A fire department responds to a structure fire in a neighboring community. The company officer on scene notices that the current firefighting tactic is wasting an enormous amount of water; somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,500 gpm is being shot into dark holes in the structure. The company officer goes to what looks like the command post, staffed by two fire chiefs and three assistant chiefs from other departments, and asks “Who’s in command?”

“Umm, we kind of all are,” says the chief of the community in which the fire was located.

“Yeah, we’re a unified command,” proudly states a chief from a different department.

Well, that’s part of the problem right there. No one was willing to say, “This is my fire and I’m in charge.” No one was willing to take charge, and no one was willing to give command to someone else.

To most of us, it’s no secret that incident command is a structured organization. The fire in question did not call for a unified command structure. It called for someone to be in charge and LEAD the troops in their efforts to extinguish the fire.

If your officers, especially your chief officers, do not have a basic understanding of incident command and tactics, you may not have the best personnel in these positions. Unfortunately, this happens in both career and volunteer departments.

Career departments will promote or reassign someone because they stink at their other job, but talk a good game and can pass the written test for the position. Unfortunately, they continually fail to make effective judgment calls about incident command in real life experiences.

Volunteer departments sometimes elect incompetent officers because they're drinking buddies or because, “He's done a lot for the department—he deserves it,” or my new favorite, “Let’s give him a job no one wants; it won't hurt any one.” We’ve recently discovered that giving an incompetent person a seemingly harmless position can cause a significant amount of grief for the department.

Some of the things to consider when promoting or electing people to the officer level: Can they lead the troops? Will the troops follow them?  Do they use good judgment and tactics? Do they give a rip about the troops? Are they willing to learn and improve themselves? Will the position go to their head? Can they put aside friendships to lead?

Also, consider getting input from the troops. Ask them their opinions, and use them in your decision making. Make sure you keep confidential anything they tell you.

The bottom line: Appoint, elect, assign officers based on their actual abilities—nothing else.