HARRY R. CARTER, Ph.D., MIFireE

Over the past thirty years, I have attended literally thousands of fires. These incidents have occurred on three different continents and in a wide range of climatic zones. Each of these fires has one thing in common with all of the others. Each was an educational experience.

However, there has been a problem. It comes from the fact that there was no structured way in which to profit from all of these incidents. In our particular case, the mechanism for improvement came from a studied approach to professional development. Many moons ago, I consciously decided that I would maximize the impact of any event to which I was exposed. And it has worked well.

I have worked to combine a study of the field of fire protection, with an independent reading program. I have consciously compared the events experienced during my career with the facts we have read. I consciously adjusted my actions based on my range of experience, as modified by my studying and my education.

That is what I wish to share with you. It is my desire to lay out a structured approach to learning from your fireground experience. In that way, you will be able to profit from the periodic exposures to danger that you will face in the emergency service world.

I am suggesting that you and your fire department develop a Post Operations Critique procedure. This procedure would require you to assess your performance while the facts were still fresh in your mind. And you would be required to do it in standard fashion. In this way you could compile a history of lessons learned.

The good part about an identifiable history, is its availability for future study. It has long been my experience that a fire officer improves through a multi- phased course of professional development. We are suggesting that a fire department training program employ the following stages:

• Basic drill school
• Fire department in-service training program
• Fire department general operating guideline system
• Fire department officer candidate training
• Studies at the community college level
• Studies at the college or university level
• A post-fire critique system

It is my opinion that the post fire critique is a critical element in any fire department’s training program. It allows for a review of procedure. It also allows for a comparison to expected outcomes, based upon existing knowledge (wherever acquired) and guidelines.

Let us take a look at the values attributed to post-fire critiques.

• They allow responders to get a clear idea of the effect of their actions on the operation.
• By comparing expected outcomes, to the actual consequences, fire personnel can make personal and organizational adjustments.
• By assessing what worked, with what did not, improvements can be made.

People will come to understand that their actions can, and do, generate outcomes. They will then come to understand that by changing operational inputs, you can affect change to operational outputs.

Another critical area for improvement comes from the impact of teamwork on an emergency incident. People will come to know whom they can trust. The opposite will also become instantly obvious. Fortunately, the critique process allows for the identification of problems like these. Team-building training can then be undertaken to improve inter-and intra-unit operations.

A critical component of every fire department operation occurs at the skills delivery level. Hoselines need to be stretched, ladders must be raised and water pumped. It gets more complicated, of course, but these are the basics that must be mastered.

A post-incident critique allows for the identification of problem areas in the deployment and operational phases of your fireground operation. It is not just the skills of the firefighters that need to be assessed. Command decisions need to be evaluated. This re-examination should lead to improvements in your day-to-day delivery of suppression services.

Take for example the case of an un-raised aerial ladder. During the post-fire critique phase of an operation, you become aware of a problem. You discover that your first-due aerial ladder failed to raise its ladder to the roof. You find that critical vertical ventilation by the first-due truck company went undone and the structure suffered severe damage.

As a result of this discovery, you decide to take action. Wisely, you decide to discuss this matter with the officer from that unit. During his discussion with you, he identifies that the aerial could not be raised because of problems with overhead wires. You mention that the task could have been done with ground ladders. And the officer responds that he made the decision to go into the building in force on a search and rescue mission.

It then becomes obvious during your discussions that the problem was not the un-raised aerial. It was a communications matter. The officer from the aerial should have notified the Incident Commander that one operational task was being substituted for another. Had that information been delivered and acknowledged, alternative actions could have been take to insure a better overall service delivery level.

It is in ways such as this that a post-fire critique can refine your overall operation. There are a number of things that can be improved by an immediate post-fire review:

• Improve individual performance
• Improve team work and coordination
• Teach importance of teamwork
• Use it to avoid accidents
• Learn how to do things better

Now that we have an idea of what post-fire critiques can do, let us take a look at how to perform them. For them to be of value, they must occur immediately after the emergency is fully stabilized. They must occur while the lines are in place, before any breakdown or cleanup takes place.

The team commander gathers his personnel at an appropriate location and reviews the operation. The team should review their actions. Each team member needs to contribute what they did and how the did it.

Events must be allowed to unfold in a non-threatening environment. Everyone must come to an understanding of what was done and how it done. The object is to be sure that things are done better next time.

It is very important that each member of the team speak openly and honestly. This session is not for blame or apologies. It is a fact-finding session. And if the mood of the group is defensive, nothing positive will happen.

It is up to the team leader to maintain the lines of communication. The discussion needs to be upbeat and frank in its reviews of the events that have just occurred. The object is to reach a consensus on the operation and how it might be improved. Once this task is accomplished, the team can return to the task of going back in service for the next alarm.

It is at this point where the standard post-fire critique ends. I am suggesting that there are further steps that can be taken to improve the post-fire critique and take it to a new level. By doing this, you can truly turn the fireground into a training ground.

Let us now take this concept to a new level. I am suggesting that you may wish to devote an additional 30-45 minutes to your fireground learning process. Once each team has run its individual critique, the Incident Commander brings the teams together. At this point, the level of discussion will be raised from the individual teams, to the organizational response team as a whole.

Re-run the procedure by walking the teams and leaders through the overall process. What the IC needs to do is improve the overall team commitment to enhanced service delivery. Once the companies have bonded as individual units unto themselves, the IC must strengthen the delivery team in total. By doing this, the fireground can become the training ground. Why?

• The apparatus is already in place
• The teams are already in place
• The command structure which managed the incident is still in place
• If you have the right video equipment, you communications office can prepare a tape of what occurred for later classroom review

By using all of the above criteria to their fullest advantage, you can begin to extract lessons from your operations. You can then use these lessons to make your operations better. You can use them as the basis for research into operational enrichment.

I have prepared some tips to assist you in deciding on how to use this critique methodology. To help you assess whether it will fit into your game plan.

Let us first look at the Cons.

• You would be spending more time out of service.
• You might need to cover you stations with mutual aid for longer periods of time.
• Someone would need to fund the electronic hardware to make this work.
• You would have to find ways to keep this whole system from being taken too lightly.
• The training department would have to work to keep the culture positive and constructive.
• The department would have to plan and budget for the operational change.
• Where necessary, mutual aid agreements would need to be modified to cover the extra time on the scene.

However, on the plus side we can list the following as valuable positive influences:

• Firefighters would be given a new medium for developing individual and team skills and spirit.
• People would begin to focus on effectiveness
• People would learn to better communicate their ideas and experiences. This would lead to improved safety.
• This training mechanism would lead to operations that are more disciplined and predictable.
• Operations would evolve into better-organized events.
• Fire and emergency response operations would move toward a safer direction.
• There could be a potential for risk and injury reduction, with a chance for fewer firefighter deaths.
• People would have the opportunity to introduce new operations based upon their discussions of existing methodology.

In this paper I have outlined a way to use existing people and events to create new training opportunities. Fires are on the decline in many parts of the United States. But we still need to know how to combat uncontrolled fires.

By combining the Post Fire Critique with a program of drills, training and education, you can adopt a pro-active approach to improving your suppression operation. You owe that to your troops. And you owe it to the citizens who are paying the freight. So give it a shot.

The commentary in this column does not necessarily reflect those of Firehouse.Com, Firehouse Magazine, their employees or parent company Cygnus Business Media. Harry R. Carter, Ph.D., MIFireE, is an internationally known municipal fire protection consultant and contributing editor to Firehouse Magazine. He recently retired as a Battalion Commander with the Newark, New Jersey Fire Department. His commentary appears regularly on Firehouse.Com. For more commentary and information, visit Carter's web site at www.harrycarter.com Harry has published several books available for online ordering, including Firefighting Strategy and Tactics and Management in the Fire Service