey've done really in like the
last five or six years.
That I think has pushed theirorganization to the next level
and I think we'll hear it herein this audio of how well
they're doing and howeverybody's on the same page,
very organized.
(07:56):
People are making decisions,everybody's in one that's in an
action plan, from the firstarriving IC to the strategic
incident commander, to companiesbeing professional on the radio
and really communicating whatneeds to be communicated and not
communicating stuff thatdoesn't need to be communicated.
And we all know that there'ssome urgency there and those of
(08:18):
us that have spent some timethere know that when you see
them go to work, know that whenyou see them go to work there's
no grass growing underneaththeir feet.
But you sure can't tell that onthe radio.
I mean, it's almost likethey're sitting in a classroom,
because they have a system,they're very comfortable and
competent with it and confidentwith it, and I think they've
(08:44):
rolled out some very clear anddefined expectations.
So, chris, I know you've spentsome time, you know, talking to
their chiefs about, you know,1700 and some other things.
You got anything to throw intothat before we listen to this
audio?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Yeah, I got to say just organizationally, they are
a fantastic example ofleadership, evaluating where
they are and what they're doing.
They don't lack experience,they don't lack resources, they
don't lack a willingness to dohard stuff on the fire ground.
(09:17):
They are very comfortable inthat environment.
But they took what they weredoing four or five years ago and
said, all right, how can we dothis better?
And I identified a whole set ofthings and they have been
applying it slowly, surelyconsistently, and it's it's
showing not only in theirstandard that they've set but
(09:37):
also how they're training.
You listen to incidents likethis fire.
This is as legit of aresidential fire as we get.
They're able to demonstrate areally, really effective
utilization of the system andutilizing the system while
they're doing real work.
This is not them just soundinggood on the radio and then
(10:03):
action not actually happening onthe fire ground.
They sound good.
That's because they're actuallydoing good things and they're
making good decisions.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
You know, what we hear on the radio is really just
that is the communications ofthe incident action plan.
And if we're not communicatingthe incident action plan, then
everybody's not going to be onthe same page.
So that's just so critical.
You know, I agree 100% witheverybody out there who says you
can't talk the fire out.
Absolutely, you cannot do it.
(10:32):
But we communicate, and wecommunicate effectively and with
a system so that everybody ison the same page and so that
those words do mean somethingand you can't say something in a
controlled fashion.
Uh, if you didn't think about it.
So really, the communicationsis just one of the eight
functions of command and it'sreally just.
(10:53):
You know, it's where we arecommunicating what we are doing
or what we are going to do orwhat we need to do.
So, um, I always like this toclarify that, cause I hear that
shit get thrown around so oftenyou can't talk the fire out.
It's like, well, yeah, we allknow you can't talk the fire out
, water still wins every singletime, but when everybody's on
(11:13):
the same page it sure makes abig difference.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Yeah, and those same fire departments haven't taken
the radios off their rig, youknow, because the radios are
getting in the way of them doingwork.
No, this example here is, youknow, like one of the really
really good examples that Ithink we need to highlight in
good work.
And kind of to your point, Josh, I've never, ever heard
(11:39):
screaming on the radio and thenhave a very calm fire ground
like a calm, professional fireground.
Those two things don't happensimultaneously.
So when you hear calm,professional communication, you
have a high likelihood thatthat's actually being
operationalized in the work thatthey're doing in the hazard
zone.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
Tensional Company stand by.
For the reported structure fire1515 Maranook Road box to
follow Tensional Companystriking box 11-09, west
Mountain Street and MaranookRoad box to follow Tenantial
Company Striking Box 11-09, westMountain Street and Maravista
Road.
For the reported structure fireat 1515 Maranook Road.
Response is Engine 11, engine 8, engine 3, engine 1616, at a 6
(12:20):
latitude to rescue car 3, ladder1,.
You're the writ Again.
Striking Box 11-09, westMountain Street, Maribyster Road
.
For reported structure 5, 1515,maranoke Road.
Response is engine 11, engine 8, engine 3, engine 1, 6, latta 6
, latta 2, the rescue car 3,latta 1,.
You're the writ.
Fire ground channels A alphatimeout 1550.
Fire 1.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
1550 has the box 1550 .
Fire alarm 50 out of the boxFire alarm.
Has it 3 to fire alarm?
We'll take the update for thestructure fire.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
It's 1515, roanoke Road.
Multiple car rolls set afire,started in the basement here,
caused by a candle Everyone isout of the building Received
9-11 to fire alarm.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
That's a radio report Fire alarm.
We have a one-story split ranchheavy fire Alpha Bravo corner
Engine 11 stretching an entrycorridor off the side.
Engine 11 has command.
You can get a second alarmgoing off the strategy.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
Fire alarm has that heavy fire showing Stretching
second alarm 50-54.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Ladder 6 is level 1.
Command 2, ladder 6, if you canget the stick to the roof and
then meet up my crew off theside.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
Engine 8, level 1.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Command 2, fire alarm with Apollo 360 complete, no
unusual hazards from the rear.
Spoke to the residents theysaid everybody's out of the
building.
We're doing transitional attack, alpha side, knocking down the
fire.
We'll be making entry Alphaside in a moment.
Engine 8, level 1.
(14:03):
Command to engine 8 Get us aneyedropper please.
16 is level 1.
Engine 3 is level 1.
Command 2, 16,.
Grab a second line off Engine11.
You guys will be going for 1.
We still have heavy fire inthis corner here Still knocking
(14:26):
it down from the outside.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
16 has now lined off engine 11.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Floor, one Fire control 11 pump to 11, we're at
half tank.
We have that.
Ladder 2 is level 1.
Command 2, ladder 2, on deckalpha Ladder 2 has that.
Engine 3 is level 1.
On deck alpha engine 3.
11 pump to 11, a quarter of atank.
(14:53):
Racy command 2, engine 8, how'sit?
Look on that hydrant.
Yeah, bobby, grab it now, racey.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Okay, Engine 3.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Car 3 to fire alarm.
Car 3 is on scene 15-58.
11-pump ready for water Water.
Car 3 to Command 4, commandtransfer, command 3.
Lt, I have you doing atransitional attack from the
alpha side.
Engine 8's getting you ahydrant, engine 16's taking a
(15:24):
line off your truck to makeentry to the first floor and
Ladder 2 is on deck alpha side.
If that's correct, confirm andgive me a can.
Speaker 6 (15:34):
That's correct.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
We're about to transition interior.
We're about to transitioninterior.
We're going to be going inthrough the door, through the
garage.
Okay, receive, and this lookslike the two-story.
Yes, it does Grant 11-1-2-11,we're on the water Contrared
(15:55):
fire alarm Out of six of command.
We've got the ladder set up.
Water Count three to fire alarm.
Count three to command.
We've got the ladder set up.
Count three is assuming command.
We're going to ring theoffensive to hold the second
alarm up.
Fifteen, fifty-nine, Commandtwo engine eleven.
Speaker 6 (16:11):
Eleven sir.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, you still have heavy fire at Alpha Delta Corner
Three.
Two one keep at Alpha DeltaCorner Receive.
We'll keep track of it.
Rescue level one Command to therescue on deck Alpha Receive.
Engine eight 802, hydrant 802,.
Entrant.
Send the water now you can sendit slowly.
Command to engine 11.
(16:35):
Order entrant.
You have fire in the basementand on the first floor.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
We have that.
We're just waiting for water.
We have a clear angle on itfrom the garage door right here.
No transition on that, not aone level one Safe and easy.
Engine 211's called.
Do we have a line yet, crystalWater, send it back to you now.
11211, command with a fashion.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Command yes, my 11211 .
Speaker 6 (17:10):
11211, basement 11211 .
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Now repeat that who's in the?
Speaker 6 (17:15):
basement 11211, floor one.
Now repeat that.
Who's in the basement?
Engine 16, one thing set toalpha side.
Engine 11 is at the alpha sidedoor, knocking at the door.
Moving on to floor one.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Received Engine 11, floor one Grant to car, four
Grant to engine 11.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
I'm answering.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, you want floor number one.
Speaker 6 (17:43):
Make the answer now 106, level one 6, 9, 9, 1, 7, 8.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Command I'm coming in 10.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
10 minutes in.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Received Still actively fighting the fire.
All companies working Hold theassignment.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
Received Still actively fighting the fire All
companies working Hold theassignment Received.
16 on 6.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Translating 16.
Speaker 6 (18:07):
We got a little bit of sparking down here.
Maybe in the list you want toput it up on a page 10.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
16, you're unreadable .
Speaker 6 (18:15):
Repeat your message we are having some sparking
while flowing water.
If possible, rescue to shut offpower.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Command of the rescue Rescue 1 to command At rescue.
Secure their utilities Command.
We got the main power switch atthe garage.
It is shut off.
No computer identified.
Received Command to Engine 3.
Speaker 6 (18:43):
Engine 3.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Engine 3, stretch that line to assist Engine 11.
Received Assist Engine 11 onfloor 1.
13, level 1.
Ladder 7 to level one on WestMountain Street Command to
engine 11,.
Give me a can 11,.
Speaker 6 (19:03):
We have a final down heavy smoke condition, very
little heat.
Just trying to see if we got itoff, but it looks like we have
it all knocked off.
Could probably use a laddercompany to help with overhaul.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Receive.
I'm going to send you ladder 6.
Command a ladder 6, assistengine 11, floor 1, for overhaul
Ladder 6, receive floor 1,overhaul engine 11.
Ladder 7 is level 1 on WestMountain Street Command.
How's that Ladder 7, level 1 onWest Mountain Street?
Fran has that Ladder 7, level 1.
Speaker 6 (19:38):
Is it 16?
Go ahead.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, do you need any assistance?
Speaker 6 (19:43):
No, at this time all visible planes knocked out on
the process on the wall.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
All right, if you need to power vent, you're clear
to power vent off the Charlieside 16,.
Speaker 6 (19:53):
Hi, I'm doing a lot of them for one clear to air.
With the status change, Do wehave a mission to power?
Vent Charlie side and Hull.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Affirmative Charlie side power vent.
Speaker 6 (20:07):
I'm restricting to command with status change.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Command answering 16.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
Chief, we don't have Charlie window, can we go?
Bravo, charlie corner.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Affirmative Bravo Charlie, command 213.
Engine 13 answer On deck alphaside 13 on deck alpha, command
216.
Speaker 6 (20:31):
16, Latter.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yeah, do you need a ladder company to assist roll
the haul in the basement?
Speaker 6 (20:38):
233 down here, 12 over the line.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Command 216.
Speaker 6 (20:44):
Latter 6 over.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, could you find any attic access on the first
floor?
Check the attic.
Speaker 6 (20:52):
We're looking out, Chief.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Awesome Audio there from Worcester Fire Department
and if you listened to audioprior to them doing Blue Card
and taking this approach tocommand, this is a night and day
difference.
Let's go ahead and break itdown.
We'll start with you, Josh.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Yeah.
So I'll just I'll give a littlebit of an overview and then you
know, chris, can you know breakit down maybe further piece by
piece?
And I've I've listened to thisa bunch of time and wrote a
bunch of notes also and I'm sureyou've probably got a couple of
things, john.
But you know it all starts withthat first Duke company officer
getting there painting apicture, so that prefacing radio
(21:30):
traffic engine 11 with initialradio report, that starts it off
right there.
That like okay, everybody shutup, let's listen to what's going
on, because that sets the stagefor what's going to happen next
.
So everybody who's on thatfirst alarm assignment, it hears
that initial radio report ofwhat is the problem.
And then, you know, by the timethey hear the follow-up report,
(21:51):
they're here, they hear what isthe problem and what are we
going to do to solve the problem, what is engine 11 doing to
solve the problem?
So it sells everybody like thisis what's going on, this is
what it looked like.
It probably isn't going to looklike when we get there.
So before we go too muchfurther onto it um, this, this
is condensed radio traffic toJohn.
So this that's a.
(22:11):
You know, this isn't thatwasn't like piled up, one thing,
one thing, one thing, one thing.
It sounded like you know therewas nonstop radio traffic.
But you know it's condensed.
We take that out, otherwisewe'd be uh, you know we'd be
sitting here for eight hoursdoing a podcast, breaking down
the audio.
When they gave the 10-minutemark we'd actually only listened
(22:33):
to like five minutes of radiotraffic, so it was almost twice
as fast.
With that said, I mean they doget companies right on top of
them real fast.
But back to it.
The first new company officergood initial radio report, good
follow-up report, and that inhis mind had an incident action
(22:54):
plan of this is what we need todo.
You know, I'm sure somebody outthere has got something to say
about you know, no water supplyfrom the first due engine on a
working fire.
But the bottom line is thefirst due company officer
addressed it and said Engine 8gave them the assignment for
Engine 8 to get the water supply.
Well, they got the water supplyand you know, before they
(23:16):
actually crossed the thresholdand went inside, they had a
sustained water supply.
So you know, from A to Z, Ithink Engine 11 assigned four or
five companies before thestrategic IC got there and did
also a really good commandtransfer, gave a rundown of.
This is what everybody's doing.
This is what my understandingis of what you need.
If that's correct, give me acan report Came back and
(23:36):
verified you know there's firein the basement and on the first
floor, making sure that, as astrategic IC, they really
understood what was going on,asked about the is this two
stories, and got someclarification on that, and then,
you know, continued to justbuild out the incident based off
of that first initial radioreport, so supported the initial
(23:59):
attack and then continued tosupport all the objectives that
they were trying to address, orthat they were addressing, with
other resources that wereresponding in.
And you know, though, we hearladder one get dispatched as
writ.
I just want to put it out there.
We heard four companies getassigned on deck because they
(24:20):
were using companies right, andin our system, on deck first and
foremost means writ, andthey're right there, ready to go
to.
You know, first and foremostmeans writ, and they're right
there, ready to go to.
You know, first and foremost,be writ or get the next
assignment.
Uh, as happened here, you knowthey end up assigning a company
to um engine 16, get a line offof engine 11 and support them
(24:40):
with fire attack on the firstfloor, because that's something
that needed to happen.
So, um, yeah, I mean it'sexcellent audio.
It's excellent, uh, example ofusing the system.
Um it, it shows through andthrough that their organization,
I mean they didn't jump in andget here overnight, but I will
(25:01):
say they jumped in with bothfeet.
Um, you know, they think theytrained 12 instructors initially
and then we were back thereless than two weeks later and
they had 16 people in the classand you know they haven't looked
back.
They uh, I'm sure they gotlumps and bumps and bruises, you
know, along the way, you knowgetting through it, but, um,
(25:22):
nothing that is easy uh, turnsout usually to be very good.
So sometimes it's hard to getthere and they're definitely
getting there.
So, chris, yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
So I think that there's a lot of evidence here
of Bruno's old quote is as thefirst five minutes go, so goes
the next five hours.
So this company officer got tothe scene, evaluated some legit
conditions, had a basement, hada fire on the Alpha Bravo corner
(26:01):
involving the basement,involving the first floor, so
you have multiple floors, asignificant amount of fire that
they're going to have to dealwith before they get to the
inside Right, and so he did afantastic job of not only
evaluating what that is but thentaking that and building that
into a very clear incidentaction plan.
(26:21):
And he did a fantastic job ofcommunicating that incident
action plan through assignments,because it's not as if we're
going to stop and pause on theradio and let me recite my
incident action plan.
That's not the way this works.
We then start to get the piecesof his incident action plan
through his deployment of hiscompanies and where he put his
(26:45):
next three companies with goingto work on the fire ground.
He had multiple lines going onthe fire.
He had a company with a ladderto the roof and he had companies
that then he started layeringin on deck.
So he had all the fundamentalcomponents that you need to do
(27:06):
an effective interior initialfire attack, effective interior
search and rescue and then thesupport.
Couple that with the supportwork and then folks in position
on deck to continue that workwhen it's time to start to
recycle and we hear that I thinkthere's because the conditions
(27:28):
were so legit that it took thema minute to get fire knocked
down.
It took them a minute to get tothe inside.
It took engine 16 a minute toget water into the basement and
then to be able to control thoseconditions.
So everything on the front endwas set up in what I would call
a very standard manner and Iwould use the term textbook, but
(27:52):
I hate the negative connotationthat comes with.
That is, what he did is areally good job of knowing and
understanding standardconditions, recognizing them,
measuring them, applyingstandard action for their system
, for their resources, based ontheir arrival, and really has a
(28:12):
clear understanding of what thestandard outcome is for the
execution of all that.
So they did a really reallynice job of all the fundamentals
.
Setting this up Sounds likethere's a lot of conversation.
Part of this has to do withwhat Josh is talking about
removing all the dead air in theradio traffic, because that
makes it more tolerable tolisten to and gives us more time
(28:36):
to actually talk about theincident.
We hear complaints or concernabout so much radio traffic on
the front end, about so muchradio traffic on the front end.
My answer to that is is, ifeverybody just shows up and goes
to work and you don't sayanything, what is the incident
(28:59):
action plan?
There isn't one, nobody ever.
Well, maybe there is.
Maybe there's an incidentaction plan for the same number
of companies that there areunseen.
So if there's five companies,there's five incident action
plans.
That is not an effective system.
What they did was take controlof it, develop a plan, assign
companies to that plan.
(29:20):
That then it's actuallymeasurable to see is are things
working the way we want them toor aren't they?
And then what help are theygoing to need?
And then, when are we reachingbenchmarks that are important to
us here?
And that's fire control and andand all clear, uh, and then,
ultimately, you know, property,uh, law stopped Um, but but
(29:42):
those first two of fire controland and and an all clear being
the most important.
So I'm, I'm super complimentaryof this initial IC, um, and
then, and then you know, wecould talk about the transfer of
command and then you know kindof what was handed to the IC
number two in car three when hearrived.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Yeah, I think we can.
I mean we can move right tothat command transfer piece.
So you know they followed theprocess right.
So car three is on the scene.
It let everybody there know.
Okay, car three is here and ifyou're all in the same system
you know what's coming next.
You know car three to commandand then give us a rundown of
(30:23):
what they heard, you know enroute to the incident or what
they can see on their MDC, youknow maybe notes from the CAD or
whatever, and then they'rethere and what are they actually
seeing that companies are doing?
So you know did a really goodjob with that rundown of the
companies, verified position andfunction of where people were
(30:44):
asked for a can report and then,you know, assumed the command
position.
So I mean they were kind ofhanded command on a platter
right On like a golden dish,like here it is because IC1 set
it right up for them.
There was no get there andlet's try to figure this out and
(31:05):
they weren't in the stage of.
You know, we have to try tounwind this.
It's truly we have one incidentcommander and then you know we
continue to support that initialincident commander and then
eventually it is transferred tothat other, to another incident
commander, but there's stillonly one right and it just, it's
really just escalating command.
(31:26):
Nobody's taking command, quitefrankly.
So nobody's taking command,quite frankly, nobody's really
even assuming command.
It's a true transfer of who'sin charge, but the transfer
includes every bit ofinformation, from the start of
the incident all the way upuntil the command transfer piece
happened.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
So IC2 had all the information that IC1 had.
You know from the get-go.
Yeah, if we look at, you know,whatever alternate systems are
out there, they're not evensystems, just alternate ways
incident command is done is thatwhen the chief showed up?
That's in a lot of othersystems, that's when incident
command starts.
But they have all this otherwork, all these other
(32:13):
assignments, all this othercritical information that
occurred prior to their arrival,that in the vast majority of
the time, when there is not asystem, that is all lost and the
IC, the person who's assumingthe incident command role that
is playing catch up on how toget all that information and
verification and understanding,and all at the same time trying
(32:35):
to keep the work moving and ormaking a change if you need to
make a change.
What was nice about this wasthe IC had done a fantastic job
on the front end of setting itup correctly and then, as Josh
said, we're going to hand thisover on a golden platter to IC
number two.
In that it was very simple forIC number two to acknowledge the
(32:58):
accountability, acknowledge theplan and then just march on
with the plan, you know,wondering of what to do there.
There wasn't any confusion asto anything that was going on.
He was able to just simply andclearly march forward with what
(33:20):
was what was going on and hepicked up with a communication
of hey I think it was engine 11is no longer has water.
Hey, engine eight, without evenmissing a beat, you're getting
them water.
Right, they need water.
And then, moving on with hey,you've got fire in the basement,
you've got fire on the firstfloor.
(33:40):
Everybody's in position to dotheir thing.
He's making sure that everybodyknows and understands those
conditions and they're reportingback information that is of
value, hoarding back informationthat is of value, not just
nonsensical.
I'm going to talk to you andtell you, I'm going to narrate
what it is that we're doing.
They don't have that going on,which is a really, really good
(34:01):
thing here.
And then, as other tacticalneeds arose, then IC number two
starts taking those on-deckcompanies and plugging them in
and then refilling those on-deckpositions with other second
alarm companies that are thenarriving and it's working
(34:22):
effortlessly.
And I don't want to bedisrespectful in saying this is
easy, because it's not.
They've clearly done the workto make it look easy and to make
it sound easy, but that's asign of actually understanding
the system and then trulypracticing it.
So and I mean this in the bestpossible way I loved the
(34:46):
matter-of-factness of all thecommunication.
It was like it wasn't done.
It was wasn't done for anyother reason than we need to
communicate right now.
This is going to make theincident better.
Somebody needs to know thisinformation I have and we're
going to share it, and thenwe're going to move on and all
going towards that that standardoutcome all clear and under
control and lost stop.
(35:07):
So, uh, I see number two, uh,uh, while he's handed a's handed
a very nicely organizedincident, he then does a very
good job of keeping it that wayand moving it towards a
successful conclusion.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
And we say with Blue Card that the IC sets the pace
of that communication and reallystarts to control it.
And you can tell that's donehere and that's what I wrote
down was the economy of wordsand the economy of radio traffic
.
Everybody's words mattered onthis scene whether it was a good
can report where they wereasking for more resources and
(35:42):
they were pretty clear on whatthey were asking for.
And going back to thatsituational awareness report
that the IC is calling out tothe companies that are going to
be operating in the interior tolet them know exactly where the
fire is.
This is, you know, on a scaleof one to 10, I don't know where
you guys would put Wooster as afire department as far as
(36:02):
aggressiveness goes, a 10, a 10plus an 11.
I mean they're an aggressivefire department, right.
And because they had fire inthe basement and first floor
doesn't mean they're changingstrategies At that point.
It just means hey, I'm lettingyou know that's where you got
fire and you've got to addressthat pretty quick.
And I love the way that they goton the air and got that done
and the fact that their radiotraffic was not wasted for
(36:26):
anything.
I mean everything mattered whenthey keyed the mic.
We say a lot of times it's notpush to think, it's push to talk
.
So you've got to know whatyou're saying.
And that's where the ticketsreally matter too, because the
tickets kind of trip somethingin your mind whether you're
doing a status change or you'regiving a can report, whatever
roof report, it starts to formatwhat you're going to say in
(36:49):
your mind before you even keythe mic.
But I love that situationalawareness report.
Speaker 4 (36:56):
I always liked.
I always like when we listen toaudio, because we have audio
from Southern California all theway to Massachusetts, to, you
know, georgia, florida, florida,ohio, georgia, minnesota,
indiana, washington, I meaneverywhere, right, and it's like
(37:16):
you could have taken, um, youcould have taken engine 11's
officer and put him on, uh, anengine in Cobb County and it
would be flawless.
And you could have taken thatbattalion chief and plugged them
in and anybody who's using thesame system, and it would be
flawless.
And you could have taken thatbattalion chief and plugged them
in and anybody who's using thesame system, and it would have
been flawless.
They're using a standard system, right?
(37:38):
And you know we talk about thewhole paramedic thing.
You take a paramedic fromMassachusetts and a paramedic
from California and they'recardiac arrest.
They're going to pretty much soline right up and gears are
going to mesh.
And they're going to prettymuch so line right up and gears
are going to mesh and they'regoing to figure it out.
And you know, the fire servicetypically has not been that way.
You know we have our own way.
We're special, we're a specialfire department and it's like,
(38:00):
you know, when we, when we hearthis from, uh, you know 4,000
plus fire departments that areusing the system it.
Um, you know, it's tried andtrue and proven that every
single day it's being used andthat they all sound the same.
And they sound the same notbecause somebody is pulling a
string and saying this is whatyou need to say.
(38:20):
It's because they're thinkingthe same.
They're all using the samesystem the strategic
decision-making model, thecommunication system, the
tickets to get on the radio.
It comes back to we beat it upon it the system piece.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
So, you know, the question always is, or the
statement is we better be doingeverything right when something
goes wrong?
So I listened to this incidentand what are the two most
critical communications thatcould have happened at this
incident?
They didn't, but what couldhave happened is the first one
is prior to traffic we've got avictim.
Were they in position toeffectively locate, remove and
(39:02):
take care of that victim?
Absolutely, they had a systembuilt to be able to do that.
And then probably maybe themore critical communication that
they were ready for was Mayday,mayday, mayday.
And so did they have a systemthat was built ready to respond
to the Mayday as we've defined,with the help order, with
(39:24):
companies on the inside beingsupported by companies on the
outside, to be able to do that.
Yeah, I can't think of a betterexample of doing things right
from a systematic standpoint.
Prior to that and like you said,josh, rarely do we hear any
(39:45):
fire department that we engagein or engage with that they're
anything but an aggressive firedepartment.
I've never had anybody tell usin a class well, we're, no, we
really are a passive firedepartment.
We tend to sit back and wait.
Let other people do the hardwork for us Never heard that
right.
I know that Worcester walks thewalk right in this, in that,
(40:09):
and take pride in the way theydo their work.
So this is a fantastic balanceand demonstration of how an
effective incident commandsystem benefits the work and the
work that it actually takes toachieve the tactical objectives,
or they take this serious andthat they take the incident
(40:35):
command part serious and havebeen working and exercising and,
uh, and and all the hard stuffthat you know you don't never
see on the outside but the, the,the, the true effort that it
takes on the inside to actuallyget that done and a commitment
to one another.
And then that's cool, that's uh, that's what the fire service
needs, should be striving for,and I think their leadership is
(40:55):
a big reason that that it's thatway.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
All right, we want to thank the Wusta Fire Department
for giving us that audio toshare with everybody, and, gary
Fleischer, you can email me ifI'm not saying.
Our apologies, gary, I'm surewe didn't.
Hey, let's do a TimelessTactical Truth.
Timeless Tactical Truth fromAlan Brunacini.
(41:22):
This one is the Ace of Diamondsfrom the cards that are
available at vshiftercom Perfectfor Fire Station card games.
Dot com Perfect for firestation card games.
Use strong, quick, automaticcommand assumption to eliminate
any zero impact period.
I'm going to read this oneagain, because there's a lot
here.
Use strong, quick, automaticcommand assumption to eliminate
(41:46):
any zero impact period, andBruno used to call that zip.
In this case, we were pointingout the first IC gets there and
instead of just saying I'm onthe scene, we got a fire, he
formed an incident action plan,thus eliminating any kind of
zero impact period.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Yeah, so taking command to him was not even a
question.
No, our system, we're going tostart the incident command
process from the very beginning,take control of the
organization, take control ofthe communication, take control
of the deployment of theresources and the execution of
the plan.
It's like again textbook to theway it was designed and the why
(42:31):
.
The incident command system wasdesigned and it was designed to
do real work.
So we're connecting thatcommand system to effective plan
and communication, to effectiveoutcome, based on the work
whole paradigm there and howimportant it is to the success
(42:54):
of fire departments you know,moving through and using this
incident command system, youknow, josh, seconds count all
the time for us.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
I mean, it's the reason why we have red lights
and sirens and are deployed theway we are.
So the ability to eliminate azero impact period, what does
that do for our overall incidentoutcome?
And I know you see the oppositea lot of times, where we do
have a period of zero impact, Iguess on the transverse of that,
what does that do?
Speaker 4 (43:23):
You got called to a fire, so act like you're going
to a fire, right, and people, weshould not be letting grass
grow under our feet.
It lines up with one of ChiefLester's things, I believe we
need to be competent and havecommand presence Confident,
(43:46):
competent, and then that commandpresence piece.
So when we are that way,because we have a system, we've
educated folks all of thatpeople make quick decisions and
seconds do matter, right, so inthis case they didn't lose any
time from the size up.
(44:08):
They didn't lose any time fromthe follow-up report.
The entire time.
They were thinking about theincident action plan and
something I think people don'tthink about is the second, third
, fourth, fifth company goinginto that and the battalions
that are responding when they'rehearing those communications.
When you work with other folksand you're on the same system,
(44:30):
you start to think more and morelike they do.
So you've got a good idea ofwhat might be my assignment.
So we're actually working tosolve the problem when we're all
falling under one incidentaction plan Instead of, quite
frankly, if those first sevencompanies pulled up and there
(44:51):
was no incident action plan, asChris said earlier, there was
going to be seven differentincident action plans and they
were all going to go dosomething.
Right, even if it says on apiece of paper this is what you
do.
Well, that piece of paper saysthis is what I do, but that's
not going to happen here becauseit doesn't fit.
So they're going to still go dosomething and in this case, we
(45:11):
used the resources to solve theproblem, which is really just
checking off the boxes ofobjectives right, life, safety
and property conservation.
So people expect us to getthere and perform at 100%, not
to dibble-dabble around and tryto figure out what is going on
(45:36):
or do things that don'tnecessarily need to be done.
So another example of this isthe most effective and efficient
way to operate on the fireground Use the resources that
you need to solve the problemthat you've identified.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
You know, thinking back, I probably should be
frustrated by this, but when Ihear an incident action plan
communicated, like we did inthis one today, and it directly
is connected to the highestpriority of getting water on the
fire, I want to clap Like, yes,that's exactly what you need to
(46:13):
be doing.
That's not taking away from thelife safety part of it.
It's actually amplifying thelife safety problem or the need
to get in and manage the victimsor the potential victims here.
So in this instance, they needto control that fire, to create
and maintain the space and theability and capacity to actually
(46:35):
be able to search on the inside.
So, like they used the systemto better, to best identify the
highest priority action on thefire ground, that's a huge thing
.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
All right, gents, that puts a bow on it.
Thanks for sharing this audioagain, Wooster, and thank you
for listening to the B Shifterpodcast.
Josh and Chris, thanks forbeing here today.
It's been insightful as always.
If you can, please tell yourfriends about us, share our
podcast and make sure yousubscribe Until next time.
(47:12):
Thanks for listening toB-Shifter.
Welcome to the B-Shifter podcast.
Today we have myself, johnVance, josh Bloom and Chris
Stewart here in the studio withme in Phoenix and we will be
doing some incident audio on anincident that happened in Woosta
.
Am I getting that right?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Is Gary going to chastise me for not saying it
correctly?
All I know is, for the last twodays, since we said we were
going to do this, I've beenthinking about Gary critiquing
our ability to say Worcester.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Can you say it Josh?
Speaker 4 (00:41):
I'm not saying it.
I'm not going to get yelled at.
It's not Worcestershire sauce.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Well, I probably there's a lot of things I don't
say correctly, so I'm sure he'llget us.
Yeah, we'll just add this to thelist this incident in Worcester
, which we'll get to in a second.
We've got a lot of great thingsgoing on right now with B
Shifter and Blue Card.
If you are not getting the BShifter Buck Slip, make sure to
check the show notes whereveryou're getting this and
subscribe.
(01:07):
This week we have a great10-minute drill.
We also have links to our AfterAction Review webinar that we
did earlier in the week and allof the podcasts that we do.
So get the B Shifter Buck Slip.
It goes to your mailbox everysingle week on Tuesdays and if
you are subscribing to it andyou don't see it, check your
(01:28):
spam folders, because Outlookjust changed everything that
they did as far as the way thatit helps you try to sort your
mail and a lot of our folks aregetting the mail sorted right
into junk, since it's sent outto about 30,000 people every
week.
So check that.
If you're not subscribedalready, please subscribe.
We also have some other eventscoming up, of course, the Blue
(01:50):
Card Hazard Zone Conferencecoming to the Sharonville
Convention Center, and this yearwe've got a great lineup, along
with some other workshops,including the May Day Management
Workshop we're doing a CERT Labthere Strategic Decision-Making
Workshop and also we have theSafety Workshop.
That is going to do like atrain-the-trainer and do the
(02:14):
folks get the prop, or how doesthat whole thing work with the
Safety Workshop, because I knowthere's some hardware involved
in that.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Yeah, so if they come to the class at the conference,
the two-day workshop, they'llget all the classroom parts and
pieces and then they have theoption to buy the prop at a much
reduced price, because if wetrain several people there at
the conference then really onthe other side of it we're not
(02:43):
sending instructors to theirfire department.
So, yeah, they have the optionto get the prop.
So they get the two-dayworkshop, the classroom part.
And then, john, we're alsodoing that expanded command
workshop also that we have gotquite a few people, I think,
signed up for it actuallyalready.
So, from Engine 1 all the wayto supporting the IC and the
(03:06):
command vehicle senior advisorand actually taking it a step
further than that.
So, tim Schaubel and KevinAlexander putting that together,
what does that look like whenit goes beyond that five, six,
seven, eight hours and you startto reach out further, to grow
in the system and maybe evenconnected it back to an EOC type
(03:27):
of an event?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And we talk a lot of times in our Train the Trainers
and other classes how we can gofrom Engine 1 to a pretty big
command team, all the way to aType 3 incident and beyond.
So this will help get you thereand those guys will deliver a
great class.
For that, go to bshiftercom tosign up and get all the
(03:50):
information and we'll probablyrun out of seats.
So do it sooner than later andget locked into the Blue Card
Hazard Zone Conference.
Coming back to the SharonvilleConvention Center, september
30th of this year,pre-conference and then the
general conference October 2ndand 3rd.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
The May Day workshop.
John, the May Day workshop isalready it might be halfway full
already, I think.
So we had 100 people last yearand we're cutting it off this
year to just have probably goingto cut it off at 50.
And I think we have about halfthose seats you know already
spoken for.
So we're just going to keep itsmaller, just so that we can
(04:32):
keep it connected a little bitbetter, you know, keep it
personal for people as well.
So, yeah, we're looking forwardto it.
This year was fantastic and Ithink this coming year is going
to be even better.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Great, anything else you want to add today before we
get into the meat of the podcast.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
No, you said it about the Microsoft update.
I think between that update andthe Apple update and all the
updates that the buck slipped.
Today it ended up buried.
I had to go looking for it.
So usually it pops right up inmy email and I could not, when
you sent that to me to look atit earlier.
I was like I didn't get it andI had to go looking for it.
So that's definitely somethingfor people to pay attention to,
(05:15):
that.
If you find it, make itsomething that you want to
accept into your system soyou're not missing it every week
.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Good information system so you're not missing it
every week.
Yeah, I think, with this newsystem that they have on here
the new, whatever you call ityou know to go through there's a
primary and then there's atransactions updates and then
promotion.
It might either be in junk orpromotion.
So those will be the two placesto check it out to see if
you've got it, but please docheck it All right.
Today's audio.
What are we going to listen to,josh?
(05:49):
What do you know about this?
Speaker 4 (05:50):
incident.
Yeah, so it's the WorcesterFire Department.
They started engaging in BlueCard really pretty recently
really, and Gary Fleischer hasbeen a key part, I think, of
them rolling it out and pushingit out and, you know, staying
connected with us.
As far as what are we reallygoing to do with this and what
(06:12):
does it look like?
And when you, if you listen tothat fire department four years
ago and you listen to it today,it sounds like a totally
different fire department.
How well organized and managedthat it is.
So I spent a very cold winterin Massachusetts there at that
(06:33):
fire department doing someback-to-back training, the
trainers with them and someother training as they were
rolling the program out.
And if you haven't been thereyou don't know much about it.
It's a metro, you know, metrotype of population, and then
their staffing model is, uh,very um, dense, I think you
(06:54):
would say also.
So a lot, of, a lot of stationsthat are uh, double stacked up
with apparatus and, um, they can, they can, they can put a lot
of boots on the ground in a veryshort period of time and you
know, part of that is, I thinkyou know, the population driven
and then the density of.
You know there's three and fourstory wood frame buildings that
(07:14):
are, you know, sometimes rightnext to each other and if they
don't get on top of it they'llburn down a city block.
So you know, we all knowthey've always been a really
good fire department and youknow they they've engaged with,
you know, blue Card and they'veengaged with doing more and more
with the fire science and Idon't know.
(07:36):
There's like 25 things thatthey've done really in like the
last five or six years.
That I think has pushed theirorganization to the next level
and I think we'll hear it herein this audio of how well
they're doing and howeverybody's on the same page,
very organized.
(07:56):
People are making decisions,everybody's in one that's in an
action plan, from the firstarriving IC to the strategic
incident commander, to companiesbeing professional on the radio
and really communicating whatneeds to be communicated and not
communicating stuff thatdoesn't need to be communicated.
And we all know that there'ssome urgency there and those of
(08:18):
us that have spent some timethere know that when you see
them go to work, know that whenyou see them go to work there's
no grass growing underneaththeir feet.
But you sure can't tell that onthe radio.
I mean, it's almost likethey're sitting in a classroom,
because they have a system,they're very comfortable and
competent with it and confidentwith it, and I think they've
(08:44):
rolled out some very clear anddefined expectations.
So, chris, I know you've spentsome time, you know, talking to
their chiefs about, you know,1700 and some other things.
You got anything to throw intothat before we listen to this
audio?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Yeah, I got to say just organizationally, they are
a fantastic example ofleadership, evaluating where
they are and what they're doing.
They don't lack experience,they don't lack resources, they
don't lack a willingness to dohard stuff on the fire ground.
(09:17):
They are very comfortable inthat environment.
But they took what they weredoing four or five years ago and
said, all right, how can we dothis better?
And I identified a whole set ofthings and they have been
applying it slowly, surelyconsistently, and it's it's
showing not only in theirstandard that they've set but
(09:37):
also how they're training.
You listen to incidents likethis fire.
This is as legit of aresidential fire as we get.
They're able to demonstrate areally, really effective
utilization of the system andutilizing the system while
they're doing real work.
This is not them just soundinggood on the radio and then
(10:03):
action not actually happening onthe fire ground.
They sound good.
That's because they're actuallydoing good things and they're
making good decisions.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
You know, what we hear on the radio is really just
that is the communications ofthe incident action plan.
And if we're not communicatingthe incident action plan, then
everybody's not going to be onthe same page.
So that's just so critical.
You know, I agree 100% witheverybody out there who says you
can't talk the fire out.
Absolutely, you cannot do it.
(10:32):
But we communicate, and wecommunicate effectively and with
a system so that everybody ison the same page and so that
those words do mean somethingand you can't say something in a
controlled fashion.
Uh, if you didn't think about it.
So really, the communicationsis just one of the eight
functions of command and it'sreally just.
(10:53):
You know, it's where we arecommunicating what we are doing
or what we are going to do orwhat we need to do.
So, um, I always like this toclarify that, cause I hear that
shit get thrown around so oftenyou can't talk the fire out.
It's like, well, yeah, we allknow you can't talk the fire out
, water still wins every singletime, but when everybody's on
(11:13):
the same page it sure makes abig difference.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Yeah, and those same fire departments haven't taken
the radios off their rig, youknow, because the radios are
getting in the way of them doingwork.
No, this example here is, youknow, like one of the really
really good examples that Ithink we need to highlight in
good work.
And kind of to your point, Josh, I've never, ever heard
(11:39):
screaming on the radio and thenhave a very calm fire ground
like a calm, professional fireground.
Those two things don't happensimultaneously.
So when you hear calm,professional communication, you
have a high likelihood thatthat's actually being
operationalized in the work thatthey're doing in the hazard
zone.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
Tensional Company stand by.
For the reported structure fire1515 Maranook Road box to
follow Tensional Companystriking box 11-09, west
Mountain Street and MaranookRoad box to follow Tenantial
Company Striking Box 11-09, westMountain Street and Maravista
Road.
For the reported structure fireat 1515 Maranook Road.
Response is Engine 11, engine 8, engine 3, engine 1616, at a 6
(12:20):
latitude to rescue car 3, ladder1,.
You're the writ Again.
Striking Box 11-09, westMountain Street, Maribyster Road
.
For reported structure 5, 1515,maranoke Road.
Response is engine 11, engine 8, engine 3, engine 1, 6, latta 6
, latta 2, the rescue car 3,latta 1,.
You're the writ.
Fire ground channels A alphatimeout 1550.
Fire 1.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
1550 has the box 1550 .
Fire alarm 50 out of the boxFire alarm.
Has it 3 to fire alarm?
We'll take the update for thestructure fire.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
It's 1515, roanoke Road.
Multiple car rolls set afire,started in the basement here,
caused by a candle Everyone isout of the building Received
9-11 to fire alarm.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
That's a radio report Fire alarm.
We have a one-story split ranchheavy fire Alpha Bravo corner
Engine 11 stretching an entrycorridor off the side.
Engine 11 has command.
You can get a second alarmgoing off the strategy.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
Fire alarm has that heavy fire showing Stretching
second alarm 50-54.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Ladder 6 is level 1.
Command 2, ladder 6, if you canget the stick to the roof and
then meet up my crew off theside.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
Engine 8, level 1.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Command 2, fire alarm with Apollo 360 complete, no
unusual hazards from the rear.
Spoke to the residents theysaid everybody's out of the
building.
We're doing transitional attack, alpha side, knocking down the
fire.
We'll be making entry Alphaside in a moment.
Engine 8, level 1.
(14:03):
Command to engine 8 Get us aneyedropper please.
16 is level 1.
Engine 3 is level 1.
Command 2, 16,.
Grab a second line off Engine11.
You guys will be going for 1.
We still have heavy fire inthis corner here Still knocking
(14:26):
it down from the outside.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
16 has now lined off engine 11.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Floor, one Fire control 11 pump to 11, we're at
half tank.
We have that.
Ladder 2 is level 1.
Command 2, ladder 2, on deckalpha Ladder 2 has that.
Engine 3 is level 1.
On deck alpha engine 3.
11 pump to 11, a quarter of atank.
(14:53):
Racy command 2, engine 8, how'sit?
Look on that hydrant.
Yeah, bobby, grab it now, racey.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Okay, Engine 3.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Car 3 to fire alarm.
Car 3 is on scene 15-58.
11-pump ready for water Water.
Car 3 to Command 4, commandtransfer, command 3.
Lt, I have you doing atransitional attack from the
alpha side.
Engine 8's getting you ahydrant, engine 16's taking a
(15:24):
line off your truck to makeentry to the first floor and
Ladder 2 is on deck alpha side.
If that's correct, confirm andgive me a can.
Speaker 6 (15:34):
That's correct.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
We're about to transition interior.
We're about to transitioninterior.
We're going to be going inthrough the door, through the
garage.
Okay, receive, and this lookslike the two-story.
Yes, it does Grant 11-1-2-11,we're on the water Contrared
(15:55):
fire alarm Out of six of command.
We've got the ladder set up.
Water Count three to fire alarm.
Count three to command.
We've got the ladder set up.
Count three is assuming command.
We're going to ring theoffensive to hold the second
alarm up.
Fifteen, fifty-nine, Commandtwo engine eleven.
Speaker 6 (16:11):
Eleven sir.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, you still have heavy fire at Alpha Delta Corner
Three.
Two one keep at Alpha DeltaCorner Receive.
We'll keep track of it.
Rescue level one Command to therescue on deck Alpha Receive.
Engine eight 802, hydrant 802,.
Entrant.
Send the water now you can sendit slowly.
Command to engine 11.
(16:35):
Order entrant.
You have fire in the basementand on the first floor.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
We have that.
We're just waiting for water.
We have a clear angle on itfrom the garage door right here.
No transition on that, not aone level one Safe and easy.
Engine 211's called.
Do we have a line yet, crystalWater, send it back to you now.
11211, command with a fashion.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Command yes, my 11211 .
Speaker 6 (17:10):
11211, basement 11211 .
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Now repeat that who's in the?
Speaker 6 (17:15):
basement 11211, floor one.
Now repeat that.
Who's in the basement?
Engine 16, one thing set toalpha side.
Engine 11 is at the alpha sidedoor, knocking at the door.
Moving on to floor one.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Received Engine 11, floor one Grant to car, four
Grant to engine 11.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
I'm answering.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, you want floor number one.
Speaker 6 (17:43):
Make the answer now 106, level one 6, 9, 9, 1, 7, 8.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Command I'm coming in 10.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
10 minutes in.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Received Still actively fighting the fire.
All companies working Hold theassignment.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
Received Still actively fighting the fire All
companies working Hold theassignment Received.
16 on 6.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Translating 16.
Speaker 6 (18:07):
We got a little bit of sparking down here.
Maybe in the list you want toput it up on a page 10.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
16, you're unreadable .
Speaker 6 (18:15):
Repeat your message we are having some sparking
while flowing water.
If possible, rescue to shut offpower.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Command of the rescue Rescue 1 to command At rescue.
Secure their utilities Command.
We got the main power switch atthe garage.
It is shut off.
No computer identified.
Received Command to Engine 3.
Speaker 6 (18:43):
Engine 3.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Engine 3, stretch that line to assist Engine 11.
Received Assist Engine 11 onfloor 1.
13, level 1.
Ladder 7 to level one on WestMountain Street Command to
engine 11,.
Give me a can 11,.
Speaker 6 (19:03):
We have a final down heavy smoke condition, very
little heat.
Just trying to see if we got itoff, but it looks like we have
it all knocked off.
Could probably use a laddercompany to help with overhaul.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Receive.
I'm going to send you ladder 6.
Command a ladder 6, assistengine 11, floor 1, for overhaul
Ladder 6, receive floor 1,overhaul engine 11.
Ladder 7 is level 1 on WestMountain Street Command.
How's that Ladder 7, level 1 onWest Mountain Street?
Fran has that Ladder 7, level 1.
Speaker 6 (19:38):
Is it 16?
Go ahead.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, do you need any assistance?
Speaker 6 (19:43):
No, at this time all visible planes knocked out on
the process on the wall.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
All right, if you need to power vent, you're clear
to power vent off the Charlieside 16,.
Speaker 6 (19:53):
Hi, I'm doing a lot of them for one clear to air.
With the status change, Do wehave a mission to power?
Vent Charlie side and Hull.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Affirmative Charlie side power vent.
Speaker 6 (20:07):
I'm restricting to command with status change.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Command answering 16.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
Chief, we don't have Charlie window, can we go?
Bravo, charlie corner.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Affirmative Bravo Charlie, command 213.
Engine 13 answer On deck alphaside 13 on deck alpha, command
216.
Speaker 6 (20:31):
16, Latter.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yeah, do you need a ladder company to assist roll
the haul in the basement?
Speaker 6 (20:38):
233 down here, 12 over the line.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Command 216.
Speaker 6 (20:44):
Latter 6 over.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, could you find any attic access on the first
floor?
Check the attic.
Speaker 6 (20:52):
We're looking out, Chief.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Awesome Audio there from Worcester Fire Department
and if you listened to audioprior to them doing Blue Card
and taking this approach tocommand, this is a night and day
difference.
Let's go ahead and break itdown.
We'll start with you, Josh.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Yeah.
So I'll just I'll give a littlebit of an overview and then you
know, chris, can you know breakit down maybe further piece by
piece?
And I've I've listened to thisa bunch of time and wrote a
bunch of notes also and I'm sureyou've probably got a couple of
things, john.
But you know it all starts withthat first Duke company officer
getting there painting apicture, so that prefacing radio
(21:30):
traffic engine 11 with initialradio report, that starts it off
right there.
That like okay, everybody shutup, let's listen to what's going
on, because that sets the stagefor what's going to happen next
.
So everybody who's on thatfirst alarm assignment, it hears
that initial radio report ofwhat is the problem.
And then, you know, by the timethey hear the follow-up report,
(21:51):
they're here, they hear what isthe problem and what are we
going to do to solve the problem, what is engine 11 doing to
solve the problem?
So it sells everybody like thisis what's going on, this is
what it looked like.
It probably isn't going to looklike when we get there.
So before we go too muchfurther onto it um, this, this
is condensed radio traffic toJohn.
So this that's a.
(22:11):
You know, this isn't thatwasn't like piled up, one thing,
one thing, one thing, one thing.
It sounded like you know therewas nonstop radio traffic.
But you know it's condensed.
We take that out, otherwisewe'd be uh, you know we'd be
sitting here for eight hoursdoing a podcast, breaking down
the audio.
When they gave the 10-minutemark we'd actually only listened
(22:33):
to like five minutes of radiotraffic, so it was almost twice
as fast.
With that said, I mean they doget companies right on top of
them real fast.
But back to it.
The first new company officergood initial radio report, good
follow-up report, and that inhis mind had an incident action
(22:54):
plan of this is what we need todo.
You know, I'm sure somebody outthere has got something to say
about you know, no water supplyfrom the first due engine on a
working fire.
But the bottom line is thefirst due company officer
addressed it and said Engine 8gave them the assignment for
Engine 8 to get the water supply.
Well, they got the water supplyand you know, before they
(23:16):
actually crossed the thresholdand went inside, they had a
sustained water supply.
So you know, from A to Z, Ithink Engine 11 assigned four or
five companies before thestrategic IC got there and did
also a really good commandtransfer, gave a rundown of.
This is what everybody's doing.
This is what my understandingis of what you need.
If that's correct, give me acan report Came back and
(23:36):
verified you know there's firein the basement and on the first
floor, making sure that, as astrategic IC, they really
understood what was going on,asked about the is this two
stories, and got someclarification on that, and then,
you know, continued to justbuild out the incident based off
of that first initial radioreport, so supported the initial
(23:59):
attack and then continued tosupport all the objectives that
they were trying to address, orthat they were addressing, with
other resources that wereresponding in.
And you know, though, we hearladder one get dispatched as
writ.
I just want to put it out there.
We heard four companies getassigned on deck because they
(24:20):
were using companies right, andin our system, on deck first and
foremost means writ, andthey're right there, ready to go
to.
You know, first and foremostmeans writ, and they're right
there, ready to go to.
You know, first and foremost,be writ or get the next
assignment.
Uh, as happened here, you knowthey end up assigning a company
to um engine 16, get a line offof engine 11 and support them
(24:40):
with fire attack on the firstfloor, because that's something
that needed to happen.
So, um, yeah, I mean it'sexcellent audio.
It's excellent, uh, example ofusing the system.
Um it, it shows through andthrough that their organization,
I mean they didn't jump in andget here overnight, but I will
(25:01):
say they jumped in with bothfeet.
Um, you know, they think theytrained 12 instructors initially
and then we were back thereless than two weeks later and
they had 16 people in the classand you know they haven't looked
back.
They uh, I'm sure they gotlumps and bumps and bruises, you
know, along the way, you knowgetting through it, but, um,
(25:22):
nothing that is easy uh, turnsout usually to be very good.
So sometimes it's hard to getthere and they're definitely
getting there.
So, chris, yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
So I think that there's a lot of evidence here
of Bruno's old quote is as thefirst five minutes go, so goes
the next five hours.
So this company officer got tothe scene, evaluated some legit
conditions, had a basement, hada fire on the Alpha Bravo corner
(26:01):
involving the basement,involving the first floor, so
you have multiple floors, asignificant amount of fire that
they're going to have to dealwith before they get to the
inside Right, and so he did afantastic job of not only
evaluating what that is but thentaking that and building that
into a very clear incidentaction plan.
(26:21):
And he did a fantastic job ofcommunicating that incident
action plan through assignments,because it's not as if we're
going to stop and pause on theradio and let me recite my
incident action plan.
That's not the way this works.
We then start to get the piecesof his incident action plan
through his deployment of hiscompanies and where he put his
(26:45):
next three companies with goingto work on the fire ground.
He had multiple lines going onthe fire.
He had a company with a ladderto the roof and he had companies
that then he started layeringin on deck.
So he had all the fundamentalcomponents that you need to do
(27:06):
an effective interior initialfire attack, effective interior
search and rescue and then thesupport.
Couple that with the supportwork and then folks in position
on deck to continue that workwhen it's time to start to
recycle and we hear that I thinkthere's because the conditions
(27:28):
were so legit that it took thema minute to get fire knocked
down.
It took them a minute to get tothe inside.
It took engine 16 a minute toget water into the basement and
then to be able to control thoseconditions.
So everything on the front endwas set up in what I would call
a very standard manner and Iwould use the term textbook, but
(27:52):
I hate the negative connotationthat comes with.
That is, what he did is areally good job of knowing and
understanding standardconditions, recognizing them,
measuring them, applyingstandard action for their system
, for their resources, based ontheir arrival, and really has a
(28:12):
clear understanding of what thestandard outcome is for the
execution of all that.
So they did a really reallynice job of all the fundamentals
.
Setting this up Sounds likethere's a lot of conversation.
Part of this has to do withwhat Josh is talking about
removing all the dead air in theradio traffic, because that
makes it more tolerable tolisten to and gives us more time
(28:36):
to actually talk about theincident.
We hear complaints or concernabout so much radio traffic on
the front end, about so muchradio traffic on the front end.
My answer to that is is, ifeverybody just shows up and goes
to work and you don't sayanything, what is the incident
(28:59):
action plan?
There isn't one, nobody ever.
Well, maybe there is.
Maybe there's an incidentaction plan for the same number
of companies that there areunseen.
So if there's five companies,there's five incident action
plans.
That is not an effective system.
What they did was take controlof it, develop a plan, assign
companies to that plan.
(29:20):
That then it's actuallymeasurable to see is are things
working the way we want them toor aren't they?
And then what help are theygoing to need?
And then, when are we reachingbenchmarks that are important to
us here?
And that's fire control and andand all clear, uh, and then,
ultimately, you know, property,uh, law stopped Um, but but
(29:42):
those first two of fire controland and and an all clear being
the most important.
So I'm, I'm super complimentaryof this initial IC, um, and
then, and then you know, wecould talk about the transfer of
command and then you know kindof what was handed to the IC
number two in car three when hearrived.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Yeah, I think we can.
I mean we can move right tothat command transfer piece.
So you know they followed theprocess right.
So car three is on the scene.
It let everybody there know.
Okay, car three is here and ifyou're all in the same system
you know what's coming next.
You know car three to commandand then give us a rundown of
(30:23):
what they heard, you know enroute to the incident or what
they can see on their MDC, youknow maybe notes from the CAD or
whatever, and then they'rethere and what are they actually
seeing that companies are doing?
So you know did a really goodjob with that rundown of the
companies, verified position andfunction of where people were
(30:44):
asked for a can report and then,you know, assumed the command
position.
So I mean they were kind ofhanded command on a platter
right On like a golden dish,like here it is because IC1 set
it right up for them.
There was no get there andlet's try to figure this out and
(31:05):
they weren't in the stage of.
You know, we have to try tounwind this.
It's truly we have one incidentcommander and then you know we
continue to support that initialincident commander and then
eventually it is transferred tothat other, to another incident
commander, but there's stillonly one right and it just, it's
really just escalating command.
(31:26):
Nobody's taking command, quitefrankly.
So nobody's taking command,quite frankly, nobody's really
even assuming command.
It's a true transfer of who'sin charge, but the transfer
includes every bit ofinformation, from the start of
the incident all the way upuntil the command transfer piece
happened.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
So IC2 had all the information that IC1 had.
You know from the get-go.
Yeah, if we look at, you know,whatever alternate systems are
out there, they're not evensystems, just alternate ways
incident command is done is thatwhen the chief showed up?
That's in a lot of othersystems, that's when incident
command starts.
But they have all this otherwork, all these other
(32:13):
assignments, all this othercritical information that
occurred prior to their arrival,that in the vast majority of
the time, when there is not asystem, that is all lost and the
IC, the person who's assumingthe incident command role that
is playing catch up on how toget all that information and
verification and understanding,and all at the same time trying
(32:35):
to keep the work moving and ormaking a change if you need to
make a change.
What was nice about this wasthe IC had done a fantastic job
on the front end of setting itup correctly and then, as Josh
said, we're going to hand thisover on a golden platter to IC
number two.
In that it was very simple forIC number two to acknowledge the
(32:58):
accountability, acknowledge theplan and then just march on
with the plan, you know,wondering of what to do there.
There wasn't any confusion asto anything that was going on.
He was able to just simply andclearly march forward with what
(33:20):
was what was going on and hepicked up with a communication
of hey I think it was engine 11is no longer has water.
Hey, engine eight, without evenmissing a beat, you're getting
them water.
Right, they need water.
And then, moving on with hey,you've got fire in the basement,
you've got fire on the firstfloor.
(33:40):
Everybody's in position to dotheir thing.
He's making sure that everybodyknows and understands those
conditions and they're reportingback information that is of
value, hoarding back informationthat is of value, not just
nonsensical.
I'm going to talk to you andtell you, I'm going to narrate
what it is that we're doing.
They don't have that going on,which is a really, really good
(34:01):
thing here.
And then, as other tacticalneeds arose, then IC number two
starts taking those on-deckcompanies and plugging them in
and then refilling those on-deckpositions with other second
alarm companies that are thenarriving and it's working
(34:22):
effortlessly.
And I don't want to bedisrespectful in saying this is
easy, because it's not.
They've clearly done the workto make it look easy and to make
it sound easy, but that's asign of actually understanding
the system and then trulypracticing it.
So and I mean this in the bestpossible way I loved the
(34:46):
matter-of-factness of all thecommunication.
It was like it wasn't done.
It was wasn't done for anyother reason than we need to
communicate right now.
This is going to make theincident better.
Somebody needs to know thisinformation I have and we're
going to share it, and thenwe're going to move on and all
going towards that that standardoutcome all clear and under
control and lost stop.
(35:07):
So, uh, I see number two, uh,uh, while he's handed a's handed
a very nicely organizedincident, he then does a very
good job of keeping it that wayand moving it towards a
successful conclusion.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
And we say with Blue Card that the IC sets the pace
of that communication and reallystarts to control it.
And you can tell that's donehere and that's what I wrote
down was the economy of wordsand the economy of radio traffic
.
Everybody's words mattered onthis scene whether it was a good
can report where they wereasking for more resources and
(35:42):
they were pretty clear on whatthey were asking for.
And going back to thatsituational awareness report
that the IC is calling out tothe companies that are going to
be operating in the interior tolet them know exactly where the
fire is.
This is, you know, on a scaleof one to 10, I don't know where
you guys would put Wooster as afire department as far as
(36:02):
aggressiveness goes, a 10, a 10plus an 11.
I mean they're an aggressivefire department, right.
And because they had fire inthe basement and first floor
doesn't mean they're changingstrategies At that point.
It just means hey, I'm lettingyou know that's where you got
fire and you've got to addressthat pretty quick.
And I love the way that they goton the air and got that done
and the fact that their radiotraffic was not wasted for
(36:26):
anything.
I mean everything mattered whenthey keyed the mic.
We say a lot of times it's notpush to think, it's push to talk
.
So you've got to know whatyou're saying.
And that's where the ticketsreally matter too, because the
tickets kind of trip somethingin your mind whether you're
doing a status change or you'regiving a can report, whatever
roof report, it starts to formatwhat you're going to say in
(36:49):
your mind before you even keythe mic.
But I love that situationalawareness report.
Speaker 4 (36:56):
I always liked.
I always like when we listen toaudio, because we have audio
from Southern California all theway to Massachusetts, to, you
know, georgia, florida, florida,ohio, georgia, minnesota,
indiana, washington, I meaneverywhere, right, and it's like
(37:16):
you could have taken, um, youcould have taken engine 11's
officer and put him on, uh, anengine in Cobb County and it
would be flawless.
And you could have taken thatbattalion chief and plugged them
in and anybody who's using thesame system, and it would be
flawless.
And you could have taken thatbattalion chief and plugged them
in and anybody who's using thesame system, and it would have
been flawless.
They're using a standard system, right?
(37:38):
And you know we talk about thewhole paramedic thing.
You take a paramedic fromMassachusetts and a paramedic
from California and they'recardiac arrest.
They're going to pretty much soline right up and gears are
going to mesh.
And they're going to prettymuch so line right up and gears
are going to mesh and they'regoing to figure it out.
And you know, the fire servicetypically has not been that way.
You know we have our own way.
We're special, we're a specialfire department and it's like,
(38:00):
you know, when we, when we hearthis from, uh, you know 4,000
plus fire departments that areusing the system it.
Um, you know, it's tried andtrue and proven that every
single day it's being used andthat they all sound the same.
And they sound the same notbecause somebody is pulling a
string and saying this is whatyou need to say.
(38:20):
It's because they're thinkingthe same.
They're all using the samesystem the strategic
decision-making model, thecommunication system, the
tickets to get on the radio.
It comes back to we beat it upon it the system piece.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
So, you know, the question always is, or the
statement is we better be doingeverything right when something
goes wrong?
So I listened to this incidentand what are the two most
critical communications thatcould have happened at this
incident?
They didn't, but what couldhave happened is the first one
is prior to traffic we've got avictim.
Were they in position toeffectively locate, remove and
(39:02):
take care of that victim?
Absolutely, they had a systembuilt to be able to do that.
And then probably maybe themore critical communication that
they were ready for was Mayday,mayday, mayday.
And so did they have a systemthat was built ready to respond
to the Mayday as we've defined,with the help order, with
(39:24):
companies on the inside beingsupported by companies on the
outside, to be able to do that.
Yeah, I can't think of a betterexample of doing things right
from a systematic standpoint.
Prior to that and like you said,josh, rarely do we hear any
(39:45):
fire department that we engagein or engage with that they're
anything but an aggressive firedepartment.
I've never had anybody tell usin a class well, we're, no, we
really are a passive firedepartment.
We tend to sit back and wait.
Let other people do the hardwork for us Never heard that
right.
I know that Worcester walks thewalk right in this, in that,
(40:09):
and take pride in the way theydo their work.
So this is a fantastic balanceand demonstration of how an
effective incident commandsystem benefits the work and the
work that it actually takes toachieve the tactical objectives,
or they take this serious andthat they take the incident
(40:35):
command part serious and havebeen working and exercising and,
uh, and and all the hard stuffthat you know you don't never
see on the outside but the, the,the, the true effort that it
takes on the inside to actuallyget that done and a commitment
to one another.
And then that's cool, that's uh, that's what the fire service
needs, should be striving for,and I think their leadership is
(40:55):
a big reason that that it's thatway.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
All right, we want to thank the Wusta Fire Department
for giving us that audio toshare with everybody, and, gary
Fleischer, you can email me ifI'm not saying.
Our apologies, gary, I'm surewe didn't.
Hey, let's do a TimelessTactical Truth.
Timeless Tactical Truth fromAlan Brunacini.
(41:22):
This one is the Ace of Diamondsfrom the cards that are
available at vshiftercom Perfectfor Fire Station card games.
Dot com Perfect for firestation card games.
Use strong, quick, automaticcommand assumption to eliminate
any zero impact period.
I'm going to read this oneagain, because there's a lot
here.
Use strong, quick, automaticcommand assumption to eliminate
(41:46):
any zero impact period, andBruno used to call that zip.
In this case, we were pointingout the first IC gets there and
instead of just saying I'm onthe scene, we got a fire, he
formed an incident action plan,thus eliminating any kind of
zero impact period.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Yeah, so taking command to him was not even a
question.
No, our system, we're going tostart the incident command
process from the very beginning,take control of the
organization, take control ofthe communication, take control
of the deployment of theresources and the execution of
the plan.
It's like again textbook to theway it was designed and the why
(42:31):
.
The incident command system wasdesigned and it was designed to
do real work.
So we're connecting thatcommand system to effective plan
and communication, to effectiveoutcome, based on the work
whole paradigm there and howimportant it is to the success
(42:54):
of fire departments you know,moving through and using this
incident command system, youknow, josh, seconds count all
the time for us.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
I mean, it's the reason why we have red lights
and sirens and are deployed theway we are.
So the ability to eliminate azero impact period, what does
that do for our overall incidentoutcome?
And I know you see the oppositea lot of times, where we do
have a period of zero impact, Iguess on the transverse of that,
what does that do?
Speaker 4 (43:23):
You got called to a fire, so act like you're going
to a fire, right, and people, weshould not be letting grass
grow under our feet.
It lines up with one of ChiefLester's things, I believe we
need to be competent and havecommand presence Confident,
(43:46):
competent, and then that commandpresence piece.
So when we are that way,because we have a system, we've
educated folks all of thatpeople make quick decisions and
seconds do matter, right, so inthis case they didn't lose any
time from the size up.
(44:08):
They didn't lose any time fromthe follow-up report.
The entire time.
They were thinking about theincident action plan and
something I think people don'tthink about is the second, third
, fourth, fifth company goinginto that and the battalions
that are responding when they'rehearing those communications.
When you work with other folksand you're on the same system,
(44:30):
you start to think more and morelike they do.
So you've got a good idea ofwhat might be my assignment.
So we're actually working tosolve the problem when we're all
falling under one incidentaction plan Instead of, quite
frankly, if those first sevencompanies pulled up and there
(44:51):
was no incident action plan, asChris said earlier, there was
going to be seven differentincident action plans and they
were all going to go dosomething.
Right, even if it says on apiece of paper this is what you
do.
Well, that piece of paper saysthis is what I do, but that's
not going to happen here becauseit doesn't fit.
So they're going to still go dosomething and in this case, we
(45:11):
used the resources to solve theproblem, which is really just
checking off the boxes ofobjectives right, life, safety
and property conservation.
So people expect us to getthere and perform at 100%, not
to dibble-dabble around and tryto figure out what is going on
(45:36):
or do things that don'tnecessarily need to be done.
So another example of this isthe most effective and efficient
way to operate on the fireground Use the resources that
you need to solve the problemthat you've identified.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
You know, thinking back, I probably should be
frustrated by this, but when Ihear an incident action plan
communicated, like we did inthis one today, and it directly
is connected to the highestpriority of getting water on the
fire, I want to clap Like, yes,that's exactly what you need to
(46:13):
be doing.
That's not taking away from thelife safety part of it.
It's actually amplifying thelife safety problem or the need
to get in and manage the victimsor the potential victims here.
So in this instance, they needto control that fire, to create
and maintain the space and theability and capacity to actually
(46:35):
be able to search on the inside.
So, like they used the systemto better, to best identify the
highest priority action on thefire ground, that's a huge thing
.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
All right, gents, that puts a bow on it.
Thanks for sharing this audioagain, Wooster, and thank you
for listening to the B Shifterpodcast.
Josh and Chris, thanks forbeing here today.
It's been insightful as always.
If you can, please tell yourfriends about us, share our
podcast and make sure yousubscribe Until next time.
(47:12):
Thanks for listening toB-Shifter.
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