Post-Incident Analysis and the Commission’s Injury Reporting

The goal of the injury reporting system is to collect data on Fire Fighter injuries throughout the State of Texas.  The data collected is evaluated to determine if there are any trends in injuries and in Personal Protective Equipment to help mitigate firefighter injuries in the future.

Thank you to everyone who has reported injuries to us!  Very often, your reports are added to our summaries, but sometimes depending on the severity and type of injury, we might open an inquiry or an investigation into it.  These steps are not intended as reprisals, but simply give us more information surrounding the injury so we can get a better understanding of how Texas’ firefighters are getting injured.  In this blog post we will be discussing the differences between an inquiry and investigation in regards to these types of injuries.

Injuries leading to TCFP follow up
As of now, we are primarily following up on reported injuries associated with burns.  When a burn occurs, the FIDO system notifies TCFP staff and the following steps are taken by the commission:

• Review the injury.
• Create a file for the incident. 
• Assign either compliance staff or the local compliance officer for follow up (depending on situation). 
• Send an inquiry request to the department.  This request will include pictures and PPE information.  See FAQ’s for specific information requested.

After TCFP staff reviews the information found in the inquiry, an investigation could be started.  This investigation would involve the assigned TCFP compliance officer visiting the department to perform a compliance investigation on the injured individual, their PPE, their training records, etc.  The officer will bring the information back to the commission and it will be used (anonymously) in our annual report.

If the injury was critical enough for us to perform an investigation, your department has probably already started an internal investigation or “near miss” report.  The information you put together on your own can be very helpful in our injury investigations.  In the few critical incidents we’ve seen over the past year, the departments have provided excellent reports that have included all the pertinent information our compliance officers require in an investigation – pictures,  what the department learned from the incident, and changes the department plans to implement.  Because this information has already been put together by the department, the compliance officers’ visits have been quick and easy.  It has been a very smooth process on both sides.  

Quick tip for you
Anytime an incident leading to an investigation occurs, the PPE involved needs to be handled as evidence and should be stored in paper containers (not plastic) to persevere the integrity of the PPE.  Wrap each piece of clothing in paper and store in a paper bag.

Why do we need information on PPE?
Throughout the year the information is reviewed to see what, if any, trends in PPE misuse or malfunction are occurring.  If there are any trends, the compliance section will review the data and provide any updates to the fire community.  

What kind of experience have you had with the commission in regards to an inquiry or investigation?