Fire chiefs must own the radio

If you look through any fire apparatus, you will find dozens of pieces of equipment and tools. Firefighters working at a fire or emergency scene, as well as in the countless other services they provide and the jobs they perform, carry and use many tools. However, they only use a few tools in each incident and run. One of them is the radio. It’s a great and valuable tool and important to everything we do.

Direct control
When a battalion chief or other incident commander arrives at the scene of an alarm, the first action typically taken is to pick up the radio and contact the company officer on scene. This initial transmission informs all units on scene that the chief has arrived and is in command. This is an important step and sets the stage for the rest of the operation. Once the chief is on site, virtually every broadcast goes to or through that person. Once command is established over the radio, the chief has direct and complete control over the department’s efforts.

Command presence
An important point in radio broadcasting is that the chief is able to establish the necessary command presence through the manner in which directives, etc., are delivered on the radio.

Chiefs and other command officers must speak in a clear voice and at sufficient volume so that they can be easily heard by any firefighter. They should speak slowly enough so that they are clearly understood and so that they do not have to repeat any transmission. The language and vocabulary they speak must be easy to understand and technically accurate. Without knowing who is speaking on the radio, every firefighter listening should know it is the chief.

The benefits of the radio-based command presence impact every aspect of the incident. Structural fires, serious vehicle accidents, large-scale utility emergencies, and natural disasters are all handled better and more safely when the chief “owns the radio.”

Additionally, when these incidents are conducted and completed in an orderly and safe manner, not only does the department experience fewer injuries and accidents, but citizens are rescued and treated more quickly and have their property recovered or rescued far more often than otherwise.

Effect and influence
It’s amazing how one person can handle large-scale emergencies professionally and successfully by simply using the radio.

Chiefs can initiate or halt numerous operations at the emergency scene simply by speaking into the microphone. This in no way diminishes the importance of the efforts and actions of the working firefighters and officers, but instead emphasizes the value and effectiveness of radio. Yes, firefighters have fought fires and handled all kinds of emergencies before we ever had radios, but using radios on the fireground results in much faster, safer and more successful operations.

Even if the chief is not involved in a specific conversation playing on the radio, such as when a truck officer is communicating with the roof firefighter, the chief is still listening. In fact, the entire fire station listens on the primary tactical channel throughout the operation, and thirty or forty firefighters on duty can be immediately contacted by the chief by simply pressing the transmit button on the radio.

Whether you are the only battalion chief on duty in a department with three fire stations or one of more than 50 battalion chiefs in a city of millions, your impact, influence and chances for success depend almost exclusively on your knowledge and practice. of the fire brigade radio.