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Keeping Track of Firefighters at a Scene
my department is small and i was wondering what most departments do to keep track of firefighters on scene,i heard some departments have accountability tags was just wondering what other departments do in this situation
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Walter Karl Powitzky, Jr. on
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There are many ways to do accountabiltiy as already mention there is the tags with a person name,check in physical with an officer, there are accountability boards with names and assignments on them along with their status. Some PPe have removeable tags with thr Firefighters name that is handed to an officer as well.
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Permalink Reply by Michael David White on
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We have the tag-out system but, with the chaos involved it can be overlooked easily. What we do is put a diamond like sign on a tripod with fence staples on it. It's crude but it works. Can't miss it. It's close to our SCBA station so you have to pass by it and the IC on your way. The IC stops you to make sure your tag is on the sign. Sounds dumb but it works. Better dumb than dead. Make the sign stand out so you can't miss it that's the key.
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Permalink Reply by James Burton (Jamie) on
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We have accountablity PAR Tags in our helmets with our name and number. The First Due Engine Officer is given the board with all the guys in the back, then this is passed to the 2nd Due Truck Driver who becomes the Accountability Officer for the Scene. The Accountability Officer then controls all entry/exit to and from the structure, he assigns the manpower for jobs and may take the Safety role until our Departments Safety Officer arrives, She will then coordinate the sides of building and entry points and assign an entry guy to each who will report back to the Accountability Officer. Sounds a lot more complicated than it is, but it works well for our Department and our Mutual Aid buddies.....Stay Safe
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Permalink Reply by ashfire on
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One thing might be is to make up teams with a officer or senior member as the leader with a radio and try to stay together.
Some new items are PASS devices that can be worn on the belt or built into the frame of a SCBA that will send signals to a electronic board that will show where a firefighter is working in a building. A expensive item that some depts may have in their use.
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Permalink Reply by masonfire30 on
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we use a two tag system one when we get on scene and the other when we get a assignment also having one staging area helps
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Permalink Reply by ian wilcox on
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thanks for the input, sounds like most departments use accountability tags,i'll mention this at next practice
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Permalink Reply by Daniel J. Graham on
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We use accountability tags. This, however, is basically a last ditch "Anyone seen Johnny?" method of "accountability." All it accomplishes is allow you to identify who's not there when the proverbial feces strikes the oscillating device.
True accountability is accomplished by keeping a strong command structure. A firefighter reports to his officer. That officer is responsible for the accountability of the firefighters on his crew. The officers of the companies report to the operations chief, who is responsible for the accountability of those officers. This continues all the way up to incident command. That is true accountability. If something happens, a tag on a board at the suburban isn't going to help figure out where you are and if you're safe.
That being said, stay on task. Don't freelance. And don't assume that just because you have tags with your name on them that hang at the door before you go in that you have "accountability" in place. It's not something you can buy - it's a structure to ensure that we all go home at the end of the day. The tags are a fail-safe, not a first line of defense. So stay low, move fast, and be safe (and accountable!)
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Permalink Reply by Bill Carlisle on
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We use accountability tags, each member is issued 2 tags, 1-tag for on scene the other for entry into the structure (hot zone) , Our tags are color coded for interior people (green) exterior/support (red), ems (blue) seems to work well and as a sector officer sometimes i can just glance at the tags to see what that person can do . This tag system is going county wide to help us when mutual aide is called in . Seems to be working well so far .
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Permalink Reply by Moose on
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Exactly. The command structure should also have a "Staging Area" supervised by an officer. All incoming manpower is to report to the staging area and stay there until the staging officer sends you out for a job. The tags are given to the staging officer, when you come out you report to the staging officer to get your tags before you get a fresh bottle than return to staging. The staging officer keeps track of how many times you entered and cuts you off after 2 bottles and sends you to the EMS rehab area for BP check and hydration.
This seams to be a great way to keep track of personnel, but as always you get those who just dont think they have to follow the rules and start to enter the building to see what needs to be done or who needs help without checking in, bottom line, as officers we need to drill this into our crews that when we respond to calls we go to staging, especially for mutual aid calls. When we get to Mutual Aid calls we report to either the IC or the first offcer we see and tell them how many interiors we have and where we will be staging. Our neighbors experienced this a few months ago at a fire and they LOVED that we stayed in one area until called and we did what we were asked to do without argument, unlike other departments that basically freelanced and listened to only their officers and not the hosting departments IC.
We have a bunch of individual sensations in our county that feel they are better than the other departments because of call volume differences and feel they need to set up their own IC system to follow and just pretend other depts are either not there or become a branch of their department and have to follow their orders...Not good. I brought this to the attention of my chief who will hopefully address it at the next chiefs meeting.
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We have the same system. It is good too for officers like me who are color blind, the three colors are obviously contrasted with each other to be able to see what is what.
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Permalink Reply by Grant Richardson on
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In Western Australia, we have an incident command system which has an Entry control Officer, to whom each firefighter wearing BA, hands a tally before entering a structure. The tally is attached to the BA Control board with the following information; Firefighter's name, BA cylinder pressure, time of entry, SAFE working time based on the lowest pre-entry cylinder pressure, time due out, and location where firefighters will be working. Two firefighters per team with radio communication and a policy of "one out, all out." No one enters a structure without following this procedure. There is also a staging area for relief and emergency BA teams. We've never lost a man.
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