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A feed-forward back-propagation neural network (NN) is proposed to model number of firefighters responding to different fire incidents. Such a predictor model can estimate number of firefighter personnel required to tackle new incidents. This a priori information at the time of dispatch can help saving unnecessary efforts in low-risk incidents while focussing on high-risk ones to reduce overall damages and injuries caused by the fire incidents.

A fully connected multilayer NN was adapted as the prediction model. The network was trained on a large number of fire incident records reported in Toronto area between 2000 and 2006 and then its performance was evaluated on another set of never seen records. Two types of prediction were done to model number of responding personnel: a rough category prediction and an exact number prediction.

Results obtained reported a very promising ability of this approach to model number of firefighters responding to a fire incident.

Such a model can significantly reduce uncertainties on the requirements needed for tackling a fire incident once it is reported.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the literature with respect to traumatic stress in a firefighting context. The goal was to provide a clear and concise review intended for use by both researchers and practitioners. Firefighters are an under-researched group in the academic literature and updated review articles are necessary to advance this body of work.

Searches of the English language literature on firefighters and traumatic stress were completed and supplemented with a review of clinical information related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The search was comprehensive but was not guided by systematic review guidelines.

Research regarding firefighters and traumatic stress is limited and inconsistent in outcome. Much of the available literature supports a link between fire service work and increased post-traumatic symptomatology; however, some research has neglected to demonstrate a relationship for these factors. Some efforts such as the training of coping skills and team building may improve firefighters’ resilience to PTSD, while therapeutic and psychopharmacological treatments may be effective in reducing PTSD progression.

To the authors’ knowledge, no previous paper is available that has specifically intended to address firefighters and traumatic stress in a review format for researchers and practitioners. In the authors’ experience, fire service members are eager for literature addressing their profession and presented in a manner accessible for both non-academic and academic audiences.

Emergency service departments face changing mission requirements, budget constraints and a demanding work environment. This study examined the perceptions of fire chiefs, officers and firefighters who attended the National Professional Development Symposium on the use of a tiered approach when responding to calls, the continued increase in medical calls and mental health services available to fire service personnel.

This study examined the perceptions of fire chiefs, officers and firefighters who attended the National Professional Development Symposium on the use of a tiered approach when responding to calls, the continued increase in medical calls and mental health services available to fire service personnel.

Survey respondents indicated that they either are currently or would consider using a tiered approach to sending a fire engine and crew or a lighter vehicle to medical or other calls based requirements identified using a tiered approach.

This idea has future implications regarding the vehicle mix of fire stations as administrators seek to meet the needs of the public most effectively. Survey responses also noted the need for mental health services arguing that care seeking firefighters should have the option of getting mental health services within the station or at an external location. Calls involving babies or young children were overwhelming cited as the most difficult. Additionally, 95% of respondents indicated a belief that most firefighters suffer from PTSD.

Recommendations include: A larger scale survey and analysis of first responder perceptions based on this study. Identifying “best practices” of the most effective “tiered response” approaches to deploying emergency services resources to calls. Studying Mental Health services combating PTSD to identify best practices. Lastly, emergency services administrators should consider changes to the “vehicle mix” when equipping or reequipping stations.

Social implications include use of a “tiered response” approach to emergency calls and focusing how best to support the mental health needs of firefighters.

Fire Departments are only beginning to explore the idea of using a tiered response to respond to emergencies. This study identifies both short and long term implications of using a tired approach. A secondary emphasis of this study explores difficult calls and PTSD issues faced by firefighters.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the connection between motivation and the continued commitment of volunteer firefighters.

This research using a phenomenological approach compares the lived experiences of 17 firefighters from five volunteer fire companies, seeking common themes leading to their longevity with the fire service.

There are commonalities in the reasons the participants joined and remained active in the fire service despite the many hours of ongoing training and commitment and disruptions to their personal lives.

The study focused on firefighters in north central New Jersey and the results might not apply to volunteer firefighters in other regions. The rewards of being a firefighter need to be stressed. The importance of contribution to community early in the firefighter’s career and the evolution to the role of teacher, mentor and protector of other members over time are roles new recruits and existing members identify with that are the core to firefighter commitment.

The findings identify four themes: commitment and giving back to the community, comradery, altruism, and the relationships with family and friends that initially brought the volunteers to their fire company. The findings suggest the importance of these values and the potential to apply them in retaining firefighters.

Evidence suggests that there are distinct reasons that individuals are attracted to the fire service and specific fire companies. Evidence also suggests that the role played by family members influences the level of activity of the volunteer firefighter.

This factor provides evidence behind the motivations of firefighters of diverse ages and backgrounds leading to their commitment to the fire service and their role as volunteer firefighters.

This chapter provides an overview of the case and draws attention to the types of teams who respond to disasters, specifically a structure fire. We then provide a detailed recounting of the case, what resources were at play, and how the incident resolved.

There have been a number of case studies that have documented the challenges organizations face in monitoring complex and turbulent environments and the anomalous events that characterize them combined with multiteam systems’ unique combination of intricacy, propensity toward hazards, and necessary team cohesion makes it particularly difficult to foreshadow – and subsequently train for – all possible contingencies. The majority of the cases reported here is based on the official National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health report that occurred shortly after the event and which is a required investigation by both State and Federal laws. Although the report is publicly available, specific identifying information was removed to allow for ease of comparison and to emphasize the multiteam system processes of interest.

As outlined in the case study above, there are many challenges that were faced in this multiteam system response to the supermarket structure fire. We discuss the response of the multiteam systems and attempt to identify a few key areas where miss-steps occurred and how the response would be different when multiteam systems function properly. We conclude with some practical implications from the incident as well as how multiteam systems can be improved based on this case study.

This chapter provides a real-world example of a disaster and systematically analyzes the steps and decisions that were utilized during the process from a multiteam perspective. Hopefully, the analysis of the case presented here will assist in developing increased awareness during high-stress encounters and offer an unbiased evaluation of what is required to properly train and therefore mitigate such tragedies in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the contribution of work to self-reported mental health symptoms in fire service members.

In 2004, the first wave of this data collection was completed with all members of a fire department in a small northern center in British Columbia. The members completed a series of questionnaires measuring mental health, personality and satisfaction. Since 2004, all recruit members entering the department have also completed the same set of questionnaires shortly after hiring. Subsequently, in 2016–2017, the full sample, including recruit members, were invited to complete the Wave 2 data collection cycle, which included a set of questionnaires very similar to that collected in Wave 1.

The recruit sample reported significantly fewer mental health symptoms, as compared to career firefighters, at Time 1 (prior to workplace exposure). However, at Time 2 (after workplace exposure), no difference between the groups was evident.

It is possible that recruit firefighters reported more positive mental health because of social desirability bias upon beginning a new job.

These results suggest that service as a firefighter could potentially have an impact on mental health and efforts should be made to mitigate this impact.

To the authors’ knowledge, the current research is the first study that has followed recruit firefighters longitudinally in an effort to prospectively evaluate the impact of workplace exposure on mental health.

This paper aims to initiate a conversation within the disaster community about the applicability of “critical reflection” to the professional work of firefighters. “Critical reflection” is a term commonly used within the nursing and teaching professions. Although it has contested meanings, it generally conveys the sense of purposeful enquiry about one's professional conduct, ethics and decision making. Fire fighting labor is no longer blue collar, and firefighters in western fire fighting agencies require increasingly complex capabilities and accountabilities. Could “critical reflection” be added to post‐incident debrief as a core professional capability?

The paper draws on the concept of “critical reflection” as it has been developed within the professional fields of nursing and teaching. It then considers the applicability of and importance of this concept to the professional field of firefighting.

The meanings and applications of “critical reflection” vary, but the inclusion of dialogue about it exists within many nurse and teacher education courses. It can be argued to provide professionals with an opportunity to engage in dialogue about their labor, and thereby scrutinise their professional conduct and the ethical dilemmas of their work.

This paper calls for a paradigmatic shift in the approach taken by educators who work with firefighters. It argues that instructional methods based on rote learning, chalk and talk, and show and tell training are insufficient as a means of developing firefighters capable of responding and adapting to the complex demands implicit within increasingly professionalized firefighting labor. Future firefighters will need to be adaptive, reflective and accountable; able to demonstrate discursive and inquisitive capabilities; and engage in reflected actions both on and off the incident ground.

High originality. This is the first time the intellectual traditions and debates implicit within “critical reflection” have been linked to the work of firefighters.

The purpose of this paper is to test an initial model of safety climate for firefighting. Relationships between safety climate, safety behaviors and firefighter injuries were examined.

Data were collected from 398 professional firefighters in the southeastern USA. Structural equation modeling, using a zero-inflated Poisson regression method, was used to complete the analyses.

Safety climate, as a higher order factor, was comprised of four factors including management commitment to safety, supervisor support for safety, safety programs/policies and safety communication. Both safety compliance behaviors and safety participation behaviors were significantly, positively associated with safety climate. Both behaviors were deemed protective and were associated with reductions in injury. Safety climate relations to injury were interesting, but somewhat ambiguous. Safety climate significantly predicted membership in the “always zero” injury group. For those not in the “always zero” group, the relationship between safety climate and injury was positive, which was not completely surprising as direct relationships between safety climate and injury have been insignificant and opposite to predictions in studies using retrospective data and may be attributed to reverse causation.

This novel study illustrates the importance of both organizational and work unit factors in helping shape safety climate perceptions among firefighters. The results also support the safety climate – behavior – injury model and show that a positive safety climate encourages safer behaviors among firefighters. Lastly, the findings confirm that both safety compliance behaviors and safety participation behaviors are important to reducing individual firefighter injury experience.

This study aims to examine the use of data visualization as a tool to support practitioner-led organizational learning within the emergency services. The authors investigate how data visualization can support visual communication and the analysis of emergency response data to promote system improvement.

The authors investigate if communication data, presented as node-link diagrams, can be understood and evaluated by firefighters. Objective understanding of the communication network is measured quantitatively, while subject judgement of the emergency response system is measured qualitatively and compared to prior system evaluation outcomes. The authors compare different data visualization layouts and assess their value in supporting practitioner evaluation of emergency response systems.

The authors find that while firefighters are largely unfamiliar with their use, data visualizations function as a tool for visual communication and analysis. The authors identify the importance of visualization design and the difficulty in representing characteristics of a dynamic network within static diagrams. The authors also find some correlation between layout design and how respondents interpret visual data.

Results demonstrate the value of data visualization to support practitioner-led organizational learning and suggest future work to support the development of emergency response management.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between organizational culture, group dynamics, and organizational learning in the context of organizational change.

A case study was used to examine cultural and group level factors that potentially influence groups' learning in the context of organizational change.

Major themes that emerged as influencing organizational change and learning were a culture of mistrust, changing psychological contracts, differing occupational cultures, power differential between groups, and leadership.

When initiating change efforts, an organization needs to assess and understand what aspects of the culture can be facilitators or hindrances and what aspects of the group structures the organization can use to facilitate learning.

This study extends research in the area of group and organizational learning by identifying group and cultural phenomena that, when manifested, had significant influence on group members' response to organizational change and their capacity to learn. In particular, this study highlights the need to be aware of the characteristics unique to the organization and its culture.