ok what colors of helmets does your dept use and what do they mean?????? My dept uses White,Red,Black,Yellow,Blue,and Orange. White= Chief Red= Captain Black= Lt Yellow= firefighter Blue= Safty Orange= Rookie
White - Chief, Bat Chief, Captain
Red - Lt.
Black - FF
Yellow - Has not completed FF training yet
At my service:
Chief/Director and Captains - white
FF have red and we use stickers on the back of our helmet. Yellow sticker for lower experience levels and have to go in with a green sticker or someone with more interior attack experience. A green sticker, to my understanding, means you have at least 5 years proven experience and can go on any interior attack with anyone.
Hmm.. well.. in my fire dept.. White = chief, red = Cap/Lt, yellow black & brown are all sr. firefighters.. blue = ems/ safety & red tape on the yellow helmets = juniors..
Our company uses White, Yellow, and Black. White indicates a Chief or an Assistant Chief; Yellow indicates one of the other Line Officers (Captain, 1st Lieutenant, and 2nd Lieutenant); and Black indicates a Firefighter. Of course, members are allowed to place stickers on their helmets indicating special skills such as EMT, Confined Space Technician, Hazardous Materials Technician, and so forth.
our dept. use's white, yellow, red and blue. white = chief , red= capt. and lt. blue= paramedic/emt, yellow = firefighters and rookies alike. cadets have red jumpsuits. and everyone is a safety.
Yes, everyone is a safety, but who is the Safety Officer? The SO's sole duty is Safety. They ensure operations are being conducted in a safe manner, do a continuous 360degree walk-around and report directly to the IC. If fact the SO is a second set of eyes for the IC with "Safety colored lenses on."
I understand that everyone has a responsibility to conduct they piece of the operation safely, but there has to be some who is looking at the big picture for safety, stepping in when needed to correct a safety issue, or even calling a immediate evacuation because he can see something on the C side which the IC and entry team on the A side cannot.
The IMS calls for a Safety Officer for every incident, often it is the IC due to the small scale of the event. But as soon as that event requires more than a single company, someone needs to be designated as the SO and "put on their Safety Hat." It's just too damn easy for individuals and small teams to get tunnel vision, or not see the big picture for us to rely on "everyone's a safety, so we don't have a Safety Officer."
BTW, I think Safety Officers should wear GREEN Helmets! But since anyone can serve as a Incident Safety Officer, most departments I've seen have a Road Guard Vest with "SAFETY" printed on front and back.
We have the safety officers I just neglected to put them in so let me correct myself. Our safety officer is always the senior Paramedic on scene. Therefore they wear a blue helmet. thank you for pointing out my neglect of this important role.
Our Department is White red and yellow except when it comes to our wildland gear and they are all red except the Chief who has white. but our structure helmets are White-Chief, Red-Captin and Lt. and yellow for the Firefighters.