CA Department Explores Mayday Event in Video

A new After Actions Video explores the many factors that led to Berkeley Fire's close call last fall.

Source Firehouse.com News

May 23, 2017

2 min read

The Berkeley Fire Department recently released a 'After Actions Video' exploring the factors that led to a close-call mayday event on Sept. 30th. — The Berkeley Fire Department recently released a "After Actions Video" exploring the factors that led to a close-call mayday event on Sept. 30th.

May 22--In an effort to share its story and explore the many factors that can contribute to a Mayday event, the Berkeley Fire Department has partnered with two outside entities on the release of a video detailing one such event and the close call that followed last fall.

With the help of Cahill Multimedia and EVALS Learning Management System, Berkeley Fire recently released a "After Actions Video" that dives into the Mayday event the department experienced on Sept. 30th.

The Mayday call came that day as crews were transitioning from an offensive to a defensive approach while battling a three-alarm blaze at an East Bay church on Channing Way. The firefighter who signaled for help was briefly trapped on the third floor and narrowly missed being caught under a collapse when he escaped the building without injury.

Berkeley Fire said in a release that it "identified a number of factors that contributed to both the near-miss, but also factors that possibly saved a firefighter's life once he was in a bad situation," and now they want to share the story with the entire fire service.

"The intention of the video is to provide first-hand accounts from the people involved in the Mayday and to stress the importance of training in the outcome of the incident and in preventing future incidents. The video is not intended to critique or criticize tactics or individuals," Berkeley Deputy Chief Dave Brannigan said in the release.

Incidents such as Mayday events are thoroughly investigated, with the findings eventually disseminated in a report, but EVALS is touting the benefit of visual reports such as the After Actions Video series.

"The spirit of the After Actions Video is to augment the official reports, to make the story of the incident more accessible," said EVALS co-founder James Doyle. "Not everyone will sit down and read a 200-page report, but they might watch a video. We believe that AAVs provide an engagement level far beyond the traditional method currently being used in post incident training.

"Watching AAVs can enhance learning by creating more interested and vested participants."

Mayday/RIT Training