Staying aware and safe both on or off the job is imperative to everyone’s safety. You and your firefighters need methods to enhance fireground safety as a unit.
Every job that works the frontlines comes with many risks, but firefighters face the most, especially when going head to head with buildings. As you begin to make the necessary preparations with your crew, try out these select ways to make fireground operations better for everyone on your fleet.
Upgrade Radio Technology
Radio technology is an essential tool to communicate with everyone on the force, including those on higher floor levels.
Workers need to have the most updated technology to get all communications across properly during any fire emergency.
There is technology readily available to firefighters and their crews. Work with a technology company to develop heat- and water-resistant radios that can carry a signal even if you’re up high in a building or elsewhere. Without enhancing your radios, you risk many things, such as injury on the job.
Keep all your workers trained by holding training sessions and workshops on the best ways to respond to an emergency and use the devices properly.
Practice Communication
Communication is essential. However, when using your devices to communicate, it’s crucial to determine the best practices to work on with your team.
For example, there may be certain code words you use or commands, but everyone must know how to use them, not just a select group of individuals.
When working on communication in the firehouse, ensure that everyone can collaborate to find the proper practice to adopt.
Improve Situational Awareness
Another way to improve your fireground operations is to make situational awareness more critical. For example, workers would need to broadcast a message to all local emergency services and send out coordinates to the emergency location.
Utilizing systems to document the location and the state of danger makes it easier to alert local authorities. GPS helps direct all emergency crews to the incident site and shows local resources they can use to combat fires, such as fire hydrants and fire stations.
The map shows local weather, infrastructure, and other components needed to learn and map out the surrounding area when using your GPS. In the case of severe weather, the GPS can alert firefighters when it’s time to move out if the emergency becomes too dangerous.
Document Your Town’s Blueprints
Knowing the surrounding area of every town within a twenty-mile radius of you helps with navigating the site. So, the final thing to do when improving operations on the ground is to install management software that stores all blueprints of towns, wooded areas, buildings, and more.
These documents should be routinely updated and used to practice your communication methods with your radio technology.
As you work, ensure that you have updated technology and critical firefighter safety equipment before doing any job. Knowing these ways to improve fireground operations can help prepare you for your next emergency. Keep yourself and every crew member safe by applying this guide to your operations safety practices.