Firefighter Safety - Who's Responsibility Is It?

Firefighter Safety

Firefighting operations often include very high risk activities that occur in any weather conditions, during any time of day. Fire safety officers and line officers are responsible for mitigating risk and assuming the decision making body of a Fire Dept. as to if certain risks will be taken. Just because firefighting is inherently dangerous does not mean that death or disabilities are acceptable. It falls on every single member of the fire department to watch and advice about dangers that will affect them or other members of their crew.
The fire officer is to develop an incident action plan that will minimize the chance of harm or death in certain situations. Firefighter must however be prepared to enter and work in very dangerous areas, atmospheres and high risk situations. The U.S. Fire Administration has adopted the 50 percent goal which if successful will reduce firefighter fatalities by 50 percent per 100,000 firefighters per year.
The leading cause of firefighter fatalities is cardiac arrest. This is a very easily overcome by the implementation of annual physicals and stress tests to the firefighters. I believe that this would greatly reduce Line of duty deaths in this area. The major problem I see is that most of the fire departments are volunteer and require no physical to gain entry into their ranks. If a little money was set aside for this program there would be a large reduction in this area and will by default decrease across the country.
The second leading cause of firefighter deaths and disabilities is being struck or coming into contact with and object while on scene or responding. This is also an easily overcome able the implementation of a fire scene safety officer position, who whole responsibility is to ensure the safety of the scene. He should be given the authority to halt operations when an unnecessary high risk situation shows itself. Unlike the operations officer who has numerous duties safety would be the only concern for this officer. The responding side it not so easy to overcome due to all the factors that come into play. It’s obvious that seat belt use will be mandatory and use of a response level for all departments should be utilized. Meaning when a dept is dispatched for a call a response level should be given. The lower the response level the lower the response tone. Meaning a cat stuck in a tree would be the lowest level of response mandating that no lights on POV will be used at all. To the highest response structure fire with life threat will be discretion of the chief. I do believe that all personnel should respond to the fire hall before the scene. Anyone living outside the 2 minute response time should not be allowed to respond in emergency mode for that incident. This would greatly reduce the number of fatal accidents associated with this type of response level.
In conclusion it is every firefighters responsibility to ensure the safety of themselves and their fellow firefighters, however it is ultimately the Line officers duty to ensure it is being done.