Should "Battalion Aides" Be Neccesary Staff?

[x635 4,066]

Some larger cities have "Battallon Aides", to drive the Shift Commander around. A lot of Battalion aides are FF's on light duty or with a lot of seniority.

I feel that in today's day and age, a "Battallion Aid" should be a standard role in the career department. Although we struggle to staff hoselines, I believe the Battalion Aid gets the Chief to the fire quickly and safely, and assists with IC duties on the fireground. This allows the Shift Commander to review pre-plans, consider mutual aid resources, hazards, apparatus placement, firefighter safety, and all the other things that need consideration enroute.

With MDT's becoming used more and more for CIDS and other uses, the SC needs to be focusing on that to get a "head start", and not on driving or navigating.

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[hudson144 150]

A few years ago in a report issued I believe in Washington DC after a LODD the report stated that the Battalion Aide is an important roll to the IC. If the BAttalion Chief has a good aide and the aide position is properly utilized the aide can keep the IC free to concentrate 100 % on the incident. The Ic does not have to worry about communicating non essential info that can handled by the aide and given to the IC . There are many benefits that I am sure others can mention.

Edited November 23, 2008 by hudson144

[x635 4,066]

Are you asking or telling???

I'm telling my opinion, and asking for others.

[batt2 145]

The Battalion Aide is invaluable. The Aide acts as liason with the company officers at the scene and with agencies that approach the Command Post. I am lucky to have one who is a great firefighter with whom I worked on the company level and I trust his judgement. He knows the city thoroughly and he has great mechanical skills. I can't move too far from the Command Post since I have to be accessible and have to keep an eye on the overall picture. I can dispatch him to an area of the fire scene and get a sizeup of the situation. He keeps communications with dispatch freeing me to concentrate on fireground communications. I don't want to miss a report from the people in the building for safety reasons. It's sad to see aides referred to as "drivers" since that's an oversimplification.

[hudson144 150]

Very well put Batt 2 !!!

[Bnechis 3,961]

Some larger cities have "Battallon Aides", to drive the Shift Commander around. A lot of Battalion aides are FF's on light duty or with a lot of seniority. I feel that in today's day and age, a "Battallion Aid" should be a standard role in the career department.

NFPA 1710 also feels its important, thats why it is required in this standard.

We have moved away from the term "Aide" after a previous City Manager (with a history of cutting other FD's) wanted to know why DC's needed drivers (when he didn't have one?). We now utilize the term "ICT" or Incident Command Technician, which in addition to the duties listed by others here, is responsible for setting up and maintaining info on the command board.

[Guest TOYBUFF911]

Anyone who has operated at a large scale incident knows they need someone who they can trust to gather intel and provide support to him so he can do his job. Im sure the stat's don't show aides as the unsung hero's of the fireground providing that extra pair of hands in a time of need.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

Hudson took the first thing that came to my mind as well with the Washington D.C. LODD that occurred in a townhouse.

I also believe in that some cases some departments achieve this role or some of the responabilities mentioned of such a role just through the IMS and assigning an officer or another chief officer into that basic role or function.

[Remember585 815]

In Vollywood where I hail from, we obviously don't have Chiefs Aides, but a position similar to this needs to be established at any larger incident. Luckily in my department, I can always rely upon most of our Company Officers and most of our Deputy Chiefs to be additional eyes and ears on our scenes. I can stay at my car / Command Post and not even see the scene knowing these guys are going to paint a picture of it for me and keep me up to speed on what is happening. As much as I prefer to see what is going on all the time, I know it is vital to the operation to stay put and not roam around. I can tell you from responding as a FAST for 10 years that sometimes we need to send out a Recon team just to find the IC and it is beyond annoying and makes us even more alert because, let's face it, without accountability of your IC, how much accountability do you have of your people?

I've been to dozens of incident scenes in career department areas, and can tell how important the Aides are to the IC. I would hate to see any of the career departments that have them lose them, and those that don't have them I would hope could get them at some point to help their operations.

[NJMedic 96]

I've been to dozens of incident scenes in career department areas, and can tell how important the Aides are to the IC. I would hate to see any of the career departments that have them lose them, and those that don't have them I would hope could get them at some point to help their operations.

In this day and age its hard enough just keeping the chiefs much less the aid/driver/IMT! :angry:

[AFS1970 504]

A few years ago, I was able to see how this position works in Tulsa, OK. They have an interesting take on it. They have Battalion Chiefs and the aide is a Captain, who is on the BC promotion list. When they are both working, it is a kind of apprenticeship program. The night I was there, the Captain was out, and the Chief was driving himself. That is a way they keep down the overtime. Conversely, if the Chief is out, the Captain is the Acting BC and also drives himself.

Interesting concept, but it does of course allow for too many days without the services of an aide. I also don't know if it has changed or not since I was there.

[mfc2257 464]

To follow up on REMEMBER585's comments regarding Vollywood, I believe chief's aids on the fireground are just as important to a volly chief as they are to one who is on the job.

There are plenty of resources available to the volly IC once he/she has arrived at the scene. In Vollywood, most M/A companies arrive with at least one chief if not more. When getting a roll-call from communications about incoming units, it is valuable to ask about incoming M/A chiefs. As the IC is setting up his command, assign the first in volly chief as your IC aide and have him report to your clearly announced/identified command post. Although this individual cannot drive you to the scene, he/she can take over many of the duties that are cumbersome moving forward such as communicating between the water supply division, utilities, assigning other chiefs to divisional roles, carrying out the IC's individual orders, etc. This allows the IC to keep his eyes on the scene.

Another resource is the Battalian Coordinator in Westchester. When they arrive, use them for more than just incoming M/A communications... Have them act as your Aide. They are usually ex-chiefs with a salty career of working big jobs.

As a volly IC it is just as important to have help running a job. You can accomplish many of the same goals by using resources available to you shortly after your arrival as a Career BC has through their full time aide. It may not be exactly the same, but assigning a M/A chief or junior officer with years of fireground experience, or the Battalian Coordinator as your Aide on the FG will free up your ability to generate a positive outcome in the shortest amount of time.

[hudson144 150]

In most Vol depts they have a chief and 2-3 asst Chiefs,in the absence of the capt or lieuts to work inside assigning the jr a/c is fine inside,when you have the jr officers inside the other Chiefs IMO should be outside assisting the Chief by either covering a sector of the bldg or assigned a task such as a safety officer,water supply officer etc. Stay outside and command where it is needed.

* Not to mention-these days with limited manpower the average dwelling fire between fast teams,manpower from other depts requested,"fast teams put to work" another team called to replace the 1st team you might have 9-12 chiefs on the scene after all the requests hae been filled. Assign them to be your eyes n ears etc.

Edited December 19, 2008 by hudson144

[mfc2257 464]

In most Vol depts they have a chief and 2-3 asst Chiefs,in the absence of the capt or lieuts to work inside assigning the jr a/c is fine inside,when you have the jr officers inside the other Chiefs IMO should be outside assisting the Chief by either covering a sector of the bldg or assigned a task such as a safety officer,water supply officer etc. Stay outside and command where it is needed.

I totally agree... My point is that there are many resources available to the volly IC to tap for a defacto aide. I think most often what happens is that they don't assign someone to this specific task and are left with doing it themselves, OR someone takes on the task informally (read: ineffeciently) and the effective use of an aide is lost.

In short:

Career BC Aide is an invaluable resource.

Volly IC needs to take 30 seconds to establish a dedicated Aide on the scene to assist with functional role of command. Many resources to pull from, the IC just has to take the time to do it instead of the "I'll handle it all" tunnel vision approach.

[Remember585 815]

Well, ironically, we had a fire last week and this thread came to mind afterwards.

I arrived late on the scene, a Deputy Chief (Nee: Dad) was the IC. We did an exchange of command, putting him in charge of Ops. I requested our Command board to aid me in running the job. Now, it was a smaller job that could of been worse (building construction, illegal work, etc.) but I always try to coordinate things in anticipation of it going bad.

The Rescue chauffer brought me the board and legs and I started to set it up. One of my other Deputy Chiefs told me, "Don't worry about this, I got it, run the call." So he drew out a basic footprint, dropped the magnets into place and stayed next to me to assist me. I had the fortune of using three reliable Ex-Chiefs to keep an eye on all sides of our incident, and had Ex-Officers and Officers inside doing the grunt work.

Just thought I would share this "success" story.