All emergency responders, at least in the U.S., should be following the Incident Command System. I’m sure other countries have similar. Basically the first officer on scene establishes a command post. When a chief or other high ranking person arrives they take command. As others show up the incident commander assigns different roles. It may be necessary for the incident commander to relinquish control to another commander. For instance a fire chief might hand over control to the director of OEM.
My grandfather founded a volunteer fire department in his rural area, after his home burnt down in the early 20th century. It’s still operating today as a volunteer organization (that my father and brother also volunteered for). I’m most familiar with how it worked when I was a kid in the 1970s - the firehouse was not manned except for weekly meetings, fundraising, and actual fires. My grandfather had a separate red telephone in his bedroom that children were not to touch, which connected him to the rest of the volunteers. I assume (but don’t know for sure) that if you missed the truck you’d take your own vehicle to the fire. In addition to actual firefighting, the VFD handled traffic control around accidents, etc.
In the mid-70s in Rhode Island rural firefighters responded to sirens mounted at the forestations. As others have said, everyone headed for the station when the siren sounded (like an air raid siren) and as soon as enough people were available for a truck it dispatched. I assume that as others showed up they took backup trucks or drove themselves.
The firehouse is in one fixed location but the volunteers live all over the community.
Is there any system in place whereby some volunteers can report directly to the fire location rather than going to the firehouse and then being taken to the fire location? I’m thinking in some cases, the fire might be just down the street and the firehouse might be five miles away.
I suspect that’s how it works - but don’t know for sure; grandpa could run to the firehouse quicker than it would have taken to drive, but that wouldn’t be the case for other folks
Saw this Friday night but wasn’t going to type that much with just two thumbs on a little keyboards. Current vollie. A lot of the answers are going to be - “It depends”. It’s going to depend upon the department & their SOPs/SOGs, (standard operating procedures/guidelines) the PSAP / dispatch center, etc.
Probably not someone always there; especially, at a lower-volume dept. Why have someone required to be there if you’re going to go days between calls?
Decades ago it was a siren on a pole above the firehouse. Starting in the early 90’s it became Motorola Minotor voice pagers that would ‘open up’ & transmit whatever the dispatcher said upon receiving the appropriate tone. Later it went to alpha pagers which had the advantage of having the FF have the ability to read the information after you heard it, if you heard it clearly, which didn’t always happen if you were asleep or in the shower when it went off. Modern tech is a phone app though they probably still use the voice pagers in more rural areas that don’t have good cell coverage.
There is a lot of preplanning that goes on & gets entered into the CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch). We have county-wide dispatchers; there is no way that they can know information on the entire county in their head.
When a call comes in, who goes is based upon where it is, what is the nature of the call, is that fire / EMS co avail, & any special considerations. The CAD will give us saved information, location of hydrants, location of standpipe &/or sprinkler connections (especially on a large warehouse or factory that may be bigger than a football field…or two!) on door codes / location of hidden spare key, dangerous conditions (hoarding, condemned, etc.) There can be notes on people who won’t react appropriately or pleasantly, including all sorts of mental issues from impairment to autism to dementia, etc. or drunks to just belligerent folks. The simplest call is an alarm. An alarm at a house or a retail store will get an (as in one) engine; an alarm at a large apartment building will get a couple; while an alarm at say a nursing home or a factory with lots of volatile stuff may get a bigger response.
A confirmed fire will get a bigger response. The way my county does it is one piece of apparatus from a number of fire companies. Part of that response for a working fire dispatch is for some company to standby at the primary station in case of another fire in their district; usually that’s an engine & a ladder from different companies (so as not to decimate their home territory), traveling there at non-emergency speed…unless a second call comes in.
Dispatch may ask Command (whatever officer is in command on the fireground) or may just dispatch it separately. If the first call is just an alarm or the first fire is under control they’ll probably ask command what they want to do; however, if it’s a raging, working fire they won’t burden command with unnecessary questions & just dispatch it separately.
The primary due apparatus is probably deeply committed, hose deployed, tools out & in use, air packs no longer full so they wouldn’t be the ones who could go. Even secondary units, even if not ‘in use’ (no hose deployed, etc., just a people mover) may not be able to get out due to now-deployed hoses around them or tertiary trucks blocking them in.
It’s called Mutual Aid; you’ll be dispatched, as needed to aid another dept. Many times you’ll be asked, in advance, if you wanted to be added to another dept’s calls. Yes, there is a human element in it, as in Chief A doesn’t like Chief B so doesn’t invite that dept to come out to play; instead of Dept B, who’s 5 miles to the East, they put Dept C on their calls, who is 5 miles to the West of Dept A so there’s no detriment to the community, just the guys in Dept B don’t get to go to as many calls. Initial Dispatch & working fire upgrade/full box are all in the CAD. The CAD also has information on units OOS & on calls to know to dispatch another company not typically on that run card. If the OIC (officer in charge) calls for an additional alarm, there are procedures in place for that but I don’t know the specifics of such as that’s not an everyday-type occurrence.
Again, it depends. Our town’s parade; we roll the house; every piece of apparatus is in it. If we got a call, some of the marchers would stop marching & the family members/kids would get out of the big stuff & then get into one of the other vehicles (utility, antique) while the main apparatus would respond right from the parade since we always take our bunker gear with us. Depending upon the dispatch, almost everything might leave & go back to the station to drop off those family members. I guess if we got an ‘oh shit!’ call, we might just leave them right there on the street with one responsible adult to herd them, though that has never happened before.
If we’re participating in a parade further away we’re going to send a lot less apparatus to participate.
We have a canteen service that can be requested, if necessary. I know they have one toilet & obviously only a limited supply of food & drink on board. We had a 3-day fire last year at a large factory; companies were rotated in & out, with some going multiple times. There was partial collapses of the roof & at least a part of a wall. After everyone was accounted for & evacuated within the first few minutes they quickly went defensive - fighting it with master streams & water cannons off of the aerial platforms as it was deemed to unsafe to have humans lives inside to save just property. While it was mostly out the roof collapse prevented overhaul & getting any embers that may have been left so they just kept pouring water on it & had a small cadre of FFs there in case it flared up again which is pretty standard practice for major fires. My company went once but I didn’t go.
I know County dispatch has all sorts of unique & rarely used phone #s at the ready; things like cranes & heavy construction equipment operators if immediate takedown of an unsafe building is necessary, I’m guessing human intake/output is on that list, but again, not my area.
This is going to be part of a individual Fire Co’s procedures; some may allow it, some may allow it only under certain circumstances/types of calls or for certain individuals (officers), some may not allow it at all.
Issues include:
- How do you get your gear to you if you’re not coming to the firehouse to pick it up yourself? You don’t want to delay the apparatus getting out because two or three guys need to grab six sets of gear off the racks.
- Accountability - Every dept should know who they brought with them & where they are at all times, even if that is so-&-so was detailed to another group & they are accounting for him now. How would anyone know a firefighter is down if they don’t even know he’s on scene.
- Too many POV (personally owned vehicles) on scene could make it difficult to get apparatus in to the scene.
We are a lot more lenient on a fire in our district than in any other district.
Do different trucks require different training? And do all volunteers train on all trucks?
When a truck is waiting for enough volunteers before heading out, can it take any volunteers? Or do you have to wait for volunteers trained on that truck’s equipment?
I understand they’re doesn’t need to be somebody on duty now that I’ve been told about the dispatcher.
So there’s gear that’s stored separately from the vehicles?
Bunker gear is not stored on the truck.
Was in a small vollie dept in Maine for 30 years.
When I started the officers who worked in town (as opposed to working elsewhere) had the infamous “red phones”. All of them would ring simultaneously and the dispatcher would say where the call was located. Each officer had a call tree to notify other vollies. First one to the station would start the first engine rolling.
Personal equipment (turnout gear) was kept by each member in their car or truck. Basically you never knew if you’d be responding to the station or to the incident location.
We then went to Plectron radio receivers in everyone’s house, not just the officers. Made for better communication and faster response. BUT, you had to be home to hear the call!
Then on to Minitor 1 and Minitor 2. Clip it to your belt and you had continuous coverage.
Initial training was an hour or two. Now it’s hundred of hours. Our dept and most in our county started have one or two paid personnel during the day because more and more vollies worked out of town and weren’t available for quick response. Now almost all of them are staffed full time because volunteers are very hard to find.
All of the local depts train together and mutual aid is used extensively. When a call goes out for a structure fire, 3 or 4 depts will start responding. Whoever arrives first and takes command will determine what to do - return the unneeded depts, ask for more help, etc.
Been retired now for 15 years so not familiar with the newer cell phone paging systems.
Fire 1 (Interior FF) is a national standard. Once you pass Fire 1 you are qualified to do all of the fire suppression roles; however, that’s like saying when a teen passes their driving test they are qualified to drive. Yes, they’re qualified but they’re not good yet. Depending upon your department & whatever internal signoff procedures they may have, & whatever equipment they may have (big cities frequently have a firehouse with only one piece of apparatus, either an engine or a truck/ladder; there may be some volley depts that do the same thing each station has one piece of equipment & if you live by station A you’re a ladder guy but if you live by station B you’re an engine person), & whatever an individual is comfortable with (if you’re scared of heights, don’t take the assignment where you’re going to be on the roof; it’s not like they’re going to fire you)
We have weekly training nights, over the course of x weeks we’ll have at least one training in all of the major disciplines, plus we mix in some of the other things that we might do - all of the various rescue disciplines, which involve separate, additional certifications, Hazmat & CPR refreshers, etc.
Juniors, trainees, & exterior FF can all play a role on the fireground & help out. Maybe they’re hooking up the hydrant or throwing (putting up) ground ladders; that frees up the interior FFs to go into the building. They might be allowed to play a role in overhaul & can absolutely help roll & repack hose, put away ladders, etc.
Our rule is that if the apparatus isn’t full, any/every one goes; however, if we have too many bodies then the lower trained people get booted off.
Thanks, that was really good info.
It never occurred to me that you could join if you’re afraid of heights.
Pun intended?
Great post. I’ve always lived in areas large enough to have professionals so this has been a fascinating discussion for me
Curious about certification, I know my sister passed (something) 2. IIRC there was both physical stuff and book work. Though maybe some of that was (something) 1.
Brian
He’s talking about turnout gear. Your fireman’s garb. You can’t take it home, it’s toxic. And you can’t just wear any gear you need the stuff that fits you. And hopefully has your name on it so you can be visibly accounted for.
So you can’t have a truck full of random gear and bring it to the fire. Everyone needs their own set from the firehouse.
Nationwide, volunteer service is way down; more demands on people’s time (multiple gig jobs, scheduled kid activities - all the same things that factor into people getting married later & buying their first house older than we did or especially when our parents did), physically tough, dangerous, coupled with more training requirements, & the drop-what-you’re-doing-& run nature of emergencies it’s very tough to get enough bodies; that’s why mutual aid is an everyday occurrence, not that rare multi-alarm fire. We’ll take what we can get, including on the administrative side. If you only want to be an exterior FF or only do engine company stuff, that’s better than no body there.
They get more calls/more fires than we do but we tend to be jack-of-all-trades more than a guy assigned to a, say, engine house would. They probably don’t need to train as much as we do because they’re going to more structure fires on a regular basis than we are so their training is ‘real world’. I know someone who was in the city; he got more runs in a month that we get in a year so we need to train a lot more than he ever did because he was using those skills regularly.
There is a bunch of classroom stuff, fire theory, types of construction, waterflow dynamics & some tests, too but then you need to go hands-on & practice a bunch of stuff. Everything builds on the last thing. First you stretch hose, then you learn proper ladder technique, then you stretch hose up the ladder (2nd floor bedroom fire), etc.
Exactly. We’re different sizes, I may not fit into your gear. My accountability tags have my name on them. My gear is setup the way I like, gloves are in this pocket, hood in that pocket, tools here, flashlight on left/right side of my helmet.
If you have demonstrated self building climbing skills, can you bypass the ladder training?
No, the building walls may be hot or sooty. Also, there may not be any tall lightpoles nearby to swing off of.