NO SOP's

[Maverick21]

our department doesn't have ANY SOP's in place. How big of a deal is that?
thanks

[efd1524]

This is a huge deal.

While it doesn't surprise me or I'm sure anyone else, unfortunately there are departments out there like yours that just haven't made advances in the last century when it comes to the written word.

This is a huge safety and liability problem. If you ever go to court lawyers are going to know why you did what you did and "cause that’s the way we do it" doesn't fly. If heaven forbid anyone on your firegound gets hurt the first thing investigators look for were you following proper department procedures.

SO what can you do well if you’re an officer or a very senior FF sit down with your supervisor and/or Chief and ask if you can start to put some board SOGs together. Start with on about PPE - all PPE must be worn on every call, it’s a board statement but if you start broad they will some day get more pacific.

Now if your the new or one of the newer guys then try a less direct approach, something like go to an officer talk about how you've notice that things are done differently on different calls and ask if you can have a tasks list in writing so you can study them and perform better on calls. Hopefully this will click with someone that hey maybe we should have something in writing for new guys to follow. This might someday evolve in SOGs. You also might find the chief officers have SOGs in their heads they have just never thought to put them in writing.

You'll notice I use the term SOGs (standard operating guidelines), a lot of folks are scared by the word procedure as you should be because legally it's like and EMS protocol if that’s what’s written then you have to do it that way. If it's a guideline it's just that a guide to how to handle situations this allows you and the officers some leeway and doing things.

Remember SOGs can be a big change and like all changes its takes time, don't expect to see SOGs fall out of the sky at your next meeting. But bringing about change is everyone's responsibility and weather it's your 1st year or your 41st year "Omnis Cedo Domus" is everyone’s job.

Did i mention not having any SOGs is a HUGE DEAL!

[sfd1992]

our department doesn't have ANY SOP's in place. How big of a deal is that?
thanks

You have a fire, and a LODD.
The family sues the FD.
Family's lawyer asks to see SOP/SOG that covers fireground operations.
FD says. "We don't have any."
FD hands the family a check with a whole lot of zeroes on it.

That's what you're looking at by not having any SOP/SOG's.

No need to reinvent the wheel, get them from a neighboring dept and change them as much as you need to fit your FD, but get them.

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

You have a fire, and a LODD.
The family sues the FD.
Family's lawyer asks to see SOP/SOG that covers fireground operations.
FD says. "We don't have any."
FD hands the family a check with a whole lot of zeroes on it.

That's what you're looking at by not having any SOP/SOG's.

No need to reinvent the wheel, get them from a neighboring dept and change them as much as you need to fit your FD, but get them.

What he said.

[Maverick21]

Thanks to all. The Middle Management at the FD knows we need them,SOP's. THE BOSS would rather micro manage how we hold our radios than deal with this issue.

[emtJon]

We have the same problem in my dept. The "SOPs" that do exist are over 15 years old and cover such important topics as what to say on the radio during the daily radio test and how many personnel to call back for every single type of incident. It's been very frustrating trying to bring this up with my officer; nobody really seems to care that nothing around here is written down. I'm just going to keep plugging away at it I guess...

[Command6]

Takes a fire chief that can both read and write to draft SOPs/SOGs/GOGs