Accountability - What system do you use and how does it work?

[Bnechis 3,961]

There are lots of different methods for accountability at an emergency. How do different departments do it and does it accomplish the goal of accountability?

What does your department use and how does it account for members, particularly how does it account for members in the hazard vs. support areas?

[wraftery 1,275]

Good post, Barry.

It seemed to me that in NY, we used the "WFYB" system...Whatever floats your boat. There is a myriad of systems in Westchester, each of which which may work well within your own department. However, Westchester is comprised of 56 departments, none of which can handle the really-really big one by themselves. Therefore there is a lot of mutual aid among all of Westchester.

In my many times as IC in an incident requiring outside departments, I have been presented with tags, rings, riding lists, Velcro icons, and every type of list known to man. I know that you have been in the same situation yourself. It doesn't matter as much what system is used but that the SAME system is used across the board.

Here in the Hampton Roads area the Passport system (a commercial product) seems to be the preferred system and is used well from what I hear on the radio. (White Plains uses passport also) These are not small departments. Chesapeake has a staff of about 250, Virginia Beach 450. Mutual aid is obviously not used as often as Westchester, but it seems to go smoothly when it is used.

If you are totally disgusted with the way things are in Westchester, try using the US Forest Service "T-card" system. It may be old, but it works. When a company shows up you give them a card to fill out. You then put the card where it belongs in your canvas pouch where it belongs (Staging...search...etc).

It doesn't solve the problem when your company goes out-of-town, but at least you gave him names and company that he can put in a pile with his rings and tags and hopefully when the excrement hits the rotary ventilator, he may find you in the pine of stuff on his folding table

[FDNY 10-75 640]

Each company officer is in charge of maintaining a riding list for his/her unit each day, they are placed in a pocket in the officers side door for the tour. At an incident the accountability officer collects them from the apparatus at the scene and keeps track of where units are deployed. Usually after any change in conditions (flashover, collapse, etc), mayday or mitigation of the incident, the accountability officer or command requests a PAR check and asks company by company for individual unit accountability.

[BFD1054 1,552]

My department uses the following system:

Each member is given an ID tag with the following information on it:

Members Picture

Shield number

FD name

Status (Interior, Probie, Junior)

Each apparatus is equipped with a "bear claw plate." Each hole in the plate is labelled with a riding assignment. The officer will normally dictate each members assignment and each member will then clip in to that position.

Once on scene, it is the job of the Safety Officer to collect each bear claw plate and to record the info. He or she then keeps track of members whereabouts and the time that they've been operating.

For a structural fire, once you exit the building, you are to check in and advise that you are out of the building and going to re-hab or another assignment.

We are in the process of having our radios ID'ed to correspond with dispatch. Once complete, all radios will be ID'ed for the various riding positions on each rig. This way, any and all transmissions will be monitored and we will know whos making those transmissions. This should help tremendously, especially in the event of a (god forbid) Mayday.

For example, if you are riding Truck-482 and assigned the Irons position, you will grab the 82-Irons radio.

This system works pretty well for us in my opinion.

However, as mentioned, this is not an across the board system. It works well for us, but when going M/A or receiving M/A, it may not work well at all.

Personally, i'd love to see an across the County, if not State (gasp) system be put in place. But this is New York and we'll continue to go with the flow.

[PCFD ENG58 1,085]

?

[spin_the_wheel 460]

We use a primative tag system. Like many volunteer departments. It is only as good as the self discipline of the members using it. We need a better system for sure.

This is an area volunteer departments can assign to those class "B firefighters" (whats a class B?) volunteer talk for someone who cant enter the fire building with a SCBA for various reasons. Assign that member an accountability officer, the safety officer should not be concerned with accountability tags unless a member is walking by them wearing a tag that should have been clipped onto a ring somewhere in the "support" area.

If the stuff hits the fan as stated above, it most certainly will be a cluster mess with a pile of tags to sort through.

Since this system is not the best I try to instill in my guys that there is a zero tolerance for freelancing, always work in at least pairs, or let someone know where your going if your not in postion (we pratice the OV position, with riding postions) and know how and when to call a mayday procedure. (LUNAR)

[firemoose827 324]

Color coded tags with scan bars, picture, and list of training classes (abbreviated) on back (also in scan code). Color indicates status; Interior, Exterior, MPO, EMS only. Our accountability officers have the board with rings on it, they take your tag and hang it on appropriate ring with time entered and task assigned.

The entire county is using this system and it is regulated by the fire coordinators office, you have to go there to get you picture taken and they make the tags while you wait. The county wide system makes it easier, and less confusing and it works good for us. Our county FAST has special tags as well, and they stage near the accountability officer so they can get the information they need when something goes wrong.

[SOUSGT 357]

We use color coded tags with FF name , department and picture. The color indicates his function.

As our Scott packs have pack tracker,each Scott pack also has a tag with teh number of the pack on it. When a FF arrives at the scene, he removes his tag and connects it to the pack tag. Both are then secured to the command board. The safety officer moves the tags around based on assignment.

If a pack alarm goes off, we know who has what pack and this cuts down on the roll call.

[Bnechis 3,961]

Each company officer is in charge of maintaining a riding list for his/her unit each day, they are placed in a pocket in the officers side door for the tour. At an incident the accountability officer collects them from the apparatus at the scene and keeps track of where units are deployed. Usually after any change in conditions (flashover, collapse, etc), mayday or mitigation of the incident, the accountability officer or command requests a PAR check and asks company by company for individual unit accountability.

Thanks. Who is assigned as the accountability officer?

[SageVigiles 1,194]

In Wallingford we use tag rings, simple but effective. Tags indicate whether you're a Firefighter or EMS-Only responder, (we don't have Exterior Firefighter that aren't EMS) as well as your rank, etc.

The Chauffeur's tag gets clipped directly to the ring, the Officer's tag to that, then the crew is clipped to the Officer, actually makes it pretty clear whose on first.

One of the Chiefs (career or volunteer) will end up being the Accountability Officer and will gather up the tags for the board.

[FDNY 10-75 640]

Thanks. Who is assigned as the accountability officer?

It is usually assigned to the first arriving captain or lieutenant from the operations office. Occasionally a deputy or battalion chief will assume the role.

[Alwaysinheat 26]

Color coded tags with scan bars, picture, and list of training classes (abbreviated) on back (also in scan code). Color indicates status; Interior, Exterior, MPO, EMS only. Our accountability officers have the board with rings on it, they take your tag and hang it on appropriate ring with time entered and task assigned.

The entire county is using this system and it is regulated by the fire coordinators office, you have to go there to get you picture taken and they make the tags while you wait. The county wide system makes it easier, and less confusing and it works good for us. Our county FAST has special tags as well, and they stage near the accountability officer so they can get the information they need when something goes wrong.

[Alwaysinheat 26]

Now that sounds like a great idea.....I have been asking for this in my county!

[BFD1054 1,552]

?

That's helpful lol.

[Remember585 815]

We used to have plastic engraved tags, color coded by company.

We then went to laminated ID tags, where Yellow was Exterior and Red was Interior. The person printing them did it backwards, so Interior was yellow and exterior was red.

We then went to the luggage type tags with a photo ID in the tag.

We recently ordered engraved tags again, with green for Interior, red for Exterior. The order, as it appears, has vanished in cyberspace.

One thing that has somewhat helped us was the implementation of two SOGs last year.

1. Members are to report to their stations - not to the scene. It cut down drastically how many people were showing up on a scene and jumping into action.

2. Apparatus respond and give their manpower count. Granted, it only includes Interior members, but the Exterior folks usually aren't hard to find at a scene. Now the officer on the rig has a better idea of who they responded with and can report it to the IC / Safety Officer. (For those that have wondered, when you hear our units responding Code 3, Code 5, etc. that indicates the # of qualified personnel on that apparatus.)

[SageVigiles 1,194]

Chief,

Good point, responding POV does create some inherent issues. In one of my departments we are permitted to respond POV, but all personnel are to check in with the Chauffeur of the 1st Due Truck for their tags and stand by until the IC gives them an assignment. That has cut down on the freelancing.

[FFPCogs 863]

At home:

Each member has an ID Tag which is given to the officer on each rig enroute and brought by them to the command post from each rig.

At work in a nutshell:

we use the British system where one officer or FF is assigned as the B.A. entry control man. He is stationed at the entry point and he has a log in which he writes the time and cylinder pressure of each FF entering the building. He will dictate search direction prior to entry as well i.e. "team one will enter and do a left hand search on the 1st floor, team two will enter and do a left hand search on the 2nd floor" ect ect. This info is also recorded in the log and it is all passed to the IC. Members are pulled and rotated regardless after a pre determined amount of time based on the "risk assessment" of the building and conditions..usually about 15 minutes. The ECM has the authority to pull anyone at any time as he deems necessary as well.

[wraftery 1,275]

See ? All different systems. . You made my point. Any system works within your own dept. How about on mutual aid? Not mutual.aid with your surrounding dept you work with them all time. Go to somebody's job a bit further away. It will stop working

A state system would be nice. A national system would be better A Westchester system would only be a dream

[16fire5 693]

I have commented on this before but a major down side to the hanging tag system is that it's so hard to see the names quickly. Take for instance the bear claw mentioned-you basicly need to pick up each tag to see the name.

Here's a system that seems to work very well in a volunteer department.

Passport on the rig with riding positions. Passport is in the back so members place their name tag on the passport and hand it up front to the boss. Officer places their's on the officer spot. Once on scene you hand it off to a chief on scene or leave it on the seat. Anyone not going inside has their nametags upside down. This way in the event an emergency roll call is needed you look at the passports and note the names right side up. Small boards with velcro hold passports for 1/2 alarm incidents where with a grease pencil you can note location and assignment. Large boards for larger incident. Also you can have extra passports aka phantom passports for splitting crews and the event people report to the scene. You can have blank passports for your mutual aid to track. Simply record the PAR number of personnel entering. While many were skeptical of this system when introduced it worked very well.

I have really never seen the benifit of the hanging tag system. What I want as an IC a simple way to rapidly determine who's in the building and the basics of where they are.

The above is combined with portable radios and SCBAs (Pak Tracker equipped) that are position specific.

All this needs to be combined with competent ICs with diciplined fireground crews. Staying apprised of the locations and tasks being performed is also necessary.

One thing that I have heard recently is some departments have crews announce their entrance to the building with PAR number. I think this bears consideration.

The things that will make this sucessful is strong leadership and using it everyday. If you don't use this on automatic alarms and other everyday runs you will not do it when you need to.

If you think that knowing who's inside, basically where they are, and what they're doing is too much to ask then you have no business sending your members inside.

[ex-commish 490]

I thought at one time Westchester County was going to a universal accountability system when the battalion coordinators were created. Am I wrong on this?

[Bnechis 3,961]

There are lots of different methods for accountability at an emergency. How do different departments do it and does it accomplish the goal of accountability?

What does your department use and how does it account for members, particularly how does it account for members in the hazard vs. support areas?

Thanks for the feedback. Again I must ask how these systems account for ff locations in hazardous areas?

My department uses the following system:

Each member is given an ID tag with the following information on it:........

Each apparatus is equipped with a "bear claw plate." Each hole in the plate is labelled with a riding assignment. The officer will normally dictate each members assignment and each member will then clip in to that position.

An improvement on the "ring" as you know who has what assignment, radio, pack, etc......But it only works if you have very good company integrity.

From what I have seen, very few depts. have this. So while you arrived as Eng 1 nozzle, 2 bottle changes latter Eng 1 has been split up and the officer is doing one thing, the driver is somewhere else and the nozzle is now working with eng 2. If you do not track all of this, they are still on the bearclaw (or ring or passport or riding list) and its wrong and you no longer have accountability.

I have seen this happen at most fires in Westchester. So it does not matter what current system you use, if you do not track the member from begining to end.

Once on scene, it is the job of the Safety Officer to collect each bear claw plate and to record the info. He or she then keeps track of members whereabouts and the time that they've been operating.

If the Safety officer is doing accountability, who does the safety officers job?

We are in the process of having our radios ID'ed to correspond with dispatch. Once complete, all radios will be ID'ed for the various riding positions on each rig. This way, any and all transmissions will be monitored and we will know whos making those transmissions. This should help tremendously, especially in the event of a (god forbid) Mayday.

Great idea. We have been doing this for 30 years and it is very helpful. We are about to step it up to the next level and actually track members using this.

We use a primative tag system. Like many volunteer departments. It is only as good as the self discipline of the members using it. We need a better system for sure.

You are correct. It is only as good as the self discipline of the members using it. We need a better system!!!!!

How many times have the members forgotten to use the tag, or go check the rig and find someones tag who you know has already gone home.

[Bnechis 3,961]

We use a primative tag system. Like many volunteer departments. It is only as good as the self discipline of the members using it. We need a better system for sure.

Almost every dept. is in this boat. And they all seem content that the system is working.

If the stuff hits the fan as stated above, it most certainly will be a cluster mess with a pile of tags to sort through.

Since this system is not the best I try to instill in my guys that there is a zero tolerance for freelancing, always work in at least pairs, or let someone know where your going if your not in postion (we pratice the OV position, with riding postions)

i have seen that cluster at many mutual aid jobs and its useless.

Agreed about the freelancing, but even working in pairs, if you are not advising the accountability officer (or whoever is tracking your people) where you are, then you are freelancing.

We use color coded tags with FF name , department and picture. The color indicates his function.

As our Scott packs have pack tracker,each Scott pack also has a tag with teh number of the pack on it. When a FF arrives at the scene, he removes his tag and connects it to the pack tag. Both are then secured to the command board. The safety officer moves the tags around based on assignment.

If a pack alarm goes off, we know who has what pack and this cuts down on the roll call.

Having tried to find a single tag in a cluster of 25-50 tags, I can tell you that when given a pak tracker ID # (alerted):

a) It is going to take some time to find out who it is (and compounded if multiple members are in trouble. (I think many depts never consider multiple members down).

b)Does it really matter that its ff Smith whose PASS alarm is going off or knowing where that pack is located?

One thing that has somewhat helped us was the implementation of two SOGs last year.

1. Members are to report to their stations - not to the scene. It cut down drastically how many people were showing up on a scene and jumping into action.

2. Apparatus respond and give their manpower count. Granted, it only includes Interior members, but the Exterior folks usually aren't hard to find at a scene. Now the officer on the rig has a better idea of who they responded with and can report it to the IC / Safety Officer.

Great ways to cut down on the problems ofaccountability. Sometimes this is a difficult change, good for CFD.

[markmets415 524]

_{Captain could you share what your department uses, you are always proactive so anything to aid the rest of us that actually take the time to read and listen to what you offer would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.}

[Bnechis 3,961]

_{Captain could you share what your department uses, you are always proactive so anything to aid the rest of us that actually take the time to read and listen to what you offer would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.}

Thanks.

We used riding lists for each rig. The chiefs aid would collect them at a fire. In the late 1980's there was a push to tags.

Sidebar: I remember there was an incident in a VFD (in PA I think) with a late night fire and after the FD picked up a ff's wife called the chief to find out when her ff would get home. They went back to the scene and found the ff dead in the building. The tags in general were a way to know who showed up. when everyone grabs their tag to go home, any left is the dead ff. At least the wife would not have to start the search.

Our tags were color coded by rank (all members are interior, so thats not an issue) and gave the members name and were placed on a ring on each rig. They were collected at fires. All of the problems listed previously occured with these tags.

About 2 years ago we went to an electronic riding list. All dept. computers have access (watch desks, station offices, HQ and rig computers) It allows members to slide their names into a riding position, it identifies the portable radio & SCBA they have (including covering spares). It can be updated easily by anyone in just a few seconds. A printed report lists all riding positions (withnames, radio ID & SCBA) on a single page and can be updated/printed in the chiefs car or at a CP. Having the SCBA ID is very helpful when dealing with Pak Tracker. Most import the electronic riding list was put in play with the anticipation of an Electronic Firefighter Accountability System (E.F.A.S.).

Now the riding list is not very useful to depts. that are not fully staffed or arrive in POV. But there are some things in the works with the company that does this to work around that issue.

We still require tags, but they are not collected and are only intended to be used when a rig goes mutual aid to another community.

We also added Position/Radio ID tags on our SCBA. This has been useful on the fireground in see who is who.

The E.F.A.S. system development and testing is complete and we are rolling it out this month. We had a very sucssessful test last week with FDNY who is also using a variation of it. I will go over it in detail in the future. But in my view, in the long run, electronic systems are going to be the answer.

[x635 4,066]

Wasn't the role of "Safety Officer" initially for firefighter tracking, and wasn't that supposed to be updated to updated to "Entry/Exit Officer"?

Who would monitor these system on the fireground, and is there any backup system in place?

I like the question wraftery is asking, why isn't this AT LEAST a regional standard, especially with the reliance on mutual aid for even the most basic room and contents fire.

[Bnechis 3,961]

Wasn't the role of "Safety Officer" initially for firefighter tracking, and wasn't that supposed to be updated to updated to "Entry/Exit Officer"?

1) the safety officer role is "all incompassing safety" and may require multiple people to perform. I was always taught he/she was to be another set of eyes for the IC, but with a different focus.

2) If its just entry exit then are we not accounting for everyone on the fire ground. While less hazardous, exterior members have been killed operating

Who would monitor these system on the fireground, and is there any backup system in place?

An accounability officer should be doing it now with tags, passport, etc. They can do it.

There is no back-up to the current system that does not work today. Not know where the members are opperating in a timely manor is what most depts have today.

I like the question wraftery is asking, why isn't this AT LEAST a regional standard, especially with the reliance on mutual aid for even the most basic room and contents fire.

It should be a regional standard, but we cant even agree on apparatus staffing and response times (turnout times)

[wraftery 1,275]

While we are on the subject, here's another curve ball.

One of the most challenging times for accountability is change of shifts.

If your department allows early reliefs or man-for-man reliefs, are the run lists being updated when the incoming man is in and the outgoing man is out.

I don't know about any other officers but I was a stickler on this. All accounting must be changed...the run list on the door, the chalkboard riding list, the station log, the personnel and everyplace else that shows you are present or gone.

Ever hear at change of shifts "Sounds like we have something...I'll take a ride with you." Is that man accounted for?

Just like RIT or FAST. Accountability has to be in place throughout the incident.

[helicopper 1,050]

Wasn't the role of "Safety Officer" initially for firefighter tracking, and wasn't that supposed to be updated to updated to "Entry/Exit Officer"?

Who would monitor these system on the fireground, and is there any backup system in place?

I like the question wraftery is asking, why isn't this AT LEAST a regional standard, especially with the reliance on mutual aid for even the most basic room and contents fire.

The role of the safety officer is far more than simply accountability. In fact, the Safety Officer has little to do with accountability when you really do ICS right. The resource unit accounts for all operating resources and the operations element (Division, Group, Task Force, Strike Team, Unit) where they are working monitors conditions to insure things are going according to plan. That said, this pre-supposes that you have a resource unit, that you have a safety officer, and that you organize resources and don't just have all the bosses at the ICP while all the troops are "gettin' dirty".

This is a short list of some of the Safety Officer Responsibilities (from FEMA):

• Identify and mitigate hazardous situations.
• Ensure safety messages and briefings are made.
• Exercise emergency authority to stop and prevent unsafe acts.
• Review the Incident Action Plan for safety implications.
• Assign assistants qualified to evaluate special hazards.
• Initiate preliminary investigation of accidents within the incident area.
• Review and approve the Medical Plan.
• Participate in planning meetings.

Here's more from the FIRESCOPE Field Operations Guide (420-1, 2007 edition)

SAFETY OFFICER

- The SOF1-2’s function is to develop and recommend measures forassuring personnel safety, and to assess and/or anticipate hazardous and unsafe situations.

Having full authority of the Incident Commander, the SOF1-2 can exercise emergency authority to stop or prevent unsafe acts.

Only one Safety Officer will be assigned for each incident. The Safety Officer may have

Assistant Safety Officers as necessary, and the Assistant Safety Officers may also come from

assisting agencies or jurisdictions as appropriate. Assistant Safety Officers may have specific

responsibilities such as air operations, urban search and rescue, hazardous materials, or for

specific geographic or functional areas of the incident:

a. Review Common Responsibilities (Page 1-2).

b. Participate in planning meetings,and advocate effective risk management.

c. Identify hazardous situations associated with the incident.

d. Review the Incident Action Plan for safety implications.

e. Exercise emergency authority to stop or prevent unsafe acts and communicate such

exercise of authority to the Incident Command.

f. Investigate accidents that have occurred within the incident area.

g. Assign Assistant Safety Officers as needed.

h. Conduct and prepare an Incident Safety Analysis (ICS Form 215-AG/AW) as appropriate.

i. Initiate appropriate mitigation measures, i.e., Personnel Accountability, Fireline EMT’s, Rapid Intervention Crew/Company, etc.

j. Develop and communicate an incident safety message as appropriate.

k. Review and approve the Medical Plan (ICS Form 206).

l. Review and approve the Site Safety and Control Plan (ICS Form 208) as required.

m. Maintain Unit/Activity Log (ICS Form 214).

Only in the NWCG Firescope FOG does it discuss the safety officer having anything to do with accountability; and that's to initiate the program not necessarily DO IT him(her)self. Now, I'm not saying that anyone is wrong if they do it this way. I'd just like you to consider if the Safety Officer is doing accountability, who's doing all the rest of the stuff on the above list?

We need to start looking at the big picture and stop narrowly applying just parts of the process to how we do business. We'd probably surprise ourselves if we did that.

[Bnechis 3,961]

One of the most challenging times for accountability is change of shifts.

If your department allows early reliefs or man-for-man reliefs, are the run lists being updated when the incoming man is in and the outgoing man is out.

I don't know about any other officers but I was a stickler on this. All accounting must be changed...the run list on the door, the chalkboard riding list, the station log, the personnel and everyplace else that shows you are present or gone.

Ever hear at change of shifts "Sounds like we have something...I'll take a ride with you." Is that man accounted for?

Just like RIT or FAST. Accountability has to be in place throughout the incident.

The electronic riding list is designed to be updated on a 1 to 1 basis. Since each position is full until relieved if a member who is assigned as the nozzle has not swapped with his/her relief, then he is still nozzle and if the relief wants to "take a ride" he can sign in as a extra rider. Its also designed to be easy enough for a member to swap in & out if he is covering for an hour or 2 so another member can go to his kids game.

I believe that once members are fully aware of the value of the whole system, they will adjust it often as it only takes a few seconds.

[wraftery 1,275]

If I might add to Helicoppers post, the Accountability person is the Resource Unit Leader (RUL) under the ICS. But remember that if the Resource Unit has not been established by the IC, the RUL's function lies with the IC. It means that as IC you can 1. Do accounting yourself 2. Delegate the function to an assistant such as your aide (But not to the Safety Officer) and be aware that the accounting in this case still lies with the IC under ICS. or 3. Establish the Resource unit and in doing this, he can also account for apparatus on scene, on standby, in staging. The RUL is also supposed to anticipate the need for future resources.

Good deal, eh?

Don't just take the ICS courses, use the information you got in the course to your advantage. It is a shame that the Feds got rid of the National Fire Academy's ICS course that was geared for firefighting. The departments that took that course seem to do better at ICS than the ones that were introduced to ICS when things switched to the generic, all hazards version.