Category: 2017 Safety Stand Down

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue (MDFR) is composed of 2,486 sworn and civilian personnel who are responsible for providing fire and EMS services to approximately 2.7 million people who live within the 2,252 square miles that make up Miami-Dade County.

In 2016, in support of the Safety Stand Down initiative, MDFR delivered seven free classes over four days to 175 students from the department as well as other local departments. In 2017, the MDFR team put together a program that included 31 firefighter safety-and health-related classes that were delivered from June 20-23. Many of the instructors are from within MDFR, but some came from other departments to participate. All of the classes were free, open to anyone interested in attending, and many of them also provided Instructor/Inspector recertification CEUs through the State of Florida.

Topics presented included: Cancer in the Fire Service, Rapid Intervention Crew Operations, South Florida Firefighting/Balancing Safety with Aggression, Ammonia Incident Response Awareness, Fire Apparatus Safety Driving Techniques, Propane Emergency Training, ICS: The Incident Safety System, Raising the Heat on Heart Disease: Cardiac Risk and Firefighting, and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation/Everyone Goes Home program “Courage to Be Safe.”

To wrap up this year’s Safety Stand Down initiative, the MDFR team also delivered the IAFF Fire Ground Survival Training Program. Additional information can be found at MDFR-training.com.

The Jackson Township Fire Department is a career department with 72 members in Massillon, OH. They ran an extended Safety Stand Down initiative from June 11-25, 2017. Over the two week period, the department covered numerous topics, including the 16 Life Safety Initiatives, the Rules of Engagement, health and wellness, departmental SOPs and SOGs, and the available Safety Stand Down training and materials. In addition, hands-on training consisted of a wire maze with limited visibility, ladder bailouts, low-profile egress, low-air management, radio communications with emergency button activation, calling a Mayday under a stressful (controlled) environment, rescuing a downed firefighter in a commercial building, forcible entry, wall breaching, firefighter drags and carries, air trans-fill drills, waist strap conversion, and webbing use, PASS alarm recognition, personal and tactical accountability, ICS, and use of ICS during a Mayday or RIT scenario.

The Safety Stand Down training exposed some weaknesses at the personal and departmental level when it comes to some of the skills and abilities. The department will address these through additional training to correct the mistakes and make sure all personnel are prepared and one hundred percent ready to respond. A second training week will be held in September to complete the H.O.T. for members that were not able to participate during the June activities. Coffee break training and weekly in-house training will also be developed to focus on some of the deficiencies.

The Jackson Township Fire Department spread the word about their Safety Stand Down activities by posting information through social media outlets as well as sharing information, training materials, and training equipment with surrounding departments.

The Safety Stand Down initiatives will have a long-lasting impact on the readiness of the department. The efforts have resulted in improvements including adding additional personnel on the fireground scene through mutual or auto aid, clarification and exposure to their new radio system’s emergency button operations, better use of the ICS system, and building a solid foundation for improving physical fitness and overall health and wellness. In addition, they are working to change some of the department’s SOPs/SOGs that may be dated or need revisions in order to reflect current strategies and tactics.

“This is the first time that our department has participated in Safety Stand Down week,” said Shawn Parsell. “Although our department is very safety conscious, we have a limited number of those ‘high hazard-low frequency’ calls. So better preparing ourselves for that self-emergency is vital to the safety and well being of our members to ensure everyone goes home at the end of the day. This training has exposed weaknesses, strengths, and left room for improvement for all involved.”

The Evesham Fire Department is a combination department in Evesham, NJ, that provides a strong emphasis on health and safety to its 80 volunteer and 34 career members. During Safety Stand Down 2017, the department provided daily training involving incident video clips, review of LODD reports related to the Stand Down topic, hands-on SCBA confidence drills, review of firefighter rescue techniques with webbing and personal escape harnesses, review of RIT SCBA and Pack Tracker, and Mayday case studies and video clips. They sent out a press release to local news outlets to make the community aware of the department’s Safety Stand Down initiatives. View full schedule and video links.

The focus on health and safety does not end with Safety Stand Down. The department will continue to emphasize firefighter health and safety, Mayday, RIC, and SCBA confidence in their annual training schedule and live fire training.

In addition, the department has an overall focus on health and safety with its PPE inspection and cleaning program, and its fireground operations protocols requiring SCBA and gas monitoring during overhaul. They also implement weight loss competitions among the staff where each participant puts in $10 at the start of the competition and the winner (greatest amount lost by percentage of total body weight) receives the money at the end.

The McWhorter Volunteer Fire Department in London, CT, focused on Mayday training during Safety Stand Down. This included making sure members understand when, why, and how to call a Mayday, and what action should be in place when the Mayday is called. Members were also trained on self-rescues. In addition, the department is working on developing and enhancing guidelines for when the Mayday is called by dispatch.