I read Ed Ballam’s March 2022 Editor’s Opinion “Managing Resources,” and what a good job he did with this report. I am a volunteer firefighter in California and have seen these types of situations get complicated and out of order—more times than I want to admit—by requesting and committing more resources to a call than the risk or hazard warrant.
Command is just that, command. Incident commanders (ICs) and ops and battalion chiefs need to patiently and carefully weigh and balance the root cause of the call and determine the proper resources to manage the incident without overloading dispatch, operations, and logistic managers on any given emergency circumstance. Many times, we have called for mutual aid, which, I feel, is unwarranted due to the overall risk/hazard not being properly “sized up.”
These potential domino-affect decisions by fireground staff can become incalculable when additional resources are pulled from their nearby districts. This request for added resources can easily and unnecessarily soften that agency’s main obligation of serving the community or service district adequately by being pulled away in error.
Several other things go south quickly when all these duplicate or triplicate resources are summoned to such calls, some of which include where you stage all these folks/equipment, who is a strong logistic manager to organize these resources, and the number one frustrating thing—communication.
Some out-of-the-way mutual-aid agencies often have trouble with getting on the correct IC or ops or tactical frequency and either simply do not report in or cannot report in when they are on scene.
I have seen other neighboring agencies not know our organizational standard operating procedures and chatter on the radio on the wrong IC frequency when they should be on an ops or division frequency/channel.
These added resources responding to the call Code 3 are always dangerous. The more rubber you put on the road going to a call, chances are you are increasing the possibility of accidents or incidents occurring that, many times, are 100% avoidable if an experienced and strong dispatch and command/control network was used from the onset.
Do not get me wrong that mutual aid and related requests for resources are always upside down but, more often than not, errors always simply seem to start at the top.
Be cool, be patient, and study the risks vs. the savings and react accordingly. Experience will heal many of these misgivings and always educate others with clear, concise, and correct communications for all future calls and additional resource needs.
The bottom line is, we all have a vested interest and a duty as public servants (both paid and volunteer fire service personnel) to protect the public and use the taxpayers’ assets (personnel and equipment) efficiently and wisely on every call.
Great article, and I hope many folks higher up in the fire service read it and relay the important message of “managing properly and appropriately” to their subordinates.
Keep up the great work!
Jim Ratliff
Roseville, CA
I found the Editor’s Opinion “Managing Resources” on excessive mutual aid to be “right on the money.” I’m sure you have heard the old joke: The fire chief tried to keep the fire going until the last mutual-aid rig showed up.
Harvey Eckart
Berwick, PA
Electric Fire Apparatus
Regarding “Is the fire s