OG 4045 Risk Management- Incident Command

Issued By: OPERATIONS (S. Thurber)    
Approved By: Fire Chief William H. Mosher
Date of Issue: 2011/01/05


PURPOSE: 

The Incident Commander (IC) is the Risk Manager at all scenes and is responsible for firefighter safety. This guideline provides IC’s and other members with guidance on:

•    Our risk philosophy (tolerable and intolerable risk);
•    A model to risk assessment using risk factors encountered at fires and other emergencies; and;
•    Guidance on the acceptable tactical responses to various risk levels.

OBJECTIVE:

Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency members of HRFE will have a complete understanding of the acceptable tactical response to various emergency incidents depending upon the current risk level associated with such emergency.

SCOPE:

This operating guideline applies specifically to the Incident Commander at emergency scenes but as this position may change between members it is recommended that all career and members review and understand the procedure to be followed.

DEFINITIONS: 

•    “Hazard” means a thing or condition that is or could be harmful.

•    “Risk” means the probability that firefighters may come into contact with a hazard and the degree and severity of harm that will occur if they do.

•    “Risk Assessment” means the process of evaluating the presence and severity of risk factors at an emergency scene to determine the overall level of risk to our firefighters, and to select appropriate strategic and tactical options to minimize our firefighter’s exposure to that risk as they work. 

•    “Inherent Risk” means risk that exists regularly as a part of the job, that is fairly predictable, and from which firefighters are protected by their training, knowledge, equipment and procedures.

RISK PHILOSOPHY (Tolerable and Intolerable Risk)

Firefighters respond to emergencies to accomplish goals in the areas of:

•    Life Safety;
•    Incident Stabilization; and
•    Property Conservation.

HRFE Firefighters often employ rapid and aggressive actions to quickly accomplish these goals. This is the core of good emergency response. At HRFE, we temper our desire to serve our community with our philosophy about risk:

We will risk our lives a lot, in a deliberate and calculated manner, when savable lives can be saved. We will risk our lives a little, in a deliberate and calculated manner, when salvable property can be saved. We will risk nothing when lives and property are already lost.

We will always measure the risk against the possible benefit, and take actions in a thoughtful way to serve the community and solve the incident.

The lives of our firefighters are the first priority at every emergency. We will only risk those lives when we reasonably believe we can control the risks and the possible reward for doing so is high.

We act in a deliberate and calculated manner. We take the time we need to understand the risks and evaluate them against our goals. We don’t accept risks for which we have no protection in place.


Life Safety is always the top priority. The lives of our firefighters must be considered as a part of that thought process. Our tolerance of risk is always based on gain of what can be accomplished. We will risk our lives as firefighters a lot to protect a savable life. This is a situation where we have evaluated that there is a viable customer who is threatened or trapped by the incident hazards, and where physical rescue is possible. This is the only time we will expose a worker to a high risk, pushing the limits of our standard safety system.

Incident Stabilization is a goal, and we will risk our lives a little to protect savable property. When there is savable property that is threatened by a spreading incident problem, we will protect our workers so they can directly mitigate the incident. We will tolerate moderate risk to stabilize an incident and protect savable property.

Property Conservation is a goal, but we will tolerate low risk to accomplish this goal. The risk management plan and strong scene control must be the priority for safe operations as we work in a low risk environment.

MODEL FOR RISK ASSESSMENT

Risk assessment is a continuous process of:

•    Observing and evaluating risk factors present at the emergency scene;
•    Evaluating those risk factors against the protective measures that are in place; and
•    Determining the relative seriousness of the hazard and the risk level to our firefighters.

When doing a risk assessment for structural firefighting, Officers must consider these critical factors as a minimum:

•    Building / container characteristics
•    Construction type and size
•    Openings for emergency egress
•    Structural condition
•    Occupancy and/or contents
•    Location and extent of fire
•    Estimated time of involvement
•    Smoke conditions (volume, velocity, density and colour)
•    Risk to occupants
•    Known or probable occupants
•    Occupant survival profile
•    Firefighting capabilities
•    Available resources
•    Operational capabilities and limitations

Risk levels may be classified as high risk, medium risk or low risk. Reaction to risk (including strategies and tactics) must be appropriate to the level of that risk. Put simply, risk assessment is a constant process of asking (and answering) this question: “Is what we are about to do worth the risk if something goes wrong?” Whenever the answer is “No”, the plan has to change.

IC’s shall follow the Incident Commanders Rules of Engagement for Firefighter Safety based on (IAFC 2010):

•    Rapidly conduct, or obtain, a 360 degree size-up of the incident.
•    Determine the occupant survival profile.
•    Conduct an initial risk assessment and implement a safe action plan. 
•    If you do not have the resources to safely support and protect firefighters, adopt a defensive strategy.
•    Do not risk firefighter lives for lives or property that cannot be saved.
•    Extend limited risk to protect savable property.
•    Take calculated and deliberate risks to protect and rescue savable lives. 
•    Act upon reported unsafe practices and conditions that can harm firefighters. Stop, evaluate, and decide.
•    Maintain frequent two-way communications and keep interior crews informed of changing conditions.
•    Obtain frequent progress reports and revise the action plan.
•    Ensure accurate accountability of all firefighter location and status.
•    If, after completing the primary search, little or no progress towards fire control has been achieved, revise your Incident Action Plan (IAP).
•    Always provide resources for rapid intervention at all working fires.
•    Always provide for firefighter rehab at all working fires.

RELATED POLICIES/ OPERATING GUIDELINE:

•    OG 4046 Offensive/Defensive Strategy for Structural Fire
•    OG 4061 Firefighting operations abandoned Structures

OPERATING GUIDELINE REVIEW:

This operating guideline shall be reviewed when/if there are changes/amendments to the procedure followed for emergencies given the determined risk level.