If you don't fully understand how a building truly performs or reacts under fire conditions and the variables that can influence its stability and degradation, movement of fire and products of combustion and the resource requirements for fire suppression in terms of staffing, apparatus and required fire flows, then you will be functioning and operating in a reactionary manner.

This places higher risk to your personnel and lessens the likelihood for effective, efficient and safe operations. You're just not doing your job effectively and you're at RISK. These risks can equate into insurmountable operational challenges and could lead to adverse incident outcomes.

Someone could get hurt, someone could die, it's that simple, it's that obvious.

Since the early 1950’s and the advent and subsequent development of the incident size-up function, the performance of size-up at an incident scene played an important role and has traditionally been considered to be a crucial element in the overall step-phased approach towards fire suppression operations and methodologies.

More recently there’s been a constant hum in the background with dialog and discussion on the evolving process of size-up and what it means in terms of current day firefighting operations and developing theories on fire suppression and incident management.

Adding to the nomenclature of size-up, we find situational awareness, risk versus gain, decision-making summary, risk benefits, risk analysis, risk assessment, risk appraisal, incident evaluations, profiling, and the 360 to name but a few.

The operative question is this: “Is traditional phased incident scene size-up and monitoring antiquated and no longer appropriate or applicable to modern fire service operations?” If so, what process systems and terminology appropriately captures and defines what should be incorporated in and encompass those point(s) in time during an evolving incident that provide us with contextual information and reconnaissance to support the decision-making process of combat fire suppression?

Let me offer this related to the evolving concepts on Situational Awareness. SA is a combination of attitudes, previously learned knowledge and new information gained from the incident scene and environment that enables the strategic commanders, decision-makers and tactical companies to gather the information they need to make effective decisions that will keep their firefighters and resources out of harm's way, reducing the likelihood of adverse or detrimental effects.

Everyone on the incident scene MUST stay alert to changing conditions, obvious or latent conditions or escalating factors that require prompt identification, comprehension and appropriate implementation of actions.

To the Incident Commander, fire officer or firefighter; knowing what's going on around you- in and around the building structure and understanding the consequences of building, construction, assembly, fire load and fire development and growth is mission critical to incident stabilization and mitigation and profoundly crucial in terms of personnel safety.

When it comes to incident scene assessment, size-up, risk profiling, etc.., what are the mission critical elements that you seek to identify, information gain and parameters that you evaluate and how do they fit into the overall management and operations of the incident? Just something “small” to discuss around the table….

What motivates firefighters to choose their career, and what keeps them happy in their jobs?

Ken, a retired chief and volunteer firefighter from Pennsylvania, is writing a psychology paper on firefighters' intrinsic motivation, and wants to bring the following questions to The Kitchen Table:

1. Do you enjoy your current occupation? If yes, why?

2. What makes you satisfied with your job performance?

3. Why did you choose this career?

4. If you are not happy in your current position, why?

You can help Ken out by leaving your answers in the comments, or by emailing them to me at Christine.Laquer@firerescue1.com. Answers will be used anonymously.

Thanks for your help!

I realize this has nothing to do with the fire service. Nothing at all to do with fire and injury prevention.

I am strolling through my local mall looking for a Birthday present for my Dad when I stumbled across jolly old St. Nick here on NOVEMBER SIXTH!

I love Christmas big time but even I did a double take on this one. Am I over reacting? Am I the second coming of Scrooge?
Stay Safe,

Bill
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

During this week, there were on average, over 10,173 structure fires in the United States. According to NFPA statistics the following occur on average in the U.S;

• A fire department responded to a fire every 20 seconds.
• One structure fire was reported every 59 seconds.
• One home structure fire was reported every 79 seconds
• One civilian fire injury was reported every 30 minutes.
• One civilian fire death occurred every 2 hours and 33 minutes.
• One outside fire was reported every 41 seconds.
• One vehicle fire was reported every 122 seconds.

There are on average of Eight to Ten Firefighter Line-of-duty Deaths each month. There have been two LODD's reported this first week of November alone.

The fire service continues to struggle with the challenges, opposition and merits in adjusting, altering, and changing our strategic and tactical ways of doing business in the streets. Some disagree others are indifferent, but regardless of your positions; the business of firefighting is changing, to some it’s just not being recognized or acknowledged.

The traditional attitudes and beliefs of equating aggressive firefighting operations in all occupancy types coupled with the correlating, established and pragmatic operational strategies and tactics MUST not only be questioned, they need to be adjusted and modified; risk assessment, risk-benefit analysis, safety and survivability profiling, operational value and firefighter injury and LODD reduction must be further institutionalized to become a recognized part of modern firefighting operations. Fire suppression tactics must be adjusted for the rapidly changing methods and materials impacting all forms of building construction, occupancies and structures. The need to redefine the art and science of firefighting continues to be a passionate discussion point.

The demands and requirements of modern firefighting will continue to require the placement of personnel within situations and buildings that carry risk, uncertainty and inherent danger. As a result, risk management must become fluid and integrate all personnel. We must manage dynamic risks with a balanced approach of effective assessment, analysis and probability within command decision making that results in safety conscious strategies and tactics.

Don't mistake determined, effective and proactive firefighting with that of reckless, baseless and risk-preferring and self-indulging firefighting. There is a difference, a big difference! When we address relationships of Building Construction, Command Risk Management and Firefighter Safety with the occupancy and structural environment, all personnel, regardless of rank, need to equate the occupancy risk with strategic and tactical incident action plans. These safely compliment the identified firefighting operation risk, with the projected building risk profile and interface appropriate behavioral characteristics in the task level firefighting activities. Again, equating building, occupancy risk profiles with determined, effective and proactive firefighting.

Stop and reflect today, where do you stand? What are your true beliefs and convictions in regards to the developing safety culture that is being forged and institutionalized within our fire service?

A recent posting by Chief Ben Waller on the Candle-Moth Syndrome and the reference to Target Fixation brings to light some very important insights related to buildings, occupancies and the risk assessment process. The relationship of target fixation and faulted size-up that ultimately progresses to faulted tactics and the potential for detrimental incident outcomes is typically overlooked and seldom discussed.

Target fixation is a process by which the brain is focused so intently on an observed object that awareness of other obstacles or hazards can diminish. Also, in an avoidance scenario, the observer can become so fixated on the target that the observer will end up colliding with the object.

How many times have you been “drawn” towards a specific tactical sortie, or have disregarded mission critical indicators that were so obvious, after the incident that you wondered what came over you in the heat of the battle? The Candle-Moth Syndrome is just the start of it.

In the realm of building construction, occupancy profiling and risk assessment, company and command officers must strive to develop astute and clear observation skills to quickly scan for key visual indicators that provide validation points on possible inherent building and construction type and systems, looking beyond the obvious at times and quickly processing that data and assumptions into definable strategic plans and tactical assignments-all with the appropriate balance of risk.

The ability to move past target fixation attributes; and the skills to balance presumptive or validated past experience, street level assumptions and intuitive decision-making whether it’s recognition primed decision-making modeling and approach (RPD) or naturalistic decision Making (NDM), scan your operational field broadly and look over your buildings and occupancies with a wider field of vision and beyond. Recognize that some “target fixation” points are very important in the overall processing and assessment of an incident, but are a part of the overall sum of the equating and evolving incident scene.

I’ve spoken about the Predictability of Performance in building construction and occupancies a few times, and the challenge it presents in the context of present day fire suppression operations. Although experience drives a lot, there are times in which past experiences may not be the only recommended force that drives the incident action plan. Be cognizant of the fact that similar building types can perform differently under what may be derived as similar fire conditions. Don’t get caught in target fixation and above all, have an understanding of building construction systems, their correlation to occupancy configurations and ultimately how they perform under fire (conditions). Know your buildings, expand your knowledge, develop your operational skills and enhance your tactical capabilities. It all starts with the structure….at a structure fire.