Incident Pre-Planning

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Incident Pre-Planning

Last month (Feb) I attended the Firehouse World Conference and Exhibition in San Diego. This conference has been in San Diego for ten years. Presented at the conference were the most state-of-the-art, current up-to-date, interesting topics on emerging fire and emergency topics. Nationally recognized speakers from California and from around the country have showcased the latest in strategy and tactics, leadership, command and training issues. This year the tradition was continued with new topics and speakers and the addition of several EMS classes.

The keynote presentation was presented by Chief Michael Hernandez from the Reno, Nevada Fire Department. Chief Hernandez discussed the lessons learned and reinforced from the Reno Air Show crash.

There were 11 people killed at the Reno Air Show and many injuries that were serious and critical in nature when a plane crashed into the stands. Chief Hernandez mentioned that, unlike other years in their pre-planning meeting, a suggestion was made that there should be police road blocks in place in case of an emergency incident because there is only one way in and out of the airport. Because of this pre-planning they were able to transport 54 critically injured patients to the local hospitals in 62 minutes. This fact indicated how important it was to have an incident-pre-plan in place. This quick response and transport was a critical component in saving several lives.

This month I decided it would be a good idea to review basic incident-pre-planning techniques. Pre-incident-planning must be a collaborative effort between all divisions of a fire department and as in the case of the Reno air crash, involve other agencies when appropriate.

In a perfect world, all structures in a given jurisdiction would be pre-planned with the information stored in a massive database.  That information would be available to emergency responders via mobile data terminals located on all apparatus.  While such systems currently exist, they are often out of the financial reach of many fire agencies – at least for the immediate future.  Therefore, most data gathered during the pre-incident management process is stored in “hardcopy” form.  For practical reasons – storage, staffing, and time constraints – fire agencies must prioritize occupancies to be pre-planned.  In so doing, consideration should be given to the following:

  • Type of occupancy
  • Type of incident expected
  • Life hazards – civilian and firefighter
  • Nature of activities conducted at the occupancy
  • Exposure to surrounding areas
  • Complexity of firefighting operations
  • Resources required

Structures such as high-rise buildings, hotels, malls, large industrial buildings, and multistory and multi -building apartment complexes should be given high priority.  Such occupancies are often referred to as target hazards indicating that a greater than average life hazard or complexity of firefighting operations can be expected.

Stay Safe

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