The Fire Department Safety Officers Association (FDSOA) announced the addition of “The Safety Officer’s Role in Active Shooter/Hostile Events” to the annual Safety Forum to be held January 20-22, 2016, in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The program will be presented by Brent Siegel, EMS coordinator, Northville Township (MI) Fire Department. A certified Incident Safety Officer and a Health & Safety Officer, Siegel is also a tactical paramedic on the Western Wayne County Special Operations Team. His 90-minute program is scheduled for Thursday, January 21.
“I study this topic constantly and have a good understanding of what is appropriate for the fire service,” said Siegel. “It’s such a large spectrum, people have a hard time identifying what their role is, from going in with guns to not going in at all. I think I can help safety officers identify what their roles and responsibilities are.”
Siegel’s program will focus on the role of safety officers in a hostile incident. “When you look at the key roles and responsibilities we are teaching in Incident Safety Officers’, they are monitoring incident conditions, evaluating the hazards, developing measures that promote safe incidents, intervening when an immediate threat exists, monitoring communications and all those roles are present in one of these events. I’m going to tie everything I talk about to those responsibilities,” he said.
Among the goals for his presentation, Siegel said, “I want to introduce the Rescue Task Force (RTF) concept. It’s currently the ‘best practice’ on violent incidents. I say introduce because a lot of people still aren’t aware of it and some agencies are already doing it. I want to introduce the concept to Safety Forum attendees.”
In addition, Siegel will stress the importance that agencies integrate fire, law enforcement and EMS into their training. “Because this whole concept does not work if everybody is not on the same page. It’s all about communication,” he said.
Understanding the role of the fire department safety officer is critical in an all-agency hostile event. According to Siegel, an active shooter or hostile event is a more chaotic event to manage because the safety officer will not be able to walk around or have free access.
“The whole Rescue Task Force evolves around operating in a warm zone,” Siegel stated. “The most important role of the safety officer is maintaining the clarity of what the warm zone is and keeping everybody responding to the incident informed.”
Siegel will offer action steps for attendees to take back to their departments to be better prepared in the event of an active shooter or hostile incident.
“I don’t think there are many people who disagree there is a need for this and I don’t think it’s as much of a challenge as it was five years ago, but we must recognize the need to sit down with brother and sister agencies, develop the policies, and train together.”
For more information, visit www.fdsoa.org.