现代的succession planningchallenges are unprecedented. Experienced officers are leaving at an alarming rate, and COVID-19 has not helped. Most fire departments find personnel’s average years of service getting smaller and smaller. This often puts downward pressure to lower minimum standards to take promotional tests, as fewer members can qualify.
消防部门一直受到内部挑战succession planning, especially with modern factors being added to the job description of company and chief officers. No fire department, regardless of size, has the appropriate训练division staffing or budget to keep up with the demand to develop new officers.
Chiefs of departments of all sizes say they are plagued with issues that should have been handled at lower levels. Their desks are buried with paperwork and calendars are impacted with meetings because公司官员而且营负责人要么使事情变得更糟，要么简单地将问题传递到链条上，因为他们没有能力解决问题的水平。
Command and Tactical Succession Planning: More Than Training
现代官员必须开发的知识，技能和能力（KSA）最关键的方面之一是紧急行动。虽然leadershipand management dimensions are vital and have derivative KSAs that apply to being an事件指挥官（IC）, the functions and KSAs for operations can save a life, and the lack thereof can cost many lives.
We must rethinksuccession planning—especially regarding operations, tactical decision making, and incident command—to include creating opportunities to give new officers more hands-on training and experience. Going to classes and performing simulations are important. However, they are only a foundation to develop the requisite KSAs to be safe, effective, and efficient ICs and tacticians.
Hands-on指挥培训must include much more than simulations. Simulations help develop communication skills, and we have used them with radios and simulation software for years. However, more can be done and can have tremendous results.
All firefighters learn more effectively with操作培训, and command training is no exception. Multicompanydrillswith all personnel in full turnouts with self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) and smoke machines provide the necessary conditions to truly develop real skills.
During hands-on command and tactical training, companies pull chargedhoselines, look for victims (mannequins), enter the smoke, and do so in real time. The drill ground transforms into a live fireground with the “fog of war” and radio transmissions through SCBA, wrought with feedback, engines pumping, and saws blaring.
一流的公司官员经常遇到一个角色扮演的乘员，他们描绘了旁观者或惊慌的乘员，他们说他的孩子在里面。公司官员必须管理肾上腺素，心动过速的注入，并以受害者的形式收集关键的挽救生命的信息，以克服任何隧道愿景。同时，机组人员需要方向，而无线电则随后带着想要上班的单位到达。
KSAs like remaining calm, multitasking, communicating, and making critical decisions are developed in realistic conditions. All the while, the officers develop stress inoculation. They are given distractors, like bystanders who want to share useless information, crews who attempt to freelance, and others who do not answer the radio. All these things happen naturally and, in themselves, become opportunities for more training and growth.
Meanwhile, smoke is billowing out of the structure; subsequent companies are arriving; and the chief arrives, wanting a transfer of command. In some cases, the chief is delayed; in others, the chief is right behind the first-due officer. Countless permutations are developed and executed to give all aspiring company and chief officers as much realistic training and experience as possible.
演习并不局限于钻地。欧r department would often gain consent from apartment and commercial building managers to conduct nondestructive hands-on training. We used occupied apartment complexes and businesses successfully countless times for years. The managers of these occupancies saw the benefit and gave verbal consent to perform the nondestructive training. Many times, apartment occupants and their kids loved to help by portraying reporting parties or patients with smoke inhalation.
We used smoke machines in the occupied complexes. We would ask for an apartment that was vacant but not flipped (there was no fresh paint or carpet yet). We would reassure the manager that we would not do any damage and would clean up before we left. Hoselines were charged and companies entered smoke-filled halls and apartments in search of victims (mannequins). It helps to tighten couplings before the drill!
我们多年来进行了这些演习，并取得了积极的成果，工作人员喜欢他们。作为营负责人（BC），我将进行演习，任何有抱负的BC都将充当IC。有抱负的公司官员将乘坐前排座位，他们的真正公司官员担任消防员的指导。我会在指挥所的指导中指导IC。
我们记录了所有的训练;这种方式,我们可以to view video and critique everything, including radio traffic. The crews would take up after a drill, laughing, sweating, and talking about the “victim” and the smoke. Their adrenaline was pumping, and they all got better at calming the chaos.
One drill that stands out was at a three-story center-hall apartment building. As usual, we obtained verbal consent from the manager by explaining the benefit of our knowing the complex, interacting with the occupants, and having the new firefighters learning the idiosyncrasies of the building. We also explained that apartment fires were lethal, lives could be lost, and these types of drills could prevent a catastrophe. We never had a manager deny access.
In this case, the maintenance man had eight kids—jackpot! He and his whole family happily role-played for the crews as they arrived. The first-arriving engine was met with the mom yelling that her kids were trapped. The oldest daughter was holding the four-year-old who kept saying, “Mommy, what’s wrong?” (photo 1).
(1)Engine 101 arrives with family members engaging the captain to report multiple victims on the third floor.(作者照片。)
Meanwhile, on the third-floor balcony, two more kids were screaming for help as smoke billowed out from the apartment’s sliding door behind them (photo 2). On accessing the fire floor (laden with smoke from the second smoke machine), the captain was met with two more kids, one of whom gave him a piece of paper that read, “Welcome to the fire floor. Using your thermal imaging camera (TIC), you look down the hall and have a heat signature from the third door on the left. P.S. If you didn’t bring your TIC, go back and get it.” The other teenager was coughing uncontrollably.
(2)Two kids scream for help from the balcony of the mock fire apartment.
This built muscle memory and real-life experience into each drill. The dividends paid off! Our officers were calm and decisive; had command presence; and were confident in the role of first due, IC, or division/group supervisor. Our members promoted and became great officers. Most importantly, our fires went better and better. Each fire was recorded and then critiqued by all the crews the next shift. I was the first one to be critiqued. I wanted their input to make me better as well, and the camera does not lie.
实时火场和紧急场景继任计划
我坚信拥有博士学位的布莱恩·克兰德尔（Brian Crandall）博士所拥护的“爬行漫游”哲学。在成人学习和领导力以及IC的学习方式中。我们必须在紧急情况下逐步发展我们的官员。桌面练习和模拟是一个很好的开始（爬网）。然后，动手的多委员会演习在现实条件下（步行）提供了出色的实践。“跑步”阶段在实际的火场或其他紧急场景上。在这里，有抱负的军官必须在导师的密切关注下完成这项工作。
Like a paramedic who goes through a didactic (crawl), clinical (walk), and field internship with a preceptor (run), so too must our company and chief officers. There are two ways to accomplish this. First, your department should have a mentoring program in which your aspiring officers ride up in the front seat of the engine with the company officer riding back and mentoring. This means the acting officer is the officer for the shift.
Aspiring officers in my battalion were expected to answer the phone, do reports, schedule the daily activities, conduct drills, lead inspections, and run the crew on all calls. At their side, for the entire time, was their officer, acting as mentor, coach, and safety net.
When I was a captain and one of my crew wanted to promote, he rode in the front seat. We had an agreement regarding when I would take over a situation. For example, if we were on a call or in a situation in public in which he felt he was in over his head, or I felt like someone would get hurt, we had a safe word. I would then take over.
This occurred one night when we were the second-due engine on a house fire with a victim trapped. He hesitated. I asked calmly on the headset from the back seat, “What are we going to do? What are we going to do?” His hesitation caused me to take over and we executed a rescue while our engineer got a water supply. We spoke afterward. It was a learning moment. I am happy to say he later promoted and was a great captain.
给您有抱负的官员实践经验（Run）的另一种方法是让他们在事件上保留指挥或战术位置。我经常允许我的公司官员在房屋大火期间保留命令。我会到达现场，走上去，说：“你做得很好！想保留命令以获得体验吗？”他们总是说是！
Perhaps the most compelling means to provide command and tactical succession planning is in how your standard operating procedures are set up for command. If you use the incident command system (ICS) in a progressive way, divisions and groups get set up sooner than later. This keeps the span of control down, radio traffic quiet, accountability accurate, and multifocal risk/gain management going continuously.
该方法还使公司官员更频繁地填补部门和小组主管角色。因此，他们获得了更多的经验，可以在下面的多家公司中做出战术决策。这使首席/IC的灵活性通过选择将公司官员放置在酋长尚未现场时，或者只是在随后到达的指导下获得良好的经验，从而使首席/IC的灵活性在为火灾中设置IC。首席。如果条件有保证，第二或第三任酋长可以允许船长保留该部/小组主管的角色，以获得宝贵的经验。
On a townhouse fire, the Engine 108 (E108) captain was in command on my arrival. I knew the second chief was approximately 10 minutes behind me. Rather that assign the E108 captain back to his crew at the task level, I assigned him Division A, with engines and trucks all working for him with the objectives of fire attack and interior search.
He was responsible for accountability and safety and spoke to his crews primarily face-to-face. He also had the authority to initiate tactics (additional hoselines, searches, coordinate vent and fire attack) without checking with me. This decentralized method of command is extremely effective in reducing unnecessary radio traffic and building future battalion chiefs.
如果公司官员担任战术监督职务，他在其他机组人员中有多种选择。首先，他可以将机组人员分配给部门/集团内的另一家公司官员以责任。其次，他可以将机组人员分配给生命或健康任务，例如供水或暴露线。最后，他可以将船员分配给军官通过会计乘员，执行门控制或伸展两线来协助该官员监督部门/组。
现代的succession planning challenges are plaguing the fire service. No fire department is exempt. Succession planning and incident command must be interwoven. Training must include high-fidelity, multicompany hands-on drills with realistic conditions like smoke, victims, and panicked occupants. In addition, the methodology of command, using ICS, allows company officers to lead multiple crews in the form of division/group tactical supervisors. This decentralized command ethos will yield operations that are more safe, effective, and efficient as well as officers who are more confident and ready to take on more responsibilities and challenges.
Anthony Kastrosis a 32-year veteran of the fire service and founder of Trainfirefighters.com. He was the FDIC 2013 keynote speaker and 2019 George D. Post Instructor of the Year. He is author of the Fire Engineering book掌握消防服务评估中心and video seriesMastering Fireground Command, Calm the Chaos.
