A Firefighter’s Guide to Articulating “Risk”
FHExpo17: Breaking Down the Equation of Risk
“Risk a lot to save a lot” and we “Risk a little to save a little” and “Risk nothing to save nothing” are common mantras of the fire service. However, these sayings that originally come from NFPA 1500 Occupational Health and Safety of Firefighters are okay in the sense of reminder. But these sayings like other similar phrases are difficult to apply as a skill set during hazardous and threats environments where firefighters are working. The recent evidence from NIOSH and National Fallen Firefighters Foundation over the last 20 years identifies that 157 firefighters died while working at building fires that were unoccupied.
Typically, when firefighters talk about “risk”, we think of people in harm’s way. But the term “risk” has additional factors that may help the fire service better articulate its form of Risk Management.
The primary takeaways from this presentation include: Is the “equation of Risk” with three variables – Threats/Hazards – Vulnerability – Consequence, which is commonly expressed as: R = T x V x C. Although this approach may seem foreign to the fire service, I will discuss this process for “all hazard” emergencies and how fire department’s can use this as a “framework” to both articulate and justify actions working in hazardous environments on any emergency.
The Variables:
Threats: are hazards we talk about on a fire: flashover, smoke conditions, offensive position in a defensive fire, collapse potential, thermal burns, fire behavior, etc. In this process we are constantly identifying hazards and putting controls in place to mitigate those hazards. I will speak to terms like “tactical agility”, where you build in movement to navigate and avoid the hazards within your tactical application of advance, defend, reinforce, withdraw, and delay.
Vulnerability:
And controls/mitigations, or the lack thereof, are directly related the next variable, “vulnerability”. Vulnerability represents the lack of controls/mitigations in place to defend from the threats or hazards that are present. Vulnerabilities only exist within your hazardous environment to to the fact that no one has identified hazards exist and no controls or mitigations have been established to reduce those vulnerabilities.
Therefore, the third variable is:
Consequence:
if you do not identify and establish controls to reduce vulnerability then you will have Consequence. Consequence is simply: the name, the face, the family of the actual person (firefighter) that we send into a burning building or other hazardous environment.
“Consequence” is the most important element of our equation and is directly affected by the other variables of “threats” and “vulnerability”.
By understanding the definition of “risk”, through our equation we are ultimately in a better position to articulate and justify our actions to both intra and extra-organization stakeholders when questions arise.
Lastly, this understanding can help ensure that as the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation say, “everyone goes home” and we survive another day in the life of a firefighter.
This article is based on a presentation that was modified from foundational methods used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from their definition of risk. Fire Captain Eric Saylors from Sacramento Fire Department and I have put this program together and it was presented this year at Firehouse Expo in Nashville, TN.
