Better emergency response: Put the fire officer in the backseat
Moving the fire officer to the back of the rig would allow them to focus on preparing for incident response and command
The following suggestion would not just be a paradigm shift. Probably more like a paradigm earthquake. But it’s long overdue.
The fire officer should be a member of the crew riding in the rear of the crew compartment on fire apparatus during emergency response.
Now that the earth has stopped shaking, can we get on to the logic behind such a drastic change in fire department operations – one needed to meet the challenges presented to the fire officer in command of a piece of fire apparatus?