"You don't have time to think up there. If you think, you're dead." – Maverick
My wife hates the fact that I make decisions in 30 seconds or less. She thinks about options, analyzes, I would say agonizes, and in general hates to be rushed to judgment. When we first met she did not understand how, if I was presented with a list of three options, I would pick something before she even finished reading the list. I finally explained it to her like this: In my job I have to make decisions in a fraction of a second, and I have to trust my life with those decisions. When you look at life that way it tends to stream line the thought process.
Firefighters must master the ability to take a mental snapshot of the situation presented to them and use that to make critical tactical decisions. Our business boils down to making decisions in a high stress environment with life and death consequences. It does not matter if you are talking about a structure fire, a heart attack, or a technical rescue incident. The reality of operating under those circumstances can be overwhelming, especially for a firefighter just starting out. If we want our people to thrive in that kind of chaotic, stressful environment, it is imperative to train them in Fire Ground Tactical Decision Making.
Every one of us in the fire service has worked with someone who was always cool and collected, and always seemed to know what the fire was doing a second or two before the fire itself did. Usually those are the experienced members, the "Salty Dogs", who have been around the block and have a chest full of war stories to share. There is no question that experience is the single best way to master the art and science of sizing up a situation and making your tactical decisions. Experience comes with time though, and we are not responding to the numbers of Structure Fires that we have in the past. How do we develop experience in a firefighter who may only respond to a handful of structure fires a year? We develop our experience through Training. Obviously Training is our "answer" for a lot of situations. Training our members to be skilled in the art of tactical decision making must be a particular focus though, if it is going to be successful, and it must rest on a solid foundation.
Combat Decision Making
There is a concept that Fighter Pilots and Special Operations Warriors understand well called the Boyd Loop. We can prepare ourselves to make better decisions on the fire ground if we examine it, and use the concept in our training.
The Boyd Loop is named for Col. John Boyd, of the US Air Force, a fighter pilot who wanted to understand how best to turn a tactical engagement in his favor. The decision making system that he developed has come to be known as the Boyd Loop, or the OODA Loop.
OODA stands for: OBSERVE; ORIENT; DECIDE; ACT. The four steps in the Boyd Loop.
Observation is the process of gathering data. This is where you are using your senses to get information about what is happening. The key is that you need to develop a filter, so that you are not trying to gather too much information. You need to focus on the critical information for your assignment and let the rest of the chaos become a fuzzy part of the backdrop.
Orientation is the process of synthesizing the available information and your personal mindset to deal with the problem. Put another way, this is taking your finely honed skills as a firefighter and matching them up to what you have observed about the task at hand.
Decision is where the rubber meets the road. It is taking the information and analysis and setting the best course of tactical action to achieve the strategic goal. You are using your Standard Operating Guidelines (SOGs), your training and your knowledge of the current fire ground situation to decide what you are going to do.
Action is what it is all about. Firefighters are pretty much task oriented creatures. We exist to "do" things on the fire ground. The other steps in the Loop have gotten us to this point.
It is important to remember that the OODA Loop is not a linear process. It is a dynamic cycle that starts when we are dispatched and, hopefully, continues until we have finished critiquing the incident. We do not simply pull up in front of the fire building, see that there is a fire on the first floor, recognize that because we are on the Engine today and assigned as the pipe-man that we will be pulling a hose line, decide to pull the line and then go put the fire out. That is an example of using the Boyd, or OODA, Loop, but we don't stop there. As we continue the fight we are constantly gathering more data, orienting ourselves to the threats that are developing, deciding on a course of action and then acting upon it.
If we use the Boyd Loop successfully, what happens is that we actually give ourselves more time to think. We are using a smooth and efficient thought process that allows us to maintain our focus and at the same time devote a portion of our conscious mind to continually working its way through the OODA Loop.
Laying the Foundation
In order for our members to be able to apply the Boyd Loop successfully there are a few prerequisites that come in handy: well designed and exercised SOGs for Engine and Truck Company Operations, and a solid grounding in fundamental fire ground skills. Most of our departments are already functioning with these prerequisites in place. For those who do not, it isn't impossible to master fire ground decision making, but it becomes considerably more complicated.
Why are Engine and Truck Company SOGs important? As a firefighter, like a computer, you only have so much "RAM" to work with. If you have to devote your mental energy to figuring out what tool to bring, or what your individual priorities need to be, you are behind in the Loop already, and you are at a disadvantage when it comes to maintaining situational awareness. Our SOGs should help limit the number of times we need to go through the Loop. They act as a flow chart for our common decisions. If you pull up in front of a structure fire, what is your assignment? What are your tools? If this is not spelled out ahead of time when we get on scene one of the first trips through the Loop has to be "wasted" on choosing a tool. The topic of riding positions and tool assignments has been covered in great detail by many fire service authors. I'm not going to start speculating what tool the firefighter behind the officer on the third arriving Engine should have. Those specifics need to be worked out based on your jurisdiction, with a nod toward what your "bread and butter" fires involve. If our SOGs are designed to provide clear direction about essential fire ground tasks we save our personnel a trip through the Loop.
In the same manner, having a standing guideline for an Incident Action Plan spells out our strategic goals, which frees the initial arriving Officers from having to make trip after trip through the Loop. Building SOGs ahead of time, which function in a similar way to EMS Standing Medical Orders, cuts down on the amount of thinking you have to devote to a given problem. It is much like going to a restaurant. You walk into a "steak place" with every intention of ordering a rib eye, medium rare, with a baked potato, and a pint. The only decision to make is picking an appetizer. The waiter hands you a menu and what do you do? You Look At Everything On It! You knew what you were going to order, but because there were options in front of you, you still take the time to see what they are. Time is not of the essence when ordering dinner, usually, but the same dynamic applies on the fire ground. If you have a huge menu to pick from, because the SOGs didn't lay a foundation for picking the right "meal", then you waste time filtering through everything that you have learned to eliminate options that are not relevant to the situation at hand. Well designed SOGs that our firefighters have trained on, and exercised to make sure they work, help to reduce the time needed in the Observe, Orient and Direct stages of the Boyd Loop.
Let's say that my assignment is to be the Outside Vent Man (OVM). Our SOGs take care of focusing me on what I need to observe, the orientation I am going to take, and they streamline the decision making process for me because I should know what my specific initial response tasks are. By having tool assignments married to a fire ground assignment I have reduced the confusion even further. I arrive on the scene of a structure fire and observe a two-story, ordinary construction, single-family residence with fire showing from the Division B/C corner. My SOGs orient me to take a 24-foot extension ladder, a Halligan Bar and a Pike Pole to Division C; throw that ladder to the second floor in a manner that allows it to be used for rescue; ventilate the fire room with my pike pole upon being notified that the attack Engine is prepared to make entry; and then open any exterior doors on the Division C side and make a primary search from the exterior, without entering an IDLH atmosphere, until I have met up with my partner, whose initial task was to mirror my actions in the front of the building. How difficult is working through the OODA Loop going to be? It should be pretty straight forward. The only element of my assignment that may require more brain power is choosing the right window to ladder on the second floor. I am able to think about (ORIENT) that as I am making my size-up and triaging the building.
To make my way around to Division C, I choose to go down the Division D side of the building. As I pass between the building on fire and the Division D exposure (I'd call it a gangway, but using NIMS terminology makes this accessible to everyone) I OBSERVE a woman hanging out of a second floor window in need of rescue. What do I do now? Go through the Loop. I OBSERVE a condition. I ORIENT myself with my understanding of the circumstances as I know them from our SOGs and the current situation: there is a life safety risk; our SOGs say it is the job of the Second Truck to ladder the Division D side; the Second Truck is on scene. Now I have to DECIED. Do I abandon my assignment of opening up in Division C to rescue the woman, or do I make a quick radio call, "Command from Truck 1 OVM, I've got people hanging out second floor windows on the D Side. I'm continuing to the C side"? ( See Figure 1) Do you DECIDE to do something different if the second truck is a mutual-aid company that you know is five minutes out? There is no one right answer. Your decisions must be predicated on the observations you make, based on the current conditions, and the orientation you have assumed. Once you make your decision, it is time to ACT.
Having a solid grounding in fundamental fire ground skills is the key to reducing the amount of "static" in the action phase of the Loop. You have made it around to the D side without encountering any situations which may cause you to divert from your SOG based assignment. Your first task is to throw a 24-foot ground ladder to a second floor window so that in can be used for rescue. Can you do it? Do you know how to throw a ladder by yourself? Do you have the strength? Do you know where it is supposed to go for rescue? If you don't then you are once again slowing down in the Loop. Now you have to take a trip through the Loop to figure out how you are going to accomplish the task at hand.
The basics should be so ingrained in you that there is no need to "waste" any time in the Boyd Loop thinking about them. They are called "fundamentals" for a reason. They are fundamental to being able to do your job. If you are prepared through regular training how to throw a ladder, perform a VES, stretch a hose line, man a 21/2" exposure line by yourself, or any other fire ground task, you are speeding up how long it takes to get through the Loop. You are compressing time by removing unnecessary items from the menu and giving your brain more time to focus on those things that are 100 percent specific to the situation you are in: sizing up the building, reading the smoke, observing the effects of your fellow firefighters' actions. Muscle memory is your friend. It works for Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, and combat marksmen. It will work for you.
Developing Fire Ground Tactical Decision Making Skills
Even if you have good SOGs and are an all-star firemen your ability to use the Boyd Loop to make tactical decisions on the fire ground will be limited if you do not practice with it. Think of it this way, your brain and your butt are both muscles and if the only exercise they get is sitting in a recliner watching Maury or Dr. Phil, how prepared do you think either of them will be when it comes time to go to work? There is a quote from Braveheart that fits perfectly, "The good lord tells me he can get me out of this one, but he's pretty sure you're ******". So, how do we incorporate using the Boyd Loop into training?
First and foremost our training needs to go beyond just teaching the SOGs and the fundamental skills. Once your people know what their assignments are and how to perform them, then the training needs to get more challenging. Both complexity and speed must be increased if your firefighters are going to continue to develop. Have the scenario thrown in where the OVM has to decide what to do about the lady hanging out the second floor window. Have your folks pull up in front of your tower, or an acquired structure, or even someone else's firehouse if that is your only option, for a simulated fire and have a role-player in front of the building pointing to a 2nd floor window saying, "My 5 year-old is in the room, get him". What do they do? How do they move through the OODA cycle to get to acting on the problem? Build these unexpected developments into your scenario based training. Throw in an evacuation drill every now and again. The late Francis Brannigan wrote continually about how every sailor in the Navy is taught how to abandon ship. How many of us are practicing how to make an orderly tactical retreat if the air-horns start blasting?
There are bound to be guys and gals who resist challenging training, or training in general. It is important to remember that there are two reasons for this: first, they are worried about being embarrassed, and second they do not understand why it is vital. Embarrassment tends to arise from not feeling secure in your ability to perform the required task. Not understanding the importance of the training comes from seeing the department's values as incoherent or inconsistent. Fixing those underlying issues probably needs to be a priority. Remind them that just because you have been a firefighter for 10 years doesn't mean you know it all, or are perfect. Every professional sports team out there practices all season long. They are making millions of dollars because they are so good at what they do, and they still practice. Members of the Navy SEALs and Army Delta Force train constantly. Use these examples of professionals, in very exclusive organizations, as models for why we as firefighters need to take training seriously.
Once the drills are done, do a hot-wash on the tailboard and talk about what went well and what can be learned. How direct those sessions are will depend on your corporate culture. My belief is that sparing someone's feelings is less important than making sure that a dangerous error in a critical fire ground task is fixed. To quote my good friend Lt. John Tabisz, of the Darien Woodridge Fire Protection District, "We aren't delivering pizzas here." I will make this caveat though, if you are criticizing the person, and not the action, you are going in the wrong direction and will alienate people.
Beyond departmental or company level training though, each of us needs to do our own training: Mental Rehearsals. You need to spend time thinking about what you will do if you are presented with a particular circumstance. Pick a building in your district and think about how you would handle various situations. I play the "what if" game constantly, and I find it helps me make decisions on the fire ground more smoothly. My wife got passed being bothered by the fact that I was willing to pick out tuxedos for our wedding after looking in one store for less than a minute. She understood it was part of how I look at the world. She still has trouble getting over the fact that when we walk up to the door of a house I have not been in before I look down both sides and take a guess at where the kitchen, baths and bedrooms are. It's a little pop quiz I can give myself to mentally rehearse my size-up skills. You should be able to figure out what the basic layout of a building is by giving it a quick look as you walk up. We will not get to walk through every building in our district, but by spending time exercising that part of your mental tool box, you will be better equipped to figure it out in the moment. What would you do if you sudden fell through a floor? Are you training in calling a Mayday? It's the evolutionary step that takes us beyond our SCBA Emergency Procedures and prepares us to respond in a situation that has a huge potential to be mentally overwhelming. Mental rehearsals give us a low stress opportunity to work through various challenging situations we may have to confront. Thinking through what your actions will be if you find yourself in trouble will help reduce the stress if you suddenly find yourself lost, disoriented or trapped in a fire building. Mark Twain once said, "It takes me three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech." It makes sense if you think about it. You are not going to respond well the first time you see a problem. That is why we drill. It's why we need to practice applying the OODA Loop in our training. You can build your experience bank by analyzing possible situations, performing mental rehearsals, and conducting challenging scenario-based training.
There is no single way to learn any skill in the fire service. Fire Ground Tactical Decision Making is a complex process that is a synthesis of your experience, your training, your situational awareness, and your comfort level. The physical and psychological stresses of firefighting impact every one of us differently, and need to be addressed separately. Hopefully being introduced to the Boyd Loop, and taking the time to think about how your organization teaches decision making, you will be better prepared to confront the challenging environment of the fire ground. By ensuring that your firefighters have well planned SOGs, a solid foundation in the fundamentals of fire ground tasks, and have had the opportunity to be challenged with real-world scenario driven training you will prepare them to make critical, life or death, fire ground decisions.
