Preparation for Initial Company Operations PICO-Student Manual 1st Edition, 5th Printing-April 2014 FEMA/USFA/NFA PICO-SM April 2014 Preparation for Initial Company Operations 1st Edition, 5th Printing Preparation for Initial Company Operations PICO-Student Manual 1st Edition, 5th Printing-April 2014 This Student Manual may contain material that is copyright protected. USFA has been granted a license to use that material only for NFA-sponsored course deliveries as part of the course materials, and it shall not be duplicated without consent of the copyright holder. States wishing to use these materials as part of state-sponsorship and/or third parties wishing to use these materials must obtain permission to use the copyright material(s) from the copyright holder prior to teaching the course. PREPARATION FOR INITIAL COMPANY OPERATIONS NOTICE: This material has been developed by the National Fire Academy (NFA) of the United States Fire Administration (USFA) for use by State and metropolitan fire training programs. NFA endorsement of this material is conditional on use without modification. NFA material, whether printed text or software, may not be used in any manner that would mislead or that would suggest or imply endorsement by NFA of any commercial product, process, or service. ii PREPARATION FOR INITIAL COMPANY OPERATIONS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY UNITED STATES FIRE ADMINISTRATION NATIONAL FIRE ACADEMY FOREWORD The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), an important component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), serves the leadership of this Nation as the DHS's fire protection and emergency response expert. The USFA is located at the National Emergency Training Center (NETC) in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and includes the National Fire Academy (NFA), National Fire Data Center (NFDC), and the National Fire Programs (NFP). The USFA also provides oversight and management of the Noble Training Center in Anniston, Alabama. The mission of the USFA is to save lives and reduce economic losses due to fire and related emergencies through training, research, data collection and analysis, public education, and coordination with other Federal agencies and fire protection and emergency service personnel. The USFA's National Fire Academy offers a diverse course delivery system, combining resident courses, off-campus deliveries in cooperation with State training organizations, weekend instruction, and online courses. The USFA maintains a blended learning approach to its course selections and course development. Resident courses are delivered at both the Emmitsburg campus and the Noble facility. Off- campus courses are delivered in cooperation with State and local fire training organizations to ensure this Nation's firefighters are prepared for the hazards they face. Preparation for Initial Company Operations (PICO) is designed to provide a basic foundation for the management of one or more companies operating at a structural fire emergency. The focus of these five units is a review of basic concepts and development of proficiency in critical skills. Key content includes Roles and Responsibilities, Readiness, Communications, Building Construction and Fire Behavior Factors, and Preincident Planning. Recently, the curriculum for this course has been revised. The revisions were made to apply recent work in naturalistic decisionmaking, and particularly a Recognition-Primed Decisionmaking (RPD) model of how fireground commanders actually make decisions when faced with time pressure and uncertainty. Calderwood (Fire Command, Aug., 1988) has described the research project that showed that fireground commanders rarely generate alternative options and evaluate these options systematically to select the best. There simply is not sufficient time. Moreover, fireground commanders are able to use their experience to identify a reasonable course of action as the first one they consider. Generally, commanders take advantage of their experience to initiate a course of action rapidly, which is how they can make decisions so quickly. If the commanders are concerned about whether the typical course of action will be successful in the actual situation they are facing, the common strategy is to imagine how the course of action will be carried out, looking for ways in which it might lead to complications. If none are found, the course of action is initiated. If minor complications are found, the fireground commander will try to improve the action. If the improvements aren't going to work, the commander will reject the action and consider another typical strategy. Although the RPD model appears to describe how fireground commanders make decisions, we have not included the model in the student materials. Little is to be gained by explaining to you how you already think. Instead, the course revisions have been based on the RPD model. Since situation awareness, or sizeup, is so central to effective decisionmaking, we have enhanced the materials describing the critical cues for making difficult judgments. Critical cues are those that can cause a shift or an elaboration in the commander's assessment of the situation. This should help you gain a better sense of what you are monitoring. A second modification is to provide guidance to instructors about how best to use debriefings that follow exercises. Too often, these debriefings cover only the wrong actions, and the actions that should have been taken. The value of these debriefings can be increased substantially by having the iii PREPARATION FOR INITIAL COMPANY OPERATIONS students consider the way they were interpreting the situation, and how they arrived at that interpretation, including a mental model of what was happening, goals they selected, cues they were watching for, and so forth. We feel that these types of enhancements will help students achieve a higher level of success in using recognitional decisionmaking. As you proceed through the course, you may have questions that can't be answered in these materials. The USFA has many publications that may be helpful. A list of these can be obtained by calling 1-800-238- 3358, extension 1358. To request one of these publications by title or by publication number, call the automated service number: 1-800-238-3358, extension 1660. The USFA's Learning Resource Center (LRC) also is available to assist with further research; call 1-800- 238-3358, extension 1030. iv PREPARATION FOR INITIAL COMPANY OPERATIONS TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Foreword ......................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ v Course Schedule .............................................................................................................................. vii Firefighter Code of Ethics ............................................................................................................... ix A Student Guide to End-of-course Evaluations ............................................................................... xi UNIT 1: ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES ........................................................... SM 1-1 UNIT 2: READINESS .................................................................................................. SM 2-1 UNIT 3: COMMUNICATIONS .................................................................................. SM 3-1 UNIT 4: BUILDING CONSTRUCTION AND FIRE BEHAVIOR FACTORS ............................................................................... SM 4-1 UNIT 5: PREINCIDENT PLANNING ....................................................................... SM 5-1 v PREPARATION FOR INITIAL COMPANY OPERATIONS This page intentionally left blank. vi PREPARATION FOR INITIAL COMPANY OPERATIONS COURSE SCHEDULE Unit 1: Roles and Responsibilities Unit 2: Readiness Unit 3: Communications Unit 4: Building Construction and Fire Behavior Factors Unit 5: Preincident Planning vii PREPARATION FOR INITIAL COMPANY OPERATIONS This page intentionally left blank. viii PREPARATION FOR INITIAL COMPANY OPERATIONS ix PREPARATION FOR INITIAL COMPANY OPERATIONS x PREPARATION FOR INITIAL COMPANY OPERATIONS xi This page intentionally left blank. PREPARATION FOR INITIAL COMPANY OPERATIONS UNIT 1: ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OBJECTIVES The students will: 1. List the eight components of Company Officer (CO) leadership and explain the importance of transition from firefighter to CO. 2. Explain the key safety behaviors that affect safe tactical operations. 3. Identify the CO's responsibility for an organized approach to emergency incident management. 4. Describe the primary sizeup factors and determine their impact on strategies and tactics. 5. Analyze the command sequence action planning cycle. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES This page intentionally left blank. SM 1-2 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES INTRODUCTION In many departments, the promotion from firefighter to officer involves being issued a badge and receiving a handshake from the chief. Often the training needed to handle the new responsibilities is obtained through the trial-and-error process known as "on-the-job" training. Preparation for Initial Company Operations (PICO) is designed to provide the new or prospective Company Officer (CO), in a more formal way, with the knowledge and skills necessary to perform effectively at an incident scene. In smaller departments, the responsibility for company