Help Needed for Fireground Accountability

Ok, i don't know if this topic was posted before, but i'm sorry but this is a major issue with my department and I am in desperate need of some help before things go south in a hurry. So on to my topic. I am currently serving with a volunteer department that has absolutely no accountability or anything like that for fire scenes. We have no i.d. tags for our firefighters, we have no b.a. control boards, no incident command/incident command boards, no rit teams or any kind of staging areas. Not to mention the whole fact as soon as a member is brought aboard, once they are given their pager and their gear, they turn them loose, let them get on the truck with little or no knowledge of the fire service what so ever! So please, if someone could help me out here on how to get this implemented in a department in which the guys running the ship are in the "old school" mentality and aren't focused on this end of things or when the issue is brought up, you are laughed out of the room. So like I said, if someone could help me out here i'd really appreciate it. Thanks again.

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Permalink Reply by Josh Reed on October 16, 2010 at 11:25am

If still have any questions on how to handle a situation like yours send me a message. I have gone thru the same situation. Although we have got things fixed in our department. Would be able to give you some insight.

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Permalink Reply by matt foro on December 22, 2010 at 2:28pm

I know my dept had the old plastic style tags then the county came up with plastic ID Cards, But we final went with this company and 2 netal tags per person and also a Truck Ring. Anytime someone gets on board the truck a tag is given to the operator. We also have a Standard Dry Eraser Board from walmarts that we setup how we wanted it and works pretty well then as a back up I came up with a Program to be used on a laptop and can change it per a departments needs and wants free of charge.

http://www.my-lor.com/index.html

Please contact me if I can help you further

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Permalink Reply by Alex Sharp on December 23, 2010 at 4:51am

I have not gone through this specific problem before as all the departments that I have worked for have had accountability programs in place. The 2 that I have used work like this.

#1 We have 2 main tags (multiple back up). One goes on a passport on the engine to be given to the IC or accountability officer at scene and one stays on our helmet for when we go interior. We have two levels. At scene accountability and interior accountability. 2 of the departments that I have worked for have used this method. They either use a dry erase board or triple fold binder with dry erase inserts for different situations.

#2 We have 2 tags. Both go on two separate passports on the engine. One passport stays on the engine and one goes to the IC or accountability officer.

In both we put them in the riding positions. Top is captain or company officer, second is engineer and then the FF's. The company officer is velcroed up side down to let the accountability officer know who is the company officer.

I had problems trying to change thing in my departments before because I just went up and suggested the change. I learned that it is easier if you have 1 or 2 solutions in hand. When I did this and was willing to be the one to implement, order, or train people on how to do it or use it, it ended up being something easier to get done.

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Permalink Reply by James Mclennan on January 9, 2011 at 7:04pm

i agree with everyone. when i first joined it was much the same way. now im in a position myself and a few others have begun to turn things around. we took more training, listened to other departments, listen to our municiple needs, and slowly but surly one step at a time. i wish it could happen over night, however this unfortunatly takes some time