A presentation to shift our traditional tactical decisions focused on effect on the fire, to a modern mindset of giving first consideration to the impact of our tactics on fire victims and their survivability. In 2014 ULFSRI released the "Study of the Impact of Fire Attack Utilizing Interior and Exterior Steams on Firefighter Safety and Occupant Survival". This was the first time the fire service truly incorporated civilian survival outcomes as a metric for tactical evaluation. Since then, the releases of additional studies and the growing depth of the Firefighter Rescue Survey data has further informed this. Join us for a night of "Tactics for Life" loaded with real fireground rescue footage of the location, removal and even intubation of fire victims and use it to save a life at your next fire.

Traditionally, the fire service only receives statistics on civilian fire fatalities but what about the ones we save, the ones for whom we make a difference?  Why are we not sharing these outcomes? We’re not sharing them because we don’t have much data or the knowledge on how to obtain it. This class will take the students through that process with a “how to” approach on recording and tracking civilian rescues within their own organization. Lessons learned and obstacles that were overcome during this process for Oklahoma City Fire and Charlotte Fire will be discussed as well as what the data means and how it has affected the training and operations within our departments. Students will have access to templates and resources to allow implementation within their own organizations.

Learn about the FRS data collection lifecycle and increase your awareness around some common pitfalls of data analysis.

For decades the fire service was forced to operate and make critical decisions without the advantage of a robust amount of data. However, in the past 10-15 years, that trend has swung immensely. Thanks to NIST, UL/ FSRI, and Firefighter Rescue Survey, we now have the ability to make educated, data-driven and supported decisions from a rapidly growing body of information. Often the amount of information can become overwhelming, leaving us to ask the question, "Where do I start?" or "How do I actually apply this to the job?" Well, one piece of data that has been crystal clear across all agencies and studies is time. The longer the public, and firefighters, are exposed to the IDLH, the worse the historic and predicted outcomes. This makes time an excellent place to start when applying data to operations. In this lecture we will not only explore the impacts of time on the public and the firefighters, we will lay out a process to evaluate your current practices, training, equipment, and apparatus, and determine where we can become more efficient and faster at the job. If time is the enemy, speed is our weapon.

This class will analyze data from over 5,000 actual fireground rescues and the ongoing fire dynamics research being done by UL FSRI, all while focusing on what is best for those trapped inside a burning building. This is the first time that the American fire service has tactical, actionable information on search and rescue. The overall goal of this class is to use both the experiential and the experimental evidence to help enhance our efficacy and efficiency on our future firegrounds…for THEM. Specifically, we will discuss Firefighter Rescue Survey statistics, UL FSRI’s groundbreaking Search Study, how to coordinate search with attack and ventilation, decision-making on the fireground, and best practices for our search and rescue operations based on both, science AND the street.

We’ll take a deep dive into the “First 4,000” rescues recorded by the Firefighter Rescue Survey and explore how to turn that data into actionable street-level performance. This session examines the mindset, size-up, search and rescue operations, prevention and EMS considerations, common training scars, fear factors, and more. We'll highlight the metrics that shape our decision-making and reinforce our mission of saving lives.