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The A,B,C's or The 1,2,3's............
Ok, so this may end up be a bit controversial....but at least it isn't about Politics.
My Department operates in a County that has a well put together Mutual Aid system. Part of this system is a Commitee that develops and reviews policies and run cards for the individual Departments. This ensures that for the most part we are all on the same page when we operate.
Up until several years ago (5 or 6) we used numbers (get it..the 1,2,3 part?) to identify the sides of a structure. My Chief at the time was dead set against making a change to the "National" way and served on the Mutual Aid Commitee.
After he retired, the ICS sub committee submitted a recommendation that the County ICS policy change and we switch to using the A,B,C's to identify sides.
Since the change, the have been numerous times when there has been confusion in identifying the sides by letter. Specifically B and D sound the same. Especially when spoken quickly, or under a mask.
At one point we asked our Chief to appraoch the Mutual Aid Committe and open a discussion about changing back to numbers. Afetr all there was rarely any confusion, and they don't sound the same. One argument against a change is that we have to use the letters to be NIMS compliant. Of course the NIMS argument is also tied to grants.
Now there was never a strong push to make people use the Phonetic Alphabet, which certainly can avoid confusion.
So my question is, what does everyone else use? Why? And do you have any issues with confusion?
My Department operates in a County that has a well put together Mutual Aid system. Part of this system is a Commitee that develops and reviews policies and run cards for the individual Departments. This ensures that for the most part we are all on the same page when we operate.
Up until several years ago (5 or 6) we used numbers (get it..the 1,2,3 part?) to identify the sides of a structure. My Chief at the time was dead set against making a change to the "National" way and served on the Mutual Aid Commitee.
After he retired, the ICS sub committee submitted a recommendation that the County ICS policy change and we switch to using the A,B,C's to identify sides.
Since the change, the have been numerous times when there has been confusion in identifying the sides by letter. Specifically B and D sound the same. Especially when spoken quickly, or under a mask.
At one point we asked our Chief to appraoch the Mutual Aid Committe and open a discussion about changing back to numbers. Afetr all there was rarely any confusion, and they don't sound the same. One argument against a change is that we have to use the letters to be NIMS compliant. Of course the NIMS argument is also tied to grants.
Now there was never a strong push to make people use the Phonetic Alphabet, which certainly can avoid confusion.
So my question is, what does everyone else use? Why? And do you have any issues with confusion?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Chris Fleming on -
Hey Chris,
You are so right about the corner! That was always my thought whenever I heard the "side" with two designations! Don't even get me going about "disorientated"!
Chris
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Permalink Reply by Dennis E Sampson on -
Hey Todd,
Four years ago our PD didn't know what the command system was and unified command was baffling. Through joint training and using it all the time when we operate together on an incident of any magnatude the ops go very well. Their jurisdiction(PD) they lead, Our jurisdiction (FD) we lead, EMS the same. They have become receptive to any needs when requested. The State Police trump all on any state roadway or property. North South East and West and we thought ours was tough.
STAY SAFE !! Dennis
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Schroeder on -
Our department uses ABCD for side designation along with numbers for floors. We do not seem to have to many problems with this sytem, and if we are required to repeat a message the crews usually just default to phonetic automatically. We have had some problems with our mutual aid partners, not knowing any of the designation systems. I was recently at a multiple story apartment building fire and tried to assign an incoming mutual aid company to the CD corner and they showed up in front to ask what the heck I was talking about....... TRAINING ISSUE!!
In the spirit of "Interoperability" everyone is trying to standardize. There are pitfalls with any system but the more everyone works on the same one, the more bugs that can be worked out. I have found very few operational level problems that could not be adressed through a good session of company training. If we find weaknesses, we find a way to fix it. Good Luck.
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