Latest / B Shifter / Best of B Shifter: The "Other" Radio Reports

Transcript

Best of B Shifter: The "Other" Radio Reports · B Shifter

• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Hey everyone, John Vance here with some exciting news that you definitely don't want to miss.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: You know how we're always looking for ways to improve, whether it's mastering incident command or leveling up as fire officers.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Well, B-Shifter has teamed up with Waldorf University to offer you a unique opportunity to advance your career in fire science administration.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: This new partnership means you can now transfer your Blue Card certifications toward earning a degree from Waldorf University.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Your training with Blue Card can fast track you to a bachelor's degree in fire science, with Waldorf offering up to 75% of transferable credits.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Whether you're looking to take on a leadership role, build your skills or move up the ranks, this partnership can help make that happen.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: And here's the kicker Blue card students, staff and their families get a 10 percent tuition discount and the application fee is completely waived.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Waldorf University is known for its flexible online programs, so you can keep serving your community while you study on your terms.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: So what are you waiting for?
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Head over to waldorfedu, slash bluecard today, send in that free application and take your next step in advancing your fire service career.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: We'll see you at the top B-Shifters.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Hey there, welcome to B-Shifter, John Vance, with you here Today.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: We're joined by Nick Brunicini and Josh bloom.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: As we're talking about radio reports, how they're initiated from the interior and the different kinds of radio airports that are sourced from the IDL age, it's a good primer on blue car whether you're blue card user or not to get to know what the anatomy of the radio reports are generated by companies operating in the hazard zone.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: One of the radio reports that we get from interior companies is the CAN report.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the importance of the CAN report and how it is the best friend of the IC if it's done properly.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: The CAN report is really just the format that the communications comes out in.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: So conditions actions, needs is pretty simple.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: You know, I'm hearing it more and more and more all over the place Even fire departments that are not using Blue Card have somehow or another I guess training via radio adopted the CAN report.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: And I hear ICs and I'm like man, they're not using this program, but that incident commander just asked truck four for a can report and you know so they've picked it up somewhere.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: So it's just a pretty simple way to get people to give you a clean and accurate report and give you the information that you're really looking for, without a whole bunch of of detail.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: So conditions action, needs, and then under each one of those conditions actions and needs there's I don't know, seven or eight or nine things that could be addressed in each one of them.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: We keep talking about thinking firefighters and thinking ICs, that things aren't just automatic and we don't drop resources into the IDLH just for no reason.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: We want that to be generated because of a CAN report.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: So let's tear this apart real quick.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Looking at the C of the CAN report, its conditions.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: When we're listening to conditions as IC number two, whether you're coming in and it's the first CAN report, or on the command transfer, what will conditions tell us about the needs of the incident?
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: So one condition they should report their location.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: So engine four we're on the second floor, we got moderate smoke, we've knocked the fire down, we're checking for extension.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: We have no needs.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: That might be their whole report, but just that front end piece, their location and exactly what their conditions are, where they're operating.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: It just paints that picture.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: So that's what it looks like inside, which is the value of you get that initial radio report from the first arriving IC.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: They see outside and then they get to go inside and they get to see what's inside.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: So what they're seeing inside they get to tell the sitting boss the battalion that's going to be in the car.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: The strategic IC now is seeing what's outside but hearing what is inside.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: So it just connects it all together.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Then we get to the A the actions being taken by the companies on the inside.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so on that they might be pool and ceiling, applying water, completing a search, whatever it may be, I mean, that's the actual action that they're taking.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: So you know, we, we line the can report up, even on May days.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: So don't try to remember, lunar, if you use can reports as your fire department every day day in, day out, if they just give a can report, if there is a May day event, you're going to get the conditions.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: They're going to tell you where the location is, what actions they've taken or not taken, and then they're going to tell you what the needs are.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: They're entangled in wires, they need bolt cutters and air transfer bag, or somebody fell off of a of a mezzanine and you need a Stokes basket and air transfer bag.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: So it's just a simple way to get out the information to the incident commander in a very clean and formatted way.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: And when people are trained on it, you don't get all of the.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: This room has four walls and green carpet and a couch in the middle of it.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: Well, nobody cares, you know.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: So I just want to back up for a second when, when we assign companies to do something, we use task location and objective.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: And the only time I want to hear from that company is if, if I call them as the incident commander and ask them for a CAN report because I just want to know what's going on, or I haven't heard from them, or the conditions on the outside don't match something, or I'm concerned about it, or I'm just verifying their location, whatever it is.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: But once they have an assignment, task, location and objective, I only want to hear from that company when they have completed the task or when they cannot complete the task.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: So we have some specific terms tied to that part of it that helps us manage the incident and helps us keep the radio traffic clean, because companies need to give a reason that they're getting on the radio and that helps the strategic IC prioritize how they're going to answer radio traffic.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: And it also means something to everybody on the event when they hear some of these terms that we'll talk about.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: The last part of the CAN report is the needs and that should inform the IC of the resources that will be needed to either mitigate or request to get to the crews that are actually working the incident.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: So what are the things that can come up under needs?
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: Maybe you opened up the ceiling, you got a working fire and you need another company to assist you with fire control with a hand line.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: Or you found a victim on the second floor.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: You need a company to complete the search and you're going to need EMS.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: Or it might be part of a status change where your company needs to recycle because you're getting low on air.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: So there's a whole you know, there's a giant list of whatever you need to complete the task.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: Or if you finished that task that you were assigned, then the need might be to recycle or to be reassigned, depending on whether you have full air or not.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: There's sometimes that you get a can report and it doesn't match up to what the IC is seeing on the outside.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: And I know that's happened to you before, Nick, where you've arrived and they're seeing they've got the fire knocked down.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: It may not even be through a CAN report, but they're continuing interior operations and you have to make a sudden decision from the outside based on what you're seeing and the can report for structural firefighting.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: We do incident action planning over the radio.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: That's what blue card is.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: We're good, this is how we're going to incident action plan and the reason we incident action plan is to complete the tactical priorities period.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: So there's been times where I've got there I don't know 15, 20 minutes.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: In fact I was like the third and I showed up with the command van.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: So you got the one in the strategic IC number two running the thing.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: We're setting the command van up looking at the deal and you're thinking the interior crews are not aligned with what the outside IC is seeing.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: So they come back and this one example was a fire in a thrift store of all things, about 25,000 square feet of just old shit in a building.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: We're setting the command van up.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: I see number two getting a can report from formerly IC number one who is given fire control because they've got the ceilings open up, they've got some water in it and to them it looks like it's out.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Well, if you're outside the building you see the 30 feet of fire coming off the rooftop and you know that's not the case.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: So the IC numbers two says copy, you've got fire control, command to alarm and traditionally we would go be advised, we got fire control and it would take you to the next phase of the incident.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Ic comes back and says I have defensive fire conditions, I'm changing the strategy, I want all units to withdraw and report a PAR upon their exit.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: So we're sitting there watching this and I see the company come out who just have given fire control and still kind of proud of themselves, and they're pissed off over being one-upped and they're storming over to the ic's buggy and, uh the trip.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: They managed to turn around and see the building they just walked out of and they almost fell over.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: They thought, oh my god, that's the reason we do it is we have these periodic radio reports just to kind of verify that we're doing the right set of things.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: It's the reason we transfer command from an IC who's mobile and inside to an IC very quickly During the first work cycle.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: First 15 minutes of that thing.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Command should be out in the street somewhere, not inside still, so you can have the view of the thing and that's really kind of how you do it.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: So really, what it is is all an initial radio report is is.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: I'm telling you what the critical factors are right now.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: Well, conditions, actions and needs.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: All three of those things are critical factors Is what's the result of my actions?
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: What are the conditions looking like now?
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: And then, what needs do I have?
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: Really, most of the time when we're doing blue card training, even in real life, you only get the needs about maybe 30% of the time, because the other 70, you don't have any needs and you just don't say anything.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: Well, we learned that if they don't have, if they don't say anything and the conditions look like it's out and they don't have any needs, but it becomes a deal in class.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: It's like you're screaming needs, no needs.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: But that that tells the story is I got no needs in here and if that's what it looks like from the outside, that's a sign that you're pretty much almost done with whatever you've been doing at that incident scene is.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: It's gone exactly like you wanted it to, and now you're going to be wrapping it up and leave them before it's over.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: So those reports keep us all heading in the same direction and strategically I use those reports.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: I'm not in any danger.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: I'm outside in any danger.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: I'm outside in the street.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: So unless an alien abducts me, I'm going to be okay.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Well, in our example, where they're at the thrift shop.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: 10 minutes later the whole building collapsed.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Well, if they were dicking around inside with an inside IC and not an outside IC, you could have had a horrible result from that.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: Well, see there's the system, saved everybody from themselves.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: So that's the way the thing's built.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: And see, we report on critical factors, just as it earlier.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: I don't care what color the carpet is or that they have popcorn ceilings or that it looks this way or that way, or most of that's immaterial.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: I want to know the status of the big spaces and what the fire's doing, so that that's really kind of that becomes a language that we speak tactically that makes sense to all of us something I should have said earlier about, maybe in the conditions.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: But the first thing we should be reporting when we're given a can report because we have something to say from the inside that we need to talk about or we're being asked to give a can report is addressing.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: You know what are, what are our objectives.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: So if you have like primary all clear, then we should report that during that can report.
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: Just put that information out there, cause it helps, that helps the incident commander.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: You know track what's going on at the event.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: You know if we've got an apartment building with 15 units in it and I give an all-clear of one of the 15, that they can check that one off, we've got an all-clear of that one and then it just keeps on going.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: And then the specific terminology we use, where one word means 10 things.
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: So I've got the fire knocked down.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: Well, okay, knock down means like eight words, and if I say fire control, that means like eight words, but that one word means so much to the incident commander.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: So we always want to address that when we're giving that can report to.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: So, engine four, one on the second floor.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: We got a primary, we got the fire knocked down, we just need another company that says with overhaul, so I mean it just keeps it real clean and short, say what you got to say, and we don't need to hear a big story.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: Exactly Like knockdown.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Okay, you got a knockdown.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: Have you checked all four sides or seven sides?
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Now that's what we get to control.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Now I got fire control.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: Okay, but knockdown is good because if you got the fire knockdown you probably don't need anybody else.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Your needs are going to be pretty small.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: So, like you said, those short phrases that mean a lot of things.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: You know, we develop those actually delivering service and going and doing incident operations.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: But we really refine it to the point where it becomes like something we depend on is in training settings, because that's where we come to agreement.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: See, we talk about after action reviews.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: If this is what happened when we're doing blue card training, a lot of it is it's before.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: We haven't taken any action.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: So we're doing like a preload of the thing.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: So it's really, and what we're doing is agreeing on what we're going to do when we get there and I mean that's all.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Blue Card is in a fire department In Las Vegas.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: It's like, no, you're going to stage when the first unit gets there.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: You get assigned when they assign you.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: That's the way this works now.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: So it kind of becomes the rules for being a firefighter in that community.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: This is the way we do this, and this is what it looks and sounds like.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: So roof reports, we want eyes above the roof.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the anatomy of a roof report.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: What a good roof report will tell the IC and just what the expectations are of that company that's getting the roof report.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: So so the roof report you know the is the talking on the radio comes out in the form of a can report.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: But it's so important that the fire department train the people who are actually going to the roof on what do we really want you to do up there and what do we need to know and what do we not need to know.
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: So I've got a flat, stable roof.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: There's a firewall between the main fire unit and the Bravo exposure.
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: I got some smokes from some HVAC units.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: We've cut an inspection hole.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: There's light smoke in the attic.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: We need to be reassigned.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: You know, it just keeps it pretty simple and clean.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: All of that.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: We really don't even need to put all of that out.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: It kind of depends on what's going on at the incident.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: Right, if it might be okay to say the roof is good, there's a firewall between the main fire unit and the Bravo exposure, we're ready for reassignment.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: So you know, that's that sitting in a room, like Nick said, and within your organization, getting everybody to agree on this is what we do, and this is why we do what we do.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: But you just can't send somebody to the roof and say give me a roof report if they have no idea what they're supposed to do when they get up there or what we're really looking for.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: You know, if we go to Gold Star Chili on fire in Cincinnati Ohio.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Save Gold Star Chili.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: Four nights ago.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: They didn't save it.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: We don't save those restaurants.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: They all go down Pulled up 30 feet in the air.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: So I mean it was defensive from the get-go.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: So they made some good decisions.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: That was good.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: But if I go to Gold Star Chili, well I'm expecting that there's going to be some HVAC units up there.
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: You don't need to report that to me.
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: We know that in our region that every one of those restaurants has HVAC units up there.
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: But what I do want to hear about is if there's something up there that's not normal, like this commercial business has been converted from a retailer that just had stock going in and out to now it's a woodworking shop with a giant dust collector on the roof.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: That's something a little different, right?
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: So that's the stuff we want to hear.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: So when we're talking about roof reports, that's what that is, and then you know we could talk about.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: We could probably talk about roof reports for all five building types.
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: But if we talk about big box, the roof report really isn't so much it's not getting on the roof at all.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: Really, if we're dealing with tilt slab, what's going on with those walls?
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: What does that look like?
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: And then what's going on with the roof?
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: What does it look like?
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: We don't need to be climbing around on the roof of Walmart that, depending on what part of the country you're in, is covered in solar panels.
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: You know, we're looking at what is going on with the walls and what was going on with the roof.
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: Do we have a bunch of smoke coming from any space?
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: Do we have fire coming from anywhere?
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: So I mean that that's the roof report piece.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: You know it would depend too.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: It's sometimes it's obvious.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: You pull up.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Well, on the on the last podcast we talked about the fire in the thrift store.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Well, when you pulled up, you knew what it was.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: You said, ok, I've got a large one-story building with a bow-strung roof on top of it.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: If I get a working fire in the attic, it's defensive, I'm going to pull everybody out and it's going to collapse within the next five to ten minutes.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: That's what this thing looks like.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: There's a building in Phoenix, at 12th Street in Glendale.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: It's a strip mall, it's an old part of the town and there was a Circle K that anchored the corner of the strip and then it had like six or seven occupancies one way and two or three the other.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: We were out doing something.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: I did this 100 years ago, taking pictures of roofs.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: We put our ladder up and we see that that is a bow strung roof over that circle.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Hey, that doesn't happen.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: They are all parallel cord truss roofs.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: There's no bow.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: So that's the deal.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: If you had to work an attic fire and you didn't know it was the IC, I would put lines underneath it to try to put it out, because parallel cord trusses don't fail like a Bowstrung does.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: That just doesn't happen.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: And if there's a, you know, if it's a small fire, there's a chance of putting it out.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: We looked at that and we made a note in the dispatch thing for that address and said if you ever get a fire in this building, you have got to check the attic above the Circle K because if you don't it will collapse 30% of this building.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: So it's stuff like that that would be a surprise you don't want as the IC.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: So if the ladder company comes back and says, hey, we got a bow up here, what I wanted to know from the ladder, especially at the end of my career, is what the status of the attic was.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: That's all I wanted to know from them.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: Is the attic clear?
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: Let me know if the attic's on fire.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: If it isn't on fire Other than that, then forget it.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: Josh said it.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: I know what the dead loads are.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: I know what kind of roof decking looks like.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: I've worked on a ladder long enough to figure out what the hell you're doing up there.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: Just let me know if I got an attic fire or not and if the conditions look like it is.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: That's what I'm going to default to.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: So, unless you give me some good news, we're going to do this in a different strategy than we had started off with.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: So Nick said it about the roof report.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: And is there fire in the attic or not?
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: About the roof report and is there fire in the attic or not.
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: So if, if a company of ladder four to command roof report, it's probably going to be good news, it's not going to be something that's crazy.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: But if it's ladder four to command priority traffic, the incident commander that priority traffic word catches the incident commanders You're like, oh, something's going on.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: That's a priority and critical are very close.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: He's going to give me a priority critical factor now that means something and it also catches the ear of all the companies.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: So if I'm inside in ladder four to command priority or priority traffic from the roof, it's like, oh, what is going on up there?
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: They're going to tell us something pretty important.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: So if it's a, if it's ladder four to command roof report, it's probably good news.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: A lot of four command priority traffic, it means something totally different to everybody on the fire ground the incident commander and all the companies.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about other priority traffic that can come out.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: That's a good segue.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: What?
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: else could we learn from priority traffic?
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: And a word that catches everybody's ear and it means something and typically it's tied to we can't do something or something is not working or there's something bad.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: So engine three to command priority traffic.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: Go ahead, engine three, we've pulled ceiling, we've got a working attic fire.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: We need another company with a hand line that says to fire control.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: Well, when I say priority traffic, it catches commands here.
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: Hopefully everybody else in the fire ground shuts up.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's what it's in a system where everybody can get in a room and agree and they're trained and getting on the same page.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: When somebody says priority traffic, everybody else should shut up and listen.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: And if I'm on deck and I hear priority traffic, I'm like let's listen up to this, because there's a good chance we're going to be assigned to do something.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: And it's a priority area.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and a priority area.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: So it's we're going to go get, we're going to have some, we're going to have some fun, likely.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: So that word means something Priority traffic is emergency traffic for task and tactical level units.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: See, it used to be that you would ask for emergency traffic.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: It screws the incident up if anybody other than the IC manages emergency traffic because mostly the IC does that midpoint revision to change the strategy.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: That's how we do that.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: It doesn't work for the roof sector to change the strategy.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: The IC does that because they're in charge of everybody.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Priority traffic was a mechanism to give that ability to non-ICs to break into the radio.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: So if I've got critical priority traffic, I could, I can break into anything probably other than emergency traffic from the incident commander.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: So I just wait till whatever whoever's done talking, I just get a priority ladder one with priority traffic, boom.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: So the IC, like Josh said, that's.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you something you need to know that's going to affect you will change your incident action plan once I give you priority traffic.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: And priority traffic is.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Let's drill down a little bit on what that would be.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: It's stuff that's going to change the IAP.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: When you have needs, immediate needs, that are reinforcements.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: What else so?
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: very specific Fire in a void space.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: It's a big deal.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: It got outside the box, it's into a void space, it's into the structure.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: That's where they hide the structures in the voids.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: So once the voids are on fire, the structure is going to start falling apart.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: You found a victim, that's a big deal.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: You can't find the seat of the fire or you stretch short and you can't make it to the seat of the fire, that's a big one.
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: Working fire in any void space you know for inside or outside, or the roof or wherever that may be Any type of imminent safety factor that's going to affect the incident action plan.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: On the fire ground cracks and walls, sagging floors, sagging roofs all of that is stuff that you would normally say would be emergency.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: I get priority traffic like that.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: I got a sag in the roof.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: Command to alarm, give me emergency traffic.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: That's what we're going to do next.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: I won't even acknowledge it.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: Probably.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: Get off now.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: Command to alarm, this is what we're doing.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: I'm going to get everybody out of the way before this incident can kill them.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: That's why we have priority traffic.
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: And that word helps when we train everybody on the same page with it.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: When somebody says priority traffic, you know I said I'm going to say it again it tells everybody else to shut up, but it's a really good way for the incident commander to be able to process information also.
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: So we hear it.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: On the fire ground, you know, two companies key up engine four to command and then right after that ladder seven to command.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: Well, who do you answer?
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: Well, you're if that's what.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: If that's how it came out, you're probably going to answer engine four.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: But if I hear engine four to command priority traffic, ladder seven, status change, I'm answering engine four.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: It's priority traffic, the status change can wait.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: Right there they're just probably they've either completed an assignment, they're just ready to recycle, ready to come out.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: You know, it's not anything imminent.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: It's probably going to change my immediate incident and action plan.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: They might need to be replaced, but just using those front-end words, priority traffic or status change it means something and it helps the incident commander be able to prioritize how they're going to answer who they're going to answer on the radio.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: Well, engine 7 is reporting a single status change.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Engine four is has information that will cause multiple status changes while we're there, what is a status change and why is that important that we not only make that part of our hail traffic but also part of our training and blue card?
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: so status change is simply the word that we use that starts that radio traffic of.
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: We've likely either completed a task and we're ready to be reassigned, or we're leaving a location and it always requires the strategic IC or that tactical boss to track and change the location of where that company is operating.
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: So you know, engine four to command status change, go ahead.
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: Engine four we were on the second floor, we were just hitting a few hotspots.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: Engine two is still on the second floor.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: We're low on air.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: We're coming out to recycle.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: Well, it's just clean.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: Engine two is still up there.
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: I gave them all the information they need to know.
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: Command doesn't need to talk to engine two now because I just told them what's going on with engine two.
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: But command knows I'm coming out and that's going to require a change on that tactical worksheet in the car.
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: So so, as far as strategic accountability, where's that company now?
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: So that status change piece is just a piece of uh.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: It tells command to look at their, their, their worksheet because the company's moving location.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: It might mean that I'm going from the first floor to the second floor, I'm changing location and I want people to know if I'm the company.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: I want the incident commander to know where I'm at, and I'm going to communicate it via the radio because now everybody knows where I'm at.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: So if something does happen, well, the last known location was they had changed and now they're on the second floor, so that that's how we use status change.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: So it might mean uh, I was assigned to a exposure at a strip mall to check for extension, get an all clear check for extension.
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: Well, we go in and it's, there's an all clear.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: There's nothing inside the space, there's not a lick of smoke in there.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: So I could use status change.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: In that case of you know engine four to command status change.
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: We got an all clear there's nothing inside the space, there's not a lick of smoke in there.
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: So I could use status change in that case of you know engine four to command status change.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: We got an all clear of the Bravo one exposure.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: There's no, no extension, no smoke here.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: We're ready for reassignment.
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: So it's just another really clean way to communicate and it all comes out as a can report in the form of a can report, but we just use that word in the beginning.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: That means something to everybody when they're trained.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: Well, there's different deployment statuses that companies have.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: So, starting off before the dispatch, you're available in quarters, you can be available on radio, you're monitoring the dispatch channel, doing whatever you're doing, driving around town, aiq available on radio.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: Now you're assigned to an incident, so you would be responding basically.
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: So you go from available in quarters, you're dispatched, you hit whatever technology you need to to acknowledge that and now I'm responding to the call.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: Your next status change, if you're not there first, is you're going to stage.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: I'm going to go into level one, staging as much so it takes me from responding to on the scene.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: But because I got there later, I have to stage to get an assignment from the IC.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: I go from level one staging to assignment by IC.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: So engine four is stage west Command.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Engine four I want you to establish a water supply to Charlie advance, an attack line for fire control.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: So now you go from stage to in Charlie I'm working.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: Once you get into a working position, you're following the standard company work cycle and that is working on deck or recycling.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: So those are your three statuses for assigned companies.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: Then, once I get done with that, it's rehab.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: So that would be my status.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: I'm in rehab now rehabbing until I can be available for assignment on the incident again.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: Typically in my system, like when you got to that, you went through a formal rehab and then you got released from the scene and you went back into service.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: Now, today it's a little different.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: I've been retired for a while and now what they're doing is before you leave you have to do some decon to get the cancer off of your stuff.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: So that's a new status deal and so I'm going to do X, y and Z until whatever happens next.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: So those status changes become just the regular pegs that you put companies in the dispatch, the alarm room or dispatch center, whatever the hell you want to call them.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: That's where they would keep track of all that all the time that goes away.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: The IC becomes a real-time record keeper when you're doing an incident operation.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: So you have all your assigned companies and you know their statuses at that point.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: But those just become the regular cubicles that we fill one way or another of what we're doing at any given time in the day.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: So we've covered what is originated from inside IDLH by companies on a portable radio status changes, roof reports and priority traffic.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: The highest rung of those that can be transmitted, of course, is a Mayday right.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: That's another one which we've talked about at length, but just the importance of the Mayday traffic.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: Let's hit on that real briefly, since we've hit it so much Otherwise the reason we're doing all of the rest of this is so that the radio is open when we have mayday traffic, and we're doing it really to prevent the mayday.
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: So if you get priority traffic from a few different spots, there's probably some red flags like, eh, this isn't going so well.
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: What strategy are we in?
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: So when we're just talking specifically about communications though, mayday, mayday, mayday this is engine four.
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: We're on the second floor.
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: Firefighter Smith, I'm entangled in wires, I'm below 50% on air.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: I need somebody to come and get me.
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: Well, it just comes out in the form of a can report, so it's pretty simple.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: So the way we answer radio traffic, the most important one, like you said, is Mayday traffic.
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: The next one under that is priority traffic.
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: Really, the next one after that is status change, and then we might have level one, and then you might end up with level two, staging and beyond that.
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: That's kind of like how you would answer, how you would answer those companies.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: See, but?
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: But status changes become very critical, especially at midpoint in the incident operation.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: So let's say you throw a mayday in there.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: Okay, I got a mayday and I processed that.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: They gave me the mayday can report is the ICI acknowledged it and I declared it with emergency traffic and I did whatever needs they needed.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: Let's say that the ladder now this has all happened and now the ladder's on the roof and they need to be reassigned.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: Well, they're like well, there's a Mayday, I shouldn't.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: Or a company gets to the scene and they need to level one stage.
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: Well, I can't do that because it's so important.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: No, you need to do that.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: So the IC knows that they have fresh resources that are ready to be repackaged, to be deployed again.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: So it becomes and again I think, where we really refine that routine is in a training setting like this, where you can talk about it and say this would work better, no, this would work better.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: And so you get it from the strategic, the tactical and the task level and that's really kind of it becomes very important, once you do that in a classroom, that you reinforce that by taking it out into the street and doing hands-on training with it, where it's not just the chief now that's wearing a clean white shirt in a simulator.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: Now they're wearing all their shit and they're in the warm zone of a division that we set up in a training setting so they get to do it hands-on that way too.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: That's the only way you can make sense out of it.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: If you just do it in a classroom, it's going to be really rough.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: The first three or four fires you have, because that's where you're doing the final training.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: You think?
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: No, we need to do that in a more sterile, controllable setting.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: I think another point to hit on too before we wrap this discussion up which has been awesome is this is all acted out on the radio Once we have companies working in IDLH.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: We don't want face-to-face traffic between the IC and other companies that are going to work.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: We want it to be clear to everyone on the fire ground what those assignments are.
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: Going to the car and talking to the chief is not a good thing.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: It's horrible because you, first of all, you separate them from managing the incident.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: They're doing a one-on-one conversation with somebody at the command post now and like sometimes they'll say, well, no, the second BC, just come to my rig and I'll give you the assignment.
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: I'll whisper it in your ear.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: Well, no, you're going to give them a division and there's already companies working in that division.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: You got to do it over the radio, so they're expecting, and that chief knows who they got.
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: And you don't pull the IC out.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: The senior advisor's job is to make sure the IC is always engaged with the tactical channel and the strategic view of the incident.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: There's no conversation.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: The personnel chief doesn't get to come in and give them their rating during the fire.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: It's not the way the shit works.
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so they've got to stay engaged on the radio period.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: There's no sitting down and having a fireside chat with the chief from next door.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: That's the senior advisor's job and we'll cover that in a future podcast.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: Command function number five.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: It's so important communications and we scratched the surface here today.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: But if you want more information, we've got it in the show notes.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: You can contact one of us.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: You know, John Vance, it's the secret to a good marriage and a well-run fire is communications.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: And before we go, let's check in with a timeless tactical truth.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: We've got our timeless tactical truths deck of cards here.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: We'll shuffle them up and pick one out, and this is the Ace of Diamonds.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: And it says use strong, quick, automatic command assumption to eliminate any zero impact period.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Strong, quick, automatic command command assumption.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: What does that mean?
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: it means uh, when the first arriver, the officer, the first driver, when they get to the scene they automatically uh take command of the event and they become the ic and that zip period is uh operational.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: So it's for the entire response getting there.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: If the first arrival doesn't assume an established command, then what happens is there's no incident action plan and you can't revise a non-plan.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: So that initial operation, if the first one there doesn't take command, you'll get the next two or three units just coming in straight behind them and now you've got three or four units working.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: You have no idea what's going on because nobody ever established command, nobody ever implemented an incident action plan.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: They didn't identify a strategy.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: So when somebody actually gets there to establish command, zip has happened ahead of him.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: Now they may have put the fire out, but usually they haven't.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: If the first one doesn't.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: If it starts off shitty, it ends shitty.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: That is my experience in this thing.
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: So if you got a zip period, that is fertilizer for a shitty operation.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: And that wraps up this B-Shifter.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: We thank you very much for listening.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: As always, please try to subscribe.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Tell your friends if you enjoyed this episode and if you have any comments for us, check out the show notes.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: That's where you can contact either Nick, josh or myself.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: Until next time, thanks so much for being here and please be safe.