Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!!!

I recently completed the "Calling the Mayday" course through NFA online.  This is a great course and I highly recommend you take a few hours and go through it if you haven't.  After I finished the class I got to thinking about the class.  My first thought was "I need to review my department's mayday SOG!"  My second thought was "Do we even have a mayday SOG!?!"  Fortunately we do have an SOG for calling a mayday but I hadn't reviewed it at least a year if not longer.  Too much time had passed since I had reviewed such an important SOG (a good topic for a future post I think).  The information contained in the SOG was not really anything new or foreign to me but I happy to know that we had at least taken the time to put it in writing.  Does your department have an SOG for calling a mayday?  If you do, have you reviewed it recently and perhaps the better question is have you trained on it recently?  If you don't have an SOG for calling the mayday, you should ask yourself why you don't have one.  This is your life we are talking about here, don't you think you should have some sort of guideline outlining what you should do if you get into trouble?  I know maydays are a touchy subject and many firefighters feel they will never be in that situation so why worry about it.  Obviously our job has inherent dangers and as much as we don't like to admit it we are all human and mistakes happen.  Hopefully you will never need to call a mayday but what if that situation does happen?  Do you know what to do?  Have you trained on it?  Should you get in trouble and need to call a mayday you need to be able to make that call without hesitation.  The clock is ticking, your air is getting low and conditions are worsening.  There is no time to fumble your way through this situation.  You have to know what to do and needs to be second nature.  In all seriousness your first mayday could be your last.  Does your radio have an emergency button?  Do you know how to activate it?  Is your radio easily accessible when you are in full turnout gear?  Can you activate the emergency button with your gloves on?  These are all questions you should be asking yourself.  If any of the answers are no, then you need to train until the answer is yes.  Time is of the essence, your adrenaline is pumping and the real situation is no time to figure out that your training has fell short.  

Now that I have you thinking a little bit, lets move on to the next portion of calling a mayday.  You activated your emergency button and are calling for the mayday, what do you say?  This is another reason having an SOG is important.  Every member of your department should be using the same guidelines to call a mayday.  This will ensure that the mayday is easily recognizable by all personnel on scene and at the dispatch center.  This will also ensure that the necessary information is relayed.  There are a couple different options for calling the mayday.  The most widely used method is probably LUNAR.  Do you know what this acronym stands for and can you remember it when you need it?  LUNAR stands for Location Unit Name Assignment Resources needed.  I was at a seminar where retired FDNY Chief John Salka was speaking.  He asked the audience who could explain LUNAR and only a handful of participants were able to remember the acronym.  Not good.  Chief Salka's preferred method for calling the mayday was much simpler in my opinion.  He suggested using Who, What, Where.  Who is calling, what is the problem, where are you at.  Simple, easy and efficient.  Both methods are adequate at relaying the message.  I am not going to tell you which method is right or the best but which ever method is used, make sure everyone on your department uses the same method.  So you called the mayday and gave the information to IC, now its time to sit back and wait for the RIT team right?  Wrong, you have not successfully called the mayday until the receiver of the message has repeated your transmission back to you.  You can not be sure your message has been received and received correctly unless that information is relayed back to you.  This is basic fire ground communication.  If you are given an order, you repeat it back to ensure everyone is on the same page.  Your mayday transmission should be no different.  If I call a mayday, I don't want to be sitting there hoping my message was received and that the cavalry is coming.  I want to know for certain that my message was received and help is on the way.  The only way to ensure the message was received and was received correctly is for the receiver to repeat it back.  

Have I opened your eyes?  Do I have you thinking a little bit now?  Good because here comes the most important part of this message.  Will you call a mayday should the situation arise?  This is a serious question because there are a lot of firefighters out there that wouldn't.  Studies have shown that firefighters will try to self-extricate or find their way out first and by the time they do call they mayday it is too late.  Just read the articles presented by Dr Burton Clark, Raul Angulo and Steven Auch contained in the "Calling the Mayday" course through NFA online.  Firefighter after firefighter failed to call a mayday in a timely manner in many different studies that were referenced in their articles.  Why is this happening?  Is it lack of training?  It could be to an extent but I think the bigger issue is pride.  No one wants to be the guy who called the mayday, especially if it isn't truly needed.  Firefighters are pretty macho and many times they would never dream of being in a situation where they need help.  This is the attitude that kills firefighters.  You need to have the situational awareness to know you are in trouble and need help.  Pride is a great quality in a firefighter but foolish pride will kill you.  We need to start teaching firefighters in rookie school that its okay to call a mayday should the situation warrant it.  You are not weak or less of a firefighter if you call a mayday.  We are entering an IDLH environment that we cannot control.  We can take steps to make the environment safer but we can never truly control all the variables.  Situations turn bad, good firefighters get into bad situations.  It happens.  Calling the mayday does not make you weak or any less of a firefighter.  Having the ability to put your pride aside could save your life.  With that being said, we all need to take a moment and look in the mirror and think about the realities of this job.  Any call at any time could put us in a tough situation.  Take the time to think about your life outside of the fire department and what is really important to you.  Give yourself permission to call a mayday if you are in trouble.  If not for yourself, do it for the ones you go home to after every shift.  

I hope this post has gotten you to think a little bit about the realities of our job.  If the first time you think about calling the mayday is when you need to call a mayday, it could be too late.  We have to be proficient in our skills as a firefighter.  Calling a mayday is just another skill we have to be proficient at.  Take the time to review your SOG's.  If you don't have a mayday SOG maybe you should draw one up and propose it to your chief.  Take the time to practice these skills.  It is important that you can call upon those skills at a moment's notice without thinking.  It may be the difference between life or death.  The guys at Traditions Training introduced me to a quote that sums it up quite well: "Let no man's ghost return to say his training let him down."

Stay safe