Patrick Déry: Command Structures

Here, read the transcript of the interview with Patrick Déry, Captain in the Saint-Eustache Fire Safety Department.

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This is the command table. This table lets us… By the way, this is a tool that’s used throughout the Regional County Municipality. So, all fire departments in the Deux-Montagnes Regional County Municipality use this kind of command table. Why are they identical? It allows us to work more efficiently, more safely, and everyone is familiar with it, so… We recognize everything on it. If you look at the first column… the first columns here are tactics we can use. For example: types of hose nozzles, outside resources we can call on, the number of firefighters called to respond. There are also tactics to be carried out… by the firefighters. It shows all the vehicle numbers. So, each unit officer is assigned to a vehicle. That vehicle will be on our command table in a specific location… and that will allow us to locate it… so that we have a better overview of our response and how it is developing. If you look at the section at the bottom, that shows all the members of the Saint-Eustache Fire Safety Department. In yellow, corresponding to the helmets, are all the firefighters who work for us. In red are all the lieutenants who work for us – they’re the unit officers. And in white are all the captains, chiefs and directors who work for us.