dynamic risk assessment Archives

What Maydays Teach Us About Fire Ground Strategies

Maydays and line of duty deaths are always terrible situations. Last month, FIREHOUSE published a article on the May 2017 misfortune in which a San Antonio Fire Department firefighter lost his life. This tragedy demonstrates that the wrong combination of factors can quickly spiral out of control. How can departments prepare for such dangerous situations, especially with unknown factors at play? While mayday situations are never completely avoidable, many agencies are taking steps to evaluate their fire ground strategies [...]

By Sanjay Kalasa|2018-11-27T13:08:41-05:00December 6th, 2018|Safety|0 Comments

3 Reasons Your Size-Up Needs Public Safety Technologies

First responders have a lot to take in when they arrive at an incident. How they perform their initial size-up can have an enormous impact on the tactics and strategies used throughout the response. Typically, first-arriving company officers perform size-ups based on the information they receive from dispatch and their own senses and impressions on the fire ground. Rushing into a scene without a proper size-up is incredibly dangerous, since responders won’t know what they’re up against. Performing a [...]

By Sanjay Kalasa|2018-07-06T16:33:07-04:00March 5th, 2018|Incident Command|0 Comments

21st Century Fire Incident Command: It’s Time to Move Beyond the ICS Board

Incident commanders and firefighters are consistently presented with new unique challenges and heightened risks on the job. Yet, many fire and rescue services are still using incident command strategies that haven’t adapted to meet 21st century needs. Below, we’ll delve into why public safety agencies should consider moving beyond their current incident command system (ICS) board to combat these new challenges and risks. Modern Fire Incident Command Incident command strategies have changed considerably over the years. In the United [...]

By Bradley Reineke|2018-07-06T16:33:30-04:00February 19th, 2018|Incident Command|0 Comments

Improve Your Dynamic Risk Assessment with Incident Command Technology

Fire commanders must carefully balance firefighter safety with the roles and duties of the fire service. They often must consider, at what point is the situation too dangerous? To make these decisions, commanders take the Firefighter Safety Maxim into account, which is: “At every incident the greater the potential benefit of fire and rescue actions, the greater the risk that is accepted by commanders and firefighters. Activities that present a high risk to safety are limited to those that [...]

By Sanjay Kalasa|2018-07-06T16:34:07-04:00February 7th, 2018|Incident Command|0 Comments