B Shifter
Fire command and leadership conversations for B Shifters and beyond (all shifts welcome)!
B Shifter
Incident Audio From Worcester, MA
This episode features Josh Blum, Chris Stewart and John Vance.
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This episode was recorded on February 11, 2025.
Worcester Fire Department demonstrates what effective communication and incident management look like in action. With a robust incident action plan and seamless command transfer, every member of the team is prepared, engaged, and ready to respond to challenges, ensuring success in real-time crisis management.
• Worcester Fire Department's journey with Blue Card incident command
• Importance of initial radio reports in setting the tone
• Effective incident action plans guide the team's response
• Continuous training and improvement pave the way for excellence
• Smooth command transfer maintains operational continuity
• The impact of cohesive communication on firefighting outcomes
• Engaged leadership promotes accountability and professionalism
• Community service enhanced through superior preparedness
Welcome to the B-Shifter podcast. Today we have myself, john Vance, josh Bloom and Chris Stewart here in the studio with me in Phoenix and we will be doing some incident audio on an incident that happened in Woosta. Am I getting that right?
Speaker 3:Is Gary going to chastise me for not saying it correctly? All I know is, for the last two days, since we said we were going to do this, I've been thinking about Gary critiquing our ability to say Worcester.
Speaker 2:Can you say it Josh?
Speaker 4:I'm not saying it. I'm not going to get yelled at. It's not Worcestershire sauce.
Speaker 2:Well, I probably there's a lot of things I don't say correctly, so I'm sure he'll get us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll just add this to the list this incident in Worcester, which we'll get to in a second. We've got a lot of great things going on right now with B Shifter and Blue Card. If you are not getting the B Shifter Buck Slip, make sure to check the show notes wherever you're getting this and subscribe. This week we have a great 10-minute drill. We also have links to our After Action Review webinar that we did earlier in the week and all of the podcasts that we do. So get the B Shifter Buck Slip.
Speaker 2:It goes to your mailbox every single week on Tuesdays and if you are subscribing to it and you don't see it, check your spam folders, because Outlook just changed everything that they did as far as the way that it helps you try to sort your mail and a lot of our folks are getting the mail sorted right into junk, since it's sent out to about 30,000 people every week. So check that. If you're not subscribed already, please subscribe. We also have some other events coming up, of course, the Blue Card Hazard Zone Conference coming to the Sharonville Convention Center, and this year we've got a great lineup, along with some other workshops, including the May Day Management Workshop we're doing a CERT Lab there Strategic Decision-Making Workshop and also we have the Safety Workshop. That is going to do like a train-the-trainer and do the folks get the prop, or how does that whole thing work with the Safety Workshop, because I know there's some hardware involved in that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so if they come to the class at the conference, the two-day workshop, they'll get all the classroom parts and pieces and then they have the option to buy the prop at a much reduced price, because if we train several people there at the conference then really on the other side of it we're not sending instructors to their fire department. So, yeah, they have the option to get the prop. So they get the two-day workshop, the classroom part. And then, john, we're also doing that expanded command workshop also that we have got quite a few people, I think, signed up for it actually already. So, from Engine 1 all the way to supporting the IC and the command vehicle senior advisor and actually taking it a step further than that. So, tim Schaubel and Kevin Alexander putting that together, what does that look like when it goes beyond that five, six, seven, eight hours and you start to reach out further, to grow in the system and maybe even connected it back to an EOC type of an event?
Speaker 2:And we talk a lot of times in our Train the Trainers and other classes how we can go from Engine 1 to a pretty big command team, all the way to a Type 3 incident and beyond. So this will help get you there and those guys will deliver a great class. For that, go to bshiftercom to sign up and get all the information and we'll probably run out of seats. So do it sooner than later and get locked into the Blue Card Hazard Zone Conference. Coming back to the Sharonville Convention Center, september 30th of this year, pre-conference and then the general conference October 2nd and 3rd.
Speaker 4:The May Day workshop. John, the May Day workshop is already it might be halfway full already, I think. So we had 100 people last year and we're cutting it off this year to just have probably going to cut it off at 50. And I think we have about half those seats you know already spoken for. So we're just going to keep it smaller, just so that we can keep it connected a little bit better, you know, keep it personal for people as well. So, yeah, we're looking forward to it. This year was fantastic and I think this coming year is going to be even better.
Speaker 2:Great, anything else you want to add today before we get into the meat of the podcast.
Speaker 4:No, you said it about the Microsoft update. I think between that update and the Apple update and all the updates that the buck slipped. Today it ended up buried. I had to go looking for it. So usually it pops right up in my email and I could not, when you sent that to me to look at it earlier. I was like I didn't get it and I had to go looking for it. So that's definitely something for people to pay attention to, that. If you find it, make it something that you want to accept into your system so you're not missing it every week. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Good information system so you're not missing it every week. Yeah, I think, with this new system that they have on here the new, whatever you call it you know to go through there's a primary and then there's a transactions updates and then promotion. It might either be in junk or promotion. So those will be the two places to check it out to see if you've got it, but please do check it All right. Today's audio. What are we going to listen to, josh? What do you know about this?
Speaker 4:incident. Yeah, so it's the Worcester Fire Department. They started engaging in Blue Card really pretty recently really, and Gary Fleischer has been a key part, I think, of them rolling it out and pushing it out and, you know, staying connected with us. As far as what are we really going to do with this and what does it look like? And when you, if you listen to that fire department four years ago and you listen to it today, it sounds like a totally different fire department. How well organized and managed that it is. So I spent a very cold winter in Massachusetts there at that fire department doing some back-to-back training, the trainers with them and some other training as they were rolling the program out.
Speaker 4:And if you haven't been there you don't know much about it. It's a metro, you know, metro type of population, and then their staffing model is, uh, very um, dense, I think you would say also. So a lot, of, a lot of stations that are uh, double stacked up with apparatus and, um, they can, they can, they can put a lot of boots on the ground in a very short period of time and you know, part of that is, I think you know, the population driven and then the density of. You know there's three and four story wood frame buildings that are, you know, sometimes right next to each other and if they don't get on top of it they'll burn down a city block. So you know, we all know they've always been a really good fire department and you know they they've engaged with, you know, blue Card and they've engaged with doing more and more with the fire science and I don't know. There's like 25 things that they've done really in like the last five or six years. That I think has pushed their organization to the next level and I think we'll hear it here in this audio of how well they're doing and how everybody's on the same page, very organized.
Speaker 4:People are making decisions, everybody's in one that's in an action plan, from the first arriving IC to the strategic incident commander, to companies being professional on the radio and really communicating what needs to be communicated and not communicating stuff that doesn't need to be communicated. And we all know that there's some urgency there and those of us that have spent some time there know that when you see them go to work, know that when you see them go to work there's no grass growing underneath their feet. But you sure can't tell that on the radio. I mean, it's almost like they're sitting in a classroom, because they have a system, they're very comfortable and competent with it and confident with it, and I think they've rolled out some very clear and defined expectations. So, chris, I know you've spent some time, you know, talking to their chiefs about, you know, 1700 and some other things. You got anything to throw into that before we listen to this audio?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I got to say just organizationally, they are a fantastic example of leadership, evaluating where they are and what they're doing. They don't lack experience, they don't lack resources, they don't lack a willingness to do hard stuff on the fire ground. They are very comfortable in that environment. But they took what they were doing four or five years ago and said, all right, how can we do this better? And I identified a whole set of things and they have been applying it slowly, surely consistently, and it's it's showing not only in their standard that they've set but also how they're training. You listen to incidents like this fire. This is as legit of a residential fire as we get. They're able to demonstrate a really, really effective utilization of the system and utilizing the system while they're doing real work. This is not them just sounding good on the radio and then action not actually happening on the fire ground. They sound good. That's because they're actually doing good things and they're making good decisions.
Speaker 4:You know, what we hear on the radio is really just that is the communications of the incident action plan. And if we're not communicating the incident action plan, then everybody's not going to be on the same page. So that's just so critical. You know, I agree 100% with everybody out there who says you can't talk the fire out. Absolutely, you cannot do it. But we communicate, and we communicate effectively and with a system so that everybody is on the same page and so that those words do mean something and you can't say something in a controlled fashion.
Speaker 4:Uh, if you didn't think about it. So really, the communications is just one of the eight functions of command and it's really just. You know, it's where we are communicating what we are doing or what we are going to do or what we need to do. So, um, I always like this to clarify that, cause I hear that shit get thrown around so often you can't talk the fire out. It's like, well, yeah, we all know you can't talk the fire out, water still wins every single time, but when everybody's on the same page it sure makes a big difference.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and those same fire departments haven't taken the radios off their rig, you know, because the radios are getting in the way of them doing work. No, this example here is, you know, like one of the really really good examples that I think we need to highlight in good work. And kind of to your point, Josh, I've never, ever heard screaming on the radio and then have a very calm fire ground like a calm, professional fire ground. Those two things don't happen simultaneously. So when you hear calm, professional communication, you have a high likelihood that that's actually being operationalized in the work that they're doing in the hazard zone.
Speaker 5:Tensional Company stand by. For the reported structure fire 1515 Maranook Road box to follow Tensional Company striking box 11-09, west Mountain Street and Maranook Road box to follow Tenantial Company Striking Box 11-09, west Mountain Street and Maravista Road. For the reported structure fire at 1515 Maranook Road. Response is Engine 11, engine 8, engine 3, engine 1616, at a 6 latitude to rescue car 3, ladder 1,. You're the writ Again. Striking Box 11-09, west Mountain Street, Maribyster Road. For reported structure 5, 1515, maranoke Road. Response is engine 11, engine 8, engine 3, engine 1, 6, latta 6, latta 2, the rescue car 3, latta 1,. You're the writ. Fire ground channels A alpha timeout 1550. Fire 1.
Speaker 1:1550 has the box 1550. Fire alarm 50 out of the box Fire alarm. Has it 3 to fire alarm? We'll take the update for the structure fire.
Speaker 5:It's 1515, roanoke Road. Multiple car rolls set afire, started in the basement here, caused by a candle Everyone is out of the building Received 9-11 to fire alarm.
Speaker 1:That's a radio report Fire alarm. We have a one-story split ranch heavy fire Alpha Bravo corner Engine 11 stretching an entry corridor off the side. Engine 11 has command. You can get a second alarm going off the strategy.
Speaker 5:Fire alarm has that heavy fire showing Stretching second alarm 50-54.
Speaker 1:Ladder 6 is level 1. Command 2, ladder 6, if you can get the stick to the roof and then meet up my crew off the side.
Speaker 6:Engine 8, level 1.
Speaker 1:Command 2, fire alarm with Apollo 360 complete, no unusual hazards from the rear. Spoke to the residents they said everybody's out of the building. We're doing transitional attack, alpha side, knocking down the fire. We'll be making entry Alpha side in a moment. Engine 8, level 1. Command to engine 8 Get us an eyedropper please. 16 is level 1. Engine 3 is level 1. Command 2, 16,. Grab a second line off Engine 11. You guys will be going for 1. We still have heavy fire in this corner here Still knocking it down from the outside.
Speaker 6:16 has now lined off engine 11.
Speaker 1:Floor, one Fire control 11 pump to 11, we're at half tank. We have that. Ladder 2 is level 1. Command 2, ladder 2, on deck alpha Ladder 2 has that. Engine 3 is level 1. On deck alpha engine 3. 11 pump to 11, a quarter of a tank. Racy command 2, engine 8, how's it? Look on that hydrant. Yeah, bobby, grab it now, racey.
Speaker 5:Okay, Engine 3.
Speaker 1:Car 3 to fire alarm. Car 3 is on scene 15-58. 11-pump ready for water Water. Car 3 to Command 4, command transfer, command 3. Lt, I have you doing a transitional attack from the alpha side. Engine 8's getting you a hydrant, engine 16's taking a line off your truck to make entry to the first floor and Ladder 2 is on deck alpha side. If that's correct, confirm and give me a can.
Speaker 6:That's correct.
Speaker 1:We're about to transition interior. We're about to transition interior. We're going to be going in through the door, through the garage. Okay, receive, and this looks like the two-story. Yes, it does Grant 11-1-2-11, we're on the water Contrared fire alarm Out of six of command. We've got the ladder set up. Water Count three to fire alarm. Count three to command. We've got the ladder set up. Count three is assuming command. We're going to ring the offensive to hold the second alarm up. Fifteen, fifty-nine, Command two engine eleven.
Speaker 6:Eleven sir.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you still have heavy fire at Alpha Delta Corner Three. Two one keep at Alpha Delta Corner Receive. We'll keep track of it. Rescue level one Command to the rescue on deck Alpha Receive. Engine eight 802, hydrant 802,. Entrant. Send the water now you can send it slowly. Command to engine 11. Order entrant. You have fire in the basement and on the first floor.
Speaker 6:We have that. We're just waiting for water. We have a clear angle on it from the garage door right here. No transition on that, not a one level one Safe and easy. Engine 211's called. Do we have a line yet, crystal Water, send it back to you now. 11211, command with a fashion.
Speaker 1:Command yes, my 11211.
Speaker 6:11211, basement 11211.
Speaker 1:Now repeat that who's in the?
Speaker 6:basement 11211, floor one. Now repeat that. Who's in the basement? Engine 16, one thing set to alpha side. Engine 11 is at the alpha side door, knocking at the door. Moving on to floor one.
Speaker 1:Received Engine 11, floor one Grant to car, four Grant to engine 11.
Speaker 6:I'm answering.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you want floor number one.
Speaker 6:Make the answer now 106, level one 6, 9, 9, 1, 7, 8.
Speaker 1:Command I'm coming in 10.
Speaker 5:10 minutes in.
Speaker 1:Received Still actively fighting the fire. All companies working Hold the assignment.
Speaker 5:Received Still actively fighting the fire All companies working Hold the assignment Received. 16 on 6.
Speaker 1:Translating 16.
Speaker 6:We got a little bit of sparking down here. Maybe in the list you want to put it up on a page 10.
Speaker 1:16, you're unreadable.
Speaker 6:Repeat your message we are having some sparking while flowing water. If possible, rescue to shut off power.
Speaker 1:Command of the rescue Rescue 1 to command At rescue. Secure their utilities Command. We got the main power switch at the garage. It is shut off. No computer identified. Received Command to Engine 3.
Speaker 6:Engine 3.
Speaker 1:Engine 3, stretch that line to assist Engine 11. Received Assist Engine 11 on floor 1. 13, level 1. Ladder 7 to level one on West Mountain Street Command to engine 11,. Give me a can 11,.
Speaker 6:We have a final down heavy smoke condition, very little heat. Just trying to see if we got it off, but it looks like we have it all knocked off. Could probably use a ladder company to help with overhaul.
Speaker 1:Receive. I'm going to send you ladder 6. Command a ladder 6, assist engine 11, floor 1, for overhaul Ladder 6, receive floor 1, overhaul engine 11. Ladder 7 is level 1 on West Mountain Street Command. How's that Ladder 7, level 1 on West Mountain Street? Fran has that Ladder 7, level 1.
Speaker 6:Is it 16? Go ahead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you need any assistance?
Speaker 6:No, at this time all visible planes knocked out on the process on the wall.
Speaker 1:All right, if you need to power vent, you're clear to power vent off the Charlie side 16,.
Speaker 6:Hi, I'm doing a lot of them for one clear to air. With the status change, Do we have a mission to power? Vent Charlie side and Hull.
Speaker 1:Affirmative Charlie side power vent.
Speaker 6:I'm restricting to command with status change.
Speaker 1:Command answering 16.
Speaker 6:Chief, we don't have Charlie window, can we go? Bravo, charlie corner.
Speaker 1:Affirmative Bravo Charlie, command 213. Engine 13 answer On deck alpha side 13 on deck alpha, command 216.
Speaker 6:16, Latter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you need a ladder company to assist roll the haul in the basement?
Speaker 6:233 down here, 12 over the line.
Speaker 1:Command 216.
Speaker 6:Latter 6 over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, could you find any attic access on the first floor? Check the attic.
Speaker 6:We're looking out, Chief.
Speaker 2:Awesome Audio there from Worcester Fire Department and if you listened to audio prior to them doing Blue Card and taking this approach to command, this is a night and day difference. Let's go ahead and break it down. We'll start with you, Josh.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So I'll just I'll give a little bit of an overview and then you know, chris, can you know break it down maybe further piece by piece? And I've I've listened to this a bunch of time and wrote a bunch of notes also and I'm sure you've probably got a couple of things, john. But you know it all starts with that first Duke company officer getting there painting a picture, so that prefacing radio traffic engine 11 with initial radio report, that starts it off right there. That like okay, everybody shut up, let's listen to what's going on, because that sets the stage for what's going to happen next. So everybody who's on that first alarm assignment, it hears that initial radio report of what is the problem. And then, you know, by the time they hear the follow-up report, they're here, they hear what is the problem and what are we going to do to solve the problem, what is engine 11 doing to solve the problem? So it sells everybody like this is what's going on, this is what it looked like. It probably isn't going to look like when we get there. So before we go too much further onto it um, this, this is condensed radio traffic to John. So this that's a. You know, this isn't that wasn't like piled up, one thing, one thing, one thing, one thing. It sounded like you know there was nonstop radio traffic. But you know it's condensed. We take that out, otherwise we'd be uh, you know we'd be sitting here for eight hours doing a podcast, breaking down the audio. When they gave the 10-minute mark we'd actually only listened to like five minutes of radio traffic, so it was almost twice as fast. With that said, I mean they do get companies right on top of them real fast.
Speaker 4:But back to it. The first new company officer good initial radio report, good follow-up report, and that in his mind had an incident action plan of this is what we need to do. You know, I'm sure somebody out there has got something to say about you know, no water supply from the first due engine on a working fire. But the bottom line is the first due company officer addressed it and said Engine 8 gave them the assignment for Engine 8 to get the water supply. Well, they got the water supply and you know, before they actually crossed the threshold and went inside, they had a sustained water supply. So you know, from A to Z, I think Engine 11 assigned four or five companies before the strategic IC got there and did also a really good command transfer, gave a rundown of. This is what everybody's doing. This is what my understanding is of what you need. If that's correct, give me a can report Came back and verified you know there's fire in the basement and on the first floor, making sure that, as a strategic IC, they really understood what was going on, asked about the is this two stories, and got some clarification on that, and then, you know, continued to just build out the incident based off of that first initial radio report, so supported the initial attack and then continued to support all the objectives that they were trying to address, or that they were addressing, with other resources that were responding in.
Speaker 4:And you know, though, we hear ladder one get dispatched as writ. I just want to put it out there. We heard four companies get assigned on deck because they were using companies right, and in our system, on deck first and foremost means writ, and they're right there, ready to go to. You know, first and foremost means writ, and they're right there, ready to go to. You know, first and foremost, be writ or get the next assignment. Uh, as happened here, you know they end up assigning a company to um engine 16, get a line off of engine 11 and support them with fire attack on the first floor, because that's something that needed to happen.
Speaker 4:So, um, yeah, I mean it's excellent audio. It's excellent, uh, example of using the system. Um it, it shows through and through that their organization, I mean they didn't jump in and get here overnight, but I will say they jumped in with both feet. Um, you know, they think they trained 12 instructors initially and then we were back there less than two weeks later and they had 16 people in the class and you know they haven't looked back. They uh, I'm sure they got lumps and bumps and bruises, you know, along the way, you know getting through it, but, um, nothing that is easy uh, turns out usually to be very good. So sometimes it's hard to get there and they're definitely getting there. So, chris, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I think that there's a lot of evidence here of Bruno's old quote is as the first five minutes go, so goes the next five hours. So this company officer got to the scene, evaluated some legit conditions, had a basement, had a fire on the Alpha Bravo corner involving the basement, involving the first floor, so you have multiple floors, a significant amount of fire that they're going to have to deal with before they get to the inside Right, and so he did a fantastic job of not only evaluating what that is but then taking that and building that into a very clear incident action plan. And he did a fantastic job of communicating that incident action plan through assignments, because it's not as if we're going to stop and pause on the radio and let me recite my incident action plan. That's not the way this works. We then start to get the pieces of his incident action plan through his deployment of his companies and where he put his next three companies with going to work on the fire ground. He had multiple lines going on the fire. He had a company with a ladder to the roof and he had companies that then he started layering in on deck. So he had all the fundamental components that you need to do an effective interior initial fire attack, effective interior search and rescue and then the support. Couple that with the support work and then folks in position on deck to continue that work when it's time to start to recycle and we hear that I think there's because the conditions were so legit that it took them a minute to get fire knocked down. It took them a minute to get to the inside. It took engine 16 a minute to get water into the basement and then to be able to control those conditions. So everything on the front end was set up in what I would call a very standard manner and I would use the term textbook, but I hate the negative connotation that comes with. That is, what he did is a really good job of knowing and understanding standard conditions, recognizing them, measuring them, applying standard action for their system, for their resources, based on their arrival, and really has a clear understanding of what the standard outcome is for the execution of all that. So they did a really really nice job of all the fundamentals.
Speaker 3:Setting this up Sounds like there's a lot of conversation. Part of this has to do with what Josh is talking about removing all the dead air in the radio traffic, because that makes it more tolerable to listen to and gives us more time to actually talk about the incident. We hear complaints or concern about so much radio traffic on the front end, about so much radio traffic on the front end. My answer to that is is, if everybody just shows up and goes to work and you don't say anything, what is the incident action plan? There isn't one, nobody ever. Well, maybe there is. Maybe there's an incident action plan for the same number of companies that there are unseen. So if there's five companies, there's five incident action plans. That is not an effective system.
Speaker 3:What they did was take control of it, develop a plan, assign companies to that plan. That then it's actually measurable to see is are things working the way we want them to or aren't they? And then what help are they going to need? And then, when are we reaching benchmarks that are important to us here? And that's fire control and and and all clear, uh, and then, ultimately, you know, property, uh, law stopped Um, but but those first two of fire control and and and an all clear being the most important. So I'm, I'm super complimentary of this initial IC, um, and then, and then you know, we could talk about the transfer of command and then you know kind of what was handed to the IC number two in car three when he arrived.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think we can. I mean we can move right to that command transfer piece. So you know they followed the process right. So car three is on the scene. It let everybody there know.
Speaker 4:Okay, car three is here and if you're all in the same system you know what's coming next. You know car three to command and then give us a rundown of what they heard, you know en route to the incident or what they can see on their MDC, you know maybe notes from the CAD or whatever, and then they're there and what are they actually seeing that companies are doing? So you know did a really good job with that rundown of the companies, verified position and function of where people were asked for a can report and then, you know, assumed the command position. So I mean they were kind of handed command on a platter right On like a golden dish, like here it is because IC1 set it right up for them. There was no get there and let's try to figure this out and they weren't in the stage of.
Speaker 4:You know, we have to try to unwind this. It's truly we have one incident commander and then you know we continue to support that initial incident commander and then eventually it is transferred to that other, to another incident commander, but there's still only one right and it just, it's really just escalating command. Nobody's taking command, quite frankly. So nobody's taking command, quite frankly, nobody's really even assuming command. It's a true transfer of who's in charge, but the transfer includes every bit of information, from the start of the incident all the way up until the command transfer piece happened.
Speaker 3:So IC2 had all the information that IC1 had. You know from the get-go. Yeah, if we look at, you know, whatever alternate systems are out there, they're not even systems, just alternate ways incident command is done is that when the chief showed up? That's in a lot of other systems, that's when incident command starts. But they have all this other work, all these other assignments, all this other critical information that occurred prior to their arrival, that in the vast majority of the time, when there is not a system, that is all lost and the IC, the person who's assuming the incident command role that is playing catch up on how to get all that information and verification and understanding, and all at the same time trying to keep the work moving and or making a change if you need to make a change. What was nice about this was the IC had done a fantastic job on the front end of setting it up correctly and then, as Josh said, we're going to hand this over on a golden platter to IC number two. In that it was very simple for IC number two to acknowledge the accountability, acknowledge the plan and then just march on with the plan, you know, wondering of what to do there. There wasn't any confusion as to anything that was going on. He was able to just simply and clearly march forward with what was what was going on and he picked up with a communication of hey I think it was engine 11 is no longer has water. Hey, engine eight, without even missing a beat, you're getting them water. Right, they need water. And then, moving on with hey, you've got fire in the basement, you've got fire on the first floor. Everybody's in position to do their thing. He's making sure that everybody knows and understands those conditions and they're reporting back information that is of value, hoarding back information that is of value, not just nonsensical. I'm going to talk to you and tell you, I'm going to narrate what it is that we're doing. They don't have that going on, which is a really, really good thing here. And then, as other tactical needs arose, then IC number two starts taking those on-deck companies and plugging them in and then refilling those on-deck positions with other second alarm companies that are then arriving and it's working effortlessly.
Speaker 3:And I don't want to be disrespectful in saying this is easy, because it's not. They've clearly done the work to make it look easy and to make it sound easy, but that's a sign of actually understanding the system and then truly practicing it. So and I mean this in the best possible way I loved the matter-of-factness of all the communication. It was like it wasn't done. It was wasn't done for any other reason than we need to communicate right now. This is going to make the incident better. Somebody needs to know this information I have and we're going to share it, and then we're going to move on and all going towards that that standard outcome all clear and under control and lost stop. So, uh, I see number two, uh, uh, while he's handed a's handed a very nicely organized incident, he then does a very good job of keeping it that way and moving it towards a successful conclusion.
Speaker 2:And we say with Blue Card that the IC sets the pace of that communication and really starts to control it. And you can tell that's done here and that's what I wrote down was the economy of words and the economy of radio traffic. Everybody's words mattered on this scene whether it was a good can report where they were asking for more resources and they were pretty clear on what they were asking for. And going back to that situational awareness report that the IC is calling out to the companies that are going to be operating in the interior to let them know exactly where the fire is. This is, you know, on a scale of one to 10, I don't know where you guys would put Wooster as a fire department as far as aggressiveness goes, a 10, a 10 plus an 11. I mean they're an aggressive fire department, right. And because they had fire in the basement and first floor doesn't mean they're changing strategies At that point. It just means hey, I'm letting you know that's where you got fire and you've got to address that pretty quick.
Speaker 2:And I love the way that they got on the air and got that done and the fact that their radio traffic was not wasted for anything. I mean everything mattered when they keyed the mic. We say a lot of times it's not push to think, it's push to talk. So you've got to know what you're saying. And that's where the tickets really matter too, because the tickets kind of trip something in your mind whether you're doing a status change or you're giving a can report, whatever roof report, it starts to format what you're going to say in your mind before you even key the mic. But I love that situational awareness report.
Speaker 4:I always liked. I always like when we listen to audio, because we have audio from Southern California all the way to Massachusetts, to, you know, georgia, florida, florida, ohio, georgia, minnesota, indiana, washington, I mean everywhere, right, and it's like you could have taken, um, you could have taken engine 11's officer and put him on, uh, an engine in Cobb County and it would be flawless. And you could have taken that battalion chief and plugged them in and anybody who's using the same system, and it would be flawless. And you could have taken that battalion chief and plugged them in and anybody who's using the same system, and it would have been flawless. They're using a standard system, right? And you know we talk about the whole paramedic thing. You take a paramedic from Massachusetts and a paramedic from California and they're cardiac arrest. They're going to pretty much so line right up and gears are going to mesh. And they're going to pretty much so line right up and gears are going to mesh and they're going to figure it out.
Speaker 4:And you know, the fire service typically has not been that way. You know we have our own way. We're special, we're a special fire department and it's like, you know, when we, when we hear this from, uh, you know 4,000 plus fire departments that are using the system it. Um, you know, it's tried and true and proven that every single day it's being used and that they all sound the same. And they sound the same not because somebody is pulling a string and saying this is what you need to say. It's because they're thinking the same. They're all using the same system the strategic decision-making model, the communication system, the tickets to get on the radio. It comes back to we beat it up on it the system piece.
Speaker 3:So, you know, the question always is, or the statement is we better be doing everything right when something goes wrong? So I listened to this incident and what are the two most critical communications that could have happened at this incident? They didn't, but what could have happened is the first one is prior to traffic we've got a victim. Were they in position to effectively locate, remove and take care of that victim? Absolutely, they had a system built to be able to do that. And then probably maybe the more critical communication that they were ready for was Mayday, mayday, mayday. And so did they have a system that was built ready to respond to the Mayday as we've defined, with the help order, with companies on the inside being supported by companies on the outside, to be able to do that. Yeah, I can't think of a better example of doing things right from a systematic standpoint.
Speaker 3:Prior to that and like you said, josh, rarely do we hear any fire department that we engage in or engage with that they're anything but an aggressive fire department.
Speaker 3:I've never had anybody tell us in a class well, we're, no, we really are a passive fire department. We tend to sit back and wait. Let other people do the hard work for us Never heard that right. I know that Worcester walks the walk right in this, in that, and take pride in the way they do their work. So this is a fantastic balance and demonstration of how an effective incident command system benefits the work and the work that it actually takes to achieve the tactical objectives, or they take this serious and that they take the incident command part serious and have been working and exercising and, uh, and and all the hard stuff that you know you don't never see on the outside but the, the, the, the true effort that it takes on the inside to actually get that done and a commitment to one another. And then that's cool, that's uh, that's what the fire service needs, should be striving for, and I think their leadership is a big reason that that it's that way.
Speaker 2:All right, we want to thank the Wusta Fire Department for giving us that audio to share with everybody, and, gary Fleischer, you can email me if I'm not saying. Our apologies, gary, I'm sure we didn't. Hey, let's do a Timeless Tactical Truth. Timeless Tactical Truth from Alan Brunacini. This one is the Ace of Diamonds from the cards that are available at vshiftercom Perfect for Fire Station card games. Dot com Perfect for fire station card games. Use strong, quick, automatic command assumption to eliminate any zero impact period. I'm going to read this one again, because there's a lot here. Use strong, quick, automatic command assumption to eliminate any zero impact period, and Bruno used to call that zip. In this case, we were pointing out the first IC gets there and instead of just saying I'm on the scene, we got a fire, he formed an incident action plan, thus eliminating any kind of zero impact period.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so taking command to him was not even a question. No, our system, we're going to start the incident command process from the very beginning, take control of the organization, take control of the communication, take control of the deployment of the resources and the execution of the plan. It's like again textbook to the way it was designed and the why. The incident command system was designed and it was designed to do real work. So we're connecting that command system to effective plan and communication, to effective outcome, based on the work whole paradigm there and how important it is to the success of fire departments you know, moving through and using this incident command system, you know, josh, seconds count all the time for us.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's the reason why we have red lights and sirens and are deployed the way we are. So the ability to eliminate a zero impact period, what does that do for our overall incident outcome? And I know you see the opposite a lot of times, where we do have a period of zero impact, I guess on the transverse of that, what does that do?
Speaker 4:You got called to a fire, so act like you're going to a fire, right, and people, we should not be letting grass grow under our feet. It lines up with one of Chief Lester's things, I believe we need to be competent and have command presence Confident, competent, and then that command presence piece. So when we are that way, because we have a system, we've educated folks all of that people make quick decisions and seconds do matter, right, so in this case they didn't lose any time from the size up. They didn't lose any time from the follow-up report. The entire time. They were thinking about the incident action plan and something I think people don't think about is the second, third, fourth, fifth company going into that and the battalions that are responding when they're hearing those communications. When you work with other folks and you're on the same system, you start to think more and more like they do. So you've got a good idea of what might be my assignment. So we're actually working to solve the problem when we're all falling under one incident action plan Instead of, quite frankly, if those first seven companies pulled up and there was no incident action plan, as Chris said earlier, there was going to be seven different incident action plans and they were all going to go do something.
Speaker 4:Right, even if it says on a piece of paper this is what you do. Well, that piece of paper says this is what I do, but that's not going to happen here because it doesn't fit. So they're going to still go do something and in this case, we used the resources to solve the problem, which is really just checking off the boxes of objectives right, life, safety and property conservation. So people expect us to get there and perform at 100%, not to dibble-dabble around and try to figure out what is going on or do things that don't necessarily need to be done. So another example of this is the most effective and efficient way to operate on the fire ground Use the resources that you need to solve the problem that you've identified.
Speaker 3:You know, thinking back, I probably should be frustrated by this, but when I hear an incident action plan communicated, like we did in this one today, and it directly is connected to the highest priority of getting water on the fire, I want to clap Like, yes, that's exactly what you need to be doing. That's not taking away from the life safety part of it. It's actually amplifying the life safety problem or the need to get in and manage the victims or the potential victims here. So in this instance, they need to control that fire, to create and maintain the space and the ability and capacity to actually be able to search on the inside. So, like they used the system to better, to best identify the highest priority action on the fire ground, that's a huge thing.
Speaker 2:All right, gents, that puts a bow on it. Thanks for sharing this audio again, Wooster, and thank you for listening to the B Shifter podcast. Josh and Chris, thanks for being here today. It's been insightful as always. If you can, please tell your friends about us, share our podcast and make sure you subscribe Until next time. Thanks for listening to B-Shifter.