Scene Control Questions

I work for a combo department...mostly volunteers. The department has a lot of good men and women available, but most are rookies including myself. One of my biggest concerns about the department is scene control and scene safety. If anyone is willing to make suggestions of possible training exercises and general tips I can share with my department I would be grateful.

In our part of NY we use fire police. These are older members of the dept. and most are level headed. In NY during an incident they have the same powers as police, disregarding a fire policeman can land you in jail or with a ticket. They get certified through the county fire academy and are issued fire police i.d. by the county sherriff.

can you be more specific in the application you are looking for?

is this for car accidents, structure fires with freelancing or investigation and crowd control? acountability programs? 2 in 2 out? what is it that you need to have, please specify.

Because of our departments size and people who respond we sometimes get into situations in which I see many people freelancing at times, I feel it's because of loose organization and a lack of proper leadership. The department has had two large structure fires multiple smaller fires and several MVA, I haven't seen anything life threatening..... yet and that's why I'm inquiring before someone gets hurt or killed.

You may want to think of having a Safety Officer at each incident. Also think about doing a post mortem or after fire critique of what went right and what went wrong at each scene. That way people can learn from each incident.

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Originally Posted by whamilton

Because of our departments size and people who respond we sometimes get into situations in which I see many people freelancing at times,
Are there riding assigments for the rigs when they arrive such as "#3 Nozzleman pulls attack line prescribed by OIC and advances to fire with working length"?


I feel it's because of loose organization and a lack of proper leadership.

The style of leadership is a hard thing to pinpoint to effective/ineffective... There are many ways for leadership to happen, I have had a hard time adjusting to many other peoples style b/c I served in the military. Most of the people around me haven't and they don't respond to a militaristic style. They may lack or their style may be different than what you are used to.


The department has had two large structure fires multiple smaller fires and several MVA, I haven't seen anything life threatening..... yet and that's why I'm inquiring before someone gets hurt or killed.

Be ready to commit to a solution (which is a lot harder than you think) to get to a "safer" level in the FD. This will not be a passive thing and if you are young it will be very difficult. There is a few things that can help...
-Be committed and prideful in your department and the care of the station/appt/tools/ and the brotherhood
-Learn, share and, talk to the senior ff's and learn from them
-Seek out those that will help you... a great place to start is you Lt./Capt.
-Pace yourself and be a solution, not more of the problem

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I say this as one who (along with a group of other firemen) is committed to my company and my department to ensure it becomes a great place to live, laugh, and work hard every third day.

Sounds like you guys need to have a serious reveiw of ICS and sit down and have a heart to heart. Let everyone know that feelancing wont be accepted. And as mentioned above, get yourselves a safety officer, while at the same time instilling the attitude that EVERYONE on scene is a safety officer.

Being as you are a rookie, I would take my concerns to my most direct supervisor and voice your concerns. If they are true leaders the problem will be dealth with.