Managing the Mayday

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Managing the Mayday

• John Skip Coleman, Deputy Chief
• Toledo (OH) Fire Department
• Rick Lasky, Fire Chief
• Lewisville (TX) Fire Department

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The lost or trapped firefighter situation is very
difficult and extremely stressful, but like
anything else we do in the fire service, we have
to train for it.
3
In order for a firefighter to survive the
dangers of firefighting, he must know how other
firefighters have died or been seriously injured.

• Vincent Dunn
• Deputy Chief, FDNY (ret.)

4
The one thing in life you have absolute control
over is
your attitude !
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The Mayday Or Call For Help Is Out

• Establish the terminology
• Urgent,
• Emergency,
• Emergency Traffic,
• and MAYDAY.

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Mayday is most often used when a member is in
peril

• Lost
• Trapped
• Out of air
• Down

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Mayday is most often used when a member is in
peril

• When a collapse has occurred or is imminent.
• Where any other circumstance that can seriously
  injure or kill is present.

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Mayday is most often used when a member is in
peril

• Simply put, if we dont get out of this right
  now, were not going to make it!

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Whatever you come up with

• make sure everyone who works on your fireground
  understands it!!!
• Train in it so that members will use it
  automatically should they get in trouble.

10
Clear all radio traffic

• Attempt to identify the member in trouble.
• RIT should ready themselves to deploy into the
  structure.
• An emergency alert tone can be activated at this
  point.

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If the IC cant identify the member in trouble

• Immediately perform a roll call.

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Performing a Roll Call

• Start with first-in interior companies and work
  out from there.
• Emphasis should be on accounting for each
  company.
• Check to see if each has all of its personnel.

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Performing a Roll Call

• Asking for specific names can wait until you get
  to the company with a missing member.
• Once the member is identified and reported as
  missing, announce the members name.
• Ask if anyone operating on the scene knows this
  firefighters last known location.

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Performing a Roll Call

• Throughout this process, ask the following
  questions
• Who is trapped? How many are trapped?
• What was the last location(s) of the member(s)?
• What was the last assignment(s) of the member(s)?
• Are they radio-equipped?

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Performing a Roll Call

• If possible, review the tactical worksheet
• There have been times when companies were
  looking for someone only to find out that the
  firefighter made it outside, or was working with
  another company.

16
Performing a Roll Call

• This is where training in your accountability
  system pays off.
• As much as we like to think that we stay
  together, sometimes things happen and we become
  separated.

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Once the missing member is identified

• Deploy RIT into the structure.
• Sooner with small residential structures
• Larger commercial structures
• Attempt to provide the precise location of the
  member in distress or last known location.
• Anything that will help to increase potential
  rescue time.

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During the roll call

• once you have discovered who is missing, continue
  with the roll call process.
• Involve your dispatch center or fire alarm
  office.
• Consider volunteers and off-duty paid members
  that respond to the scene in their personal
  vehicles.

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Other tasks

• Is EMS on the scene?
• If not, request a minimum of one advanced life
  support ambulance.

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Keep the operation going

• Keep working companies in their area of
  assignment.
• Continue to work on the fire and ventilate.
• Others can be redirected to assist in the rescue
  effort (RIT support).

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What Command Should Expect From Crews

• Expect mutinies.
• This will be perhaps the hardest scene a fire
  chief or IC faces.
• The want and need to help is natural!

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To control mutinies

• You must do three things
• Expect them.
• Practice how to react to them.
• Control them.

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Training Drills

• Drills, again, tend to be a small obstacle to
  overcome.
• The essence of training, is to allow error
  without consequence.

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Pick your battlegrounds.

• Vacant city-owned structures that will be used
  for a training burn work best.
• Training burn buildings also work well.
• If you anticipate mutinies and then attempt to
  adjust to them, the real scene may end as you
  hoped.

25
Psychology of the trapped, injured, or lost
firefighter

• This firefighters sole focus will be on removing
  themself from danger, if it is possible.
• Obvious factors in the area will be ignored.
• Fire
• Smoke conditions
• Structural elements, and so on.

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Psychology of the trapped, injured, or lost
firefighter

• Firefighters in distress may walk (or run) past
  an open window in obvious view because they were
  looking for the stairs, or they may crawl over
  and ignore a hoseline while looking for a safety
  rope.
• They may forget what is connected to the end of
  the hoseline.

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Psychology of the trapped, injured, or lost
firefighter

• The firefighter in distress will usually revert
  to what was learned and is routine.
• This is where our training in the basics and
  firefighter rescues pay off.

28
Psychology of the trapped, injured, or lost
firefighter

• Dont expect a firefighter to accomplish a
  manipulative maneuver learned in a one-hour
  training session, especially if the task was
  learned months ago and never practiced after that.

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Psychology of the trapped, injured, or lost
firefighter

• Finally, firefighters in distress will
  overcompensate they will not be able to feel
  safe enough.
• Remember, their sole and overriding focus is to
  survive.

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Psychology of the trapped, injured, or lost
firefighter

• When you locate the firefighter in distress, do
  the following
• Speak calmly.
• Offer reassurance.
• Explain every action you are taking.
• Promise anything. Then, try to keep your promises.

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Psychology of the Mutineers

• The IC must understand that these individuals,
  when activated, will focus or tunnel in on the
  rescue. However, they may ignore the obvious
• Fire conditions flashover, rollover, changing
  smoke conditions, and the like.
• Safety they might ignore safe practices.

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Psychology of the Mutineers

• Performance they may not be able to perform
  multitasks.
• Get crews inside with RIT to focus on fire
  conditions. Back-up lines should be staffed by
  crews who will focus on back-up.
• Assign a safety officer specifically to RIT.

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The Psychology of the Others On-Scene

• As stated earlier, expect mutinies.
• They want to help their brother or sister!
• Some should remain and fight the fight.
• Utilize them for RIT support.

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The Psychology of Command

• Resist the temptation to be the hands-on guy.
  This is a natural tendency.
• Command will want more than the usual number of
  updates, especially from RIT.
• Command should build a small think-tank.

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What Command Should And Should Not Do!

• Command should consider time.
• New turn-out gear limits.
• RIT needs to get in.
• Hose streams need to be working in the area of
  the endangered members ASAP.
• SCBA work time extra bottles.
• Monitor the structures stability.

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Command should consider staffing constraints

• The RIT.
• Back-up line for RIT.
• Second and additional back-up lines.
• Support with special tools if needed.
• EMS personnel.

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Command should consider staffing constraints

• GET ENOUGH HELP TO THE SCENE!

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Command should remove nonessential crews

• Reason 1 To control or hold in check the
  inevitable freelancing.
• Reason 2 To get members who can provide RIT
  support.

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The essential crews are the following

• The RIT.
• Any hoseline in the last known location of the
  firefighters giving the Mayday.
• Any hoseline that can be used to hold the fire
  away from the area of the lost, injured, or
  trapped firefighter(s).

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The essential crews are the following

• Ventilation in progress that will help draw fire
  and heat from the area is also essential.
• If additional crews are available, open up as
  much of the building as possible without drawing
  the fire into the area of the rescue.

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The essential crews are the following

• Finally, any available search crew still
  conducting a primary search for viable victims
  should continue.

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Withdraw nonessential crews

• All other crews are nonessential and should be
  withdrawn, accounted for, and reorganized.
• RIT support will grow to at least three times the
  size of RIT.

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Consider all options

• Dont overlook breaching walls.
• Remember to establish a think-tank.
• Diagram the building.
• Evaluate staffing and
• time constraints.

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Communications

• During a Mayday this will be challenging at best.
• Stop the yelling as soon as possible.

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Communications

• Communications from Command and from company
  officers should be deliberate, calm, clear, and
  concise.
• Only essential communications should be allowed.
  Think about channel assignments.

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Command must build a think tank

• Now is the time to build a team at the command
  post.
• Consider two operations chiefs
• One for the fire.
• One for the rescue effort.

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The Fire

• The fire may have to held in check for the time
  being.
• This is where holding actions may need to be in
  place while the search for endangered
  firefighter(s) commences.

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The Fire

• The decision on what remains as is and what will
  be suspended rests with Command.

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The Rescue

• The officer in charge of the rescue will need two
  general things
• A RIT.
• RIT support. RIT support is the Logistics of
  the rescue.

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The Think Tank

• The three (or more) individuals (Command and the
  officers in charge of the fire and of the
  rescue) will need to be together and they must
  talk.

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Command must be able to multitask conceptually

• Command will have many conversations, thoughts,
  and visual observations running through his or
  her head at the same time.
• Command must be able to sort and prioritize these
  thoughts and observations while clearly defining
  tasks and expectations.

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Command Multitasking

• Continually thinking on two fronts, the fire and
  the rescue.
• Command must be allowed to step back and
  momentarily weigh requests and realities and then
  come up with a sound decision.

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Command should give up the portable radio ASAP!

• Get an aide to monitor the Command channel.
• By now, Command
• should have built a
• staff into the
• command structure.

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Returning to Normalcy

• After the firefighter rescue, Command should
  conduct another PAR.
• After the PAR, reestablish a plan of attack for
  the original fire.

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Returning to Normalcy

• As soon as you can, send additional crews to the
  scene for relief and reassign on-scene crews to
  the necessary assignments.
• As soon as relief comes, get the original
  on-scene crews to a debriefing. They should be
  required to leave the scene.

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Returning to Normalcy

• Consider support sectors such as a public
  information officer to handle the media and
  chaplain to handle critical incident stress
  management (CISM).
• Training in incident management, rapid
  intervention, and rescue techniques obviously is
  just a start.

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Returning to Normalcy

• Take time to review past incidents, and look at
  what got you in trouble.
• Determine your resources and develop your own
  lost/trapped firefighter policy.

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How well Command manages the Mayday and how well
on-scene crews interact with one another will
determine the success or failure of the toughest
type of incident we will ever fight.
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MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
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Thank you !