If we look at fire incidents at which firefighters are seriously injured or killed, one problem surfaces time and time again. That problem is communications. For as much as firefighters like to talk (normally in the form of kitchen chats, the ever present teasing and joking in the station, and rumor mongering), we usually for some reason hesitate to communicate at fires. This manifests itself not only in poor (or a lack of) communication but also in the basic use of our radios. I had a chief in my previous department who almost always put the mic too close to his mouth, which resulted in "blurred" or "fuzzy" communications. When you're crawling down the hall in a fire searching for kids and extending yourself because of fire conditions, you want to hear and understand what the incident commander (IC) running the fire is saying. Even more basic is ensuring that everyone is on the same frequency or fireground channel. In Toledo, trained fire dispatchers dispatch the crews. At the end of the transmission, the dispatcher gives the channel the crews will use for that incident (usually channel 4). If there is another working incident on channel 4, the crews are told to use channel 5 or 6. As soon as the officer gets in the apparatus, he changes the radio to the appropriate fire channel. Some officers have the driver perform this task to save time (the driver usually does not bunker up; the officer always bunkers up for a structure fire prior to entering the cab).
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