Over the years, I’ve heard many incident commanders make the comment, “I don’t need a stinking chart to manage my fires. I need to concentrate on the fire.” But charts and checklists aren’t about an incident commander’s capabilities – or lack thereof.
Complete the form on this page to download the mayday checklist.
It is a scientific fact that the mind goes through physiological changes when suddenly stimulated and then bombarded with information during significant events, like maydays or other priority activity and radio traffic. This is true, not only for the incident commander but also for the firefighter who finds him or herself involved in the mayday.
In a class last year with Battalion Chief John Salka, he commented of his desire to simply hear the Who-What-Where during a mayday, as opposed to the information provided through the LUNAR acronym – Location, Unit, Name, Assignment/Air Supply and Resources Needed. I prefer to focus on the Who-What-Where approach for the involved party and LUNAR for the person running the rescue.
This downloadable chart offers a mayday checklist that incorporates both the simple Who-What-Where for the person announcing the mayday, and LUNAR for the incident management component running the mayday response.
