i want to know how your dept or county runs their accountability systems or how do you go about keeping track of it ?
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why?
At one of my departments, originally our acountability system was far to complicated and involved far to many steps so what happened is that it was "unofficially" abandoned. But, at my other department, the accountability system is just now being implemented and the members are very reluctant to accept and/or implement it. The only accountability system that we have ever used is to just stay together. The Officer is responsible for the safety and integrity of his/her crew and this has always worked for us.
At larger scale incidents like multiple alarm fires, a Chief is assigned to Accountability and he/she has a board where every Company is tracked by job assignment and/or location instead of by the name of individual members.
Sorry if this wasn't much help.
We use a two tag photo id system. When our rescue gets on scene our driver sets up a accountability board sets up at entrance of scene and collects a tag from everyone. No one gets to the scene without leaving a tag. The first guy off the pumper if it is a working fire sets up a accountability board at front of structure and 2nd tag goes on that board by operations officer no tag no entrance. When you come out you collect your tag. After the incident sometimes we have extra tags so before we leave the scene we find where that firefighter is. If we can not locate we will perform a extensive search of the structure to be sure they are not inside and their family is called to see if they are home or they know where they may be. If it is one of our guys when they get home and are told to call the chief when they call they usually won't forget their tags for a long time. This is pretty much how our whole county does it and two of are neighboring departments that we run a lot of calls with like the system and have adopted it. When we practice we use this same system that way when we have a call it comes automatic to us. Next time i'm at the fire house i'll take some pics of the board and tags if you'd like to see what they are can be made real cheap and easily.
yeah man that would be great. We have to find something better we have pass devices but people always forget to pull the clip off of them so that never works i need something to put in our NEW SOP's this is also y i started the forum about the air masks for to find something to put in our SOP's about them
We have to find something better we have pass devices but people always forget to pull the clip off of them so that never works i need something to put in our NEW SOP's this is also y i started the forum about the air masks for to find something to put in our SOP's about them
What are you truly looking for here, you are talking about different things. Accountability is different than air masks and PASS devices. PASS devices are a system that emits a loud noise that is activated when air is turned on an SCBA (standard in place for years now). The PASS goes off either manually by being activated by a downed FF who sets it off.....or automatically by a downed FF who lays motionless too long....hence also why you hear the beeping/whistle/ whatever warning the PASS will activate if you don't move.
Accountability, on the other hand, is knowing who is where, what rig/company a crew is with, where they are assigned, and location to which they are assigned. So it could be E-1 is fire attack, second floor, E-2 is back up, E-3 is RIT, L-1 is venting on the roof, R-2 is first floor search and so on. When a company goes in they indicate they are entering, when they come out, they indicate they are out, when a PAR is called, they indicate if they have all members....sans say an engineer at a pump panel, etc.
Our system is pretty basic. Every member has 4 name tags on their helmet and every rig has 2 velcro tag boards on the officer's door, a red and white, board. Every member riding that rig puts a name tag on each board to indicate who is on the crew. If a call comes in and accountability set up, an accountability officer is assigned and collects the red board from each rig....thus now knowing who is on each crew and where they are. For larger incidents where there may be an accountability at the main entry or staging point, the second (white) board is used and the company officer hands that off to the AO.
no the pass devices are monitored by this it called the gem command base this is what the pass device looks like
At my company on each rig we have a board hanging in each rig and as you get on for the call you hang your id number tag with your id card on the board in your rig. That way we know exactly who came with us on our truck.
We have a passport system. Each firefighter has 2 velcro tags attached under the brim of his/her helmet. Each truck also has a book full of tags. Each truck has their own specific velcro identifier. Officer is placed first on tag, then driver, then interior crew face normal and exterior crew are flipped upside down. Firefighters tags are yellow, chiefs tags are white, and jr line tags are blue. The chief has a white board in which he attaches each trucks crew to, having it very easy to review. His board is also dry erase so he can make notes or other things. If anybody would like more information or pics of the system feel free to ask.
Here is what are tags are. We use the green for interior red for exterior yellow for rookies.
Our county uses a clip on photo ID Tag which we call a PAT or personnel accountability tag.
While enroute to a call we will remove the tags from our coats clip them on a large ring which hangs behind the officer's head on the apparatus. On scene a incident commander will have someone collect the rings from the units and place them at the command post where they will be placed on a board.
The PATs have the photo of the member, name, ID number and bar codes for additional info like medical info.
We (as well as the 6 other Volunteer Companies in the town) use a 2 tag and 1 permanent ID system. Each member is assigned an accountability number. Each tag has the firefighters company name, their name and their number. on the inside is medical and emergency contact info. The tags are also color coded. Red for interior, Blue for exterior w/SCBA and Yellow Exterior no SCBA. The permanent ID can be a cow tag or in our case a shoulder patch with the FF accountability number. Tag #1 is placed on the apparatus you road in on. Tag #2 is given to the IC or AO when assigned to a task. In the event a rapid deployment of FF into a hazard zone is required before an AO is established, FFs will drop their tags to the right of their entry point. Once an AO is assign that person collects the tags at each entry point.
Unfortunately maintaining the system has failed. Most times step 1 is completed, but step 2 (the most important one) is left to the wayside. Lack of intense training and enforcement are the main reasons. To complicate things not always are crews on apparatus of equal status (Red, Blue, Yellow), To compensate most companies run automatic aid together so crews are made up form mixing FF together from multiple companies. So the initial attack crew could be made up of an officer from Co 23, 2 FF from Co 30 and FF from Co 58. Additional tasks may be assigned in a similar manner. The companies train together often so tactics are very much the same. This assigning of mixed companies does not allow for the traditional passport system. Individual tags need to be collected when assigned to a task. This also is a cause for the breakdown in the system as it has become cumbersome.
I would like to ask if anyone has run into the same problem? If so how are you dealing with it?
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