Responding to Incidents

[pumprescue]

I just want to see what others think about Group Officers responding priority one to jobs, passing fire appliances and driving above the speed limit. Is this really required when they are not actually fighting the fire. Your thoughts?

[TillerMan]

I think they should only go to 2nd alarm jobs or greater or at the request of the incident controller and then it should be up to the incident controller whether they go priority 1 or 2.

[Robert-Robert34]

im not really sure what is going on with this PUMPRESCUE but it all comes down to the urgency of the incident requiring priority one response

Say for example there was a scrub fire near Penola on the Riddoch Highway going towards Nangwarry and it was moving at a fast speed, Wattle Range Deputy 1 would have to respond priority 1 and above the normal speed limit to get there and give a full sitrep to Wattle Range base so they can dispatch the right amount of trucks

It all comes down to safety of the crew and other road users in an emergency situation ..... also speed limits apply to volunteers who are responding to the fire shed in reciept of the dispatch message if a volunteer is caught by SAPOL speeding to a pager call they will get booked and a kick up the donkey by either their GO or RC

[pumprescue]

Ok if your deputy one is responding to a possible scrub fire on the riddoch highway, he will see the fire quite clearly from a distance if it is going and if he knows his local area should be able to uprgade accordingly. He can always upgrade quickly and stop trucks, i still see no reason for most intial jobs for them to go priority one, they are not an appliance and will only need to be there if a job is upgraded for the use of a command vehicle or incident control role.

[Firefrog]

I guess this depends on Group Structures and policy, why wouldn't you want an officer of any rank arriving sooner rather than later. This person can conduct a size up, provide sitreps and upgrade or downgrade as required.

I understand that sometimes there's a sense that this is cutting the officer in the truck out of the loop but the focus should be on the incident and IMO less focus should be on internal politics.

Having said all that, if the Group car reponds to every job then that is overdoing it and should be stopped. Brigades have officers for a reason and Group Officers need to let the brigades function. If the GO is doing all the arrival sitreps and command decisions how can any brigade officer gain the experience needed to one day become a GO. GO's need to be carrying out succession planning.

But Group Officers have a role to play and just like appliances should be responding P1 until the incident is declared contained.

Long answer to a simple question

[medevac]

i think the main question here is priority one or two...

i stand with prioprity 2; as PUMPRESCUE pointed out, once they get there, what can they do other than provide a sitrep???

[strikeathird]

I have to agree... Even in the case of an upgraded alarm.. Them getting their 5 mins quicker isnt going to do anything to the job.. (That being said as long as the officer is capable I don't think the GO being on scene could change a whole lot.. Just confuse things or make it harder as the OIC has to explain everything!)..

Also, if the GO is coming P1, their is a greater chance of being in an acident, etc etc...

I think it should be up to the OIC to decide..  A) Whether they are needed... B) P1 or P2.

[rescue5271]

Sometimes it is faster to get car 1 out the door with the GO/DGO rather than the fire appliances and this does in some cases work well with a sitrep back to base. The only issue I have with this is that they need to remember to take people with them to do the job in the car(radio operator-scrib)Should they go p1 or p2 well that would depend on the job and where it is how far they have to tracel to the job,but once out of town they can down grade to p2.

[backburn]

There was an incident I heard of with a car fire no real fixed address and the GO went P1. They found the car full engulfed did not radio back to the truck, did not give directions or tell them how to get there via a short cut track until the truck got there then told them about it. Not right procedures as far as I'm concerned.

[pumprescue]

In regard to a GO taking crew with him before an appliance can be dangerous, a rescue brigade i can't name had a truck rollover 40km from their station, the GO took 3 brigade member in his command vehicle but failed to tell any in coming crews that he had taken them, one more member rocked up, sat in the rescue for sometime waiting for crew to respond and did not go mobile because he did not know the GO had taken his crew. SAAS had to remove the patient themselves because the rescue appliance never arrived, but the Group car did, not a lot you can do with a few maps and bottles of water....

[strikeathird]

That's outrages !

[rescue5271]

One would hope that the GO and that crew got its rear kicked and that they now have apolicy in place so that it never happens again.

[pumprescue]

i mean don't get me wrong i am not saying that we don't need group officers, i am worried we are sometimes missing what we should be sending to incidents like fire and rescue appliances

[strikeathird]

Even a pumprescue would be good...............

[pumprescue]

you wish brother

[strikeathird]

yea there aren't many around unfortunately...

[rescue5271]

May be some group officers dont know there role?? they are there only to support the brigade captain or an officer at a job it should be noted that the captain or snr officer is the OIC of any job unless they dont wont to run the show.

[CFS_Firey]

My 5c worth:
The GO should go P1, but not drive dangerously. ie, why does he need to overtake a pumper on the way to the structure fire, when he could just sit behind them, and take command when they arrive? If the structure fire is so bad it needs to be upgraded, theres no saving the house anyway, so the extra 5 minutes won't really make a difference. And if the fire is only small, whats the GO going to do when he arrives? Try to blow it out?

[medevac]

My 5c worth:
The GO should go P1, but not drive dangerously. ie, why does he need to overtake a pumper on the way to the structure fire, when he could just sit behind them, and take command when they arrive?

because a lot of GOs are whackers?

too much adrenalin and power for vollunteers?

[CFS_Firey]

because a lot of GOs are whackers?

too much adrenalin and power for vollunteers?

I'm not going to risk answering that...

[medevac]

fair call

[Firefrog]

And a lot of GO aren't whackers.

[medevac]

And a lot of GO aren't whackers.

agree with that too.

[strikeathird]

....  There are some fair whackers out there !!

[Del]

A lot of GO's and DGO's put up with a fair amount of crap too (From above and below), so it's nice to get to a job and do something every now and then.