A few months ago, I wrote about PASS Awareness and the need for us to be more disciplined and respond to all PASS alarms, not just the ones we hear coming from inside the structure (www.firerescue1.com/Columnists/Note-to-self/articles/11459/).
This week I received an e-mail from a colleague in Illinois who told me about the system his department uses to ensure that everyone knows how to operate the PASS devices of their mutual-aid departments. Basically, the department’s drillmaster has a PASS device from each of the these departments mounted to a board at the station, and he drills the folks in his department on how to operate each of them. Now, when a PASS devices alarms, any of the department’s personnel can reset it or shut it off as the case may be.
Simple and effective. Just the way it should be.