Real-Life Communication -- Solution
"In order to fight a fire properly, you have to have teamwork. There's
just no way around it. You have to be able to communicate with each other,"
says Frank Trenholn, an instructor of firefighting.
In an emergency
fire situation, a chain of command incorporates everyone all the way down
the line, including crewmembers and a crew chief. Depending on the expansion
of the fire, you may have sector and division bosses, people in charge of
helicopters, or folks responsible for mobilizing and demobilizing the machinery
used to fight the fire.
Teamwork is essential, and firefighters must
be operational immediately. "Think of it as an expanding and collapsing pyramid.
As your fire gets bigger, it's set up so you can expand very quickly, and
once you have the fire under control, you can disband very quickly too," explains
Trenholn.
Firefighters must also communicate with other organizations
when duties overlap. "Many people...want to build their homes a little bit
out of the city limits and amongst the trees, so there's always a fire danger.
The Ministry of Forests has agreements with cities, municipalities, fire departments
and police where they take on an 'interface' type of objective. The Ministry
of Forests would make sure the fire didn't spread around the trees, a fire
department would take care of the home and police would be called in -- it's
a whole group effort," says Trenholn.
When a crew is called in to fight
a fire, a plan of attack would immediately be put in place. Verbally, a crew
chief would discuss the objectives with his crew and hand out maps of the
area. They would discuss safety zones and the type of attack. "Some procedures
you can pick up from a book, and others are procedures where you're right
in the chain of command of things," adds Trenholn.
You're a crew chief
of a group of firefighters who work together regularly as a team. Each of
your firefighters is an experienced and excellent worker, but you'd like to
improve the group's overall performance.
Consider some ways you could
improve their performance, not necessarily in fighting the fire,
but in working together as a team. What could you do to make the team itself
more efficient?