By Chief Gary Bowker (Ret.)

Featured Columnist for FireRescue1

If we’re relying only on past ‘good’ experience or blind luck to handle an incident, we are setting the stage for disaster

There’s an old fire service saying that has been around for many decades that states, “What you do in the first five minutes is more important than the next five hours.”

This is especially true with regards to assessing and managing risk on the fireground. The initial arriving company officer is immediately tasked with assuming command and managing risks associated with the incident. Here are a few key points to consider:

Risk assessment techniques
One of the most important and immediate tasks of the IC will be to assess the level of risk in the situation and determine if that risk is acceptable. The IC has three choices, of either:

1. Accept the risk

2. Reduce the risk

3. Avoid the risk

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