By Jack Sullivan
A fire chief was struck and killed by a vehicle in Louisiana on an interstate. A Philadelphia fire truck was struck and five firefighters injured while on the scene of another highway incident. These are among some of the recent incidents that bring to mind the imminent dangers firefighters face when working on the roadway.
“D” drivers are everywhere today. “D” drivers are the ones who are drowsy, drugged, drunk, distracted, disgruntled, or just plain disrespectful when it comes to emergency scenes. If you have been responding to emergency calls for any length of time, you have most likely met one or more of these “D” drivers. They are making our job at roadway incidents more hazardous than ever before. Highways are IDLH (Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health) areas!
Here are some recommendations for operating at roadway incidents of all types. Remember--even when we do everything “right,” bad things can still happen. These steps will help make your scene safer, but like everything else we do in the fire service, there is still a high probability of a driver entering your work area. In 2001, James Joyce, the Commissioner of the Chicago (IL) Fire Department at that time, said firefighters responding to calls need to operate “as if someone is trying to run them over." That is still good advice today.
Awareness Training – Make sure all your personnel, especially your newest recruits, have a basic level of awareness about the hazards of working around moving traffic.
Standard Operating Guidelines – Develop a document for you department that provides your firefighters and company officers with some guidance about operating at highway incidents. Those guidelines should address proper positioning of apparatus; a list of information needed during an initial size-up and on scene report; proper lane terminology that is used by all responding agencies in your area; a description of the type of personnel protective equipment to wear at highway incidents of all types; the use and deployment of temporary traffic control devices (i.e. flares, cones, and/or warning signs); and proper use of emergency warning and scene lights at incidents. It doesn’t matter if you call the document a safety bulletin, standard operating procedure, or guideline The goal is to get the guidelines in writing, because that document will become the outline for regular in-service training on this subject.
Multi-agency collaboration, communication and cooperation – There are a number of agencies involved with even the simplest roadway incidents. Law Enforcement, fire, EMS, DOT, towing and recovery, and safety service patrols routinely work together at highway incidents. Make sure there is good, ongoing communications between those agencies and that all operating procedures are in synch. Exchange procedures and organize joint training, especially for company officer and supervisory level personnel. Ongoing collaboration and communication between agencies leads to smoother, saf