Where firefighters come to talk training

S.O.P.'s

What SOP do I need to make law, but not write a huge book?

I have been working in SOP for over the last 6 months.

What do's and donts should I use.

Im open to all information.

Comment

You need to be a member of Fire Engineering Training Community to add comments!

Join Fire Engineering Training Community

Comment by Kirk Pickens on March 26, 2008 at 7:55am: any information if greatly appriciated. Im starting from a SOP of only 1/2 page long (11 years ago) and better the department in the long run. my email is sbfd702@yahoo.com
Thank You so Much
KP

Comment by J. Scott Loftis on March 25, 2008 at 7:58pm: KP,
The first thing that you have to do is try to layout what you want to include in the SOP's. Starting with what you are going to call them (SOP Vs. SOG) really I don't think that what you call them will matter as much as some others do. I feel like any good atty. is just going to ask if the way the policy, procedure, or guideline is how your dept. has decided to handle that particular situation. Now that we have gotten that out of the way, the next step is to layout what all you want to include in your SOG's. I understand that you said that you do not want a huge book, unfortunately the more diversified your services are, the more SOG's you will need. This doesn't even include the structure of the organization. I have just got finished writing the basic SOG's for my Dept. I found that when you begin drafting them, you will find that you will need more than you think because in each tactical SOG, you will find yourself referring to a common procedure that may be unique to your Dept. This can be quite frustrating to say the least. I have numerous SOG's in electronic format that I will gladly share with you to help you with creating yours. I have always hated the fact that all SOG's never seemed to be prioritized. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying organized, just prioritized. I have thought about color coding ours in the following manner to assist new members with learning which SOG's are the most important, and it will be set up like this:

RED = Life Safety (Most Important)

YELLOW = Dangerous (Things that require a great deal of caution)

GREEN = Procedural (Things that have no injury or life safety issue association)

I hopw that this helps, so you don't have to sit there pulling your hair out! If I can help you in any way, please don't hesitate to drop me a note.
Fraternally,

EGH-PFB

Comment by Kirk Pickens on March 25, 2008 at 11:04am: more in policy and behavior. To bring my department up to stanards and be able to do the best we can without getting anyone hurt.

Comment by John Salka on March 25, 2008 at 10:56am: KP,
I really don't know exactly what you are asking for. Please be more specific. Are you talking about tactics, policy, behavior?

RSS

Welcome to
Fire Engineering Training Community

Sign Up
or Sign In

Or sign in with:

Policy Page

PLEASE NOTE

The login above DOES NOT provide access to Fire Engineering magazine archives. Please go here for our archives.

CONTRIBUTORS NOTE

Our contributors' posts are not vetted by the Fire Engineering technical board, and reflect the views and opinions of the individual authors. Anyone is welcome to participate.

For vetted content, please go to www.fireengineering.com/issues.

We are excited to have you participate in our discussions and interactive forums. Before you begin posting, please take a moment to read our community policy page.

Be Alert for Spam
We actively monitor the community for spam, however some does slip through. Please use common sense and caution when clicking links. If you suspect you've been hit by spam, e-mail peter.prochilo@clarionevents.com.