Life Safety Initiative 11

LSI # 11 National standards for emergency response policies and procedures should be developed and championed.

When it comes to emergency response and the personnel who operate emergency vehicles on a daily basis, policies and procedures can and do vary as much as the type of vehicles and the personnel who operate them.

While the fire service has always been a champion in assisting with the development of national standards for firefighter safety, when it comes to emergency response, we often take unnecessary risks and safe practices sometimes takes a backseat. Why is this? Is it because we think of ourselves as invincible when we get behind the wheel of a powerful apparatus designed to transport us and our colleagues to and from the scene of an emergency? Policies and procedures for emergency response should for the most part have a list of Do’s and Don’t’s.

Life Safety Initiative # 11 is based on recommended strategies which will assist in reducing firefighter injuries and death while responding to an emergency and operating during a non-emergency situation.

A complete review of the department’s current standards (see how they compare to NFPA 1451, Standard for a Fire and Emergency Service Vehicle Operations Training Program).

Adopting an official written vehicle risk management plan to include at least the following components:

• (1)*Risk identification
• (2)*Risk evaluation
• (3)*Risk control techniques
• (4)*Risk management monitoring

Incorporating provisions of NFPA 1451 into a vehicle operations training program, that includes all types of vehicles from a broad perspective, risk determination, design, training, maintenance, record keeping and any variations from standard operations, and conducting an evaluation into the effectiveness of the program at least once every 3 years,

The authority having jurisdiction should establish emergency response procedures to minimize travel times, optimize response safety, and minimize the chances of emergency vehicles meeting at traffic intersections, where an automated traffic control system provides a green light and therefore intersection right-of way to emergency vehicles. At no time shall driving regulations be less restrictive than state motor vehicle laws.

An audit report of the findings should be submitted to the chief and to the members of the occupational safety and health committee.

The average firefighter receives some emergency response exposure during basic training. It is vitally important for departments who provide emergency response policy and procedures training to their firefighters, to fully document the training in order to avoid legal pitfalls if their actions should be challenged in a court of law.

To begin thinking about the development of national standards for emergency response policies requires input from the basic firefighter level through the chief officer level. Gathering support of emergency apparatus manufacturer’s, the International Association of Firefighters, the International Association of Fire Chief’s, along with local, state and federal elected officials is also critical to this mission.

Each year many firefighters are needlessly injured and others lose their lives from preventable vehicle accidents which occur during response to and from emergency incidents. Effectively developing national standards will ensure that the fire service has a guideline to follow in order to begin changing the culture of the fire service and reducing both firefighter injuries and fatalities.

 

Jerry Doyle

Fire Chief / EMC

City of Lockhart Fire Rescue

512-398-2321

jdoyle@lockhart-tx.org