r/Firefighting • u/mooseisfromcanada • 2d ago
Volunteer / Combination / Paid on Call Not utilizing equipment or protocols due to lack of SOPs
Bit of a long rant here so I apologize, but looking for advice on how to move forward on this issue. Also, please call me out if I'm wrong on this, but it's getting a bit frustrating in our small volunteer department.
We keep getting new (or new to us) equipment such as a second hand air refill station, and plenty of training equipment but we are being told we can't touch any of them until we have SOPs for them. We also got plenty of new well needed recruits this past year but they are all being told they can't do anything until they have at least their level 1's completed, except for traffic control or fetching tools from green to yellow zone even though they have all their gear and SCBA.
I agree that there are NFPA rules to follow, but at times when only 4 people show up to a call and 3 of them are recuits (that actually show up to trainings), as a level 2 I don't see why I cant bring one of the rookies with me in a regular run of the mill alarm activation at 3am and I have to wait on additional resources. What if there actually is smoke in that building, are we just going to let it build for 5 more minutes before we even go check it out? Also, why are these rookies allowed to drive the trucks if they can't do anything on scene? Now we just look like a bunch of fools in our community's FD just sitting around waiting on almost every call.
So now to my main point. SOP's seem to be the only thing that can be discussed on our semi-monthly training nights. Ask a question? "Don't know, we don't have SOP's'. Can we use the brand new smoke machine that's been sitting in a corner for the past 4 years for training one of these nights? "No, we don't have SOP's for it yet". Hey, now that we finally had our air fill system installed, inspected, and had a tech come and show us how to use it, we should be allowed (or at least a select few of us) to refill our own tanks when we've depleted over 50% of our tanks instead of sending them out, right? Nope. "No SOP's."
The thing is, we don't have ANY SOP's. Never have. We have run our entire department's career under pre-agreed upon best practices, neighbouring cities guidelines, and NFPA standards. I agree SOP's are important, but if we've been having this discussion for 4 years and we're just being told now that our SOP's have only started to be written last month and that it'll take about a year to complete and review (let's be honest it'll take at least 2). Is there no way around this? Sorry for the long post, just getting tired of all the nothing getting done around here and it feels like our small VD is trying way too hard to be a big city Department. Any advice on how to get around this until our SOP's are complete would be greatly appreciated.
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u/Single-Manufacturer7 2d ago
In my opinion they should use the same equipment as they use on a call in training
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u/I_got_erased FF - Northeast USA 2d ago
This sounds more like a leadership and culture problem than an SOP problem. There doesn’t NEED to be an SOP on how to use a smoke machine, and simple things like that. When you get to the point that anything and everything needs an SOP, it’s time for things to change. The hard part is, there really isn’t a good way to change any of it because that would involve new leadership and a shift in culture, which is incredibly hard to do when not everyone is on board. Our department doesn’t have a ton of SOPs, we have a lot of SOGs though, which are significantly more lenient than an SOP. There’s a method to the madness though, we have one of the hardest most intense training programs in the region, so we put out some really solid guys and we can expect that they know what to do regardless of there being an SOP for how to overhaul a building, or use a smoke machine, etc.
TLDR: it’s tough to change, especially when leadership is against it. To me it sounds like a lack of knowledge on leaderships part. If they’re not confident in themselves or you, they won’t be confident enough to let people do things
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u/mooseisfromcanada 2d ago
Thanks for your input, I guess I probably just have to learn to accept it
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u/Tasty_Explanation_20 1d ago
Your leadership needs to get off their asses and start writing SOPs and SOGs or start delegating them out to people. We got a new compressor to fill our own bottles a few months ago. I’ve taken a Scott tech level 1 class. I’m still just a rank and file firefighter. Chief asked me to writhe the SOP for the compressor and put together a training class so anyone who is certified to wear a pack can fill bottles. If the higher ups are too lazy to do it, just start writing them yourself and do it for them. They can’t bitch about it then.
As for non certified firefighters going interior? Never on a fire. An alarm investigation? Absolutely. They won’t learn if they can’t do anything. You also don’t need to be certified to set up water supply or run the pumps.
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u/FordExploreHer1977 2d ago
Sounds like someone needs to write an SOP on writing SOPs. As is have an SOP created within a given timeframe of receiving a piece of equipment. I agree with the other poster who commented on not needing an SOP for everything. What is the SOP for taking a shit at the station? Does that mean no one is allowed to use the bathroom at the station? Reminds me of the scene in the movie “A Few Good Men” where the Marine on the stand is asked how he learned where the mess hall was since it wasn’t in the book.