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To develop a theoretical understanding of leadership in stressful, complex rescue operations.

A grounded theory approach was used. Twenty rescue operation commanders from four complex rescue operations in Sweden were interviewed.

A model was developed which suggests that leadership in stressful, complex rescue operations can be understood as a causal process consisting of three broad time‐related categories. The pre‐operation everyday working conditions affect the leadership during rescue operations, which in turn affects the post‐operation everyday working conditions, etc. Everyday working conditions include training and exercises, previous mission experiences, personal knowledge of co‐actors, and organisational climate. The leadership during a complex rescue operation is affected by the leader's appraisal of the balance between what is at stake, human lives in particular, and the manageability of the situation. Patterns of stress reactions among rescue commanders and their leadership behaviour and managerial routines, were identified. Three problem areas were noted: role shifts during long‐lasting operations, staff work, and practical routines. The post‐operation conditions include the leader's evaluation of the outcome, organisational climate, and post‐event stress reactions.

Small sample, lack of representativeness, and lack of illumination of possible gender‐related aspects.

The model may be valuable in training and exercises with rescue operation commanders.

A new integrative, theoretical process model of leadership in complex, stressful rescue operations.

The purpose of the paper is to explore the universality of a qualitatively (grounded theory) developed model of leadership in complex and/or stressful rescue operations.

The model was operationalised and tested on leaders (n=385) from the ambulance service, the police force, and the rescue services in Sweden. A questionnaire was operationalised from the codes and categories of the previously developed model.

The study showed that the most important factors in explaining the outcome of complex rescue operations were organisational climate before the incident, positive stress reactions, and personal knowledge of the co‐actors during the episode. Cases where the leader appraised that the situation could not be resolved with the available resources were characterised by less favourable ratings, irrespective of whether humans were perceived as being threatened or not. The strength of this controllability aspect was interpreted in terms of a professional action‐oriented identity.

The results were affected by a high dropout rate and the fact that there were comparatively few large‐scale rescue operations.

The results may be valuable in both training and exercises with rescue operation commanders.

The paper presents a validation of a new, integrative, theoretical process model of leadership in complex, stressful rescue operations.

There have been plenty of emergencies occurred in tourism all over the world in recent years. These events and disasters have brought the tourists and relevant organizations enormous loss of life and property. The main reasons are the lack of holistic coordination among different departments and response for social responsibility. In the process of prevention and response of tourism emergency, the local governments need to take synergic action. Meanwhile, the positive participation in the tourism emergency rescue is one of the ways to share social responsibility. This paper aims to examine the early-warning management of regional tourism emergencies, in order to minimize the loss on both tourists' life and money, from the perspective of systematic thinking.

The paper establishes a regional tourism emergency response model based on holistic assessment approach and Bayesian network technology. It analyzes most critical factors of regional tourism emergency and the mutual influence among them. Thereafter, it employs the Bayesian network technology to assess the influence of several factors on the final magnitude of casualties holistically. Based on this, the paper proposes the response principle and the response process to regional tourism emergency.

This paper constructs the “FRES” principle about the holistic response to regional tourism emergency, including “fulfillment of social responsibility”, “rapid action”, “experience accumulation” and “synergic response”. Based on this principle, the paper suggests a general process on the holistic response to regional tourism emergency. Finally, the paper takes the mudslides emergency in Taiwan on October 23, 2010 as an example to conduct an empirical analysis. The paper gives an optimal holistic solution to the responding process of this event in the light of the “FRES” principle.

This paper explains the social responsibility related to the regional tourism emergencies and employs the Bayesian network technology to analyze the systematical responding process to tourism emergency. It proposes originally a “FRES” principle and a general process on the response to regional tourism emergency which are proven to be effective in systematical response to regional tourism events. The research results can facilitate the various local governments to jointly fulfill their social responsibilities and optimize the management of regional tourism emergencies in a holistic way.

The training of highly skilled officers in rescue forces is essential for success and performance of fire brigades in their daily work. The purpose of this paper is to develop a validated instrument assessing the quality of leadership trainings in firefighter education.

In Study 1, relevant factors of teaching quality in this specific context are established using semi-structured interviews (n=5 trainer, n=59 trainees), and a pool of corresponding survey items is tested in a pilot sample (n=7 trainer, n=26 trainees). In Study 2 (n=263 trainees), we select best-fitting items and explore the structure of latent variables via exploratory factor analyses. Study 3 (n=45 trainer, n=380 trainees) tests this structure by means of confirmatory analyses and validates the questionnaire using scales from other evaluation instruments for higher education.

Analyses resulted in a six-dimensional questionnaire reflecting relevant training processes and outcomes. Results suggest that the newly created Feedback Instrument for Rescue forces Education (FIRE) meets all relevant psychometric quality criteria.

By examining critical factors of training quality, the authors enhance the understanding of critical processes in programs for rescue forces education. The developed questionnaire provides trainers and educational institutions with a validated tool to measure these relevant processes and the desired training outcomes. Therefore, the FIRE scales can contribute to an ongoing improvement of rescue forces trainings.

The purpose of the paper is to estimate the effect of rapid intervention vehicles (RIVs)’ impact on fire department (FDs)' response time.

The study employed multivariate regression analysis of changes in response times before and after introducing RIVs into the FD task force, controlling for expected travel time. Response time analysis based on the database of all emergency fire responses in Norway from 2016 to 2021 was carried out.

Introducing RIVs into the FDs' task force reduced response times by 53 s on average for every call where an RIV is being deployed, given an average driving length of an emergency call of 6.4 kilometers. The response time is reduced to approximately 37 s independently of driving length, and this effect increases with 2.5 s per km.

Precise estimation of the expected reduced response time was calculated by introducing the first RIV into the FD's task force based on advanced statistical analysis on complete emergency register data. The analysis shows that RIVs have a positive impact on response time in both urban and rural areas, while particularly strong for urban areas.