Accountability

[Saunook1440]

how does your department deal with accountability on a scene

[dfdlt109]

we're a small volunteer department in West Virginia with about 50 members, of which, about 10-15 actually respond to our nearly 700 emergency calls per year. we have a pretty simple accountability system that seems to work for us. On large scale incidents, such as structure fires, we run automatic mutual aid with our neighboring department. both departments have accountability tags, the tags have, department name, firefighter's rank, and individual unit number. enroute to scenes, all tags are collected and given to the officer in command, he/she assigns the tasks, and we use a simple dry-erase board to separate the members into what task/zone they are performing and where they're located, this keeps a pretty accurate count on all of our firefighters. Works for us, may not work for you.

[traaholt]

we have our ems personnel take care of it. seems to work nice they get to look us over before we go to rehab then

[pescado29]

We have two magnetic tags that are kept on the brim of our helmuts. One tag stays with the truck and the other is given to the accountability officer when we are assigned a task. The tags are color coded: yellow(proby)/black for firefighters, red for officers (LT & CAPT), and white for chief officers. Our entire county has established this system for conformity on mutual aid calls.

It works very well. When you report to the Acct. Officer you give him your tag. When you are done you get it back and report to rehab or staging for reassignment.

[Safety33]

In my company, each member is issued two tags. One goes on the truck and the other one stays with the member until he/she enters the building or is given to the accountability officer.

The tag that is on the truck is picked up by a junior or someone else and they are clipped to the many accountability board at the command post.

[SilverCity4]

The guy running the radio at the station gets on the radio and asks, "501, who's on your truck?" and then writes it in the dispatch book.

Our system could use some improvement, but why change when "Good enough" is sooooo close to "Good"?

Sorry, I'm in a poor mood today....

I've got a system in my head (based on the one I use at work) that uses velcro name tags that we'd keep on our helmets until we get in the truck, at which time the company officer would placed them on a passport, which would in turn be collected by the IC at the incident scene.

Selling the idea to the current powers-that-be is much, much more difficult than actually implementing and using the system.

Pray for me.

[PNEFD23]

We are switching from a one tag to a two tag system here.

We have an accountability board with colour coded velcro name tags for each person. (Yellow-FF, Red-Capt., White-Chief) stuck along the side. Each member also has a blue tag clipped to their gear.

When arriving on-scene, each person clip's their blue tag to the bottom of the board. The accountability/safety officer assigns that person a job, then moves the velcro tag to the apropriate section of the board (In/Out, Vent, Rehab, Search, Overhaul, etc.)
The In/Out portion also has spaces for the time of entry and exit for each person assigned to interior ops.

The only exception to this is the first due truck- The blue tags are either handed to the driver or left at the pump panel and the operator will turn them over to the safety officer as soon as soon as he arrives on scene.

[mdtaylor]

Small rural department, with mutual aid responding with every structure fire.

We have a multiple level, two tag system.

With level one, each person places his two tags on two 'company cards' in the apparatus he rides to location. Then, company officer places one company card in the accountability pocket in the drivers door of the first arriving apparatus. IC basically handles accountability. If his workload demands, he appoints an accountability officer and we go to level two.

The accountability officer collects the company cards and places them on a dry erase/magnetic board with the structure mapped on it. Division chiefs are identified and companies assigned to each division are placed on the side under the division chiefs tag.

If workload demands, a assistant accountability officer is appointed and assumes accountability control of Division C & D.

Etc, etc.....

Communication is the key...

[WHEELER430]

My department use's the passport system, with some changes compaired to others i have seen but the idea is all the same....

Tags are issued to each member based on rank or training

Yellow - Firefighter
Blue - EMS Trained
Green - Engineer
Red - Lt. And Capt Officers
Black - Chief Officers

Like other departments tags are put on a passport tags ( 2 ) which is given to the OIC on the truck one passport goes to the incident commander / accountability officer and the other passport stays with the truck. In addition to this we also have for a lack of better terms a "dead mans tag" which has our picture, name, rank, and medical information which is laminated and placed in our coats in case god forbid something would happen to one of us. Seems to work well for us.....


" I Shall Not Surrender, I Shall Not Retreat, I Will Stand Here And Fight, Or I Will Stand Here And Die..."