Rapid Intervention Team News
There has been a tidal shift in the way we view safety in the fire service. It is no longer merely talked about and taught in officer classes. In the last decade, administrators have begun to embrace the culture of safety.
We are in the middle of a safety revolution. As more forward thinking administrators take office they bring with them a safety first mindset. This is the only way for a safety program to be successful. It has to be one of the first things that a new firefighter learns.
When a firefighter gets on the job they need to learn how to keep themselves safe. Not just on the fire ground but in the station and in their personal lives. When I started in the fire service in the early nineties safety was something we talked about but never practiced. I didn’t know what a mayday was, or a Rapid Intervention Team, or an exposure control plan. These things need to be on the forefront of recruit training. And then it needs to be refreshed every year.
Are you prepared to be a member of a Rapid Intervention Team? Are you prepared to remove a downed brother or sister firefighter? Your partner, officer, driver. This is one of the most difficult things that you will ever be asked to perform on the fire ground. Can you remove an unconscious firefighter from a basement, or an upper floor window? If a mayday was issued would you know what tools to bring? Would you know what to do as the Incident Commander if one of your firefighters called a mayday? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then you are not living in a safety culture.
Take the time to educate yourself. Take the time to educate your firefighters. Stop thinking of safety as a concept and begin to embrace it and make it part of your department’s culture.
By: Kevin Munson
Emergency Training Solutions, LLC
