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OPERATIONAL ASSURANCE is an ongoing talking point in the fire and rescue service, with much debate at both a strategic and more local level about standards, competence, levels of experience, and risk-based tactics at incidents. This edition of Fire Risk Management seeks to tap into this debate by exploring some of the operational challenges faced by responding fire and emergency personnel.
Clearly, senior officers and firefighters who attend an emergency must overcome numerous problems amid the changing dynamics of the incident. The carrying out of dynamic risk assessments, establishing safe working practices, deploying personnel and equipment, and dealing with the influx of personnel from different agencies are some of the issues that must be addressed, as underlined by various articles this month.
However, some in the UK fire service are concerned that operational standards and levels of experience are being eroded – putting firefighters at increased risk of injury – and that the tactics used on the incident ground are becoming ‘risk averse’. One of the offshoots of this is the difficulty it can bring to responding firefighters, who must often make intuitive split-second decisions between risk and potential benefit.
Another concern is that the system for developing and issuing national operational guidance for the UK fire service has been effectively put on hold over the past few years, as recognised by the Chief Fire Officers’ Association (CFOA). As new CFOA president Charlie Hendry told us in June, ‘Without a clear and robust system for operational risk management at both strategic and tactical level, can we really be assured that health and safety in the service is being addressed properly?’
On a more positive note, there are many initiatives under way that bring operational benefits to responders. In Staffordshire, for example, a partnership between the fire service and vehicle recovery companies is resulting in more effective rescue operations at complex incidents involving heavy loads, with dramatically reduced extrication times among the advantages. The new wide-area radio communications network being provided to UK fire services under the Firelink project will also deliver significant benefits in terms of resilience, interoperability, and command and control.
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