4311 MAYDAY & PASS Policy

HUGHESTOWN HOSE COMPANY Standard Operating Guidelines / Procedures #4306 - MAYDAY and PASS Policy

Effective: 01/01/06 Revised: 04/01/11

Purpose: To establish guidelines for any incident that may injure, trap, disorient, or distress a firefighter while operating at an emergency incident or training exercise. MAYDAY will be recognized as the “official” distress call for all companies operating in Hughestown Borough.

1 Transmitting a MAYDAY:

1.1 Once a firefighter finds themselves in a situation where they have limited air supply, sustained an injury, become trapped, disoriented, or otherwise distressed, that firefighter or their partner, must transmit a “MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY” over the fire ground frequency.

1.1.1 If the firefighter is unable to transmit a verbal MAYDAY, the firefighter may push the EMERGENCY BUTTON (HOLD BUTTON FOR 3 SECONDS) on their portable radio to signify a MAYDAY. The firefighter needs to do nothing, say nothing, other than push this button no matter what channel they are operating on. By pushing this button, the radio will automatically slave over to Luzerne County Fire East and provide an emergency signal to the Luzerne County Communications Center. This signal will be acknowledged by the Communications Center Computer and the radio user will hear a "beep, beep, beep" from their radio. This sound represents that their distress signal was acknowledged by the Communications Center.

1.2 Once the MAYDAY is acknowledged by Incident Command, the firefighter should attempt to give the following information via radio:

1.2.1 The acronym LUNAR can be utilized. Give last known LOCATION, UNIT NUMBER, firefighter NAME, ASSIGNMENT, and special RESOURCES needed.

1.3 The firefighter or their partner should activate their PASS device.

1.4 Use available hand tools to bang the floor or wall to assist the Rapid Intervention Team in locating the firefighter(s).

1.5 Attempt to maintain radio contact with Incident Command and the Rapid Intervention Team.

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2 Receiving a MAYDAY:

2.1 Once a MAYDAY has been transmitted, Incident Command will take the following actions:

2.1.1 Acknowledge the MAYDAY.

2.1.2 Make an announcement over the fire ground frequency that a MAYDAY situation has occurred and have all companies operating switch to the secondary fire ground frequency. The Incident Commander shall identify a secondary fire ground frequency at the beginning of each incident or when a MAYDAY situation occurs.

2.1.2.1 Only the Incident Commander and the Rapid Intervention Team should remain on the primary fire ground frequency.

2.1.2.2 The Operations Chief and/or the Accountability Officer will oversee the secondary fire ground frequency and conduct a roll call of all companies operating in an attempt to gain PAR.

2.1.3 Activate the Rapid Intervention Team.

2.1.4 Assemble a second Rapid Intervention Team.

2.1.5 Give consideration to requesting additional Firefighting/EMS resources due to the MAYDAY situation.

3 Fire Ground Responsibilities:

3.1 When a MAYDAY situation exists, it is expected of all firefighters to remain disciplined and continue their current assignment.

3.2 The only team to respond initially to a MAYDAY will be the Rapid Intervention Team.

3.3 All other companies operating must continue their current assignment or report back to staging for another assignment.

3.4 In an effort to protect the distressed firefighter(s) and the Rapid Intervention Team, aggressive hose line and ventilation tactics may be deployed.

3.4.1 During a MAYDAY situation, suppression and ventilation are of primary importance and offer the best opportunity to bring the MAYDAY situation to a safe conclusion.

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3.5 During a MAYDAY incident, it is expected that all companies, as to lessen the burden on the Command Post, will keep all fire ground transmissions on the secondary fire ground frequency to a minimum.

4 Terminating a MAYDAY Incident:

4.1 Once the MAYDAY situation is concluded, the Incident Commander will transmit a general announcement over the secondary fire ground frequency that the “MAYDAY situation has been terminated” and normal operations may resume on the primary fire ground frequency.

______Jamie Merlino Fire Chief