Chapter 4

Eliminating Unsafe Acts

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Introduction

• Throughout the history of the fire service, tradition has been the backbone of operations

• “No fear” reasoning starts very early in careers

• Expected to reduce the risk as much as is feasible

• Task is to ultimately save lives and property and then stabilize an incident

• Some aspects of our tradition tend to build the foundation for unsafe practices

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Life Safety Initiative 4

All firefighters must be empowered to stop unsafe practices

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Life Safety Initiative 4

FOUNDATION OF UNSAFE PRACTICES

• New firefighters

• Trained to take orders

• Spiral into bad habits

• Unrealistic training

• Synthetic materials

• Real world attack line crews

4-4Courtesy of Richard Vandevander

Life Safety Initiative 4

FIREFIGHTER EMPOWERMENT

• Definition

• Granting permission to subordinates to exceed their normal authority

• Achieve organizational goals

• Clear line on what is permitted

• Intended to keep crew safe

Cont.4-5

Life Safety Initiative 4

FIREFIGHTER EMPOWERMENT

• McCoy’s model

• Education

• Enablement

• Empowerment

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Life Safety Initiative 4

ACCIDENTS

• Definition

• Occurrence with

tragic results

• Could not be

predicted or prevented

Cont. 4-7

Courtesy of Retired Chief Don Barnes

Life Safety Initiative 4

ACCIDENTS

• Usually predictable

• Usually preventable

• Energy conversion to injuries

• Kinetic energy awareness

• Potential energy awareness

Cont.4-8

Life Safety Initiative 4

ACCIDENTS

• Safety equipment

• PPE perceptions

• PPE limitations

• Operational redundancies

• Now commonplace

industry wide

4-9Courtesy of John Kloski

Life Safety Initiative 4

RECOGNITION OF UNSAFE ACTS

• Unsafe acts in the spotlight

• Unsafe acts in disguise

• Poor risk management

decisions

• Distraction events

4-10Courtesy of Rick Armstrong

Life Safety Initiative 4

PREVENTING UNSAFE ACTS

• Three Es

• Example: Rollover curve

applied to firefighters

• Education

• Engineering

• Environment

• Enforcement4-11

Life Safety Initiative 4

STOPPING UNSAFE ACTS IN PROGRESS

• Categorize unsafe acts

• Know how to bring up a concern

• Plan for the problem

• Speak directly to supervisor

• Speak directly to peers

Cont.4-12

Life Safety Initiative 4

STOPPING UNSAFE ACTS IN PROGRESS

• Politely request to complete a task

• Call a timeout

• Working with unsafe acts

• Post-incident critique or debriefing

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Life Safety Initiative 4

CREW RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (CRM)

• Identify and combat unsafe practices

• Allow and encourage observations

• Require involvement from all members

• Communicate respectfully

• Vital to improve empowerment

Cont.4-14

Life Safety Initiative 4

CREW RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (CRM)

• Policies and procedures

• Authority

• Checklists

• Training

• Situational awareness

• Task saturation and mistakes

Cont.4-15

Life Safety Initiative 4

CREW RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (CRM)

• Communication

• Everyone on same page

• Terminology

• Briefings

• Challenge and response

Cont.4-16

Life Safety Initiative 4

CREW RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (CRM)

• Problem solving

• Skills-based problem solving

• Rules-based problem solving

• If/then statement

• Knowledge-based problem solving

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Summary

• Teaching recruits how to identify and address unsafe acts responsibly is vital

• Vigilance with empowerment is about stopping unsafe acts or poor practices

• Promising ways to stop unsafe acts are prevention methods and crew resource management (CRM)

• Using a respectful system of challenge and response, firefighters are empowered

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