Chief Fire Officer Damian Smith, right, is pictured with Station Manager David Norris left, and Group Manager Greg Smith during the exercise.

20 November 2007

Nothing is taken for granted by Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service – not even the competence of its own Chief Fire Officer!

So Damian Smith was put through his paces at a crisis management exercise based on a major fire in a town centre office block.

To add to the pressure, his every move was assessed by his counterparts from Thames Valley’s other two fire brigades – John Parry from Oxfordshire and Iain Cox from Royal Berkshire.

It was staged at a special training suite at Marlow Fire Station, using video footage, role-players and a real incident command communications unit.

All three CFOs were assessed during the day, taking it in turns to don the incident commander’s white tabard. Every move and decision was beamed by live video feed into an assessment room, where the two remaining CFOs observed and critiqued the performance ready for an immediate assessment and an after-the-incident debrief.

Mr Smith said: “I wanted to take part in this assessment because it is obviously essential to the communities of Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes that I am competent in the role.

“It is also vital that my own brigade is confident that I can do all that is necessary to manage a large and complex operational incident.”

Each of the CFOs was assessed on how he received the exercise briefing, took command of the exercise, managed the resources at his disposal, performed during a high-level meeting with other emergency services and handled media interest.

Coordinated and facilitated by Mark Watson, Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service’s Incident Command trainer, the three simulated command exercises took around six months to create. Each plan was specific to the individual CFO, and set in a real location within their county boundaries.

Mark said: “The three CFOs do not often get the chance to carry out high-level, hands-on, tactical, ‘on scene’ command. This is the first time ever that all three CFOs from the Thames Valley have done this together, and been able to critique each other’s performance.

"I am not aware of this level of assessment having occurred elsewhere in the country.””

The day’s 20 role players, mainly members of the respective fire services, also included two senior officers from Thames Valley Police and a railway incident officer.

The special suite at Marlow Fire Station has been developed to facilitate this type of role-playing exercise, and other types of incident command simulation. With CCTV strategically placed around the building, both facilitators and assessors are able to review the performance in a room remotely and discuss issues in private.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Andy Hickmott, Director of Personnel, said: “Assessment and simulation of this nature supports one of our principal aims to provide opportunities for incident commanders of all levels, to participate in realistic, challenging simulations where they can practise and demonstrate their ability in commanding incidents.”

Just for the record, Mr Smith was shown to be fully competent in all aspects of incident command!