By Thomas N. Warren
任何消防部门可以采取的措施改善其火场行动的众多事情之一是评估其有效性回复to a fire. One of the quickest ways to pick up on the strengths and weaknesses of a department is to take a candid, grass-roots level look at a fire operation after it occurs.
When I was a young lieutenant eager to take command of my first fire company, ready to take on any fire in mydistrict，我很快发现我还有很多东西要学习。我很快意识到，我们所有人都有很多了解我们对部门任务以及我们指挥下的消防员的责任。很快就显而易见的是，当我掌握一名中尉的技巧时，也有新的队长和营负责人学习掌握各自手工艺品的艺术。消防服务是一个恒定的助焊剂组织，我们一直都在学习。
New firefighters are always joining the fire service and others are being promoted to higher ranks as firefighters retire or move on to other careers. These are normal,healthytransitions for our organizations. Nothing brings more enthusiasm and renewed passion for our job than a new group of probies in the firehouse or a promotion to the next rank.
随着我们的职业生涯，学习具有与晋升之前的意义不同。我们的担忧在本质上变得更加全球，而不太围绕机械才能和个人耐力。我们开始专注于组织目标和运营优先事项的概念。Routine我们执行的进化开始成为较大的运营计划的一部分，该计划适合整体的火场操作。我们作为梯子的屋顶通风更多的是，切一个洞，这会让我们的队长感到自豪。这是一项战术行动，使发动机公司能够将一条线转移到扑灭火灾和寻找受害者的位置上。现在，我们通过允许从建筑物释放热量，烟雾和消防气体的有效性来看到并评估通风。
With this informal education process comes the formal education process of earningcollegedegrees. Every firefighter should pursue this avenue regardless of rank. A veteran fire officer will learn from many sources and develop a more comprehensive picture of fire service operations, operationally and administratively. Through this growing process, a veteran fire officer will learn the value of evaluating one’s self and the organization in which he operates.
The “after-action” critique is probably the best known工具used to evaluate the any fireground operation. I was first introduced to this concept through a new battalion chief who was also one of the youngest battalion chiefs in our department. I was surprised to receive notice to report to a neighboring fire station at the beginning of our shift. The chief wanted to discuss a fire we had the night before. I was a little nervous about the prospect of sitting down with the battalion chief to review our efforts at this fire, but I gathered my crew and we drove to the neighboring fire station.
On our way to the车站，我听说其他消防公司“播出”到同一消防局。很快就变得很明显。我熟悉批评大火的概念，但在我们部门从未做过，我有一种沉没的感觉，因为它不会受到好评。
I was reminded of a quote from Field Marshall Sir William Slim, a World War II Britishofficerwho once commented that “military officers have to make vital decisions on incomplete information in a matter of seconds, and afterwards the experts can sit down at leisure, with all the facts before them, and argue about what might, could or should have been done.” We all engage in this type of Monday morning quarterbacking, and it often leads to hard feelings and nothing being learned from our shared experience.
Reluctantly, we all went to the sitting room at the fire station, had some coffee, and waited for thebattalion酋长到达。他按照我们最喜欢的面包店的糕点准时到达，并立即开始放松所有消防员。该营负责人知道这对我们所有人来说都是新的经历，我们很有可能会对自己的行动进行防御。他解释说，他知道这是一个新概念，他打算以一定的规律性（不一定在火灾之后）这样做，但他想用这场大火向我们介绍这一概念，因为用他的话说，一个非常好的停留。”
He let us know that there would be a systematic approach to these meetings and that he would model it after the U.S Fire Administration’s (USFA’s)Special Report:The After-Action Critique: Training Through Lessons Learned。首先rulewas that no one would be allowed to criticize anyone else or any fire company; we would simply explore the course of the fire and compare our actions to our department standard operating procedures (SOPs). With the guidelines established, we proceeded by allowing every company officer to describe his actions and how those actions fit into the overall fireground operations.
The process went surprising well. Every company officer was eager to explain what he did and how it fit into the overall fireground operation and measure the actions against our SOPs. Company officers began to think about their fireground operations beyond being a series of task assignments and more like a component of an effective fireground operation.
The interconnectivity of our individual actions soon became apparent. Our first after-action critique lasted about 30 minutes, and we all left with a sense accomplishment; first, for our operations the previous night and second, and more importantly, for participating in a process designed to help us improve. We essentially learned a new way to learn. We learned that we needed to identify and measure our operations before we could improve them. We learned that as comprehensive as our SOPS were, they required revisions and updating. We learned that other departments might do things better than we did and we could learn from them. We learned of what ours and our fellow firefighters’ strengths and weaknesses. We also learned how to improve our organization.
在接下来的几年中，我们还有更多的后行动批评。慢慢地，其他营负责人开始效仿。该计划获得了支持，因为它是联邦紧急事务管理局，美国军方和USFA采用的一种学习技术。我们的计划旨在确定需要修改的操作趋势，发现潜在的安全问题，评估我们的SOP，以应对新的挑战，根据知识经验教训制定新的培训计划，并认识到良好的决策和运营成功。
Our department won several grants and began to host multijurisdictional hazmat, mass casualty, and terrorism drills funded by several federal agencies. These drills brought in many local fire departments as well as state and federal agencies. One requirement to hosting these drills was to conduct a “hot wash” following the drill. The concept was to evaluate what went right, what went wrong, and what could be improved. The sponsoring agency served as the facilitator for these hot washes, trying to bring out conversation relating to our performance at the drill. The members of our department had learned through the previous years’ after-action critiques the value of this exercise and how to make it work to everyone’s benefit.
Our members quickly began the discussion and coaxed some of the more reluctant exercise participants to engage in the discussion. We were teaching others what we had learned years earlier—evaluation conducted in a respectful manner is a valuable learning tool. After the hot wash, we would often go out for lunch with some of the other drill participants and talk about the day’s activities. For most of the departments, this was their first formal review of any kind in which they participated professionally. They simply did not do these kinds of things in their own departments, and they were more than a little bit anxious about engaging in the conversation. As the discussion went on regarding the drill, they indicated they began to feel a little more comfortable with the process and found themselves engaged in the dialogue; they even felt that they benefitted from it.
I saw in them the young lieutenant I was when I first participated in one of these after-action critiques many years ago: a little bit apprehensive about this new learning tool, but willing to try it. When one takes an open and honest look at his performance and measures it against established standards, it opens the door to improvement, personally and for the organization as a whole. We all are the beneficiaries when that happens.
Thomas N. Warrenhas more than 40 years of experience in the fire service in both career and volunteer departments. He retired as assistant chief of department of the Providence (RI) Fire Department after 33 years of service. Presently he is a faculty member at Bristol Community College in the Fire Science Technology Program teaching a variety of subjects in the fire science discipline. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in fire science from Providence College, an Associate’s Degree in business administration from the Community College of Rhode Island and a Certificate in Occupational Safety and Health from Roger Williams University.
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