Top 5 Safety Hazards
A lot of our ideas for this subject are derived from the Surrey BC Fire Department
The span of control for command is 3-7 people with an optimum of five. The same can be said as well about information. When a company officer is looking or scanning a preplan for information, both en route and on scene, it is difficult to separate out important information. To helps us separate out important information several jurisdictions have adopted a “Top 5” Safety Hazards philosophy. What this means is that we define up to 5 hazards that firefighters need to worry about when responding to an emergency at a certain occupancy. These hazards are generally defined. For example is an occupancy has a confined space in a certain place, we would note prominently on the preplan that there is a confined space.
Getting Started
Every jurisdiction has their own and unique hazards that they deal with. For example, if your community has a lot of occupancies with bow string truss construction, that would be definitely a hazard that would be high on a mental checklist to watch out for. Below is a sample list of the hazards that can be included on preplans. Also included is a sample of how to symbolize the information on top of a preplan. It can be done graphically or by text.
- Abandoned
- Biological Hazards
- Bowstring Truss
- Chemical Hazards
- Close Exposures
- Collapse Likely
- Common Attics
- Confined Spaces
- Electrical Hazards
- Emergency Generator
- Evacuation Assistance Req
- Fall Hazards
- General Life Safety
- Hazardous Entry
- Hazardous People
- High Fire Load
- High Occ. Numbers
- High Storage
- I Truss Floor Joists
- Metal Truss
- No Roof Operations
- Open Shafts
- Over/Next Water
- Overhead Wires
- Poison Hazards
- Poor Access
- Poor Engine Access
- Poor Ladder Access
- Poor Radio Reception
- Poor Water Supply
- Radioactive Hazards
- Soft/Hazardous Soils
- Storage
- Strong Magnetic Fields
- Wood Truss
- Cell Phone Antenna
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