First Published 8/23/03

My day job is as a safety director for a large company. My duties encompass all of the loss control issues, including worker injuries.

Because of my specialty, I am a member of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE). As a benefit, I get a monthly copy of Professional Safety magazine. In the July issue, there was an article entitled Risk Taking Among Firefighters-Identifying Key Attributes For An Incident Commander.

Many of us have participated in discussions about those traits that we look for in our fire service leaders. Though the article limits its scope to incident commanders, I believe that the same holds true for all officers-company officers and chief officers alike. And I think that it all comes down to your firefighters. They will not LET you lead them if they don’t respect you and therefore, trust in you.

I would like to discuss the key components of this very interesting article. Interesting, in that; in my world as safety director, risk taking is unacceptable behavior that must be modified to reduce the likelihood of injury. But in a firefighter’s world, an acceptable risk is, well, acceptable. And therein lies the rub!

The author of the article, David L. Fender, is not from the firefighting community, so his views are taken from the professional safety perspective.

Fender begins with: Key factors in firefighter injury and death involves the risks that firefighters are willing to take in the performance of their tasks and supervisor control of risk taking. This study used focus groups made up of paid and volunteer firefighters to define the content domain of the knowledge, attitudes and practices of firefighters towards risk taking in firefighting. Results indicated that firefighters are willing to take a higher level of personal risk and may be willing to violate their training and procedures in order to save lives. The principal factors that affected whether firefighters obeyed an incident commander, even in cases of life and death, were how well they knew the individual and whether they trusted his knowledge, judgment and expertise. To keep risk taking at an acceptable level, researchers recommend that incident commanders possess the following attributes: be knowledgeable, trustworthy, self-confident, levelheaded and have mutual trust with the crew.

I have always said that firefighters will, at that critical moment where a life is at stake, take everything that they have learned, ponder it ever so briefly and make their decision; not from the head, but from the gut! They will at that moment risk their life for another’s.

In a letter to the editor of Fire Engineering magazine in 1997, retired fire officer W. A. Witt wrote: Safety must be stressed at all times, but there are times when we have to do what has to be done.

As firefighters, we understand what Witt is saying, but in “doing what has to be done”, it can sometimes expose us to unnecessary risks or at the very least, risks that did not need to be taken. The most recent example of risk taking that resulted in the supreme sacrifice of 343 of New York City’s bravest is, of course, the response to the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001. The debate will go on forever. I won’t debate it, because quite frankly, I wasn’t there and can only imagine what went through the minds of everyone who responded after the terrorist attacks.

What is known about emergencies is that there are always unknowns, so there cannot be a “cookie cutter” response. You should have written procedures. Will you follow them to the letter? Doubtful. BUT, they must be the template for your response; especially your command structure.

So; what motivates you? Why did you become a firefighter and why do you do what you do? In Buckman’s address to the International Association of Fire Chiefs in 1993, he identified three factors: achievement, affiliation and power. The very things that we take great pride in may cause us to take great risks. Fender writes that according to L. Davis: Firefighters-both paid and volunteer-join firefighting organizations for many reasons. Some want to help fulfill the need for community safety and security or in rural areas, to help neighbors. Others are attracted by the excitement, thrill and adventure. Others see firefighting as an opportunity to transform themselves into a ‘macho, death-defying hero’. Davis also describes other motivations including the hot-rod syndrome, which involves the thrill of operating fire apparatus….still others desire recognition from the community. R.D. Beaton states that firefighters frequently develop strong kinships and friendships with fellow firefighters. Corneil’s examination of traumatic stress among firefighters found that social support from coworkers had a strong protective effect from stress disorders. Additionally, teamwork and reliance on fellow firefighters in life-and-death situations provide strong reasons to support their fellow firefighters and to take risks to help them. Another factor involved in firefighter deaths and serious injuries is trust in leadership, which affects whether they follow orders from those leaders.

So, we know that firefighting is a risky business. How do company officers or incident commanders identify unnecessary risks and control the taking of necessary risks only? The primary safety concern in any occupation is personal safety first. It is stressed over and over again in firefighter training. What causes us to place our safety second? The focus groups that were used in this article yielded some interesting results on how firefighters felt about taking personal risk, when they were willing to take higher personal risk and the relationship of risk taking to supervision.

Common themes shared by career and volunteers regarding firefighting were:

• Recognize the generally high risk and risk of death
• Many unknowns in firefighting
• Unusual hours
• Sense of pride
• Saving lives is satisfying
• Helping people is satisfying
• Sense of teamwork (career)
• Lack of respect from public (volunteer)
• Lack of respect from government entities (career)
• Teamwork very important
• Saving lives is primary objective, then property
• No building is worth a human life
• Dream to be a firefighter
• Take the most risk to save a life
• Take more risk for younger victims (mixed opinion)
• Take the least amount of risk to save property
• Always assume the worst at the scene
• Highest risk taking involves saving lives
• Highest routine risk taken is driving to incident.

Common themes between career and volunteers regarding obeying incident commanders were:

• Incident commander is responsible; follow their orders
• Incident commander is responsible for the safety of everyone at the scene
• Must trust the incident commander and do what they say-lives depend on it
• Would disobey if a life could be saved
• Only disobey incident commander for a very good reason

More likely to obey an incident commander if they are:

• Experienced
• Knowledgeable
• Respected as an individual
• Trustworthy
• Self confident
• Level-headed
• Willing to listen

More likely to disobey incident commander because of:

• Lack of experience
• Not part of team
• Has a quick temper
• Non communicator
• Made too many past mistakes
• Indecisive
• Lack confidence in them
• Inattention to detail
• Too willing to put crew in danger

The author of the article states that: When a firefighter does not trust the leader’s judgment, the command structure begins to disintegrate. The firefighter starts to think on his own, disregarding the incident commander or even the good of the team and tragedy can result. Although incident commanders may prefer ‘blind obedience’ from their crew, due to Human Nature, mutual trust is more achievable. The study results and tragedies such as Mann Gulch and South Canyon all indicate that trust in leadership is critical in firefighting situations. R. A. Angulo states that based on his experience firefighters must have trust and confidence in their leadership BEFORE they will do what they are told; particularly when they think that life is at risk.

Fender concludes his article with the following: Based on the results of this study and other research, a command structure with the following attributes is more likely to achieve the best effort and most appropriate risk taking in firefighting operations:

1)    Knowledge and experience of the incident commander. The incident commander needs to be experienced and the firefighters need to know and have confidence in them.

2)    Trustworthiness. The incident commander must inspire trust in their crew. Trust is only gained over time and through working together.

3)    Mutual trust. Incident commanders must admit that they do not know everything and be willing to listen to others. Training together will boost this trust.

4)    Self-confidence. The incident commander must be aware of what they do or do not know and must ask for help when needed. When one is self-confident, there is no shame in asking for another opinion or double-checking when the information is critical.

5)    Levelheaded. The incident commander should remain calm and stay in control. They should not be afraid of making decisions and should be ready to re-think decisions when conditions change. It is not a sign of weakness to change an order when required.

As a practitioner of safety and a former chief officer of a volunteer fire department, I cannot in good conscience, advocate risk taking. But off the record, I understand why we do. I believe that there are decisions made that use our best judgment at that moment in time. Call it a calculated risk, if you will. You cannot be faulted for making your decisions based on all of the information that you have and have weighed it against the expected outcome.

Though I do not endorse the article, I do not dismiss it, either. I have brought it before an esteemed group of fire service leaders for their discussion. So please; discuss it!

As I finish this, I have posted a news article that is ironic, given its timing. The news article is entitled Moline firefighters lack confidence in chief. Read and compare.

As always, I welcome your thoughts.

And stay safe above all else!

The article as submitted is published under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella and is the intellectual property of Art Goodrich a.k.a. xchief22 and ChiefReason. It is protected by federal copyright laws and cannot be re-printed in any form without expressed permission from the author.