Building a Search Culture

Firefighter with a flashlight — Photo: Everett (WA) Fire Department PIO

There is a lot of talk in the fire service about having a “search culture.” Because firefighters’ primary mission is saving lives and property, this is probably a good conversation to have. The problem with this and many other firehouse conversations, however, is that for a positive outcome we must move past the conversation stage and take actions that will achieve the desired end state.

The ultimate responsibility for building any type of culture in an organization rests with the leader. For the fire service, that normally means the fire chief. I am not saying that subordinate leaders cannot have a positive influence on their work environment. Often, when upper-level leadership fails to provide guidance and support, subordinate leaders step up and bridge that gap. The problem is that this can cause members to feel as if the fire department is moving in different directions, depending on who is working. The A Platoon has a great battalion chief and a group of hard-charging officers. The B Platoon is okay, but the C Platoon is just mailing it in. Mrs. Smith does not get a chance to call the firehouse on the morning of her fire to see who is working. The quality of our service cannot be dependent on who is working, and this is the reason that the fire chief plays a key role in developing the search culture.

The Chief as a Champion of Search

For chiefs to be an effective search culture developer, there a few things that they must have hardwired into their DNA. First, they must have a strong connection to the operations side of the department. This is not to say other staff positions cannot produce solid search-minded leaders, I am just saying you cannot live in a silo. Many staff chiefs stay connected to operations by training, attending conferences and seminars, visiting firehouses, occasionally riding out with companies, etc. Whatever the means, stay connected to the field. Chiefs also must understand the current data and be willing to incorporate what the data tells us into their operations. Many chiefs know what the Firefighter Rescue Survey says about the location of victims, but they are hesitant to embrace concepts like window-initiated search. The data does us no good unless we find ways to incorporate what we know into how we operate.

Next, if the department has the position of operations chief, what is that member’s outlook? Upper-level leaders must have a wide range of skills. An ops chief needs to be a thoughtful person who can help the chief in developing the guidelines that will lay the foundation for a search culture. Ops chiefs must be good relationships builders up the chain of command, all the while having the strength of conviction to speak truth to power. They also need to hold the bottom line for compliance with the chosen search culture. If things are not happening on the fireground—if objective metrics are not being met—then someone must ask earnest questions, and this should be the ops chief. The ops chief is the link between policy and performance.

The next link in developing the search culture is the operational officers. These are the folks riding the rigs and the chief buggies. I will use the general term of officers to represent all ranks in this category. Officers must be able to make good decisions and support the decisions that are made by their subordinates. There are times when we can extend the search through a door, and there are times when we must initiate search through a window. Being able to make that call is what being an officer is all about. Making that call is not just an isolated fireground decision. The best decisions are byproducts of constant training and discussions. If you are sitting around the kitchen table talking about fire, then you will eventually develop a true understanding of the mission and different ways to achieve the end state. As a battalion chief, when I hear my folks talking like this, it presents two opportunities. First, it allows me to share my experiences and give them one more little trick they can use. Secondly, hearing folks talk like this builds the trust I need to have in my members, to allow them to be aggressive on the fireground. If I know a particular company is engaged, I will not have second thoughts about them extending past the door into a hallway. If all I ever see out of a company is the minimum effort, and I never see them sitting around talking about fires, the leash gets short.

Everyone on the alarm assignment must have some idea of how the incident will unfold. Are there times when we get a fastball that forces us to plan B? Of course. Officers who are truly engaged will be comfortable calling the audible, and that action will not adversely impact the tempo of the incident. Do not get me wrong, a change in tactics might require a few more seconds, but it will not take the wind out of the sails of well-trained, well-prepared firefighters. This ability is a byproduct of a mission-focused culture rather than a policy-driven organization. If the chief and ops chief are aligned with the mission focus, then the operational officers are the ones who make this happen on the fireground. This just reinforces the true value of officers on the fireground.

Guidelines and Training

Well-written guidelines make for an effective fireground. I spent a lot of time talking about the ops chief in the first part of this article because I believe they are the ones who have the strongest influence here. First off, they need to lobby for the adoption of guidelines as opposed to procedures. Guidelines give the operational officers the flexibility they need to make decisions on the fireground. My experience tells me that policies are often used as the trap to get someone. Procedures do not allow for tactical deviation. If you do not follow the exact steps in a procedure, then you are wrong, plain, and simple. It is unrealistic to write a procedure for an event that we cannot even imagine. The ops chief must be familiar with the objective data that speaks to the modern fireground, and these members must use their influence with the fire chief to ensure the operating guidelines position the companies to deliver the best possible results to those who call for our help.

Guidelines are a good start, but training is what will carry the day on the fireground. Training must be viewed as a process that develops and then maintains abilities. How you train your recruits is the foundation. Does your search training begin and end in a burn building with no furniture and everyone holding onto each other’s ankles like a mother duck and her ducklings? If by the end of your recruit training a member cannot search a room with furniture by themselves in a short amount of time, then they really aren’t ready to go to a firehouse. To be able to perform at this level requires training, and that training must incorporate physical fitness, developing mental toughness, and the actual skills of performing a search.

Recruit training is not where things end, but rather where they begin. Those departments with a weak search culture do not embrace ongoing training. They might talk about the number of hours or fulfilling requirements, but in the long run this approach does little to ensure effective searches at working fires. In-service training should be more demanding than recruit training. Think about it, recruit training is designed to build fundamental skills. In-service training should allow experienced practitioners to improve their skill set. To build a strong and effective search culture, regular search training should incorporate structures filled with furniture, in diminished visibility, with multiple victims.

At the Organizational Level

The most successful organizations are made up of high-performing members who have the right equipment. Are your rigs set up to support search? Do you have short ladders that will allow you to enter a window whose sill is four feet off the ground? The text says you can use a halligan as a step. That works great until the ground is muddy and the tool either sinks or shifts. Thermal imaging cameras (TICs) can be a useful tool for search, but think about how most departments deploy them. The TIC is normally an officer tool, but if the first-due officer is required to take command, there is a chance that in the first few critical minutes of a working fire the camera might not be where it is needed the most. What is the plan to move large victims? Do your people carry something with them to facilitate moving a 400-pound victim, or is that another one of those “we will figure it out when we get there” things? Equipment is only as good as the people who use it, but equipment is an important part of the search puzzle.

The last thing—and just as important as anything I have discussed thus far—is the culture and attitudes of the people in the firehouse. Do the conversations at some point include the data from the Firefighter Rescue Survey? Do people spend more time talking about football stats than they do about some of the data from the FSRI studies? Do you have firehouses that are willing to engage in healthy discussions without beating people down who might have a different opinion or a new idea? If the firehouse is engaged, committed to high performance, and willing to do the work necessary, the citizens will get the service they deserve.

Changes Without and Within

Up to this point I have discussed the internal facets of building a search culture, but changing or building a culture entirely from within is exceedingly difficult. It does not matter how much the new direction makes sense; those who are within the organization are used to the current culture. If you really want to change things up, you must get outside your silo. Having examples of where you want to go and being able to show the benefits of the new direction will help sway the fence sitters. Some people will not go along just because they do not like change. There are a lot of people who will go along if you can show them positive evidence of the benefits of the change. If you do not have a strong search culture, you will not have the evidence to make your arguments.

Going outside helps, but you can also bring the outside in. There are many search culture subject matter experts out there. Having these people come into your department will bring a true understanding of the concept. You can go to a seminar or two, but you might not have the depth of understanding needed to engage in conversations that can lead to a true search culture in your department. If you go down this route, make sure that all the chiefs attend the training. If you are going to change culture, then you need the support of the chiefs. When chiefs get to interact with the true subject matter experts, the “well, that’s way we have always done here” argument loses its grip on their thinking. A search culture is made up of many distinct parts and does not develop overnight. You might not have all the ingredients I spoke about in this article, but you have the most important, and that is you. Train hard, set standards that you will hold yourself accountable to, do your research, and keep an open mind. At some point you will build momentum and help bring about a search culture to your department.

Dennis Reilly will be presenting Fireground Decision Making: Developing Competent Incident Commanders at FDIC International 2025.

Dennis Reilly is a 55-year fire service veteran and a retired fire chief. He is the owner of The First Line Fire Service Training Company, LLC. He served as fire chief in Pittsburg, Kansas, and Sunrise Beach, Missouri. He served as an assistant chief in North Carolina and California, and retired as a battalion chief in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.