Every live-fire evolution has someone assigned as the safety officer. On too many training grounds, that person ends up holding a radio, drinking coffee and watching the show. That isn’t a safety officer. That’s a spectator with a vest on.

One job, and it’s the whole job

I’ve been in this service a long time, and I’ve seen the safety officer position treated every way you can imagine. Sometimes it’s the most experienced person on the ground. Sometimes it’s whoever didn’t get a line. Sometimes it’s the instructor in charge wearing two hats because the roster came up short.

Here’s the problem with that last one. The instructor in charge is running the evolution. Their eyes are on the students, the fire and the objectives. The safety officer’s eyes need to be on everything else. When one person tries to do both, something gets missed. And on a live-fire evolution, what gets missed tends to be the thing that hurts somebody.

NFPA 1403 makes the safety officer a required position for a reason. That person has the authority to stop the evolution, and they need the freedom to use it. If they’re also stretching a line, feeding a prop or teaching a crew, they aren’t watching. Give them one job and let them do it.

Watch what nobody else is watching

A good safety officer isn’t looking at the same thing everybody else is. The students are watching the fire. The instructors are watching the students. The safety officer is watching the whole picture and asking what could go wrong next.

The mistake I see most is a safety officer who locks onto the fire like everyone else. The fire is usually the least surprising thing on the ground. The surprises come from the edges. A few things I want a safety officer scanning the entire time:

• Fire conditions changing faster than the plan called for
• Crews getting stretched too thin, or a student falling behind the team
• Water supply, pump pressure and backup lines ready to go
• Gear issues: exposed skin, a loose strap, a facepiece seal that doesn’t look right
• Students showing signs of heat stress or fatigue before they say a word

None of that is glamorous. All of it matters. The safety officer is the one person on the ground whose whole purpose is to see the problem before it becomes an emergency.

Authority means nothing if you won’t use it

A safety officer who won’t stop an evolution is decoration. The authority to call a halt is the most important tool they carry, and the hardest one to use.

It’s hard because nobody wants to be the person who stopped the burn. The students are fired up. The instructors want to get through the schedule. The fuel is lit and the clock is running. There’s real pressure to let it ride and talk about it afterward.

Don’t let it ride. If something doesn’t look right, stop it. Fix it. Then start again. A stopped evolution costs a few minutes. A missed problem can cost a career or a life. Nobody has ever been hurt because a safety officer called a halt too early.

And instructors, back your safety officer up. If you push back every time they speak up, you’re teaching them to stay quiet. That’s the last thing you want on a fire ground.

Pick the right person and set them up

Not everybody belongs in that vest. The safety officer needs to know live fire, know the props and know what normal looks like, so they can spot abnormal fast. They need enough confidence to tell a senior instructor to shut it down. And they need the respect of the people on the ground so that when they say stop, everybody stops.

Set them up to win. Bring them into the planning, not just the burn. Walk the site with them before the first match is lit. Make sure they know the plan, the emergency procedures, the communication plan and every person’s assignment. Then include them in the pre-burn briefing so every student knows who they are and what their word means.

When the day is done, ask them what they saw. A good safety officer will catch things the instructors never noticed. That debrief is some of the best information you’ll get about how your program really runs.

The bottom line

The safety officer isn’t there to watch. They’re there to see. Give that position to someone qualified, give them one job, give them real authority and back them up when they use it. Every student on your training ground is trusting that somebody has their back while they’re focused on the fire. Make sure somebody does.

Stay safe, and train like it matters.

Eric Makowski