After 20 years in the fire service working through the ranks as a firefighter, engineer and captain, I made the transition to chief officer/incident commander. Shortly after this transition, I realized the value of a solid company officer.
There are many aspects that come into play when judging value in company officers. In regards to the fireground, there are certain traits that I find to have an effect on the overall success of an incident. This article will discuss those traits and attempt to align the company officer with the expectations of their chief officer when it comes to the overall command and control of an incident.
Prior to the incident
The alignment of a company officer with his chief officer starts long before the incident. The saying “know your boss” is one of the most important traits of a company officer. Firefighters complete endless hours of training, and as you promote individuals these training hours become proportionally important.
Although it is extremely important for a company officer to train with their crew, it is equally important for them to train with their boss. Whereas training with your company involves many hours of physical training, you should match that effort verbally with your boss. Company officers must sit down with their chief officer and have discussions on a regular basis. It is important to have a good feel for how your chief officer thinks, reacts and runs incidents. Chief officers need aligned company officers in order to consistently run successful incidents. Taking the time to train together and talk about expectations will allow you to get on the same page prior to the tones sounding.
As a company officer, I always took pride in helping my chief successfully manage an incident. Success was achieved by feeding them information that I knew they would need. It enabled me to stay one step ahead when our thoughts and actions were aligned. Additionally, it enabled both of us to take quick and aggressive actions that led to many successful outcomes.
When you’re considering training with your company, don’t forget to include your chief officer and don’t forget that training with them is just as important as training with your crew. Showing up to an incident with no idea of the expectations or the thought process of your chief officer will eventually lead to a negative outcome. Once you're on the same page as your chief officer, you are ready to confidently and competently respond to incidents.
The most important position
Focusing on residential and commercial building fires, I've found that there are traits that a company officer should strive to achieve. These traits directly contribute to the successful outcome of an incident. The first-in company officer is arguably the most important position on the fireground. That officer and the first-in chief officer will set the tone and have a strong influence on the outcome of the incident.
It is important that the first arriving officer paints a picture of what they find when they arrive. Letting the responding first alarm know what you’re seeing will enable each company officer and chief officer to visualize the incident. This will allow them to objectively prepare for their role and contemplate the tactics they might use once a strategy is determined. In addition, your incident commander will use your information to forecast the growth potential and align his resource requests to meet that need.
Size-up
A size-up of the incident starts prior to the response. Your knowledge of the building, the area in which you’re responding, and the information given to you by dispatch will add to the quality of your size-up. Every company officer understands what a size-up is, and we’ve all taken classes on how to do them.
Many agencies have policies and procedures that walk us through what we should say. In my opinion, size-ups need to be quick and to the point. Many times I have heard these long drawn-out size-ups that are filled with nonessential information. A responding chief officer only needs to know the basics. Those basics should include what do you see, what you are doing, and what you need. Tell them quickly what you have, what you’re gonna do and what you need, and that will set your chief officer up for success.
The job of an incident commander involves command and control and supporting the members on the incident. As long as you give your chief officer/ incident commander the pertinent information, they can support your mission.
360
Once you’ve exited the fire engine, the most important step during most incidents will be the 360. The 360 of a building allows you to provide an accurate report on conditions after seeing all sides.
After the initial size-up, the responding chief officer will be establishing his overall objectives and will start initiating his plan to support the strategies and tactics of the incident. The 360 is vitally important as things may change or be completely different once completed. It is imperative that the report and conditions be relayed to the rest of the responding first alarm. The report on conditions after a completed 360 should verify the initial plan or spell out the needed adjustments.
Quick, decisive and accurate information being fed to the responding chief officer will directly reflect the incident's outcome and the overall command and control of the incident.
Alignment
Once a first-in company officer has completed his 360 and relayed that information to the incident commander, it is time to align the overall objectives of strategy and tactics. This is precisely the moment when the training you've done with your chief and crew stands out. As a company officer, this is the moment that I felt was the most important.
If the incident commander was at the scene, I would receive his overall objective and then feed him information on how I felt we should move forward with our strategies and tactics. I would immediately pass on any needs that were important to carry out those tactics. I found that giving him pertinent information and suggesting a plan contributed to a professional and respectful fireground relationship that contributed to our overall success. Getting to this point takes work that begins long before an incident.
Company officers have to remember that the incident commander most likely hasn't seen everything that you’ve seen. They’re relying on you to feed them that important information so that they can support the incident. I took pride in feeding the incident commander important updates and progress that we were making on the incident.
Now sitting on the other side of the radio, I can attest to the value of a company officer that doesn’t continually talk on the radio, but when they do, it’s important information. When you have a chief officer that’s aligned with his company officer you will find that the flow of information happens naturally, and there is less guessing involved on the incident.
Being one step ahead and being able to predict the next step will significantly improve the outcome as the cohesiveness of the team will shine. It is the responsibility of the company officer to ensure that those accurate updates are being fed to the incident commander.
Continually re-evaluate
As the incident progresses, it is extremely important that all incident commanders and company officers reevaluate, react and recover throughout the incident. Many times your initial strategy and tactics need to be realigned with your incident objectives. It is important that we don’t get the “candle moth syndrome” and have competence to recognize that we are out of alignment.
As a company officer it is your responsibility to assist the incident commander in recognizing, reacting and recovering when the incident tactics and strategies aren't aligned. You need to take it upon yourself to assist them with getting the incident back on track.
Summary
Becoming a successful first-in company officer starts long before the incident. Education, experience and training will build your foundation for success. Include your crew and your boss in this foundation and you’ll find that once the tones go off you will all be aligned. This will allow you to recognize, react and recover when things aren't going as planned. Providing that first alarm and your chief officer with a solid size-up, a 360 along with pertinent and important information will help your chief officer support your incident and contribute to an overall successful outcome.
Chad Costa
Chad Costa is the assistant chief for the Petaluma, CA, Fire Department. With more than 26 years of fire service experience, he has worked in various organizations, including CAL FIRE, rural and semi-rural districts, and a city. As a battalion chief, Costa was the technology and communications battalion chief. He is now a rostered operations branch director for CalFire Team 1 and an alternate operations section chief trainee on California Interagency Team 5. Costa is an accredited Chief Fire Officer through the Center for Public Safety Excellence and has a bachelor’s degree in emergency services management, a master’s degree in fire service leadership, and a certificate in homeland security. Costa has also completed the Executive Chief Officer Program at the National Fire Academy. Costa is a member of the Firehouse Editorial Advisory Board.
