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Fire command and leadership conversations for B Shifters and beyond (all shifts welcome)!
B Shifter
Incident Audio with Rescue from Fairfield, Ohio
This episode features Josh Blum and John Vance.
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This episode was recorded on February 3, 2025.
Today's discussion focuses on a multifamily fire incident in Fairfield, Ohio, showcasing the use of the Blue Card command system and effective communication. We explore the coordination between multiple fire departments, the execution of rescues, and the importance of maintaining a unified incident action plan for successful emergency responses.
• Breakdown of the Fairfield fire incident and initial challenges
• Importance of training under a unified command system
• Analysis of dispatch audio for situational awareness
• Victim rescue operations and prioritization of life safety
• The collaboration among multiple fire departments during the response
• Reflection on the tactical truth behind effective incident management
Welcome everyone to the B Shifter podcast. John Vance here along with Josh Bloom, and today we're talking about multi-unit, multi-family fires. We're going to have some audio from Fairfield, ohio, coming up featuring a fire with a rescue Blue Card Region, and you can see how regionally Blue Card works when we play that audio back coming up in just a few moments. First of all, hello, josh, how are you?
Speaker 3:I'm doing good, John Doing really good.
Speaker 2:How about yourself? I'm doing great. You know it's already. We're well into 2025. January went by like January typically does cold and snowy here where I am, and that'll continue on. But before we know it, not only are we going to be around springtime with FDIC and all those activities, the 2025 Blue Card Hazard Zone Conference, which will be back in the Cincinnati area at the Sharonville Convention Center on September 30th through October 3rd, this year we've added some workshops. What do we have for the participants this year, if they were interested in the pre-conference workshops, because two of the days on September 2nd and 3rd will be the general sessions and then breakout sessions, which 15 different instructors? But we also have some pre-conference offerings. What are those this year, josh?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the pre-conference workshops were the Mayday Workshop that we've been doing for years. We had a hundred and some people at the conference Mayday Workshop this last year. We got that posted up. I think there's already I don't know 10 or so people signed up for that. We're doing an expanded command division ops really from IC1 all the way to you know how do you support the IC in the car. Tim Schaubel and Kevin Alexander are going to be teaching that class. So it goes a little bit further than even the division ops class where we give a lot of focus on what does that sector division boss do? Still going to cover that in full detail, but it'll be expanded. It maybe even a little bit further. And what do those support officers do? The critical thinking and decision-making class that Chris Stewart and Eric Phillips have been teaching. We're going to offer that. We got the safety train, the trainer, which you'll get the classroom portion, with an option later to buy the prop if you wanted to. We're going to do the IC cert lab again if people are interested, or people need to get checked off or they need to be reevaluated, whatever. Um, so all those workshops at the conference are about $150 cheaper than they would be if you attended it, you know, on site somewhere else. Um, we, we continue to offer those there because, uh, oftentimes people just can't find a class. Um, cause, our workshops fill up. You know, so quickly regionally when somebody posts a, you know, division ops class and you know, say, kettering, or the big box class we got coming up here in Cincinnati, or probably the big box class that we already posted up there in your, your neck of the woods, john, I'm sure if they're not, if it ain't full, it's going to be full, right, I mean, everybody, I'm sure, has their name on the list. So, um, we, just, we like offering that workshops so that people have an opportunity to get into it. And uh, really, you can get four days of training, you know, one trip, uh, paying for travel one time. And then you know, the hotel costs at the convention center are like not anywhere else really, I think, uh, $149 this year for, uh, the preferred hotel Hyatt at the convention center, or like none anywhere else, really, I think $149 this year for the preferred hotel Hyatt at the convention center. So, yeah, we're, we're looking forward to it.
Speaker 3:The registration is open. It's been up for a while. Same thing you get. You get a free online account transferable to somebody in your organization if you sign up for the conference. So really, it almost comes out to be a wash if you're going to be putting people online, if you're going to send somebody to the conference. So, yeah, looking forward to it Should be really good. Got a change up of some of our instructors, several different classes that we're going to have this year compared to what we had last year. So, looking forward to it, it'll be here. It'll be here before we know it.
Speaker 2:We always take everyone's input too and think about what they are offering to us when they make suggestions. And one of the things that we heard last year is people would like to leave Friday night possibly, so they're not staying a second day. So we are going to manage our time quickly, get in and out of classes, and that's going to give us an extra hour to actually end a little earlier than we have on Friday, so by 3.30, you can attend everything and get out of there in time to make it home for the weekend. So I think that's another cool thing that we're doing for folks after getting that input, so you don't have to sit stay another day If you don't want to. Certainly more than welcome to if you'd like, but we are. We are going to manage your time in a way that makes it as efficient as possible to get you out of there and back home so you can enjoy the weekend too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, one other thing on the conference we get quite a few questions from, I think, the city and administration is because of per diem, right. So every day at the conference, if you're attending workshops, lunch is provided, and at the conference you know full lunch is provided. And then you know beverages and snacks. You know all day, every day. So that's just another thing that you know oftentimes comes up about uh, what's included? So just another added value piece, so nobody has to leave. It helps us, you know, with time management so that we can get right back to what we're all really there for, and that is, uh, learn from each other and, um, spread the good word.
Speaker 2:Go to the events page, bshiftercom, to get signed up and get more information too. So that's all there at bshiftercom under events, and hopefully we'll see you at the 2025 blue card hazard zone conference, september 30th through October 3rd in Sharonville, ohio. Looking forward to it and I know you work very hard on this, josh. So I think the better conference out there, especially the value for what you get. You get a lot of instruction and it's not very expensive at all and you don't have to be a Blue Card user to be there.
Speaker 2:We like to involve all our Blue Card users, but if either your department isn't a participant in blue card or you're just interested in getting more information, it's another great place to go and get all of that. Last month on the podcast, we talked about this a little bit, but it has since rolled out and since today we're talking about multifamily dwellings, we have two offerings for blue card users the multi-unit sets and reps and also the multi-family and multiple use building CE on the sides up. So, first of all, with the sets and reps, those are available. What's the objective of those sets and reps for the instructors and users out there and how do they go about using those and where are those at on the Blue Card site?
Speaker 3:So the whole thought behind us adding the sets and reps comes back from input from all of the users out there saying we'd like to have some other pictures and other things to use for CE and some round table discussion stuff and that we could send out within our organization for size up and follow-ups and really, really you're applying the exact same system. The building just looks different. So you know, it's a, it's a kind of a feel good thing and it, you know, makes you think a little bit different. So you're, you know, evaluating different factors of different buildings and different fires and so on. Um, so the the this quarter, those sets and reps are multifamily and mixed-use multifamily. They're in the instructor download center under sets and reps CE. They're available right now. Just remember, if you're going to download those, you have to download all of the files. In the download center there's a tutorial video. If you forgot how to get those files onto your device and how to run them on digital combustion, there's a tutorial video on there that goes through how to do that.
Speaker 3:So the whole idea is really to keep people connected, offer an opportunity for instructors to facilitate some CE within their own fire department, oftentimes maybe focusing on areas that they need to improve upon. So if you're doing really good on you know size up and follow-ups and maybe assigning a few companies, but you need to work on command transfers. There's multiple opportunities in those sets and reps to go through and just exercise command transfer pieces. Or you can just go through the whole thing and you know, get multiple size ups, multiple follow-up reports, assigning multiple companies, the command transfer, all of the tickets to get on the radios or priority traffic status change, all of those you know parts and pieces and then strategic shift. So it's sets and reps like anything. It's an opportunity to go through and get more reps in what we do and then that just makes us better, makes us more comfortable with the system, reinforcing the action and behavior that we want to have. Reinforcing the action and behavior that we want to have.
Speaker 2:Then also available now is a new CE on multifamily buildings and multi-use buildings, where maybe you have commercial occupancies on the first floor, then residential occupancies on the subsequent floors. That's currently available also in the continuing education section.
Speaker 3:What does that one cover? Yeah, so the this, this CE, the CE for January covered size up and follow-up reports and we really broke down the strategic decision-making model, evaluation of critical fire ground factors. As Chris Stewart always says, every factor can't be critical. So what are the actual real critical factors? So focusing on those making decisions, on what's standing between us solving the problem or resolving those critical factors, and really getting us just into that mindset of I've built out this front end, and then the next part of it is, you know, assigning companies. So what am I going to do? And then what am I going to do with those? Next, you know three or four companies which. That CE is going to be out in February. So the February CE is a follow-up basically to the first one. If you don't do the first one that came out in January, the February one will make perfect sense too, because it'll review some of the stuff that we went through in January but it was going to break down further. The February one's going to break down further the assignments command transfer, communication.
Speaker 3:So when do I give priority traffic? When is it a status change, making sure that we preface radio traffic? Uh, I think the importance of that. We hear that um and so much audio that we get sent now and how it controls. I think uh, helps control the radio traffic because, um, um, so if you can't think in your mind, why am I about to key the radio and what am I going to say? And it doesn't fit into one of these four tickets to get on the radio. You probably don't need to get on the radio. So it's another opportunity for the student. So it's not instructor led, it's a CE that they go through online and self-paced, self-taught exercise. Really again to exercise and reinforce the system.
Speaker 2:Nice. Well, take advantage of those, and every quarter we'll be pumping out new content as far as sets and reps and those kind of things go. And then look for your monthly CEs there, as we're continually updating that. Currently 42 CEs there, as we're continually updating that, currently 42 CEs are available. So lots of variety to choose from that will fit into your training plan. Go to bshiftercom, to your instructor window area or your CE area to find all of that. Today, speaking of multi-use buildings, we're going to take you to Fairfield Ohio. Multi-use buildings we're going to take you to Fairfield Ohio. They recently had a fire in a multi-family building with a rescue. Tell us about what you know about this incident, Josh. We'll play the audio, then we'll come back and talk about it.
Speaker 3:So it's the city of Fairfield, a three-station fire department in southern Butler County, which is right here in our region around the Cincinnati area. They engaged with Blue Card I'm going to say probably about three years ago, like started down the path of what they were going to do with it. They've been very successful because their fire chief did so many of the things I think that we talk about, um, that that make things successful. So he laid out some expectations. He said this is what we're going to do. Uh, explain why the fire department was going to do what they were going to do. Has SOPs that very clearly define this is what we're going to do. Uh, they were successful in getting an AFG grant a few years ago and have trained every single person on their fire department in blue card. And then they, you know, maintain that certification and then they continue to regularly exercise, you know, the system through all kinds of training, connecting it to task, tactical, strategic level.
Speaker 3:So when we hear the success here, it's, it's definitely not by accident. You know there's, there's effort been put into. Uh, how well this audio went. More importantly, how well the events of the incident went, with uh organization crews working together, everybody following the same incident, action plan Um. So it's a multifamily apartment building. Uh comes out as a working fire, uh report of people trapped, um and uh, from the beginning of the size up all the way through until uh really they started to wind down, uh, they nailed it. I mean they, they hit almost every single component you would really talk about or think about when you talk about application of the system.
Speaker 3:And it all starts with the initial radio report. One of the interesting things is and when we listen to it initial radio report nothing showing. And nothing showing means nothing showing. And I can kind of take that back to one of our, the CE, in January. We have a few of those pieces in there of you pull up and there's nothing showing, but you get to the Charlie side and there's something different. So we don't just take action when we pull the brake, we just don't start taking action. Right, we're not finished evaluating exactly what's going on, to figure out exactly what we're going to do and where we're going to deploy ourselves and you know other companies All for the purpose of addressing, you know, the critical factors and checking off those benchmarks fire control and search. In this case you know life safety, a big priority because it's an apartment building. It has beds.
Speaker 2:Reported people trapped uh, it's an apartment building. It has beds. Uh, reported people trapped. As a reminder, when we played this audio, it will be condensed, so we had it edited down to have all the spaces taken out, so a lot comes at you fast. We'll play the audio and then we'll come back and talk about it.
Speaker 3:And talk about what we just heard yeah, so something else on that with this audio is is it's actually two channels that are playing. So, um, that's why there's a little bit of talk over here and there, but when, when they're how the recorder works, it seems like there's not, seems like there is there. It's recording two, two separate channels.
Speaker 1:So report of possible structure fire at 1570 Gale Hot Drive, unit 111. Attention Station 33, police Units 180, 129. Respond 1570 Gale Hot Drive, unit 111. For flames present multiple calls.
Speaker 4:Your time now at 2210, fire 818 31 and around, do we have a fire ground?
Speaker 1:fire ground 8.
Speaker 4:thank you 2211 31 responding ALS out of service.
Speaker 6:Italian theories, responding clear on eight out of 32 responding place ALS 32 out of service 22 22 ALS 32 on service 2212. 2212. Als 31 responding Clear.
Speaker 1:Be advised. We're getting reports that a resident is trapped in 111. Battalion you clear.
Speaker 4:Medic 33 ground.
Speaker 5:Battalion's clear. We're all on fire ground 8. I'll repeat the traffic on 8.
Speaker 1:My apologies. All units push 8.
Speaker 6:932, clear. I'll repeat the traffic on the 8. My apologies. All units push 8. 9-32.
Speaker 4:9-32,. All units are out. Dispatch advise us if possible. Dispatch from Chief 32,. What fire ground are we on?
Speaker 1:Last unit.
Speaker 4:Chief 32,. What fire ground are we using?
Speaker 1:Fire ground.
Speaker 4:That's clear.
Speaker 1:Clear.
Speaker 4:Engine 33 is on scene Small three-story commercial multi-family, nothing showing. We'll be the offensive strategy, investigating engine 33, 12-scale Hawkman.
Speaker 1:That's clear 22-15.
Speaker 6:Equipment 31, can you bring?
Speaker 5:us a water supply. Clear on water supply. Battalion 30 is on scene, medic 33, level 1.
Speaker 4:No 360 due to size. We do have a working fire. We're going to remain offensive through Alpha, no need.
Speaker 5:Command from Battalion 30. Go ahead. I understand correctly You're in the offensive strategy going through the Alpha engine three-quarter fire control, primary search no 360. That's correct. I have a can report 131, Level 1, bringing water.
Speaker 4:That's correct. We'll make the answer now just that's your plan, maybe that's clear.
Speaker 5:Battalion 30 with sim command just that's your plan stand by. Dispatch medic, medic 33 from command. Go ahead, bring your crew forward. We're going to need a primary search with engine 33 of the affected fire building. You follow yellow hand line inside.
Speaker 6:Medic 33 clear Primary search.
Speaker 5:Quinn 31 from command.
Speaker 6:ALS 31, number one.
Speaker 5:ALS 31 from Command, als 31, level 1.
Speaker 6:Als 31 from Command Go ahead.
Speaker 5:Perform a 360 form.
Speaker 6:That's clear. Medic 31 to EMS.
Speaker 5:Medic 31,. You're clear on EMS.
Speaker 4:Medic 32, level 1.
Speaker 5:Medic 32,. Have your crew addressed out? Report Alpha on deck Medic 32,. Have your crew dressed out Report Alpha on deck Medic 32, clear Alpha on deck. Quinn 31, from command.
Speaker 6:Go ahead command.
Speaker 5:Each of you pull a secondary hand line through Alpha Back up Engine 33.
Speaker 6:Clear on second hand line from Engine 33. Back up. Second-hand line from Engine 33. Back up.
Speaker 4:Chief 30,. I'm responding.
Speaker 6:Command from Engine 33 is priority traffic.
Speaker 5:Engine 33, go ahead Priority traffic.
Speaker 6:We have a victim. We're extricating them through Alpha.
Speaker 5:Engine 33,. You're clear on victim Extricating through Alpha Medic 31,. From Command All right Command, You're going to have a victim extricating through Alpha. You guys are going to have patient care. Sino-ked is in the back of the Battalion 30.
Speaker 6:I'm patient care Victim's out.
Speaker 4:Engine 109, level 1.
Speaker 5:Engine 109,. Bring your crew forward. I'm going to need you to grab a third hand line. Go through alpha fire control.
Speaker 4:Engine 109 clear. I'm pulling a third hand line at alpha fire control.
Speaker 6:Flight at 32. Command from ALS 31.
Speaker 5:Command from ALS 31. Go ahead, ALS 31.
Speaker 6:360 complete, no fire conditioning. Showing on the exterior there is one person on the second story balcony on the Charlie side and two on the third story balcony on the Charlie side.
Speaker 5:That's clear. Collder 32 from command yes. I'm going to need you guys to come forward and start throwing ladders, start picking people off of balconies.
Speaker 6:That's clear Ladder 32 is throwing ladders. Hydrant is being charged. Do you repeat Dispatch?
Speaker 4:from command Go ahead, go ahead and give me a second alarm.
Speaker 5:Clear on second alarm.
Speaker 6:Clear on second alarm Command from Point 31,. Status change.
Speaker 5:Point 31,. Go ahead for status change.
Speaker 6:Second floor, apartment 110, primary, all clear.
Speaker 5:Clear on 110, primary all clear.
Speaker 4:Chief 32, dressing out, level 1 stage.
Speaker 5:Chief 32 from Command level one stage. Chief 32 from command go ahead you'll be alpha, that's clear.
Speaker 4:I'll let you know.
Speaker 5:I'm in place. This is 25 over district 25, so it's my vehicle. I'm on the opposite side. He'll be my off-aid.
Speaker 6:Engine 42, district 42, level 1. Command, friend 33.
Speaker 5:Go ahead, Engine 33.
Speaker 6:Fire's out. It's on the second floor. We're going to need some overhaul Engine 30 from 831. Engine 33,.
Speaker 5:You're clear. Fire out Status change to overhaul 831,. Go ahead. I have a second patient with PD, that's clear as soon as I get another medic on scene.
Speaker 6:I'll let you know. Dispatch to command. Go ahead dispatch.
Speaker 5:My earlier traffic. You've got two that are in 115 along with a pet.
Speaker 1:That's clear. We're in the process of my earlier traffic. You've got two that are in 115, along with the PET. That's clear.
Speaker 5:We're in the process of doing primary searches. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Your second alarm says dropped as well. They're all en route. Agent 42 for command, agent 42. You'll be alpha on deck.
Speaker 5:Agent 42, alpha on deck.
Speaker 6:District 42 for command.
Speaker 5:Go for District 42.
Speaker 6:You'll be assigned to the District 42, Alpha on deck.
Speaker 5:District 42, command.
Speaker 6:Go for District 42.
Speaker 5:You'll be assigned Alpha 8 with Chief 32.
Speaker 6:District 42,. That's clear on Alpha 8. Alpha from Engine 109.
Speaker 5:Go ahead 109.
Speaker 6:Alpha, alpha sign front door with a third hand line Ready to make entry. Would you like us to assist with overhaul?
Speaker 5:Yeah, follow uh. Meet up with Engine 33,. Assist with overhaul. Check out Engine 109 from Command.
Speaker 6:Go ahead.
Speaker 5:I'm going to need you to conduct some primary searches of the uh other apartments 109, clear primary circuit.
Speaker 6:We're remaining apartments. Make an entry Command from .31.
Speaker 5:.31, go ahead 10 report.
Speaker 6:We're doing an overhaul at this time. We do need ventilation. Positive pressure fan.
Speaker 5:That's clear Overhaul Need for ventilation.
Speaker 6:Command from ALS 31.
Speaker 5:Go ahead ALS 31.
Speaker 6:Myself and Medic 31 will be transporting to UC Westchester.
Speaker 5:Clear transporting to UC Westchester. Can you give me a rundown of the patient's condition?
Speaker 6:Sable bottle wrist time and smoke inhalation.
Speaker 5:That's clear.
Speaker 2:Wow, some great audio there, josh. Um, you know, with a victim, a lot going on. How many different fire departments are in the system that we're we're hearing on the radio that are participating in this event?
Speaker 3:I think with the second alarm there was probably seven or eight different fire departments that were there, and then we'll talk. We can talk more about it as we break it down. But you know, an interesting thing is, you know, every so many places we go, they say there's no way that we can do division ops. We don't have anybody, we don't have, you know, the people to do it. Even if we could do that, we can't support them with a support officer or embedded safety officer.
Speaker 3:And on this incident you heard that that, uh, there's, I think, six. There were six chiefs coming on the incident and you know, none of them have drivers and they got paired up. So, uh, a chief got assigned to, you know, come to the command vehicle and support the IC. A chief got assigned to support Alpha. So there's ways to do it, just like we call any other resources.
Speaker 3:So this is a good example of how it sounds when they show up from multiple different fire departments and there's a job to be done. How it sounds, you know, when they show up from multiple different fire departments and, uh, there's a job to be done, they're capable of filling that job and then you just plug them into that role, but it's important that everybody's using the same system. And, um example, when you get into the car and the IC worksheet doesn't look like anything you've ever seen before, that that's not going to work very well, right, it's probably going to actually be counterproductive, but everybody being on the same system, even though they're from six or seven different fire departments, really it sounds like it is all one fire department because operationally, none of the fire departments in this region go to a fire by themselves.
Speaker 2:I want to back up a little bit because we get often in our fire service right now people pining for the good old days where they just got to get off the truck and do whatever they wanted. And I'd like to point out that if seven fire departments pulled up and did whatever they wanted, they probably wouldn't have been able to successfully not only rescue this victim but also get the other people off the balcony, take care of the people in the police cruisers that we hear about that have smoke inhalation and get the fire out very, very quickly. Although this is a condensed audio, things happen very quickly and you can tell because really it's the first alarm units that do the lion's share of the work here. The subsequent second alarm units are doing mostly support work helping taking care of the other patients that need attended to, controlling utilities and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Is there anything else you want to say about that? But I just get so frustrated because the critics of Blue Card make it seem like we're anti-rescue, anti-aggressive firefighting and I think and we'll get to the tactical truth today it kind of plays into this a little bit, but it's having a good incident action plan, communicating that, making sure people are clear on it and then letting them do their jobs, because there's a lot of times during this incident, people on the task level identified some very important things that needed to be identified because they were thinking officers that are involved in the system. They know how the critical decision-making system works and they're able to make those strategic decisions even as a company officer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the whole thing about having one incident action plan and everybody operating off of what that first due company officer you know, evaluates to be the problem and develops that initial incident action plan really lays out the people are doing the work that needs to be done to address the problem. And there was people that were not, you know, assigned like right away and that that's appropriate, and actually they were assigned. They were just assigned. They were assigned to an on deck position so that they were the next ones to be used to do whatever needed to be done at the incident. First and foremost, as we always say, they're the rapid intervention team right there at the front door ready to go. Or, if there's multiple attack positions, we would have, you know, multiple on that, companies at different attack positions. If seven fire department showed up with no plan, you know no staging. Every fireman that's going there is going to go to want to go to one place, right, they all, we, we want to get some. And it's like, well, that that job's already been done, right, and we, we've talked about it forever, and yet you go to this incident and you turn around and there's 20 people stacked up on the stairs and it's like what in the world are you all doing in here? So, um, it only takes the people that it takes to do the work and then then we're off to assigning that next task based off of what are our, whatever our priorities are. So obviously you know fire control and you know primary searches. So as we circle around on that and we can talk more about it. So, as we circle around on that and we can talk more about it, there's so much rhetoric out there and so much jibber jabber about you can't possibly search and pull a hand line. And it's like well, here's yet another example and it's almost every single day that you can see or hear of an event like this. So first due company stretches a hand line and they come upon somebody that's there. The incident commander was on it that, hey, there is a report of people trapped, there is a working fire, there's a good chance they're going to find somebody. So they assigned another company to back them up. So it put the first due company in a perfect spot. Hey, we found the victim, we're going to remove them. There's somebody right behind us, they're going to take over. You know fire attack and that company that, uh, between the two companies. They got an all clear of of that main fire unit and got fire control.
Speaker 3:So, um, you know, quite frankly, primary searches of those other apartments that don't have smoke in them is is really not like primary searches, it's more like secondary searches. Those people were not there. There were, there was no risk there for them, they were behind closed doors, there was no smoke in that area, the fire had been controlled. So, um, it's a priority that we're still going to check on that. But back to it. If, if I go in there, gangbusters and I just start forcing every door and I continue to see this over and over and over again somebody gets assigned search in an apartment building and they start opening door, open a door, open a door, and it's like, well, you're creating problems when you force that door and Mrs Smith got smoke on her. She all of a sudden became a victim and now you can't continue to do your job because you created, you created a problem. If you would have just left them behind closed doors, you'd have been so much better off.
Speaker 3:So, um, a lot of value in having one incident action plan and everybody operating, you know, within one system. And there was nothing slow about this. I. I love the fact that they were all of them were very confident on the radio. Clearly they are all very competent, they understand the system. There was no real talking over each other. They did a pretty nice job using tickets to get on the radio.
Speaker 3:The fact that when they found the victim and said priority traffic, that brought everybody's ears up like oh, what is this the victim? And said priority traffic, that brought everybody's ears up like, oh, what, what is this? The first company said priority traffic. Oh, we have a victim. We're coming out the alpha side and the incident commander not by accident, because they probably talked about it, trained on it, have a policy on it.
Speaker 3:Uh, yeah, the cyano kit is in battalion 30. Make sure you come and get this. It reminds me of some of the Cobb County stuff that we've used that like that. That shit don't happen by accident. So so far, so often, the whole cyano kit thing seems to be like an afterthought and it's like, no, it should be. It's really just part of the process, right? No different than we are going to go in and search. Well, it's part of the process, it's not the victim. Rescue is not over until they're in the ambulance on the way to the hospital and really delivered at the hospital. So it's A to Z. So you have to have a plan and a system so that you can hit every one of those points from the start, all the way through to the finish.
Speaker 2:The other thing that once they did the priority traffic and had the victim everyone does the task math when you're the IC and he was doing the task math, even though they were getting fire control this wasn't really an escalating fire problem they went ahead and upgraded it to a second alarm. Because that's a game changer you have victims. I know my suburban fire department. We don't have victims very often, but we say when we do and we talk about this in Blue Card let's upgrade and forecast the resources we're going to need there.
Speaker 2:And the IC did an excellent job saying, okay, go ahead and upgrade this to a second alarm, bringing in more resources with the thought that that first engine on the scene engine 33, that crew is going to be gassed. They fought a lot of fire. They helped remove a victim. Maybe they'd help with some treatment of that victim or at least got the victim to where they needed to be. You don't want to keep putting them back into a position where maybe you know you're going to put them at risk because they have done a lot of work. So let's bring in some other companies to help us finish up. Whatever it is we need to finish up there. So that was really good on them upgrading to a second alarm. Last time we had a podcast with a victim same thing they automatically upgraded to the second alarm because that is a game changer as far as that incident action plan goes for the IC.
Speaker 3:In this case, the IC was getting information from dispatch. There's victims in this unit. All the police are advising. There's two victims or two patients in the back of this police car? Oh, there's one in the back of that police car. So they were going to need resource right. So prioritizing the problem and taking care of the critical factors that were critical first and then addressing all the rest of those pieces was clearly, was clearly in the plan, and getting that other resource coming was coming to support.
Speaker 3:We know when we find one victim, that there's often going to be you know another. In this case you're in a multifamily complex, so you know who knows how many you could end up having. In this case they did a really nice job of you know, sheltering in place, keeping people on the balcony. You know that latter company did not put people at additional risk by removing them. I mean, they did a fine job explaining to command.
Speaker 3:Uh, you know there's some people on the balcony still, but they are at no risk and we're going to leave them there because we've seen it over and over again to where we, we, we call that a rescue when we take them off of the balcony and they're 35 apartments away from where the fire was, or the fire's totally out and we're, we're, we're still trying to pull them off of a balcony, and it's like no, the best thing we could do in that case is just leave them right there. Uh, they even reported that the interior crews already got an all clear of that unit and the people were outside on the balcony. So it's like no, just leave them in place. Let's not make a bigger problem for ourselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Having somebody who's uh, maybe 70 years old swinging their leg over the railing of a balcony to climb down a 35 foot ladder isn't advantageous, unless it is, unless they're at risk. So that's a really good point there.
Speaker 3:Well, you got to weigh it out, right. I mean, is there a smoke and fire problem? And if there's not, then they can stay there. Then then let's. Then let's do that, because in this case the bigger risk would have been they're coming off of a third floor balcony and you know what does that look like and how does that go. And maybe even more importantly, that company was able to get available, to be assigned to do something else, to address real problems or real factors, not just do something because they were assigned to do it. And that's another part of that falling under the incident action plan and having thinking firefighters and officers that they got an assignment and we want you to make decisions and we want you to think, and in this case they did.
Speaker 2:Bruno talked about cool command, our instructor, steve Lester. He talks about the three C's of command. I love it when the initial arriving officer gives that IRR. He's calm during that IRR. Then he comes back with the follow-up report to state this is a working fire. The tone of his voice didn't change because he is trained at this. They know what they're doing. And again, throwing back to 30 years ago, back in the day, you used to know it was a working fire by the tone in somebody's voice because they were complaining. And we've had several instructors say before we need to expect fire. We turn around the corner and it's you know. I love that analogy. The garbage man doesn't get excited when there's garbage at the curb. When he turns the corner in his fire sorry, trash truck, he, he's expecting that and in this case they were expecting fire. The follow-up report stated this is a working fire. He started getting his water supply brought into him and they started going to work.
Speaker 2:And then that command transfer happens just like it should. We always say six to seven minutes into the incident is when the strategic command should be established if we've got an IDLH. This was an escalating incident. It was an IDLH. It was one of those occasions that IC number one needed to pass command to IC number two and just as they were masking up and going inside and getting ready to get to work they are masking up and going inside and getting ready to get to work IC number two shows up. So that is really good deployment on behalf of the city of Fairfield to make sure they're getting a chief there quickly, because the chief gets there in time to do a great command transfer, get things ready for that crew to be able to take all that stuff off their plate. Even though they've done the size up plus three, they're looking at what needs to happen next and they communicate that through their transfer of CAN, transfer of command, can report. But you know, again, calm, it's within the system and it was done very well.
Speaker 3:Sounds like professionalism to me.
Speaker 2:Well, it's time now for a timeless tactical truth, today's timeless tactical truth from alan brunasini. An incident action plan, iap is like a band's sheet music everyone plays their part in harmony led by the IC. This was good audio to demonstrate that, to let us know that there is an incident action plan, which we just talked about at length. The IC did a very good job at conducting everyone like an orchestra leader does. I think the opposite of that happens and you get that pandemonium.
Speaker 3:Really, everybody in this incident, same incident action plan. Probably nobody was surprised by any of the assignments that they got, because when you're operating within a system and you hear, you hear that you know size up of really describing what the problem is and then what the initial actions are of that first company, you know we can start really describing what the problem is and then what the initial actions are, that first company, you know we can start to put together, well, what might I need to do? So, um, that's just what makes it roll so smoothly and that's really just comes down to service, right? So, uh, the system lines right up to service delivery of we're there for the people to save them and to save their stuff.
Speaker 3:And in this case, because of an incident action plan, uh, they, they rescued some people, they put a fire out. Quite frankly, they reduced uh damage because they had an incident action plan. And we're not going to force 17 apartment doors in here because there's no need to, because there's no smoke behind the. There's no smoke there, right? So, um, everybody operating within you know, one incident action plan makes everything go so much smoother.
Speaker 2:Well, excellent audio, josh. We want to thank the Fairfield Fire Department and their Chief, tom Laycamp, and all of their firefighters and officers for doing not only such a great job but also sharing that audio with the Blue Card listeners for us to learn a little something from reinforcing the program and getting some notes for ourselves, because I think there was a lot to learn from this, a lot to strive for as our organizations to maybe do a little bit better. And we are looking for incident audio all the time. If you have incident audio that you would like to share with Blue Card listeners and B Shifter listeners, please submit it to us. The information's in the show notes. We would love to have it. And again, we don't put people on blast. We're not here to critique. We are just here to share some good examples of the system working. Thanks for being here today, josh. It's good to see you and we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 3:Thanks, john, have a great day.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening to B Shifter. We'll see you next time.