Not a Drill But Experience

Reporting from off scene

This, was a bloody hell of a stressful week!

This week, I was exposed to our Accountability Board and it's purpose and we became one, the board and I.  We have never met before until this particular day.  I must say, it has been quite the experience.  Yes, our Department does use an accountability board to track our firefighters while on a busy chaotic scene.  The board is set up by incident command and it's divided into quadrants that hold all firefighter's 'cards' while on scene. The main purpose is to know the location and assignment of each and every firefighter operating on scene... so one can accurately locate a missing or injured crew member when the unthinkable happens.

On this scene, I was asked to participate because "...you NEED to know this Shadow! So get the heck over here!"

A personnel accountability report also known as PAR, should be used to assure command that all crew members are accounted for and are operating in their intended locations. For example, I had to relay "...Engine 23 has PAR 4. 2 ventilating the roof and 2 on exterior fire attack!" I have learned that we never use the word PAR unless of course, all our crew members are accounted for.  Had one crew member not been accounted for, I would have relayed "...Engine 23 has one member not accounted for, last scene on fire floor." Command would then assign his rapid intervention team to the last known location of the crew member.

I was tested by being asked to provide the scenarios that would require command to order accountability to perform an emergency PAR.

• Sudden extension of fire
• structural collapse
• change in offensive to defensive operations
• PASS alarm sounding
• crew member not being heard from

All correct! More points for the Probie! I learned a lot on scene that day, an experience that I will never forget.

I would be interested to know if other Departments use an accountability board as well.

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       Shadow
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