1. Chapter 4 Eliminating Unsafe Acts 4-1

2. Introduction Throughout the history of the fire service, tradition has been the backbone of operations “No fear” reasoning starts very early in careers Expected to reduce the risk as much as is feasible Task is to ultimately save lives and property and then stabilize an incident Some aspects of our tradition tend to build the foundation for unsafe practices 4-2

3. Life Safety Initiative 4 All firefighters must be empowered to stop unsafe practices 4-3

4. Life Safety Initiative 4 FOUNDATION OF UNSAFE PRACTICES New firefighters Trained to take orders Spiral into bad habits Unrealistic training Synthetic materials Real world attack line crews 4-4 Courtesy of Richard Vandevander

5. Life Safety Initiative 4 FIREFIGHTER EMPOWERMENT Definition Granting permission to subordinates to exceed their normal authority Achieve organizational goals Clear line on what is permitted Intended to keep crew safe Cont. 4-5

6. Life Safety Initiative 4 FIREFIGHTER EMPOWERMENT McCoy’s model Education Enablement Empowerment 4-6

7. Life Safety Initiative 4 ACCIDENTS Definition Occurrence with tragic results Could not be predicted or prevented Cont. 4-7 Courtesy of Retired Chief Don Barnes

8. Life Safety Initiative 4 ACCIDENTS Usually predictable Usually preventable Energy conversion to injuries Kinetic energy awareness Potential energy awareness Cont. 4-8

9. Life Safety Initiative 4 ACCIDENTS Safety equipment PPE perceptions PPE limitations Operational redundancies Now commonplace industry wide 4-9 Courtesy of John Kloski

10. Life Safety Initiative 4 RECOGNITION OF UNSAFE ACTS Unsafe acts in the spotlight Unsafe acts in disguise Poor risk management decisions Distraction events 4-10 Courtesy of Rick Armstrong

11. Life Safety Initiative 4 PREVENTING UNSAFE ACTS Three Es Example: Rollover curve applied to firefighters Education Engineering Environment Enforcement 4-11

12. Life Safety Initiative 4 STOPPING UNSAFE ACTS IN PROGRESS Categorize unsafe acts Know how to bring up a concern Plan for the problem Speak directly to supervisor Speak directly to peers Cont. 4-12

13. Life Safety Initiative 4 STOPPING UNSAFE ACTS IN PROGRESS Politely request to complete a task Call a timeout Working with unsafe acts Post-incident critique or debriefing 4-13

14. Life Safety Initiative 4 CREW RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (CRM) Identify and combat unsafe practices Allow and encourage observations Require involvement from all members Communicate respectfully Vital to improve empowerment Cont. 4-14

15. Life Safety Initiative 4 CREW RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (CRM) Policies and procedures Authority Checklists Training Situational awareness Task saturation and mistakes Cont. 4-15

16. Life Safety Initiative 4 CREW RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (CRM) Communication Everyone on same page Terminology Briefings Challenge and response Cont. 4-16

17. Life Safety Initiative 4 CREW RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (CRM) Problem solving Skills-based problem solving Rules-based problem solving If/then statement Knowledge-based problem solving 4-17

18. Summary Teaching recruits how to identify and address unsafe acts responsibly is vital Vigilance with empowerment is about stopping unsafe acts or poor practices Promising ways to stop unsafe acts are prevention methods and crew resource management (CRM) Using a respectful system of challenge and response, firefighters are empowered 4-18