6742 Ch 1 PowerPoint

1. Fire Department Incident Safety
Officer
Third Edition
Chapter 1 — The Safety Officer Role

2. ‣ Discuss the history of the fire department safety officer.
‣ List the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards
that pertain to the incident safety officer.
‣ Cite current trends in firefighter injuries and fatalities.
‣ Describe the relationship between empirical and image factors
and the need for an incident safety officer.
‣ Define the roles of an incident safety officer at planned and
unplanned events.
Knowledge Objectives

3. Introduction: Defining the Title (1 of 2)
‣ The title safety officer is too generic
‣ Safety officer role has been split into two titles
‣ Health and safety officer (HSO)
‣ Incident safety officer (ISO)
‣ National Fire Protection Association rewrote NFPA 1521
‣ National Incident Management System (NIMS)
‣ Still uses the generic title of safety officer

4. Introduction: Defining the Title (2 of 2)
‣ HSO focuses on health
and safety administration
‣ ISO focuses on scene-
specific operations
‣ Some overlap occurs
‣ By design
‣ Provides
consistency
‣ Communication in the
different roles

5. History of the Safety Officer Role (1 of 2)
‣ Early safety officer
examples
‣ Wall watchers
‣ Watched the walls for signs of
bowing or sagging
‣ During a working fire
‣ Speaking trumpets
‣ Shout out warnings
‣ Give orders
Courtesy of United States Library of Congress/Currier & Ives Collection

6. History of the Safety Officer Role (2 of 2)
‣ Williams-Steiger Act of 1970
‣ Created the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA)
‣ Equal rights and responsibilities to employers
and employees
‣ Safe working conditions
‣ Careers have been spawned in the safety arena
‣ Degree and certificate programs

7. Fire Department Safety Officer Trends
(1 of 5)
‣ Fire service was slow to catch on to the
concepts of safety and risk management
‣ Operations and administration
‣ Roots of risk management
‣ Development and 1987 adoption of NFPA 1500
‣ Late 1980s and early 1990s
‣ Trying to integrate the safety officer (risk
manager)

8. Fire Department Safety Officer Trends
(2 of 5)
‣ Early NFPA training materials
‣ NFPA 1500
‣ Fire service twist on commonplace practices
‣ NFPA 1501
‣ Companion to NFPA 1500
‣ Addresses the authority, qualifications, and
responsibilities of the safety officer
‣ Changed to NFPA 1521 in an effort to standardize
numbering
‣ 1500 and 1521 are updated on a regular revision
cycle

9. Fire Department Safety Officer Trends
(3 of 5)
‣ FIRESCOPE
‣ West Coast
‣ Safety officer was listed as a command staff
position
‣ Chief Alan Brunacini
‣ Fire Ground Command
‣ Safety officer, or safety sector
‣ Undivided attention to fireground safety
‣ To report directly to the fire ground commander

10. Fire Department Safety Officer Trends
(4 of 5)
‣ International Fire Service Training Association
‣ Incident Command System
‣ Safety officer position was integral to the
command staff
‣ Checklist and organizational chart included
‣ Presidential Directive 5 of 2004
‣ Management of domestic incidents
‣ Mandates the use of NIMS

11. Fire Department Safety Officer Trends
(5 of 5)
‣ Most recent editions of NFPA standards
‣ Relocated duties and responsibilities of the HSO and
ISO
‣ Placed in NFPA 1500 and 1561 standards
‣ Standards that currently pertain to safety officers
‣ NFPA 1500 and NFPA 1561: HSO requirements,
duties, and responsibilities
‣ NFPA 1521: HSO qualifications and ISO qualifications
for fire department ISOs
‣ NFPA 1026: ISO qualifications for NIMS safety officers

12. The Need for an Incident Safety Officer
(1 of 3)
‣ Empirical fatality and injury factors
‣ Various entities collect injury and fatality data
‣

13. The Need for an Incident Safety Officer
(2 of 3)
‣ Appointment of an ISO
‣ Workers’ compensation

14. The Need for an Incident Safety Officer
(3 of 3)
‣ Injury and fatality image factors
‣ Less tangible issues
‣ Image of a firefighter
‣ Protector or hero
‣ Stress in the workplace
‣ LODD investigations attract media attention
‣ A damaging effect on the involved families
‣ Divorce
‣ Substance abuse
‣ Risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

15. Incident Safety Officer Responsibilities
(1 of 3)
‣ Make sure “everyone goes home”
‣ Member of the command staff
‣ Monitoring incident conditions and activities
‣ Evaluating hazards and unsafe conditions
‣ Developing measures that promote safe incident
handling
‣ Intervening when an immediate or potential threat
exists
‣ Communicating urgent and advisory safety messages
that help prevent injuries or deaths

16. Incident Safety Officer Responsibilities
(2 of 3)
‣ Acronym used to remember the responsibilities
‣ MEDIC
‣ Monitor
‣ Evaluate
‣ Develop
‣ Intervene
‣ Communicate

17. Incident Safety Officer Responsibilities
(3 of 3)
‣ Ideally, everyone operating
at an incident should have
safety responsibilities
‣ Incident commander
‣ Incident safety officer
‣ Company officers and
group or division
supervisors
‣ Individual firefighters
© Kim Fitzsimmons. Used with permission.