When I was a lieutenant, my captain was griping to me one day. I think he was upset because he had a lot of time on the job and was never able to pass that battalion chief exam. He was a little miffed about the new batch of young chiefs who were promoted off the top of the list. Some of them didn’t even have 20 years on the job. “When I came into the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), our lieutenants and captains all had more than 20 years, and chiefs had more than 30,” he noted. This was his generation, and I can understand why it upset him. It is tough to take when you don’t pass a particular exam. In all his ranting, he did say something that was right on, which has always stuck with me and is something I think of at every fire. He told me that the most important quality of being a good chief is not being able to cite chapter and verse of the manuals we study but, more importantly, knowing what is going to happen next at a fire–to see the big picture.
I just returned from South America. I did a week of training with a department I have been working with for almost 10 years now. I am trying to get it to the next level, and it just won’t go there. The situation in South America is unique: departments have a paid driver and one firefighter, but all the other firefighters are volunteers. The chiefs are also volunteers. Many times, the chief is responding from his day job; by the time he gets to the scene, the fire has progressed a bit. This puts him at a great disadvantage. The firefighters are already operating when he arrives, but they are not operating from any playbook. Usually, a handful of firefighters are stretching a hoseline, and nothing else is getting done. There is no one calling the shots.
At every fire, there are certain core tasks that need to be accomplished:
Stretch the attack line.
Address the water supply.
Stretch a second line for either backup or extension (if for extension, then stretch another backup line).
Forcible entry
Search and rescue
Locate the fire.
Secure any hazards (in South America, every house has liquid petroleum gas inside).
Laddering
Ventilation (This is usually not a problem in South America, since many houses don’t have windows.)
What usually happens next is that the volunteers begin showing up in their private cars (usually parked too close to the fire scene), and they begin freelancing. The firefighters just begin going where they feel like without reporting to anyone.
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Another problem is that the civilians think they are helping: they usually take every length of hose off the engines (photo 1). Usually, by time the chief arrives, he has no control of the situation, no idea of who is operating or where they are operating, no idea of what tasks are being completed and by whom. If he needs something to be done, it is hard to collar enough firefighters to perform the task. On more than one occasion, I have seen the chief go inside the fire building and start pulling ceilings, overhauling, staffing the hoseline, and so on.
One of the many reasons I think that the FDNY is such a great department is that we were way ahead of our time. We have been operating according to the National Incident Management System (NIMS) long before it ever came out as a standard operating procedure for departments to adhere to. If you look at the department from an outsider’s perspective and consider the job with which we are tasked, it is mind-boggling. On any given day, there could be more than 10 million people in the city. We have a thriving downtown and midtown with hundreds of thousand of tourists visiting every day, a massive subway system, factories, two airports, numerous tunnels, and so on. How do we manage it all? We do it because we are organized; only once in 25 years have I seen an event that was beyond our capabilities.
We have five boroughs. Within those boroughs, we have usually two divisions that contain about five to seven battalions. The battalions have usually five to seven companies. Within each company, there are five or six firefighters supervised by one officer. Do these numbers sound familiar? They should, because they are the recommended numbers for span of control in the Incident Command System (ICS).
When we have a report of a fire, we send three engines and two ladder companies along with a battalion chief to the location. If there is a confirmed fire, the assignment gets bumped up to one more engine, two more ladders (one rapid intervention team), a rescue and squad , one more battalion chief, and a deputy chief. The reason for our success is that the deputy chief, who serves as the incident commander (IC), has great span of control and can focus on the big picture.
Usually, the first two engines and the first ladder company are under the first-due battalion chief, whereas the next two engines and ladder are under the command of the second-to-arrive battalion chief. There is no freelancing. The firefighters report to the officer of the unit, the unit reports to the battalion chief, and the battalion chief reports to the deputy chief. If you ask me, this is the perfect scenario. We follow this model 100 percent of the time.
On one of my last tours before my vacation, we had two fires, which happened to be on my 50th birthday. The first one was a top-floor fire in a five-story, 50– × 75-foot tenement building. It turned out to be only one room. I was the “all hands” chief, which meant that my job was to head up to the top floor while the first-due battalion chief waited in the street for the deputy chief. I supervised the two engines and two ladders on the top floor while the other battalion chief stayed in the street and took overall command.
The second fire was a bigger deal. I was again assigned as the “all hands” chief. When we arrived, there was a good fire in a three-story, wood-frame private dwelling. The fire was exposing the house, which was similar to the one in the first fire, on the exposure 4 (D) side. I could tell that the deputy chief was waiting for me because as soon as I arrived on the scene, he ordered me to the exposure with a task force of two engines and a ladder company. We had some minor extension, but you can see how well the system works. The deputy chief was able to stay in front of the incident and see the big picture. It was my job to deal only with the exposure. The first-due battalion chief was in the fire building supervising the units and reporting back to the deputy chief.
I agree with the concepts described by Deputy Chief Anthony Avillo in his article “Fireground Strategies: Additional Alarm Considerations,”Fire Engineering, March 2011. I, too, am a huge fan of the ICS and the task force concept. What I never realized is that we in the FDNY have always been operating along that premise; we just never really called it that. If you break down our 10-75 assignment, it really just boils down to two task forces of two engines and one ladder company. I realize that not everyone can operate the way we do. We have tremendous resources, but they are justified considering the size of New York City.
That doesn’t mean that your department can’t operate as we do. What I eventually hope to do is to get this city in South America to see the light and understand that ICS is a good thing. I remember the first time I was exposed to ICS was during Hurricane Katrina. I had put together three task forces of water tenders. At first, I thought that I was supposed to personally supervise the 18 tenders and three pumpers. When the IC informed me that I was going to get some help, I took offense. I thought that he didn’t think I could handle the job. It turned out to be the best thing that ever happened. The IC needs to get help so he can see the big picture and not get bogged down with every aspect of the operation.
This is what I would like to propose (I hope that the chiefs in this city read this): Break down the fire into different tasks and delegate them;
form task forces or even a strike team to work the incident. This approach can be applied to any combination or volunteer department as well. The chief needs to look at the jobs that must be done at a fire, like the ones stated above. The firefighters need to report in to a staging area commanded by a chief or an officer. The IC then requests from the staging area a strike team or, if needed, a task forces to perform a particular task.
For example, let’s say there is a fire in a two-story, flat-roof, private dwelling. The building is attached on both sides and has a common cockloft. The IC gets a report from the roof section that there is fire in the cockloft. He now feels that there is a chance for extension to the Exposure 2 (B) building. He can call over to the staging area and ask for a task force of an engine to stretch a hoseline and a ladder company to assist with forcible entry, search, overhaul, and laddering. The IC can then assign another chief to take this task force into the exposure. This aspect of the operation is now off the IC’s plate, and he can continue to look at the big picture. The firefighters report into the command post and hand in whatever accountability system they have to the accountability officer and go to work.
When I was a captain, we responded to a fire in a large multiple dwelling. We wound up assisting the first engine with the hoseline. It was an advanced fire on arrival; one person had already jumped out of the window and was badly burned. The first battalion chief was up on the fire floor with me at the door to the apartment. There was no one in the street in front of the building. The first engine reported that the fire was all knocked down. I entered the apartment and was hit with a blast of heat. I knew something was wrong. Thankfully, the deputy chief arrived on the scene and informed the engine that there was still fire out three windows. The first-due battalion chief, had he been in front of the building, would have seen that. This almost caused numerous firefighters to get burned and possibly killed. It is extremely important for the IC to stay in front of the building and establish command, and to keep his eyes on the big picture.
Daniel P. Sheridanis a 24-year veteran of the Fire Department of New York and a covering battalion chief in the First Division. He is a national instructor II and a member of the FDNY IMT. He is a consultant for firetecinc.com .