This episode discusses whether incident commanders should wear turnout gear while commanding incidents. The answer may not be as simple as it appears.
Length: 24 minutes
click the YouTube icon to listen
_____________________________________________________
If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to a higher level, check out the Situational Awareness Matters Online Academy.
CLICK HERE for details, enrollment options and pricing.
__________________________________
I recently read with great interest a very long thread on Facebook about whether or not an incident commander should wear turnout gear at a fire scene. As my focus and passion is improving first responder situational awareness, I would like to address this issue from that perspective.
The feedback on Facebook was, as expected, all over the place with some participants saying the commander should be in turnout gear. Some said the commander should not be in turnout gear. And some displayed the typical (and expected) distain for management and saying the chiefs should just stay in their offices. Editorial comments lacking maturity aside, the question of whether an incident commander should wear turnout gear is one field often discussed during my Fifty Ways to Kill a First Responder program, so I thought I’d take the matter up here.
Our sponsor:
Midwest Fire
MidwestFire.com
Intro music
Safety Dance (1982)
Men Without Hats
GMC – Virgin Records
Cover Photo:
John Buckman
Chief Photographer
WildFire Studios
Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System
http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/