Accountability - Search and Rescue – Part 13

By John Mittendorf

The Washington Firefighter printed an excellent article in 1999 by retired Chief Dennis Compton that can be directly applied to accountability in search operations (and for that matter, other fireground operations). Following are selected portions of Chief Compton’s article:

Company Officers

“When I was a company officer, the most difficult part of my job at a structure fire was keeping track of my firefighters because, at times, it was like trying to keep kittens in a box. We went through the door and the firefighters would break off from each other if we weren’t careful. Company officers are responsible for the members assigned to them. That means the officer knows who is there, knows exactly where each firefighter is located and knows what each is doing. The officer knows how each is doing, and if they need any help. If the officer knows these things, he or she is the supervisor of that crew.

Could you ever find yourself in a situation as a company officer where your crew is struggling with a task or something? Might you step in and take over what they are doing, and do it yourself? At that point, who is in charge of the crew and their overall safety and accountability? Company officers are responsible for the crew members that are assigned to them at all times - period. Be careful about focusing so much on performing a single task that, as an officer, you lose track of your crew members.”

The Buddy System

“The next issue within the concept of fireground accountability is that crew members are responsible for each other. In which module of incident command training did we learn that we are supposed to stay together in teams at a structure fire? As you know, we didn’t learn it in incident command training. We probably learned it in the first three days of basic firefighting school - in fact, maybe the first day.”

Be Responsible For Yourself

“The next concept within this fireground accountability model is that we are responsible for ourselves. That’s simple; it means that we all know what we’re supposed to be doing and we’ve been trained pretty well to do it. We know what procedures apply in our department; those typically are not kept a secret. We know the safety regulations. We know what we are to do in certain situations and we know we’re not supposed to be freelancing. My point is - simply do it. Operate within the agreed-upon SOG’s.

Remember that incident commanders are responsible for branches and sectors, and they’re responsible for knowing who’s in charge of each, where they are, what they are assigned to do, what other units are in that sector, how they are doing and whether they need any help. Sector officers are responsible for the units assigned to them and for knowing this very same set of things about the crews under their supervision. If they don’t, they’re simply not in charge of them. Company officers are responsible for crew members, and crew members are responsible for each other; they stay together, they’re a team. And finally, we’re all responsible for our own individual behavior within the system.”

Staying Together

“The next component of fireground accountability deals with crew integrity and working in teams of at least two. In order to be together, we need to be within voice, vision or touch of one another at all times. If you aren’t, you aren’t together. Keep this in mind anytime you’re working as a team on the fireground.”

In our next article, we will look at the “Two-In/Two-Out Rule.”