| It is extremely important for every fire department to have at least one Incident Safety Officer (ISO) who is properly trained and certified as part of their Incident Command Structure. Over the past four years the Sayville Fire Department has helped over 80 Long Island fire service members become certified Incident Safety Officers. Nationwide, there are over 2,000 certified Incident Safety Officers.
Because the Incident Safety Officer is not tied to the Command Post as the Incident Commander is, the ISO can continually move around and monitor the scene and use specialized safety knowledge to help predict dangerous situations, which are immediately reported to the Incident Commander. The Incident Commander can take the information and make decisions to help prevent or mitigate dangerous situations before firefighters become injured. That's not to say that the Incident Commander needs help doing his or her job, but another set of eyes and ears focusing solely on the goal of scene safety is a precious resource to Incident Command and should not be underestimated.
Almost 70 officers and firefighters from Long Island attended the 16-hour Incident Safety Officer Seminar held by Sayville Fire Department Resolute Hose Company #1 in March.
This seminar prepares firefighters for the rigorous Fire Department Safety Officers Association Incident Safety Officer certification exam. For those who have already been certified, this program gives Safety Officers 16 of the 20 continuing education credits needed to maintain their certification annually. This program is also valuable to those Chiefs, Ex-Chiefs and Officers who want to learn more about incident safety to help better prepare them to keep their members as safe as possible during an alarm.
Sayville has been holding this seminar for four consecutive years and has a 95% pass rate on the certification exam. Nationwide, the pass rate is lower at 85%. Lead Instructor Richard Maddox contributes the high passing rate to Sayville's well-rounded instructional staff and the dedicated students from the Long Island fire service. Sayville plans to host another seminar next year so that they can continue to train more people to help ensure that firefighters safely return home to their families after alarms. |
