Last week, I shared our guidelines for developing SOPs/SOGs. This week, I’ll share a couple of short SOPs with you. I’ll only include the meat of the SOP in this column, as you should put this in the format you’ve decided on for your department’s use.

SOP: Seatbelts
All personnel shall be seated in a seat and wearing the seatbelt anytime a fire apparatus is in motion. (Note: My department does allow an exception to this rule for personnel on the back of brush trucks during fire attack.)

SOP: Backing a Department Vehicle
A spotter shall be used when backing a department vehicle. The driver/engineer and the spotter shall have visual, voice, or radio contact. For occasions when a spotter is not available, the driver/engineer shall stop and park the vehicle and do a 360-degree walk-around to ensure the area around and to the rear of the apparatus is clear prior to backing the vehicle.

SOP: Station Doors
Station bay doors shall be fully opened and stopped prior to driving a department apparatus through the bay door way. Station bay doors shall be fully opened or fully closed any time they are opened/closed. (Note: This prevents someone from walking or driving into a partially opened door.)

SOP: Injury Reporting
1. EVERY injury shall be reported to the senior officer/member on the scene and documented within 24 hours on the First Report of Injury (FRI) form.

1.a. The FRI form shall be forwarded to [whomever your department sends it to] at [wherever that person is] the first opportunity/working day following the injury.
1.b. Individual personnel will be held accountable for reporting all injuries he/she sustains.

2. All injuries/illnesses occurring on the fire ground or during a fire department activity that require hospital treatment shall be reported to the Fire Chief as soon as possible by the senior officer or member at the scene.

2.a. Senior officer/member on the scene shall be accountable for reporting these cases to the fire chief.

3. All blood-to-blood contact shall be reported to the Fire Chief as soon a possible by the member having contact or the senior officer or member at the scene.

3.a. Individual personnel will be held accountable for reporting all blood/body fluid contact as soon as individual medical condition allows.
3.b. In the event the individual’s medical condition does not allow him/her to report the blood-to-blood contact, the senior Granbury VFD officer/member shall report the incident to the Fire Chief.