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Fatality MVA's Involving Your Fire Engine, Are you prepared for this with the media?
One of the biggest nightmares for fire departments is when a responding piece of apparatus collides with another vehicle. This is a media frenzy, specially when someone is injured or killed as a result of the accident. April 2008, there was a collision between a responding engine company enroute to a structure fire in Sacramento, CA. At an intersection, the engine struck another vehicle, critically injuring one victim with the other victim being pronounced dead at the scene.
This discussion in no way points blame on the fire department nor the other vehicle. I simply don't know the particulars about the incident and it's inappropriate to speculate if you don't know the facts.
What I do want to share here is the professional interview from a Sacramento FD Public Information Officer (PIO).
As a company officer who has worked as a PIO in the past, I can't think of anything harder than addressing such an emotional issue. News crews love to stir the pot.
This PIO kept her cool and stayed with just the facts. She controlled the interview and when she was done talking, she was done... end of story.
Does your department have an SOG or SOP designed to deal with this sort of incident?
Does your department PIO or if it's you; are you ready for this type of incident and interview?
With more and more people on the road, the potential for this type of incident will only magnify.
Can we deal with type of tragedy and still maintain our credibility within the community?
It all starts with your PIO...
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This discussion in no way points blame on the fire department nor the other vehicle. I simply don't know the particulars about the incident and it's inappropriate to speculate if you don't know the facts.
What I do want to share here is the professional interview from a Sacramento FD Public Information Officer (PIO).
As a company officer who has worked as a PIO in the past, I can't think of anything harder than addressing such an emotional issue. News crews love to stir the pot.
This PIO kept her cool and stayed with just the facts. She controlled the interview and when she was done talking, she was done... end of story.
Does your department have an SOG or SOP designed to deal with this sort of incident?
Does your department PIO or if it's you; are you ready for this type of incident and interview?
With more and more people on the road, the potential for this type of incident will only magnify.
Can we deal with type of tragedy and still maintain our credibility within the community?
It all starts with your PIO...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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Good topic Michael- I've taught media management for emergency managers at the commonwealth level and the handling of interviews is hard enough when it comes to disasters, but when you couple that with the raw emotion when it's one of your own deceased or involved or the possible cause, it's a whole new game.
The media (contrary to what many will tell you) can be your greatest ally in times of disaster, however if you don't feed the beast, it'll go hunting for it's own food.
I strongly recommend that PIO's practise their media management skills- interviews (including the "in-your'face" scenario as you're leaving a station versus the pre arranged ones we like to do), media releases and so on can make or break a department.
This is one of the hurdles I suggested that Fulton FD could suffer from after the accusations that have neen thrown at them for their response to a house fire (Even if they were NOT at fault as many of us beleive.
The regaining of public confidence and trust is very hard and an unprepared or silent PIO could end up making things a whole lot worse.
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