Safety Officer Duties

:rolleyes: I NEED TO KNOW IF ANYONE CAN TELL ME WHAT THE DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES OF A SAFETY OFFICER ARE? I HAVE A LIST OF MY OWN, BUT WOULD LIKE TO SEE YOUR OPTIONS SO THAT I MIGHT ADD TO MINE IF NEEDED. THANKS.:p

I'm going to assume you are talking "Incident Safety Officer". In your BC's unit or command unit, there should be a Safety Officer vest and helmet. Grab that and a clipboard and a legal pad. In the chain of command at the scene you are right up there with the IC. Depending on how he or she operates, they will leave you alone to watch the scene and keep track of details(on air time, entry into building etc.) You should have the freedom to wander the scene because you can't see anything from a command car and you are not there for his or her scribe. That is one reason to get away from the IC. Also get away from the crews that are getting equipment ready or laying hose. It is easy for one of them to ask you to drag this hose over there or help stage equipment and you will catch yourself doing it too. Do not do anything but observe and report. Before the incident, make sure that everyone knows to report on the radio when people go on air or make entry. That type of stuff so you can keep track of time and it is recorded. You can watch the guys get bunkered out prior to entry or tell them to double check each other for proper PPE. You can do it but if you have a large scene and there are 20 or more folks getting ready. Make an effort to communicate with these folks while inside. Make sure they know what is going on inside and this tells you what is going on also along with IC. Where is your RIC staged? Do you have your Rehab set up? How long are you going let the guys stay inside? How often will you check PAR? If the scene is too big like a warehouse, you ask for additional ISO's to watch other areas of the scene. Do you have or need EMS in Rehab to check vitals? There will be times when your buddies despise you when you tell them to stop that and do it right and safe but it beats writing a report of OJI later. Sometimes you can radio concerns to the IC and sometimes you've got to get in his face to do so. Remember, the radio is more than likely recorded and that covers your backside if something happens.

Besides the IC, YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON THAT HAS THE AUTHORITY TO SHUT DOWN THE ENTIRE SCENE IF YOU SEE A PROBLEM AND NOT LET OPERATIONS CONTINUE UNTIL THE PROBLEM IS CORRECTED!

Hope this has been helpful to you. If I can answer any additional questions or if you were talking about a Department Health & Safety Officer, just email at the address below.

rosefire,

This was a good article (two yrs. ago) that may be of some help.


http://www.firefighting.com/articles....asp?namID=758

And here is a second one (part 2) on the HSO (health safety officer)

http://www.firefighting.com/articles....asp?namID=919

Good luck and be safe,

fraternally, JW

It's hard to add to two excellent responses thus far. But here is a couple of points that you should also do... 1. Obtain ISO training (such as the NFA-ISO program), and 2. Know your departmental SOP/SOGs as well as those which have not been developed. The later may require regular meetings with the Chief, Deputy or Battalion Chiefs, Captains... that may be carrying out the majority of IC duties to see what issues they are constantly having to address.

NFPA 1500 and NFPA 1521 address health and safety programs. The entire FD has an HSO (health and safety officer), who may or may not be the ISO (incident safety officer). Each has specific duties and responsibilities both in overall planning and on actual emergency scenes.

I'd recommend both sections for a true sense of what is expected.