Georgia Fire Academy enhances officer development training by incorporating the Near-Miss Reporting System
By David Wall & Tommy Bishop

“Always carry a tool with you!” This is one of the first things a new firefighter learns in recruit training. This command isn’t based on a theory of what could happen; it’s the voice of experience. Carrying an axe, closet hook, pike pole or other implement on the fireground has proven to be a lifesaver for many firefighters.

But there are times when it’s better not to learn from direct experience. When it comes to surviving a life-threatening event, learning from someone else’s harrowing experience is better than having to experience your own. Ask a firefighter who has survived a flashover, and you’ll get first-hand advice on how to avoid finding yourself in the same situation.

This, in a nutshell, is how the National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System (NFFNMRS) works. Firefighters sharing their real-life experiences and the lessons they’ve learned with other firefighters. Such information sharing is even more important for officers. Leading the crew through a complex and dangerous incident scene requires the officer to be aware of the many possible hazards and to possess a “tool chest” of knowledge that can be used to avoid and mitigate these hazards.

Gaining this knowledge by one’s own experience can be both time-consuming and painful—which is where the NFFNMRS comes in. Drawing on the experience of others can be as useful as years of on-the-job training. At the Georgia Fire Academy (GFA), we recognized the important role the NFFNMRS could play in the development of capable and competent company officers, and accordingly, we integrated it into our Fire Officer training curriculum.

The Curriculum
The GFA, a division of the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth, developed a series of fire officer training courses designed to provide developing fire officers with the necessary tools to be successful in their career and to enhance their safety and that of their crews on the emergency scene. The classes, offered in four levels, meet or exceed the requirements of NFPA 1021: Standard for Fire Officers Professional Qualifications.

Fire Officer I & II
Fire Officer I and II were developed for station-level officers. The first class in the series, designed for newly appointed company officers, or those aspiring to be, is Fire Officer I. It consists of 118 hours of training that are divided into three classes, including a segment for the firefighter or engineer who may occasionally be called upon to be the acting officer in charge. The class is intended to provide students with the skills they will use in the day-to-day activities as the supervisor of a fire crew. It also lays the groundwork for these new company officers for further knowledge and learning experiences.

Fire Officer I includes a 4-hour overview of the NFFNMRS, including where to locate the many training tools available on the system. Students are encouraged to submit their own near-miss report to the system.

The Fire Officer II class, also known as Fire Department Management, builds on the lessons learned in the first class of the series. Students become involved more in the organizational duties of an officer. This class also includes a 4-hour segment on the NFFNMRS, where students are taught how to use the tools available on the website to provide training for their crew members.

Fire Officer III & IV
The next course in the series is aimed at command-level officers or candidates. Fire Officer III, or Fire Administrator, is a 64-hour class with a curriculum that includes community relations, budgeting, crew resource management, safety and risk management.

Included in this course is an 8-hour class on the NFFNMRS, taught as a train-the-trainer class. Students receive instruction on the many teaching tools available on the website and are shown how to teach personnel in their department about the system’s features, including grouped reports for training, the Report of the Week, case studies from selected Near-Miss reports, and classes on subjects such as crew resource management.

The final segment of the fire officer series of classes is Fire Officer IV, or Fire Department Executive. This class is designed to prepare participants for the position of fire chief. Although this segment doesn’t include a dedicated class on the NFFNMRS, students who complete the entire series have participated in 16 hours of training on the system and are familiar with the tools available on the website and how to use them in their department. The database of near-miss reports is also available for research projects.

Seeing the Benefits
The GFA believes the integration of the near-miss training into officer development is having a significant impact. “The reason we added the Near-Miss reporting portion to our curriculum was to try to affect cultural change in the fire service by showing new officers what mistakes have been made so they hopefully would not repeat them in the future,” says GFA Manager Jeff Dean, one of the course developers.

And the program appears to be working not just on those who were already receptive to the safety message, but on those who may have previously resisted it or not seen its importance. “When we reviewed the Near-Miss program, we realized it was a way to accomplish fire department cultural change over time,” says Mike Byrd, GFA Deputy Chief who developed the upper-level courses. “In the 3 years of experiences with Fire Officer I, we’re seeing new advocates for this program who were hard-core aggressive interior firefighters. Being embedded in several Fire Officer programs has added to their awareness and degree of accountability in their thinking.”

As the number of fires continues to decrease, many fire officers respond to the fireground with little command experience, yet the safety of their crew depends on their knowledge. Learning from the Near-Miss Reporting System is one way to ensure that those officers have a bank of knowledge to pull from as they make decisions, take risks and guide their personnel through dangerous situations. It may not be first-hand experience, but in some ways, it’s even better.

Tommy Bishop retired from the Marietta (Ga.) Fire Department after 30 years, where he was assigned as an assistant chief in the suppression division. He has served his department as a paramedic, station officer, training officer and safety officer. His assignments included supervision of the department’s technical rescue team and chairman of the risk management committee. He is a program trainer with the National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System.

David M. Wall, MPA, CFO, EFO has been the director of the Georgia Fire Academy since 2004. Prior to that, he served as a municipal fire chief in the Atlanta suburbs for 11 years. He has been a paramedic, firefighter, company officer and training officer. He is currently a doctoral student, studying decision making. Wall is a member of the IAFC.

More About the National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System
The National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System (NFFNMRS) is a program funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant program. The project is administered by the IAFC in consultation with the National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System Advisory Board. The project is endorsed by IAFC, IAFF and the Volunteer & Combination Officers Section of the IAFC.

The NFFNMRS celebrated 5 years of service in August 2010. Over those 5 years, the database of submitted reports has grown continuously; now, more than 4,000 near-miss reports have been submitted. Last year, there were more than 620,000 visitors to the website and 13,500 have signed up to receive the Report of the Week. More than 2,000 people are fans on Facebook. (http://www.facebook.com/firefighternearmiss)

For more information regarding the National Fire Fighting Near Miss Reporting System, please contact Program Trainer Tommy Bishop at tbishop@firefighternearmiss.com or visit www.firefighternearmiss.com.

For more information regarding the Fire Officer Series at the Georgia Fire Academy, please contact Director David Wall at dwall@gpstc.state.ga.us