For a column called "Bread and Butter Basics," I know that I spend an inordinate amount of time talking about communication. But there is good reason for this. One of the hallmarks of quality fireground operations is effective coordination; engines, trucks, rescues and command all operating from the same sheet of music. There is only one way to get there and that is effective communication.

Communication can be loosely described as the transmittal of information. However, for fireground operations, it is much more nuanced than that. Command has to take his/her strategic approach and turn that into a series of messages transmitted to the firefighting teams. Then the entire team has to hear the message, place it into a frame of reference, act upon it, and then relay status reports/updates back to command and other fireground participants.

Encoding the message
I suffer more than most with using more words than are necessary to get my point across. We all struggle with developing a clear and concise set of words that will allow crews operating for or with us to know what it is that we want them to do. For example, if the incident commander simply says, "…engine 1, I need you to get a line to the basement," what does that mean? Does it mean that he wants them to stretch line to the basement entrance and attack the fire? Does it mean that he expects there to be extension to the basement? Most times the context of the situation will help to define the message, but it is critical that the chief be certain that there are no gray areas of intent. The crew assigned to stretch that line must know where to stretch it first and what they are supposed to do with it once they reach the basement door.

For the basement fire mentioned above, the answer may be obvious, but what about the fire on the top floor of an occupied high-rise structure or garden apartment building? What is the intent of the third line the Incident Commander orders to the fire floor? Without a clear purpose outlined in the initial message, it is probable if not likely that there will be confusion and perhaps a missed critical assignment. I would even argue that without a clear intent there will be no real communication.

Hearing the message
This is perhaps the hardest part of operating on a fireground and is impossible to replicate in training scenarios. Many fireground messages get corrupted or even totally lost in the noise of the surrounding environment. The most obvious source of noise are loud fire engines, the sirens of arriving units, the din of saws cutting holes in roofs and positive pressure ventilation. All of this mechanical noise has the potential to obscure even the clearest messages.

What is harder to define — and therefore more insidious than mechanical noise — is mental noise. Hearing the message means that we not only know what is expected but that we know why. Something I have learned over the years is that most of the messages I missed were missed because I was moving too quickly. I was trying so hard to get stuff done that I forgot to listen. It's not just messages from command that are important, but also those from your crews, other sector/unit officers and the environment itself.

If you are moving too fast to hear and acknowledge command, you are moving too fast.

Creating a frame of reference
Now, back to that basement fire we discussed earlier and the scenario it can create. The chief thought you were going to sit at the top of the steps and "hold the stairs." You thought that you were going to stretch through the front door and down the basement stairs. The crew with your back-up line thought that you wanted them to stretch to the rear basement entrance and make an attack from there. Then there was confusion.

Creating a frame of reference is important. In most places with standardized procedures, this process is a bit easier. It is the job of the incident commander to effectively communicate to the unit officers what is to be done and why. If the incident commander cannot do this, crews will establish the initiative themselves. Sometimes that kind of initiative gets fires put out, but often it leads to unnecessary injury secondary to uncoordinated fire attacks.

If the given mission cannot be completed or if the forward placed officer realizes that a different course of action is more prudent given the circumstance, that is okay. However, the unit officer making the change simply has to inform the rest of the participants so that they too may adjust.

Information flow at an emergency scene has got to be a two-way street. Each organization should develop mechanisms for ensuring and encouraging a certain level of feedback. Feedback allows the incident commander to be aware of the status and efficacy of his/her strategic vision. If the picture does not look like it was anticipated, the entire system should slow down until the information flow is happening again.

My message
I spend an inordinate amount of time listening to old fire tapes. I probably am a nerd because of that. However, there is an ever increasing amount of data in this post-modern world. We are constantly bumping up against innate cognitive limits when all this information needs to be processed and acted on with such short notice.

Without effective communications, without the right message getting to the right people in the right way, our collective ability to communicate well on the fireground will suffer and our safety along with it.