Chief Elgin Browning, Program Manager, Industrial Rescue
In today's emergency response world, with all of our technology, information and abilities, we sometimes forget the basics.
At Industrial Rescue, we feel the essence of an effective and safe response is understanding the "why" and teaching you techniques to apply the different "hows" to accomplish the task.
Let's take incident command as an example.
Believe it or not, we have been under this system in one form or another since the beginning of our history. Each of us grew up knowing who was in charge and who was going to do what jobs. As a youth, I remember there was a chain of command and delegation of authority in the home. We were delegated to do chores, mow the grass, etc., and if there were conflicting orders, my dad would set us straight.
Looking at today's world, we use incident command daily in all aspects of industrial operations. We are structured through the plant manager and supervisor system to do daily tasks and produce products in the nonemergency mode by following a chain of command. Each of us uses the incident command system daily when we follow the safe work permit process.
So, what's different during emergency response? When you add the components of adrenaline, injuries and the time to stabilize the event, the challenges are numerous. These factors show how much we need to understand why we perform certain actions in a certain sequence at the beginning of an incident, which leads us to understand our predicted results. For example, there are many different ways to sound site-wide alarms, but the goal is alerting personnel to potential dangers and 100-percent accountability. That's the why. While the horns or sirens are activated by operations, the emergency response team must simultaneously focus on things like securing the area, closing valves, securing critical processes and where to meet to decide what to do next.
At Industrial Rescue, we apply these "why" principles in all aspects of our programs.
Today, there are often limited personnel on duty, and industrial facilities are constantly changing staffing levels to meet production needs. It is imperative we instill sound basics on why certain actions need to occur and how to formulate solutions so each person is efficient and safe in the initial response.
In firefighting, it is easy to demonstrate how to hold a hose, how to activate a monitor, etc. However, the true test is for the student to understand why we need water flowing immediately on key targets to prevent escalating the emergency. Why do we have the goal of cooling tanks or structural members within 10 minutes to prevent failure from flame contact? How much water are we flowing? What is the target? And can the target handle the weight of all that water?
We teach "resist rushing in" in hazardous material classes so we can correctly determine what the material is and what PPE is correct before we start an offensive response. Remember, hazmat dangers are almost all invisible and the margin of error is zero. The "how" is pre-incident planning, knowing our products and respecting the potential dangers.
Why do we teach simple knots and mechanical advantage systems in rope rescue? This is the ultimate example of where responders may be working in singles or pairs due to confined spaces or at heights.
Students must understand and apply skills to accomplish a particular task. We strive to teach the basic knots and systems that responders can apply 100 percent of the time, 100-percent correctly. We show why each system works for a particular job and how to use the fastest and safest methods.
All of this may seem obvious, but we see many of today's responders haven't been shown and are unaware of the methods the fire service and industry developed and used 30-40 years ago.
While we support all the innovations developed throughout the years and we use many of these at our training facility, we are challenging responders to think about potential problems. Students should not have a mindset that a situation is stable. We are challenging paradigms and hoping people will at least consider this teaching methodology.
Industrial Rescue uses the most up-todate standards and guidelines in developing curriculums to meet the challenges of today's industrial and municipal responders. We are constantly refining and changing our fire, rescue and hazmat simulations. Consider Industrial Rescue for your training and standby needs. We promise to provide a dedicated, knowledgeable teaching staff and standby personnel with worldwide experience.
For more information, visit www.industrialrescue.com or email Chief Elgin Browning at elgin@irisrescue.com.
