Gordon Graham
Category: Fire

Gordon Graham here with Today’s Tip from Lexipol. And Today’s Tip is directed toward our friends in the fire service and deals with responding to special rescue situations.

If you are going to rely on a special operations team to help you out in a unique situation, you still need to develop a plan for what you are going to do until they arrive.  

Not every organization in the fire service has a special operations division or a special operations team. However, many agencies rely on these teams to respond in your jurisdictions when a unique rescue or hazmat incident occurs and the situation has exceeded the equipment and training you have at home.  

There isn’t a better definition of a high risk, low frequency event than one of these kinds of incidents. More importantly, some of these incidents also do not allow the discretionary time to think it through which, if you have ever heard me talk about these kinds of events, are the ones that should keep you up at night.  

If you are going to rely on a special operations team to help you out in a unique situation, you still need to develop a plan for what you are going to do until they arrive.  

Your organization needs to pre-plan which kinds of incidents you may have to respond to.  Maybe you are in a tornado prone area where a building collapse is a threat, or you live in an area where flash flooding can occur. Maybe you work in an area that is growing rapidly with construction projects and there is the possibility of a trench collapse.  

All agencies need to pre-plan and identify who the agency is that will respond to help you when these incidents occur. Identify how long it’s going to take before the help arrives and develop response plans which identify what you can and cannot do to help until that team arrives.  

When your organization has a plan in place, these kinds of incidents can be managed and controlled safely for responders and the public.  

If you already have a plan for this kind of response, be sure you are training on the plan and reviewing it regularly. 

Now is the time to get prepared and to be ready. 

And that is Today’s Tip from Lexipol. Gordon Graham, signing off.