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whats the role of your safety officer?
i was just wondering what is the role of your safety officer. besides overall safety. does he do any interior fire fighting, or does he stay outside.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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Safety officer belongs outside, plain and simple. They have range over the fireground and are typically not assigned to a sector or division, but on the lookout for potential safety problems. The safety officer STAYS OUTSIDE, there is no reason for them to go inside, that would constitute freelancing and would also be unaccounted for by the IC. The minute a safety officer does ANY firefighting, they no longer are the safety officer.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Read the NFPA 1521 Standard.
It covers the current best practices for Incident Safety Officer.
One of those recommendations is that the Incident Safety Officer have no other duties except for the safety responsibilities.
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Permalink Reply by Rusty Mancini on
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I will echo Ben's reply, Incident safety officer NFPA 1521. Take a look at this standard, it will answer all your questions.
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Permalink Reply by Smoke Eater on
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Our safety officer is a huge pain in the A--!!! Wouldn't have it any other way.
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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I foresee the SO as a vitally important role in the command structure, we operate with (2) at every fire.
In reality to the OP question, why would you place restrictions on the safety officer to keep him or her outside and therefore restrict their vantage point. The most severe threat for serious personal injury or death to our brothers and sisters is on the inside, granted there is alot of exterior hazards as well.
When an exterior SO operates on the fireground her or she is responsible for the entire fireground. Are they freelancing? No because they are a single resource? They are required to report their status and position on the fireground and accountability tracks them. Now I am not saying he operate interior to assist fighting fire or searching but when an interior SO does operate on a risk management level without tactical duties, he or she sees a tremendous amount of hazards/conditions in which the interior crew misses when they are assigned a specific task.
The IDLH is one of the most dangerous places on the fireground and more often than not I have seen in many smaller departments, the safety officer position as a person who is non-interior, therefore has either an old school perspective compared to todays thermal insult or simply not qualified.
The exterior only non- qualified concept is like asking a CEO to have a homeless person run his CFO division.
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When an exterior SO operates on the fireground her or she is responsible for the entire fireground. Are they freelancing? No because they are a single resource? They are required to report their status and position on the fireground and accountability tracks them.
You do bring up a good point that a SO on the inside can have a different perspective and I could see such a thing on larger scale operations, be it an apartment complex, warehouse etc. In some incidents we have had a command sector inside, and while not a safety officer role, did have a vantage point to keep crews aware of issues. Thing is for most departments out there, they may have one SO, if that and typically on the outside.
Majority of fire calls where a SO would need to be present at tend to be houses and smaller complexes, basically a first alarm fire. While the SO could go inside, my contention is that just because the SO tells the IC he's going inside, there really is no further accountability for him. A SO isn't really working with a crew and has potential of getting in trouble on the inside without the benefit of crew integrity. Let's say you have a 2 story balloon frame house, fire on the second floor. SO decides he wants a looksy inside, tells the IC he's going in, goes upstairs to view operations, decides to work his way back downstairs and check another part of the house, he falls through the floor, because the fire is in the basement, is rendered unconscious. He lacks the crew integrity of being assigned with a crew to know that a member is missing. Suppression crews could continue with operations and not even know the SO is now missing, interior crews may not know the SO's last location, there is no crew to keep tabs on him, accountability may have a report he went in, but not his location, because the SO is free to roam.
A large scale operation, high rise, warehouse, factory, large apartment complex, OK I could see a valid point for a SO interior, perhaps off the OPS sector, but that would be about it. For the average house fire or smaller complex, no I don't agree with a SO going inside for reasons stated.
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John,
Like I said we use it allot, the interior SO is responsible to contact command and report his status and movements. Meaning even at a two story house, he would report, "SO-1 making entry, will be operating on floor 1. He is not just saying I am going in for a look with carte blanche movement.
He moves up or down and he reports his intention or destination and the accountability officer working the command truck is moving the Interior SO's tag to the appropriate floor.
Your concern with falling through a floor is factual and could happen, if the SO is trained in your departments command and accountability structure, and actually does it. Then he would have to report his movement and location every time it changes. The PAR would pick up the missing firefighter in the 15 minute cycle.
This is nothing new... big city Battalion Chiefs with an aide, have used the interior look concept for a first hand report of interior conditions.
Whether a major complex or two story house, it can and does work if the IDLH warrants the two SO concept. But your original post stated he has no reason to go inside and that is by far the most dangerous place on the fireground...
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Well hey, it works for you guys and that is what matters. I do see your point, but for the most part, generally speaking, most depts don't have the resources for two SO's on a scene, at least a first alarm fire. I honestly can't say I know of a dept here in WI that uses an interior and exterior SO, even in the largest city, unless it is a larger scale incident.
Big city, well they tend to be an exception and not a rule for the most part. Yeah they can make it work, but then again the big city operations may not work in a smaller scale incident. Majority of depts out there do not have a BC aide to be utilized in such a way...not even some of the bigger cities in the country.
I understand the SO telling IC they are just going to 1st floor or 2nd, etc but they still lack that crew integrity. The accountability may record the SO is on the first floor, but waiting until a PAR to realize the SO is missing, may be too late.
Can it work? Well I am convinced now from this that it can and would change my first post if I could. I don't really agree with anyone being inside without being assigned to a crew or have some type of crew integrity, but it could work. In my little world, I know that an interior SO won't be happening on a first alarm call though, but I won't tell anyone else it can't work.
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