Company officer role beneficial

Much has been written in the past year about the decline of the role of the company officer within the fire department. The scope of most of these articles has been about the loss of experience and dealing with ways to get newly promoted officers more training to deal with that loss. In career departments all over the country, it's hard to imagine an engine or a ladder company functioning without an officer. Unfortunately, many departments throughout the country do just that. What benefits could your department gain with the addition of a company officer to an engine or a ladder company?

In Reading, Pennsylvania, the fire department operates with four on-duty shift officers. Two of those officers are deputy chiefs who are assigned vehicles to respond as needed citywide. There are two lieutenants, one assigned to a paramedic unit and the other assigned to the department's heavy rescue. Regular shift staffing is two persons per apparatus or medic unit, with a total shift complement of 18 firefighters and six paramedics. We provide coverage to a population of more than 85,000 in a 10-square-mile area and had a call volume of 22,900 runs in 2010. In addition, we provide mutual-aid assistance on request to departments in neighboring municipalities.

Many other departments in Pennsylvania operate similarly to Reading because of financial or other issues. The situation is quite unique and at times requires "out-of-the-box" thinking and actions. Firefighters are often tasked with officer-level decisions on and off the fireground. Some of the problems encountered in situations without officers include the following.

Fireground tactics. With the exception of the department's rescue company, all apparatus have a line firefighter riding the officer's seat. The first few minutes of a typical structure fire are handled with those firefighters making the decisions. Everything from apparatus placement to tactics and assignments is completed by line firefighters. Although the chiefs hear your radio reports, you are in control until they arrive.

Lack of communication. Firefighters in houses without an officer are often left with incomplete information from the previous shift regarding the myriad of issues and details all departments commonly handle on a daily basis. A note left on a white board or information shared verbally at the change of shift can often be interrupted by the next call or the requirement to change shift at the scene of an incident. Important items such as the department's mission statement and policies don't have the same impact on firefighters when there is no officer to provide consistent leadership.

Lack of responsibility. Who is really responsible in the station without a company officer? The senior firefighter? The junior fighter? When a tour or fire prevention detail is scheduled, who handles it? Many times, it is left to the junior firefighter when it may be better handled by a more senior member. When the station or equipment is in need of repair, is it left for the day shift to be handled during normal working hours? Is the problem documented sufficiently for the proper repairs to be made? Are firefighters even authorized to handle this type of detail? What if there is a need to spend money for the repairs? The same questions hold true for apparatus repairs. Some issues can be taken care of during normal business hours when the city's maintenance people are working, but this doesn't help during off hours or when outside vendors need to be used. On more than one occasion, members have used their own funds to pay for equipment and apparatus repairs.

Lack of training. The department has a single lieutenant in charge of training. New material is supposed to be introduced in a formal classroom setting with the training lieutenant in charge of the session. Drill and practice sessions, typically overseen by the company-level officer, are not conducted frequently. With only one company-level officer working departmentwide per shift, this task can become overwhelming, especially considering that while "technically" being out of service, everyone still has to be available for calls because of the lack of staffing and the call volume.

The things I've mentioned just scratch the surface of issues that are normally handled by a company-level officer in most departments. Many managers, chiefs, and even firefighters make the statement, "We don't need officers. We need more firefighters." Unfortunately, many tend to forget that the company officer is the first-level manager who can still be a working firefighter. The company officer sits on the fence, if you will, between line firefighters and management. As I mentioned before, critical thoughts and communications from managers and chiefs do not get passed correctly—or maybe at all—without the officer at the fence to handle the information. Many times, the information gets left lying at the base of the fence.

Jason Batz
Firefighter
Reading (PA) Fire Department

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