One of the most important tasks that you as a command officer can do on a fire scene is to ensure that all of the personnel that arrived on scene make it back to the fire station in a safe manner. One way to do that is by utilizing the Incident Command System and having an accountability system in place on every run. The key to an effective accountability system is the fact that it is being utilized and in a correct manner. The purpose of accountability is to track personnel on the scene of an emergency or routine incident at all times. If properly utilized, it will allow you to know the location of personnel on every incident. What is the easiest way to do this? Well, there are many different resources available to the fire departments as to their choice of accountability system. I find that smaller departments across America have a harder time trying to utilize these systems to the meaning of true accountability. On of the main reasons is a limitation of available personnel on scene. If there is limited resources in your jurisdiction and you don’t have the manpower to put someone in this position, it is recommend that assistance be called for from a mutual aid department. This will allow for someone to be designated and responsible for the crucial fire ground task of accountability.

 

The accountability officer will have the hardest task on the fire scene because he/she has to constantly track individuals throughout the call. Accountability officers should position themselves in a manner where they can see two sides to every incident if possible. As everyone arrives on the fire scene, they should check within Incident Command or staging. The accountability officer will then be able to control and track personnel movements. This should be no different than going to work and punching a time clock. That way someone knows that you came to work to do a job. The operations officer will direct the assigning of personnel. A good accountability officer will listen to the operations of the fire scene and place the personnel on their tracking system to that assigned task. As companies are engaged into operations they would pass their accountability tags to the accountability officer. It is very important that the accountability officer stay focused on every company/crew that moves from any side, division or sector on every incident.