FSC 128 - Incident Safety Officer

1. Define the role of the Incident Safety Officer at emergency scenes.
2. Describe the regulations, standards, and policies as they apply to the ISO.
3. Define risk management in terms of incident scene safety.

1. Discuss the role of the Incident Safety Officer (ISO) within the Incident Command System.
2. Utilize various record-keeping and documentation practices of the ISO.
3. Identify the role of Risk Management as it relates to the fire service.
4. Recognize the various emergency incident safety considerations.
5. Demonstrate key communications and monitoring techniques, which are critical in handling emergency scene safety.
6. Synthesize and utilize the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to be an Incident Safety Officer (ISO).
7. Differentiate safe and unsafe actions and operations based on safety cues.
8. Identify pre-emergency measures that will reduce firefighter injuries.
9. Assess for risks that may present hazards to firefighting personnel at emergency incidents.

1. Manuals and introductions
   1. Student manuals.
      1. Issue student manual (SM). Students may want to take notes on real-life examples that the instructor or other students may offer
      2. The SM is essentially a reference work, but will be used for unit activities
   2. Individual student introductions
      1. State name, department, and position
      2. State what you hope to take away with you when you complete the course
      3. Identify an incident safety problem within your department
2. Goal, Scope and Target Audience
   1. Provide the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to be an effective Incident Safety Officer (ISO)
   2. Scope:  the correct actions for an ISO to take while functioning at an incident
   3. Audience:  Company Officers (CO’s) who are experienced in firefighter safety issues and are familiar with an Incident Command System (ICS)
3. Course Overview
   1. Role of the Incident Safety Officer
      1. Identify safe and unsafe actions and operations based on safety cues.
   2. Regulations, standards, and policies
      1. Identify applicable regulations, standards, and policies that affect the ISO
   3. Recordkeeping and documentation
      1. Identify the documentation tasks that must be performed by the ISO
   4. Risk management
      1. Define risk management in terms of incident scene safety
      2. Identify pre-emergency measures.
      3. Forecast risks that may present hazards to personnel.
   5. Incident considerations:  communications and monitoring
      1. Working within an ICS
      2. Monitoring actions at an incident
      3. Making changes to department policy and procedures based on incident outcome
   6. Personal checklist
      1. Allows students an opportunity to evaluate their departments’ ISO programs.
4. Story of the Incident Command System
   1. Impetus for the development of an improved interagency incident management system
      1. Devastating wildland fires in Southern California in the early 1970’s
      2. Examining various aspects of interagency response to incidents
   2. FIRESCOPE
   3. Evaluate acronym, which derives its name from:
      1. Fire Resources of California
      2. Organized for potential emergencies
   4. Primarily a command and control system delineating job responsibilities and organizational structure
   5. Purpose is the management of day-to-day operations for any emergency or non-emergency situation
   6. Flexible enough to manage catastrophic incidents involving thousands of emergency response and management personnel
5. National Inter-Agency Incident Management System (NIIMS)
   1. Developed by the wildland community to provide a common system for wildland fire protection agency use at local, State, and Federal levels
   2. The NIIMS organization includes the following agencies:
      1. Bureau of Land Management
      2. Bureau of Indian Affairs
      3. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
      4. U.S. Forest Service
      5. Representatives of State foresters
      6. National Park Service
   3. Consists of five major subsystems:
      1. The ICS
         1. Operating requirements
         2. Eight interactive components
         3. Procedures for organizing and operating an on-scene management structure
         4. Standardized training
      2. Nationwide qualifications and certification system
      3. Publications management
      4. Supporting technologies
   4. Need for a single ICS
      1. Inconsistencies in the system began to develop, and hybrid systems came into existence
      2. Single system is critical to effective command and control of major incidents
      3. Reduce inherent confusion that may be associated with larger scale incidents where local, State, and Federal agencies work together
   5. National Fire Service Incident Management System Consortium
      1. Created in 1990 to evaluate an approach to developing a single Command system
      2. Purpose was to determine what ICS would look like in the future
      3. Consortium consists of many individual fire service leaders, representatives of most major fire service organizations, and representatives of Federal agencies, including FIRESCOPE
      4. Identified the need to develop operational protocols within ICS, so that fire and rescue personnel would be able to apply the ICS as one common system
      5. Model Procedures Guide for Structural Firefighting
      6. First Consortium document that was completed (1993)
      7. Basic premise is that now the organizational structure found in the FIRESCOPE ICS is enhanced with operational protocols
      8. Protocols allow the Nation’s fire and rescue personnel to apply the ICS effectively, regardless of area of the country
6. National Fire Academy (NFA)
   1. Adopted FIRESCOPE ICS in 1980
   2. Has incorporated this material into its training curriculum
7. Other FIRESCOPE Model ICS applications
   1. Multi-casualty
   2. Hazardous Materials
   3. Urban Search and Rescue (US&R)
8. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) formally adopted FIRESCOPE ICS as the Incident Management System for any Federal Response
9. Summary
   1. Review administrative issues if there are any questions
   2. The ISO must have the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to perform effectively at an incident
      1. Functions of the on-scene safety officer
      2. Audience should be CO’s familiar with safety issues
      3. Safety cues
      4. This concept will be used throughout the course
      5. Safety cues are conditions or indications that the ISO needs to be aware of at an incident scene
      6. These conditions or indications could be structural, unsafe acts by personnel, or unsafe conditions
      7. The experienced ISO, when operating at an incident scene, will focus on these safety cues