Checklist - Department Emergency Preparedness and Continuity

This category audits the department’s readiness for emergencies that happen to the department rather than the ones it is dispatched to: a fire or medical emergency inside a station, a member seriously injured or killed on duty, the loss of a station, dispatch or the fleet, a pandemic or a major weather event that strips staffing, and the surge that follows a large incident. It covers the plans, the first aid provisions, the drills and the tests of those plans.

It does not cover emergency operations at incidents (category 12), the station inspection regime (category 18), the investigation of the event itself (category 16) or psychological support after a potentially traumatic event (category 11), although items here cross-reference the activation of each.

The management-system requirement is that the organization establish, maintain and test planned responses to potential emergency situations, with worker participation, and provide the information and training needed (ISO 45001:2018, cl. 8.2). The fire-service content comes from NFPA 1550’s facility safety and risk management plan requirements (NFPA 1550, 2024, ch. 12 and annex J), the emergency and continuity management program structure of CSA Z1600 (CSA Z1600:17), and COR element 11, emergency preparedness (CFCSA, 2021). First aid is a legal duty under the applicable provincial or territorial OHS regulations (J24 First Aid).

Full rules in 01 Audit Program section 5. In short: the CFAI column gives the 10th edition indicator the item evidences, or a dash. Score D, I and E each 0 to 3; derive the item score (0 not in place; 1 documented not implemented; 2 implemented not verified effective; 3 implemented and effective with evidence); both-required evidence codes need both types to score above 1 on implementation; weights C3, K2, S1 and the L flag (must score at least 2); category score is the weighted roll-up; effectiveness index from E alone.

Loop test. A volunteer member notices on a training night that the station’s only AED shows a low battery. By when and through whom is it replaced, who tells the member, and where is the fact recorded so the audit can see it a year later?

Answer each from observation or interview only, record the evidence, and use it for the E score of the items it touches.

1. Can the crew on duty tonight get everyone out and accounted for? Observe or time a drill, or ask three members at a sampled station to walk you to the assembly point and name who counts heads. Score 3 only if the answers agree and match the plan.
2. If a member were seriously hurt at a call this afternoon, would the family hear it from the department first? Ask the duty chief to describe the first hour without the plan in hand; check that the emergency contact record for two sampled members is current and reachable out of hours.
3. Do members report they can raise a concern about station safety or preparedness and get an answer? Ask every interviewee the two standing questions from 01 Audit Program section 1a, and ask specifically about the last station hazard they noticed (a blocked exit, a dead alarm, an empty kit): who they told and what came back. Record the proportion with a specific, positive answer (Edmondson, 1999)DOI.

1. Show me where you would meet if the alarm went off right now. Who counts you in?
2. Where is the AED? When was it last checked, and by whom?
3. What happens if the radio system goes down during a call? What does this station do?
4. Who is the first aider on this shift? What level?
5. Tell me about the last drill here. What did it find?
6. If one of your crew collapsed in the bay, walk me through the first five minutes.
7. Duty chief: a member is critically injured at a call. What are your first four phone calls, in order?
8. Peer support lead: how are you activated after a serious injury, and how fast?
9. Volunteer officer: how does your station know the continuity plan applies to it?
10. Observe: the sign-in sheet for the last contractor visit; the propane and fuel storage; the exit routes at night.
11. Observe: a generator test record and the generator’s fuel level.
12. Everyone: if you saw something unsafe in the station tomorrow, who would you tell and what would happen?

This chapter relies on the following legal requirements, which differ by province and territory. Check your jurisdiction’s section on each topic page before adopting it.