Speaker 2:
Alright, welcome to B-Shifter, Josh Bloom and John Vance here and today we're just bringing you up to date on a few things going on in B-Shifter and Blue Card World. Of course we're not in Phoenix right now if you're watching on video and you could tell, because it's like 120 degrees there. So we everyone vacates Phoenix. There's some people in the office, but we're not doing any classes there this month because we're out and about doing a lot of other things. So we're on the Zoom today, but that doesn't mean we're not getting ready for a lot of great things coming up.
Speaker 2:
First and foremost, we have the Blue Card Hazard Zone Conference coming up October 5th and 6th and Cincinnati. We're a little more than two months away from that. Think it's about 67, 66 days from where we're sitting right now. And, Josh, what's the latest developments on that? I know we've had a couple other instructors that we've announced in the last few weeks. Of course you can check out everything at B-Shiftercom if you want to get signed up and see who's teaching there and what the program is all about. But for those who haven't heard about the conference, or just to bring everyone up to the speed, what's going to happen in Cincinnati October 5th and 6th?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so we're bringing back the Hazard Zone Conference. If anybody wasn't aware of that I think we've put it out a few times you can register at B-Shiftercom. It's right on the front page so you can go there and register. Hotels are filling up right there at the conference center so we got a great rate at the local hotels connected to the conference center so you can take advantage of that. We've just plugged in Chief Gary Fleischer from the Worcester Fire Department. He's going to be talking about how did they go about rolling out and implementing Blue Card at their organization and really, I think, give some tips and tricks of how do you go from where your fire department's operating now to rolling it out, implementing and really making progress.
Speaker 3:
So we picked up Chief Fleischer and then we got a few other demo things that we're going to be doing. We got it worked out with the National Fire Sprinkler Association. So Shane Ray is going to be doing one of the keynotes, but he's also going to be doing three outside demonstrations with their sprinkler and valve trailer of what should fire departments really be looking for and doing when they go to these big box buildings or buildings with sprinkler systems in them. So I think there's a great value with that. That trailer hasn't been to a ton of places, so it's good for the people who are going to be there to be able to see it and then connect with the National Fire Sprinkler Association to bring that trailer maybe to their region. I know they're trying to get more and more of those trailers built and make them available all across the country. And then we just got a few other demonstrations. We're going to have a technology team, if you will, that is going to be there flying some drones that got cameras and fliers and some other chemical capabilities. So, as we continue to move forward, we just saw this last week right, the FDNY used their drones and their robotics team to kind of evaluate what was going on with that crane and all that.
Speaker 3:
So, when it comes to command and decision making and what's the value of having that drone and how do you really get it there which you have to tie back into deployment, obviously. So when is it available? How is it available? What's the capability of it? So, regionally, that team's going to be there just doing a few different things and we've used it in our area quite a few times to evaluate fires. They've done some search stuff with it. They've sort of done a lot of this summer. For whatever reason. Since then it's getting more rain than it seems to usually do, so they've done quite a bit of like riverbank searches, flying riverbank.
Speaker 3:
So we'll have that demonstration and then we got a few other things. One of the ATF dogs is going to be there just doing like a demonstration of what do they do and what does that look like? It's not a class, but it's, I mean, most people right. Dog always puts a smile on most people's faces and if you're not a dog lover, then just stay away from the dog. Otherwise, the other thing we're doing is and we've said it a few times the Thursday night we're going to have a mixer opportunity. It's kind of a meet and greet network thing. From six to eight right across from the conference center. Just some drinks and finger food for everybody can kind of network, hang out, meet friends, connect with people we haven't seen in a while, you know whatever. So that's kind of what's going on.
Speaker 3:
Besides the list that we've already talked about. We've got some great instructors. So I mean the keynote thing Shane Ray is going to be doing a keynote we got Chief Lee from FDNY is going to be doing one of our general sessions that you know everybody will get to see, and he's also going to do some breakouts. We got Dan from FSRI is going to be doing a general session and then Nick and Terry are going to do a general session on their silverback leadership. So we've heard that a few times through, I think, the chief's podcast and then Nick's mentioned it a few times. So Terry and Nick have been working on that for a while, trying to repackage so many things that Chief Bernacini did over the years and bring it back, to bring it back to life, if you will. So everybody's looking forward to that.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's going to be awesome. On Friday we're wrapping up with a live podcast. We're going to do a recording of the B-Shifter podcast and have a panel discussion and opportunity for people to do a little Q&A and get a nice wrap up of everything that happened in the two days and 20 different classes and all the instructors that are there. So it will kind of culminate the event and put a nice bow on it on Friday afternoon. Well, we're looking forward to that. You know, one of the things that people don't understand, I think because I've explained it a lot is you get the registration. You also get a free subscription and that subscription is transferable. So if you have somebody within your organization that you want to transfer that subscription to, very easy to do that and it ends up being really the lowest cost conference there is out there. When you look at it that way.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so I've been pushing that too, because people have been asking that question. Yeah, so it's $515 for the two day conference and you get that free online subscription. That's a $385 value that you can transfer to anybody in your organization. So if you were going to put somebody online anyway, it's going to cost you $385. So the difference, you know. For another $130, you get an online subscription and a conference pass for two days and it is transferable to anybody in your organization. So, yeah, I think it brings the value, especially if you're putting somebody online, which most organizations are going to be putting, or always putting somebody online because of retirements or promotions or you know whatever. So, yeah, I think it's a great value. It's like $8 a training hour, if you will.
Speaker 2:
And lunch is included both days, so that's another value. I mean, I know some people have to watch it or their per diems aren't great, so to be able to have lunch there too and get back to the classes, so that'll be really nice. So really looking forward to that. That kind of segues into our next thing, and you and I are going to be at iChiefs in August in Kansas City at booth 3619. I'll put that in the show notes too, if you want to look it up. What kind of goodies do we have?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so when we're at the iChiefs show, we got a couple of things that we're going to announce and do there for the people who are there and present. We're going to be giving away a few passes, if you will, to some of our workshops, mostly like the big box workshop that we're doing in Phoenix, and we already have some of those scheduled for 2024. We have five of the big box workshops scheduled so far for 2024. So you can see that on our website. Yeah, if you stop by the booth, there'll be some opportunities to get into some raffles or some giveaways of opportunities to learn and workshops and networking, and then we'll have plenty of blue card swag stuff that will be given away here and there.
Speaker 3:
If you come to the booth and answer a question or give us one of Bruno's one line tactical truths or something so John always does a great job with that, putting that out on social media and stop by within the next hour at the booth and be the first one to do or say whatever, and we'll have some giveaway things there for people and then, you know, looking forward to networking, connecting with all those people that are there. So I think this is our 14th or 15th year being at the show and you know it's always good to catch up with people and to meet all the new people that stop buying, want to talk about really everything, command blue card and decision-making and has my decision-making and what are we doing and where are we going and where have we been. And so many people just stop by and say, man, I sure miss the chief, like just like we all do. So.
Speaker 2:
Well, and it's also a good opportunity to Ask any questions that people have, I know, in a work-aptive audience. We have to be at the booth, so we're not going anywhere and we are there available for people. So if you have somebody from your region, your department, or you have questions yourself, it's just a good opportunity to come by and visit with us for a little bit and get those questions answered One-on-one at the booth at iChief. So we're looking forward to being in Kansas City Coming up in mid-August and then the buck slip is going to feature in August some free SOGs. What SOGs will we be putting out and Talk about the whole process of getting these SOGs online? Because it seems like and I've been on like probably four or five SOG committees during my 30-some year career and it is always hard to get that starting point on what are we going to start off with. So I think your intention here is to Give people kind of a push start. But what SOGs are we're gonna have well, john, I think you're exactly right.
Speaker 3:
You know that the SOG committee thing, it's like you spend a ton of time in meetings and it seems like oftentimes not much comes out and there's a gazillion ideas, and how do you really do that? And so often it's really the foundation, like where do I, where do I even start and why are we even writing this SOG and what does it really mean? And then you know, organizations just end up taking somebody else's and it's like, well, that's not really what we do, but we have one and it's in there now and they said we had to have it, so you got something. Maybe you really don't do so. You know, our whole thing is is blue card has had on the blue card website for at least ten years like a 30-page document. That was everything from the SOGs for the eight functions a command to decision-making, to Hages, materials, response to made, a management, responding to violent incidents. There's a bunch of them, but it was really all in the one document and that document was a blue card SOG on the system. It wasn't really ever designed For a fire department to take and make their SOG for their fire department. It was designed. Here's a big document and then you can Cherry, pick things out of it that would fit to develop your own SOGs. And you know we get so many phone calls and have so much interaction with the organizations that are trying to start or rebuild their SOGs because you know what they have hasn't been visited since the 80s or they just took it from somebody else and it really doesn't apply. So we wanted to not offer a free platform of SOGs, that's, the foundations for organization to start to build their SOGs or refine their SOGs that they already have.
Speaker 3:
So the first one that we're releasing is going to be coming out, I think, august 7th or 8th. In that buck slip is the command SOG and it's really like the. It is the footer for the foundation, right? So it's the bigger document that's 30,000 feet of your you know, maybe your fire department's command SOG, and then we have a bunch of supporting documents that are going to go along with that that'll get released every Tuesday following August 8th, I guess it is. So every Tuesday following August 8th we're going to release an SOG all the way up to the conference and then our intention is we're going to keep releasing SOGs as our group and other blue card users that are on our system, you know, engage and send in SOGs for other organizations to have and share and use as a foundation. So the command one's going to come out first and then we're going to have the other ones are going to come out.
Speaker 3:
Division ops like what's that division ops SOG look like? You know it's going to tie in accountability and the roles and responsibility and division ops for both the boss and the team, both the both the boss in that position and the support officer. Accountability like a specific accountability SOG that just supports the division ops. Communications SOG that talks about the specific types of transmissions that we have on the fire ground, which just supports the command SOG, right? So priority traffic status change, mayday management and then, speaking of May Day Management, we'll have a May Day Management SOG that's going to come out, an Air Management SOG that's going to come out, and then we have two others that will be pushing out one of them, big Box, that we've been working with the National Fire Sprinkler Association on and getting their feedback on. You know, what should it really look like? What are the best practices when we go to those events?
Speaker 3:
And then a lithium ion EV fires SOG that we've gotten some information and feedback from Adam Bowrie from FSRI.
Speaker 3:
We had him on the podcast talking about, you know, the lithium ion battery problems and challenges, and then we've had some of the other people that we network with work on that document.
Speaker 3:
So Chris Stewart from Phoenix did some work with it and he's pretty connected to some of the events that happened at some of those fixed facilities there in the greater Phoenix Valley, and then some of the other people that we network with and some of the people who are speaking at our conference have given feedback on that.
Speaker 3:
So all these SOGs are a foundation really for an organization to start with, and then they can tweak them to make them fit whatever they need and what their needs are within their organization. So it's not a one stop, it's not probably something that you're just going to adopt and say I'm going to put my signature on this and send it out. And again, it's the foundation of building out those fire ground SOGs and they're going to be free. They're going to be free to blue card users, they're going to be free to anybody who wants to download them. So, yeah, we're looking forward to that and I think it'll be a good project and I think it'll be a good deed for us pushing those out for organizations to limit some of the work and time that they have to put into SOG development.
Speaker 2:
Now, if people don't know, the BucsLip is a weekly newsletter that we put out for incident commanders and leaders. Anybody can get it. You don't have to be a blue card user although we have 27,000 plus blue card ICs that get that newsletter every single week but if you'd like to sign up and you're currently not a blue card user you can get it as well. So look at the show notes or drop us a line and we'll send you the link to sign up for it. It's direct to your email box every Tuesday morning. We've been doing that since January 1st and there's just a lot of value to it, because not only do we roll out our continuing education, there's an article every week. Some of them are new, some of them are flashback articles to what we've had in the B-Shifter magazine, and then at the end of every quarter we're going to kind of compile them up and they'll become a magazine at some point. But it is some really great information and I don't think there's another thing in the fire service like it, where every week you can get information, if you're an incident commander, on what is going on right now and again a lot of these tips and tricks and support that you need as a leader and an incident commander within your department.
Speaker 2:
So go to the show notes, click on the buck slip link and that'll take you to a place where you can sign up and get that every week. Sometimes it goes to your junk mail, so I just want to make sure that people accept it and then, once you accept it and, if it you know, check your junk mail. If you did sign up for it and you're not getting it, then it'll come to your regular email box every week. We have a couple of workshops coming up in Colorado. We have a Mayday workshop in Hudson, colorado, august 21st and 22nd, and then a big box workshop in Loveland, colorado, on September 26th and 27th, and that's the last big box workshop we're doing in 2023. For those who don't know, give us a little overview, josh, on what happens at these workshops.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so the big box workshop. We've built a really good relationship, networked with and we're supporting each other, endorsing each other, I guess, if you will, the National Fire Sprinkler Association and Blue Card on these big box fires. So I think we've done five or six probably the last 18 months all over the country and then, like you said, the one in Loveland, colorado, is going to be the last one. So it's a two day workshop, a lot of networking, but it's limited to 40 seats. The first day is all Shane Ray talking about big box fires, sprinkler systems, riser systems, fire pumps, what the fire department should really do when we go to those incidents, looking at the good, the bad and the ugly, if you will, on some of the big box events. When they don't go good, why is it that they don't go good? And sometimes it's some decision making by the fire department, hearing from somebody from that industry who networks with corporate America all the time on what is the real feeling from corporate America on some of these giant buildings and firefighters going inside of them and what do they really want and expect? And one of the things is is they don't spend the money that they spend to put a sprinkler system into the building for us to not use it, and oftentimes that's the problem the fire department doesn't fully understand how the sprinkler system is designed to work and what it really does. So Shane, on the first day, does a great job breaking that down. And then on the second day we get through the blue card big box tactical template, which really is a training tool that organizations can use to train their firefighters, company officers, chiefs, on what is the SOG at the ABC fire department. What is best practice? How are we going to respond to these events? How are the critical factors at these different? What does our risk management profile look like at these events? So we get through that tactical template for big box and Shane usually stays and hangs out with us and always has a lot of input on that. As far as one of his favorite lines, when you pull up hookup.
Speaker 3:
And then I think the other thing is, you know, while the firemen were still laying in bed before their boots hit the ground, the sprinkler system was flowing water. So what we need to do is supply the system right. So it needs a system so that he always says you know, sprinkler 15, I'm in here taking a beating, I just need you to supply me so I can keep flowing water, and I got the fire knocked down right. So I mean we enjoy spending time with them and it's always a the light bulb always comes on for so many people. I mean we've had people from two station fire departments. We've had people from a hundred station fire department or close to a hundred station fire department attend those and they're like, yeah, we had no idea about most all of these things.
Speaker 3:
So, and then in the afternoon of the big box, we run several big box simulations to show blue card users. How can you do, how can you get the most out of some of those simulations and use those to really exercise the SOG? So you know we're pushing out these SOGs, and what better way to really walk through and kind of evaluate is this really what we want to do? Does it really work? And then to say, hey, no, this is the expectation, here's the SOG, that's kind of the expectation. Now, here's the training. We trained you on it. So when the bell rings at two o'clock in the morning, this is what we expect you to do and you've kind of seen how it works.
Speaker 3:
So that's the big box class, and then the Mayday Workshop. We're coming up on 40 or 50 Mayday workshops that we've done. It's two days. We call the Mayday Workshop the Y of blue card because it answers all of the Y blue card does what it does why? Why do we follow the eight functions of command? Why do we use the strategic decision-making model? Why is communication so important? How do you build out an organization, the factors of having a division boss in place and what that really does. So all of our workshops are two days a lot of interaction with the people in the room, a whole lot of networking. Just like most workshops, there's some sitting, presentation and delivery, but a lot of it is get up, move around, discuss, ask questions and we all learn that way.
Speaker 3:
So that's the workshops that you talked about there. And then we have one other workshop that we're doing. It's available. You can see it on the B-Shifter. There's a few seats left in it. On the East Coast, winston Salem, north Carolina area, at Carnersville. It's the division ops class, which also goes over really well because so many organizations Get a little sideways with what does that really mean and where do those people work and what is that job description and what's the value of having that person there, and so I think it answers a lot of why, also about why blue card does what it does and and you know how many people can you really manage? So comes back to everybody needs a boss. So yeah, look lots stuff coming up still this year and then Next year our schedules already filling up our schedule and working the main next year already.
Speaker 2:
So go to b shifter comm. If you want to look at any of those workshops. You can sign up there. If you have any questions, you can drop Josh a line and I think between the workshops and what we do with train the trainer, we tell you why you and you hit it, why we're doing the things that we're doing and there's a lot of programs out there and I'm not here to bash anybody else but they really can't tell you why.
Speaker 2:
It's because that's the way We've always done it or it's a tradition in the fire service, whereas we can come back and either show you case studies or talk about specific instance instances that evolve the methodology that we're teaching. So I think it's worthwhile for that, because a lot of times people have to go back to their organizations and either justify or defend what they're doing, and we give you the ammo to do that at all these workshops and and the programs we're doing. So you and Jeff and everybody else has done a terrific job At just getting us steered that way so we can talk about the why. All right, let's take a break and when we come back we have a little fire ground audio for you. All right, we're back and we always like getting audio and and sharing audio with you on Blue card in action on the fire ground. What are we going to listen to today, josh?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so this is. This audio is from the springdale fire department in hamilton, county Ohio. So it's a. It's one department of the 36 in that county and that county's been working 10 years probably on how do we work better together, like with a real focus on how do we work better together. So With 36 departments, there's a whole lot of one, two, three, four Station places. So any fire in that county You're getting mutual aid.
Speaker 3:
Some, some places are getting mutual aid from six or seven other organizations. You know to fill out a full response for deployment. So you know it's critical that those people are on the same page and in that county right now they're, they're headed towards about every organization operating from the same command procedures, the same division ops, the same communications procedures. Uh, the dispatch center is training all of their dispatchers with the blue card dispatcher module. So, uh, still work to do. There's always going to be work to do. We should always be in a state of trying to fix ourselves. But uh, though you can always pull things out and say, hey, we could have done this better, we don't listen to it, any of this audio to do that. We just listen to the audio to say, hey, here's what it's. Here's what it could sound like. Here's some. Here's some good examples of some things. This is a good example. So this is a restaurant Comes out as a mulch fire. We, we all, all across this country, get called to those all the time Because some critical factor things that came out through the mdc and over the radio.
Speaker 3:
The company went ahead and upgraded it so as far as command function, one deployment. It put them behind a little bit because they ended up with an engine, you know, a single engine response, and then everybody else was delayed a little bit. Um, so, as we listened to that, just keep that in mind. But but the First company did a good job. You know, when they got there really evaluating what was going on, and then when the strategic ic got there pretty quickly because of the upgrade, how the upgrade went, uh, there was a bit of a command transfer and then what really needed to happen, and, uh, because it they thought it was going to escalate it a bit, they, they pushed a division boss forward and actually supported that division boss with a Support officer and they were building it out. You know, like it was going to continue to escalate. Um, yeah, so we can just go ahead and listen to it.
Speaker 4:
Not if you're reporting. We have a medium restaurant smoking the restroom On the outside and tonight he's got a volume making insurers, active fire control, live command on the outside for all the corner. Well, is that gonna get a? Can report on the injured? Open up the wall. Now it looks to be for me the wall space in between the bathroom, the outside. All right, I guess another company so I guess I'm not that's the next company and open up that wall from the outside. Clear and open up the wall. Tower nine, you're going to take the lot right here in front of me.
Speaker 4:
Command from the tower 90 Go ahead. I need you to get hooks and take that wall out on the exterior, right there where it's smoking for the interior crew. Communicate your findings. What's out of the building Alpha side, right to the right of the front door, medic 90 I need you to assist the engineer with the hydrant hookup on. Track on. Or jakes winnie-weather, captain jackson will have alpha. You'll have tower 90 and engine 90 working for you, alpha.
Speaker 1:
Your power engine. 90, 90 601, level one, district 86, public one.
Speaker 4:
District 86. You come to the command post with me. Clear not 96, oh one, I'll keep you. Just come up to alpha, be his aid, be alpha's aid.
Speaker 1:
Okay, district 42, level one stage. What's this? Alpha command? I'm in place. We're starting to open up the exterior wall now.
Speaker 4:
Okay, we got other companies arriving. Let me know what you need. Engine 42, that hydrant is right there. Bring that forward. We're gonna back up on off your truck to the alpha side front door. You can position your engine up here by my car.
Speaker 1:
You're clear. Engine 42 is laying in head to the alpha Alpha, the engine 90.
Speaker 4:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
The most things uh really good out here with your conditions on the inside right now, 286 been spotted the way.
Speaker 4:
Bring your crew on deck alpha.
Speaker 1:
We don't have very nice Alpha Are you clear on lights? No Command alpha Good.
Speaker 4:
I get engine 42 bringing a second line to you to the front door. Quinn 86 will be your on deck crew. Any other needs.
Speaker 1:
No, that's at this point All right 286.
Speaker 4:
Be sure to bring your air transfer equipment.
Speaker 1:
That ignites man. We need to read time.
Speaker 4:
Command alpha. Do you want to bond that roof to get a roof report? What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1:
I don't think it would hurt to get somebody out there with a camera and get a good report.
Speaker 4:
Command and medic nine. You want you guys get your crew assembled. I want you to Ladder off the either the tower, the engine, get it. You have roof report, please. Magnetic clear. Again roof report. Tower 73 is on Man's clear, tower 73. We'll leave you level once we have another need.
Speaker 1:
Battalion 70s level one.
Speaker 4:
Battalion 70. If you would mind get another 360 and see what conditions are on that trolley side for us. Okay, second 360 medic 87 level one. Medic 87 you can position in front of 286 web UEMS. Medic 87 is clear on positioning front of Quinn 86.
Speaker 1:
Command from alpha. Go ahead, we got it opened up. We're going to have to open up a little bit more of it. We've got a pretty good stop on it from out here.
Speaker 4:
Okay, we get the same report from the interior crew.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, we're saying we got quite the both. You can just read this one, okay.
Speaker 4:
Once we get that report from medic 90, we can start ventilation. I've got the tank 70, getting you know, 360.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. So one thing with all this audio that we use, you know it's all pushed together, so you know it sounds like a ton of stuff happening in a very short period of time. And there was a lot of stuff happening pretty short period of time because of the how the upgrade went and there was already a crew working. But that strategic IC was building this out based off the critical factors of the fire and started outside the building. They knew it was running up in the wall, they had smoke from the roof line and then when they opened it up they had active fire in the wall on the outside. And then they requested it be opened up from from the inside and the outside. They were just building it out, right.
Speaker 3:
So once he got out in the place, alpha said, hey, I got these, these are the companies I got, this is what's going on. And then, just based off of of what we regularly would do, right, so there's an attack position there and a division boss wants too deep deployment. So the strategic IC, when they got companies you know, filled out that position for them. But once there was an on deck company assigned forward to Alpha, he said hey, let me know if you need anything else. So he didn't overload Alpha with resources. He started to build out his three deep deployment.
Speaker 3:
It was a commercial building fire picked up a secondary water supply, the medic unit, you know, had finished out the water supply for engine 90 and asked for a reassignment. So you know he assigned them. Hey, just go ahead and get a roof report, because he didn't have anybody else at that point to do that work. So it's just the system. Right they were. They were just plugging in and using the system to manage the event, based off of the deployment model that they have and the critical factors that they were. They were seeing or hearing about.
Speaker 2:
So with Alpha that assignment, they did a really good job at letting them know when Alpha was in place and that's all I had to say is Alpha's in place for everybody to know now, if we're assigned through Alpha, that's who your boss is. That's a really good best practice, right To let people know when a division boss is actually in the division and ready to take it over. We hear sometimes that doesn't happen, but we teach it with Blue Card, especially with our division ops, that it does happen. Let's talk about getting that division boss in place.
Speaker 3:
In this case, because it's the county I work in and I know how this went down Captain Jackson happened to be with the strategic IC, though that isn't isn't a common thing.
Speaker 3:
They were together and that's why he was able to, you know, get him into place real quick. And he assigned him by name because he was with 9002 in his vehicle. So you know, there was a face-to-face communications right there in the car. Hey, I'm going to make you Alpha. But it still came over the radio Captain Jackson's going to be Alpha. And then when he got into place, he said you know, alpha is in the place. And I got engine 90 and I believe he said tower 90 working for him, working on getting the wall open. So now the company's working there.
Speaker 3:
There was only two at that point had heard two different times that Captain Jackson was going to be Alpha and then heard that Captain Jackson is Alpha. And then the next transmission was Alpha to engine 90, give me a can report. So it was closing that whole loop so that, one, companies know who they're working for and two, well, that whole thing of they know who they're working for. That way they're talking to Alpha, right, not talking to command, and then command knows that they're in place. Command can, you know, push that off. As far as the accountability piece, though, they have in place the engine 90, tower 90 and whoever the on debt company was that got assigned or working for Alpha, and they track that for accountability purposes. That division boss was using the passport system to track those companies in that division.
Speaker 3:
So you know that whole division boss thing, the value of that a little bit closer to the work, that can kind of see what's going on, and it's not literal, as I always say, but that division boss like feel it, taste it, touch it, and we don't mean that literally, like you're sniffing it and eating it and whatever. But we all know that feeling. When you're a little closer to it you kind of get that you're in a better place to make decisions and support those other companies. And it usually makes strategic ICs feel more comfortable about how the event's going. Because sometimes you're sitting there and it's like I don't have the best view of what's going on and I'm not really sure what's happening.
Speaker 3:
And then, if you don't have a division boss, you're going to be calling those companies like what's going on, give me a, can report, and in this case the division boss is right there and can kind of see what's going on and in some cases can have face to face.
Speaker 3:
And in this case you know the division boss being in place there wearing all of their PPE and everything, including, you know, an air pack. If they had to duck their head inside of a door that was within 20 feet of where the interior crew was opening up to kind of get a little better view of what was going on or to communicate with that crew face to face, you know they could have done that too. So that's why we do what we do. In our system the division bosses wear full protective equipment, the same as companies are going to operate in the IDLH, and they do operate in the warm zone, and anybody in the warm zone should be wearing all of that equipment. So it's just a really good example of when you have an SOG and you train on it and that's the expectation that you know that that's what's going to happen. And though on this incident it helped, they didn't have to have it, but if it would have escalated it was already all set up.
Speaker 2:
Now the other thing with layering is they had a subsequent arriving chief that got there and that chief was given the assignment to be the aide in the Alpha division, which really means be the embedded safety officer. So a good example of having most fire departments aren't riding with two in a battalion, but how later arriving chiefs can get plugged in to where we need them. And he knew right away that well, that's going to be the assignment that I'm going to give them. What's the responsibility of that aide when they're told you're going to be the aide for the Alpha division?
Speaker 3:
Yeah. So the aide is, you know, going to wear all the same PPE. Appropriate PPE is that boss that's working in the Alpha division and they're going there to support that position. But they have a safety officer, kind of embedded safety officer role, with that kind of eyes and ears of what's going on. They really become the person that's probably going to communicate with the companies that are on deck, making sure on deck companies have their the appropriate equipment, that they're right there, ready to go, that they're engaged. They're going to become the accountability person in that location.
Speaker 3:
So Alpha would pass their division board to the support officer and they would start tracking. You know, on our board and our system that we use with Blue Card, red is on the inside and yellow is on the outside that two-sided board. So they have who's inside, who's outside, they start to track air management, so how long have the companies really been working? And then another set of eyes and ears, right, like they kind of step back and look and see what's going on, just as the division boss is making decisions based off of what they see and communicating on the radio. So the support officer for the division boss is kind of like the support officer or driver that you would have for the strategic I see, and in this case the strategic I see you know told a responding chief just come to my car and, though they don't travel there together, as soon as that other person got in the car they hand them their strategic I see worksheet because everybody in this county uses the same one and they catch it up. They do all the documentation. So that way the strategic I see is watching, listening, which is one of the biggest things that a strategic I see does is active listening and then communicating with the companies as needed. And then the support officer and the strategic I see position then you know can maintain three deep deployment how many companies do we have? How many companies are working Like? What's this whole cycle looking like?
Speaker 3:
So if this thing did continue to escalate, the support officer for the strategic I see you know could have said we only have one company left in level one staging. Do you want to get you know an extra alarm? So it's that support piece for those positions as an incident starts to escalate. And you know, if you can do it, there's nothing wrong with building out the system to practice and exercise. Exercise the system so that people are more comfortable with it. So, and that's what they did in this case, you know, it didn't hurt nothing If a bigger event would have come out. They could have cut people loose. It's a live event exercise, you know.
Speaker 2:
I think the support officer is. There was a Twitter poll yesterday on the highest ranking person on the scene, should they take command, and 36% on this poll said yes. That is not the case with Blue Card. We were not only a critical factor based system, we only transfer command to improve it and we want, you know, our people, who are generally going to be the ICs, to be the IC, not the guy coming from the office just because I'm the highest ranking one. But I love being a support officer because, as the fire chief, I think I'm in a position to mentor, train and be there to support command and when I can get into command post and just help them with a comment here or there or taking some things off of the ICs plate, whether it's dealing with the power company, dealing with customer service issues, whatever it is and let them focus on the radio. The radio is where it's all going to be at and my goal, once I sit in that seat to be the support officer, is for nothing to distract that IC other than the radio. So I try to take all of that and then do that tracking, as you mentioned. You know, who do they have in level one, staging, reminding them hey, you got five companies in level one staging you want to do, and then those other calls are coming in. We just had an incident at one of our high schools and I was the support officer and while we were there we had two other calls that we were able to assign not only our own companies but in one case a mutual aid company out of level one staging to go deal with those other calls that are going on. So I think having a support officer is very powerful.
Speaker 2:
I don't think you should wait until it's the big one to get somebody in the command post because, like everything else that we do, the repetition of being able to get in and making it a routine type thing that you do. So everyone's used to it. Everyone's used to having either a chief officer, deputy chief however you do it in your system another BC from another community. If you have a captain, we put light duty captain. Sometimes If they're working in the office they'll go out and be the support officer on the fire ground because they're sitting in an air conditioned vehicle and they're not out and actually on fire ground activities.
Speaker 2:
So it is such a helpful role for that IC to have that second set of eyes and ears and someone who's going to be there to support them, and it makes I want them to be a superstar in all of this. And the other thing this idea of you know the chief has to be in charge. Well, what happens when the chief's not hunting or on vacation or sick? You know, we need to build systems that work regardless of who's there, because we could just plug those people in. It's more of the job description rather than the rank, John, so much of that.
Speaker 3:
You know we use the line all the time. Nobody's bigger than the game, right? And so many people get their mind wrapped around that if I'm not there it can't be, it's not going to happen, right? And I think we're on the opposite end of that. We want to train people to be able to do the job right and you know I say all the time the blue card system prepares people who really use it.
Speaker 3:
The first due company officer doing task level work, operating at the tactical level and early on before the command transfer, the strategic level too. So they're given initial radio report, a follow up report assigning a few companies, and they're working. You know the system builds those people up to be prepared and comfortable for when they become the strategic IC, right. I mean that first new company officer in a lot of cases has more on their plate than the strategic IC, because by then you're starting to build out and get that support. That first new company officer, you know, is the lone ranger, as Chief Garrison has said over and over again, like they're doing a lot, but if you use the system they can do it. And I'm just saying that because people act like the world's going to come to an end. If I'm not there and we've seen some of that even on social media and whatever like, oh, if we don't have this position, it's detrimental, and you know, buildings are going to burn down and people are going to die, and it's like, well then, the system's broke, because it's like, how deep is your bench? You know people should be able to do the work, and I think what you said right being able to provide support or be the senior advisor to somebody else to help them grow I mean that's priceless, right, it's interesting.
Speaker 3:
But I think it's that mindset right. It's the way we've always done it. We've gotten away with it, Our term of accidental success, we've just made it work. I don't like that. We just made it work or accidental success, I'm not. I'm not, I'm not worried. 90% of the time it works. Well then, what about the other 10%? Like that, that's what I'm worried about, right, what's what about the other 10%?
Speaker 2:
so, I used to hear fire chiefs say well, I'm the one who's going to be held responsible for this fire, or I'm not going to be the one on the witness stand, or however they're thinking their accountability goes. But I would counter that with yeah, you are going to be held accountable 24 seven for the operations of your department. Build a department and an organization that works 24 seven and not dependent on some one person showing up. We don't want that Now. I had a fire chief who, when he retired, the whole community came unglued because he was a really good fire chief. He was very active, he loved going to calls.
Speaker 2:
You know we knew within the organization. We said when he's retiring, we said you know we're going to be okay because he prepared us the carry on and not everything was dependent on him. And you know this was back in the mid 90s and he had us reading fire command. He had us doing fire command every incident we went to. We filled out an org chart and we would. We would turn it in along with our report just for the critique, so we could improve ourselves. And that's the kind of organization you should be building continuously, where where you're able to grow your people and make them thinking incident commanders and it's not dependent on one person.
Speaker 2:
All right, josh, good talking to you. I guess the next time I see you will be in Kansas City, so we're looking forward to going to the I Chief's conference in August. Again, visit us at booth 3619. If you're listening to this before that date and stop by and get some B shifter swag and check us on social media. We're on Twitter, instagram, facebook and now also on LinkedIn, so check those platforms and we'll give you some information on getting some free stuff from us when you go to I Chief's. Until next time, thanks so much for listening to B shifter.
