Front matter
Fire Service Safety Management System
Document FSSMS-HQ-00All stagesRevision 6Version 0.3.3
Topic pages open on your jurisdiction, and requirements tables show its line. You can change this on any page.
A complete occupational health and safety management system for Canadian fire services, built on human factors, Safety-II, just culture and organizational psychological safety.
Edition 0.3 (review edition), October 2026 · The Human Factor · thehumanfactor.ca
© 2026 The Human Factor. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), with an additional Adopting Agency Grant that lets fire services adopt, adapt and publish the system as their own policy. Commercial use, including training, consulting, software and publishing, needs a separate licence. Ownership, full terms and the disclaimer: 00a Copyright, Licence and Legal Notices.
Adoption without implementation increases legal exposure. Adopting these procedures without the training, equipment, supervision, verification and resources to perform them as written increases municipal and command liability in a regulatory investigation or a fatality inquiry. A safety management system exists only when line ownership, continuous verification and closed-loop corrective action are practised.
This is a safety management system, not a safety manual. A manual tells people what to do. A management system makes sure the right things get done, by named people, on a known cycle, with evidence, and that the department learns and improves when they are not.
It is written for a large composite (career and volunteer) all-hazards fire service, and it scales down. Every specialty is a switchable module with an applicability test, so a career-only urban department or a small volunteer department switches modules off rather than reading around them. The core text is written once, for every fire department in Canada. Where a chapter depends on law that differs between provinces and territories, it says so in general terms and closes with a Jurisdiction requirements table. Each row of that table links to a topic page in Part 10, which sets out side by side what every province, territory and federally regulated workplace requires. Each jurisdiction also has a pack that gathers everything for that jurisdiction in one place (00 Jurisdiction Index).
Four ideas run through every chapter rather than sitting in one:
- People are the solution we build around, not the problem to fix. Procedures describe work as it is really done, written with the crews who do it (Hollnagel, 2014).
- Learning comes before blame. Information gathered for learning is never used for discipline; conduct concerns go to a separate process run by different people (Dekker, 2016; Reason, 1997).
- Psychological safety is a condition of safety. Members speak up, challenge and stop work because leaders make it safe to, and every program measures whether they do (Edmondson, 1999)DOI.
- Line ownership and a closed loop. Every program is owned by a line officer through a Program Improvement Team, has a named verifier, sends feedback back to the member who raised a concern, and closes every finding in one Corrective Action Register.
The learning engine is the three-tier event review model from The Human Factor’s After the Call program: After-Action Review, Post-Incident Analysis and Independent Learning Review, with triage within 24 hours and the learning firewall. The Incident Investigation and Learning Program restates it so this book stands alone; the full method is in Manual 02 - The Three Tiers and Event Triage.
The Human Factor is an independent practice. This book is not endorsed by NFPA, CSA Group, ISO, the Center for Public Safety Excellence or any regulator. It cites and maps their standards; it does not reproduce them. A department adopting the system must obtain the standards it adopts. Many CSA standards named in provincial regulations are free to read through CSA’s OHS View Access, and NFPA offers free read-only access to its current editions (see 02 Standards and Law Master Map). Ownership, licence, attribution, trademarks and the full disclaimer are in 00a Copyright, Licence and Legal Notices.
If you are starting from nothing, read 01 Program Architecture and 04 Quick Start - First 90 Days, then follow the six adoption steps below.
If you already have a program, complete 01 Program Profile Worksheet and run the 02 Gap Assessment Tool. The result tells you which chapters to adopt first.
If you are preparing for accreditation, the 02 Standards and Law Master Map crosswalks every chapter to the CPSE/CFAI criteria (10th edition, with the 11th edition changes that apply from 2027), and the annual program appraisals and audits are built to become Category 11 evidence.
| Step | What happens | Chapters | Who leads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Profile | Record the department’s shape, switch modules on or off, set the jurisdiction | 01 Program Profile Worksheet | Fire chief with both JOHSC co-chairs |
| 2. Assess | Score the department against every element, with evidence; build the hazard profile and the indicator baseline | 02 Gap Assessment Tool, 03 Hazard Profile and Risk Register Method, 04 Baseline Metrics and Indicator Set, 05 Safety Culture Baseline | Health and safety officer, a line officer, a JOHSC worker member |
| 3. Consult and adopt Stage 1 | Adopt the Stage 1 policies and programs after formal JOHSC and union consultation | Part 4 and Part 5 chapters tagged Stage 1; 02 JOHSC Integration | Fire chief |
| 4. Stand up the teams | Charter the first Program Improvement Teams and start the quarterly cycle | 06 Program Improvement Teams, Form - Program Team Charter | Deputy chief, operations |
| 5. Check | Run inspections, the first internal audit and the Corrective Action Register | Part 7 | Senior officer responsible for health and safety |
| 6. Review | Hold the first management review at 12 months and set the next year’s objectives | Management Review | Fire chief |
| Management-system stage | Where it lives | What it produces |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | Parts 1 to 4: foundations, governance, assessment, policies | Policy signed; roles assigned; hazards profiled; objectives set |
| Do | Parts 5, 6 and 9: programs, safe work procedures, forms | Controls in place; people trained; records created as work happens |
| Check | Part 7: inspections, audits, indicators | Findings scored for documentation, implementation and effectiveness |
| Act | Part 7 and Part 2: Corrective Action Register, management review, Program Improvement Teams | Findings closed with evidence; the system improved each year |
- Placeholders in double braces, such as
{{Department}}, are filled in by the adopting department; the full list is in 06 Glossary and Acronyms. - Stage tags (S1), (S2), (S3) mark when a requirement becomes expected: Stage 1 Foundation, Stage 2 Operating, Stage 3 Learning.
- Must marks a requirement from law or a standard; should marks recommended practice; may marks an option.
- Citations follow APA 7 author-date style. Standards are cited by designation and edition, as in (NFPA 1550, 2024, ch. 8), and legislation by short title, jurisdiction and year, as in (Criminal Code [CA], 1985, s. 217.1). Every chapter ends with its references, and 07 Bibliography collects them all.
- Jurisdiction requirements tables close every chapter that depends on provincial or territorial law. They link to the Part 10 topic pages, where each jurisdiction’s numbers, thresholds and timelines live. When the law changes, Part 10 changes and the chapters do not.
- Priorities run from P1 (Imminent) through P2 (Serious) and P3 (Moderate) to P4 (Improvement). They rate every finding and corrective action, with one set of timelines throughout the book (Corrective Action Register).
Why the system is built this way, the law and standards behind it, and the words it uses.
| Chapter | Title | Stage | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| FSSMS-FND-01 | 01 Program Architecture | all | The package is a management system, not a checklist. |
| FSSMS-FND-02 | 02 Standards and Law Master Map | 1 | This is the package’s consolidated record of every standard, regulation and verification framework it relies on: the current edition, what each one was consolidated from, what it governs, which package parts it lands … |
| FSSMS-FND-05 | 05 Design Principles and Lessons Learned | all | Every policy, program, procedure and checklist in this package was shaped by evidence about how firefighters are killed and injured, why the fire service already knows most of what would prevent it, and why safety pro… |
| FSSMS-FND-06 | 06 Glossary and Acronyms | all | This is the package glossary. |
| FSSMS-FND-07 | 07 Bibliography | all | This is the book’s reference list: one canonical entry for every source cited anywhere in the book. |
Who owns what, how the JOHSC is built in, how results are reported, and how Program Improvement Teams carry every program.
| Chapter | Title | Stage | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| FSSMS-GOV-01 | 01 Roles and Responsibilities | 1 | To set out who is responsible for what in the safety management system, so that every duty in law and every element of every program has a named role, and so that every person in the department can see their own part. |
| FSSMS-GOV-02 | 02 JOHSC Integration | 1 | The joint occupational health and safety committee is the statutory meeting place of the employer and the members on health and safety. |
| FSSMS-GOV-03 | 03 Accountability and Reporting | 1 | Accountability without reporting is a hope; reporting without accountability is paperwork. |
| FSSMS-GOV-04 | 04 Annual Program Cycle and Calendar | 1 | The safety management system runs on a yearly cycle of Plan, Do, Check, Act (ISO 45001:2018, cl. 4.4 and 9 to 10). |
| FSSMS-GOV-05 | 05 Document Control and Records | 1 | Documents tell people what the department has decided; records show what it did. |
| FSSMS-GOV-06 | 06 Program Improvement Teams | 2 | To provide each program in the safety management system with a standing, line-led team that continuously assesses risk, designs and improves the program from work-as-done, verifies that it works, reports on a fixed cy… |
Where the department stands: profile, gap assessment, hazard profile, indicators and culture baseline.
| Chapter | Title | Stage | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| FSSMS-ASM-01 | 01 Program Profile Worksheet | all | Everything else in the package keys off this worksheet. |
| FSSMS-ASM-02 | 02 Gap Assessment Tool | all | The Gap Assessment Tool measures the distance between the department’s safety management system as it exists today and the system this package describes. |
| FSSMS-ASM-03 | 03 Hazard Profile and Risk Register Method | 1 | This note gives the department one method for finding its hazards, ranking the risk they carry, choosing controls in the right order, and keeping the result alive. |
| FSSMS-ASM-04 | 04 Baseline Metrics and Indicator Set | 2 | This note defines the numbers the department collects to know whether its safety management system is in place and whether it works. |
| FSSMS-ASM-05 | 05 Safety Culture Baseline | 1 | To measure, before anything else changes, how safe people feel to speak up, how much they believe their officers and their chief mean what the policy says, and how well the department actually learns from events; then… |
What the department commits to, ready to adopt.
| Chapter | Title | Stage | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| FSSMS-POL-01 | Policy - Occupational Health and Safety | 1 | This policy states what {{Department}} commits to for the health and safety of its members and how that commitment is given effect through the Fire Service Safety Management System. |
| FSSMS-POL-02 | Policy - Internal Responsibility and Accountability | 1 | To state how responsibility for health and safety flows through {{Department}}, what each level owes, how the department proves due diligence, how it closes the loop on every hazard and concern, how it treats people w… |
| FSSMS-POL-03 | Policy - Risk Management and Hazard Assessment | 1 | To require that {{Department}} knows its hazards before they hurt someone, assesses the risk by one method, controls it in hierarchy order, reassesses before anything changes, and manages the risk it cannot remove at … |
| FSSMS-POL-04 | Policy - Incident, Injury, Exposure and Near-Miss Reporting and Investigation | 1 | This policy sets out how {{Department}} reports, triages, reviews and learns from injuries, exposures, near misses, good catches, equipment failures and work refusals, and how it meets its statutory duties to report s… |
| FSSMS-POL-05 | Policy - Right to Refuse Unsafe Work and Stop-Work Authority | 1 | To state plainly that every member of {{Department}} has the statutory right to refuse work they have reasonable grounds to believe is likely to endanger themselves or another person, to set out the steps that follow … |
| FSSMS-POL-06 | Policy - Emergency Operations Safety | 1 | This policy states what {{Department}} commits to so that members are protected at emergency incidents and training evolutions, and names who is accountable for each commitment. |
| FSSMS-POL-07 | Policy - Respiratory Protection | 1 | To state {{Department}}’s commitment that no member breathes a hazardous atmosphere without adequate respiratory protection, that every member who enters one comes out with air to spare, and that the equipment, the ai… |
| FSSMS-POL-08 | Policy - Personal Protective Equipment and Contamination Control | 1 | To state the department’s commitment that every member is provided with protective clothing and equipment that fits, is certified to the current standard, is clean, inspected and in service life, and that fireground c… |
| FSSMS-POL-09 | Policy - Occupational Medical, Fitness and Wellness | 1 | To commit the department to keeping every member medically and physically able to do the work safely across a career, to protecting members’ health information, and to managing fatigue as a hazard. |
| FSSMS-POL-10 | Policy - Psychological Health and Safety | 1 | To commit the department to protecting and promoting the psychological health of every member on the National Standard of Canada (CSA Z1003-13) and its paramedic-service edition, the nearest emergency-service model (C… |
| FSSMS-POL-11 | Policy - Training and Competency | 1 | To state {{Department}}’s commitment that no member is assigned work they have not been trained for and verified competent to do safely; that training itself is run as safely as the department can make it; and that th… |
| FSSMS-POL-12 | Policy - Apparatus and Driving | 1 | To state {{Department}}’s commitment that every member gets to the call, works on the road and comes home without a collision, a rollover, a backing strike or a member struck by traffic, and that the apparatus, the dr… |
| FSSMS-POL-13 | Policy - Facilities | 1 | To state {{Department}}’s commitment that every station, shop, training ground and office is run as a workplace: inspected on a schedule, kept free of exhaust and contamination where members live, safe to work in and … |
| FSSMS-POL-14 | Policy - Fatigue and Hours of Work | 2 | To manage fatigue as a hazard: to set limits on hours and consecutive work, require rest after long incidents, make it safe and expected to report fatigue, keep fatigued members out of the driver’s seat, address the p… |
| FSSMS-POL-15 | Policy - Hazardous Materials and WHMIS | 1 | This policy states what {{Department}} commits to so that members are protected at incidents involving hazardous materials, deliberate chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear agents, illicit drugs, and the ener… |
| FSSMS-POL-16 | Policy - Working at Heights | 1 | To state {{Department}}’s commitment that members who work at height come home: every height task has a written method that crews actually use, the protection the method requires is worn and attached, every ladder, ae… |
| FSSMS-POL-17 | Policy - Confined Space | 1 | To state {{Department}}’s commitment that no member enters a confined space without the assessment, isolation, atmospheric monitoring, air, retrieval, attendant and rescue capability the entry needs; that the departme… |
| FSSMS-POL-18 | Policy - Workplace Violence and Harassment | 1 | This policy states {{Department}}’s commitment to protect every member from violence at calls, in stations and in vehicles, and from harassment and bullying inside the department, and names who is accountable for that… |
| FSSMS-POL-19 | Policy - Contractors and Mutual Aid | 1 | To state {{Department}}’s commitment that people who work in its workplaces without being members are protected as its members are; that what the department buys and outsources meets its safety standards; and that whe… |
| FSSMS-POL-20 | Policy - Volunteer Members | 1 | To state {{Department}}’s position that volunteer and paid-on-call members are workers for every purpose of the safety management system, whatever the applicable statute says about their status, and to set out what fo… |
| FSSMS-POL-21 | Policy - Records, Privacy and Health Information | 1 | To say what records the safety management system creates, who holds each, for how long, who may see it, and how the department keeps health information, learning information and personnel information apart. |
| FSSMS-POL-22 | Policy - Program Review and Continuous Improvement | 1 | To require that {{Department}} checks whether its safety management system is implemented and whether it works, on a fixed cycle, with evidence, by people independent of the work, and acts on what it finds. |
The written, auditable system for each hazard family or function, each with its toolkit.
| Chapter | Title | Stage | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| FSSMS-PRG-01 | Respiratory Protection Program | 1 | This program is the written, auditable system that keeps every member’s lungs out of the smoke, the fire gases, the dust and the pathogens the work produces, and keeps every member who goes into a hazardous atmosphere… |
| FSSMS-PRG-02 | Protective Clothing and Equipment Program | 1 | Every member has the right protective ensemble for every hazard they are sent to, it fits them, it is clean, it has been inspected by someone who knows what to look for, and the department can prove all of that for ev… |
| FSSMS-PRG-03 | Occupational Cancer Prevention, Exposure Tracking and Screening Program | 1 | Occupational exposure as a firefighter is carcinogenic to humans: Group 1, with sufficient evidence for mesothelioma and bladder cancer and limited evidence for colon, prostate and testicular cancer, melanoma and non-… |
| FSSMS-PRG-03a | Decontamination and Contamination Control Program | 1 | Fireground contaminants stay on the fireground. |
| FSSMS-PRG-04 | Medical, Fitness and Wellness Program | 1 | This program keeps members medically and physically able to do the work safely, for a whole career, and sends them home healthy at the end of it. |
| FSSMS-PRG-05 | Psychological Health and Safety and Peer Support Program | 1 | This program protects members’ minds with the same seriousness the department gives their lungs. |
| FSSMS-PRG-06 | Firefighter Rehabilitation Program | 1 | Rehabilitation is the part of an incident where the department gives a member’s body the chance to recover before it fails. |
| FSSMS-PRG-07 | Emergency Operations Safety Program | 1 | This program is the written, auditable system for keeping members alive and uninjured at emergency incidents, with structural firefighting as its core case. |
| FSSMS-PRG-08 | Training Safety and Live Fire Program | 1 | This program is the written, auditable system that makes training the safest place a member works, because it is the one place the department controls every variable. |
| FSSMS-PRG-08b | Infection Control and Medical Response Safety Program | 1 | This program is the written, auditable system that keeps members from catching what their patients have, from being stuck, splashed or infected on a medical call, from being hurt lifting and moving people, and from ca… |
| FSSMS-PRG-09 | Apparatus, Driving and Roadway Operations Program | 1 | This program is the written, auditable system that gets every member to the call, through the call and home again without a collision, a rollover, a backing strike or a member struck on the road. |
| FSSMS-PRG-10 | Facilities and Station Safety Program | 1 | This program is the written, auditable system that treats every fire station, shop, training ground and office as a workplace, with the hazards a workplace carries and a few that only fire stations do. |
| FSSMS-PRG-11 | Hazardous Materials, CBRN and Energy Hazards Program | 1 | This program is the written, auditable system for protecting members at incidents involving hazardous materials, deliberate chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) releases, illicit drugs and clandestine… |
| FSSMS-PRG-14 | Working at Heights and Fall Protection Program | 1 | Firefighters work at height every shift: on ground ladders, at the tip of an aerial, on roofs that may be burning underneath them, on top of apparatus loading hose, on training towers, and at the edge of a rope rescue. |
| FSSMS-PRG-15 | Confined Space Program | 1 | Confined spaces kill the people who go in to help. |
| FSSMS-PRG-16 | Trench and Structural Collapse Rescue Program | 1 | A cubic metre of soil weighs about as much as a car, and a trench that has collapsed once is more likely, not less, to collapse again. |
| FSSMS-PRG-17 | Rope Rescue Program | 1 | Rope rescue is low frequency and high consequence: a rescuer hangs their life, and a patient’s, on a system built in minutes by people who may not have rigged it for months. |
| FSSMS-PRG-18 | Water, Ice and Swiftwater Rescue Program | 1 | Every department with a lake, a river, a harbour, a storm drain or a winter responds to people in the water, and firefighters have drowned trying to reach them: untethered, without flotation, in moving water with a ro… |
| FSSMS-PRG-19 | Wildland and Interface Program | 1 | This program is the written, auditable system for grass, brush, forest and wildland-urban interface fires, from the two-hectare grass fire behind a subdivision to a multi-day deployment beside the provincial wildfire … |
| FSSMS-PRG-20 | Heat, Cold and Weather Program | 1 | This program is the written, auditable system for the weather and the body’s response to it: heat strain in structural gear in July, hypothermia at a four-hour winter car fire, frostbite on a hose crew, a lightning st… |
| FSSMS-PRG-21 | Hearing Conservation Program | 1 | Firefighters lose hearing slowly, from sirens and air horns in the cab, positive-pressure fans, saws, hydraulic tools and pump panels, and discover it at retirement when there is no baseline to prove where it came from. |
| FSSMS-PRG-21b | Workplace Violence and Harassment Program | 1 | This program is the written, auditable system that keeps members from being hurt by other people: by patients and bystanders at calls, by members of the public who walk into a station, and by one another. |
| FSSMS-PRG-22 | Incident Investigation and Learning Program | 1 | This program is the department’s way of turning what happens on the fireground, in the station, on the road and in training into knowledge that changes how the work is done. |
| FSSMS-PRG-23 | Workplace Inspections Program | 1 | This program is the written, auditable system that finds hazards before they find a member, by walking every workplace on a schedule with a checklist and a pair of eyes that is looking. |
| FSSMS-PRG-24 | Contractor and Mutual Aid Safety Program | 1 | This program is the written, auditable system for the people who work in the department’s workplaces without being its members, and for the department’s members when they work under someone else’s command. |
| FSSMS-PRG-25 | RPAS Program | 2 | This program is the written, auditable system under which the department flies remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS, commonly called drones) at incidents, training and planned events, lawfully, safely and without s… |
| FSSMS-PRG-26 | Marine Firefighting Program | 2 | This program is the written, auditable system for every member who goes onto the water in a department vessel or onto a vessel to fight fire. |
| FSSMS-PRG-27 | Airport Rescue and Firefighting Program | 2 | This program is the written, auditable system for a department that provides, or contracts to provide, aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) at an aerodrome. |
How crews do the work, written for the apparatus, not the auditor.
| Chapter | Title | Stage | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| FSSMS-SWP-01 | SWP - SCBA Donning, Use and Air Management | 1 | Putting on, using and taking off self-contained breathing apparatus, and managing the air in it, whenever a member enters or may enter an atmosphere that is immediately dangerous to life or health, may become so, is o… |
| FSSMS-SWP-02 | SWP - SCBA Daily and After-Use Inspection and Cleaning | 1 | The user inspection and cleaning of SCBA, facepieces, cylinders and PASS by members: at the start of each duty period for an assigned unit; at least weekly for unassigned, spare and apparatus-mounted units; after ever… |
| FSSMS-SWP-03 | SWP - Respirator Fit Testing | 1 | Testing whether a specific tight-fitting respirator (SCBA facepiece, full-facepiece or half-facepiece air-purifying respirator, tight-fitting PAPR, N95 filtering facepiece) seals on a specific member’s face. |
| FSSMS-SWP-04 | SWP - Breathing Air Fill Station and Cylinder Handling | 1 | Operating the breathing air compressor, cascade and fill station (fixed or mobile); filling SCBA and cascade cylinders; drawing air quality samples; receiving purchased air; inspecting cylinders before fill and after … |
| FSSMS-SWP-05 | SWP - On-Scene Preliminary Exposure Reduction | 1 | This procedure reduces the contamination on you and your gear before you take the gear off, and keeps that contamination out of the cab and the station. |
| FSSMS-SWP-06 | SWP - Post-Call Station Decontamination | 1 | This procedure finishes what the scene started. |
| FSSMS-SWP-07 | SWP - Exposure Reporting | 1 | Recording an exposure for every member it reached, the same day, in the department’s exposure record. |
| FSSMS-SWP-08 | SWP - Bunker Gear Routine Inspection and Cleaning | 1 | Routine inspection is your own check of every element of your ensemble: after every use, at the start of every duty period, and for volunteers at least monthly and after every call. |
| FSSMS-SWP-09 | SWP - Bunker Gear Advanced Inspection | 1 | Advanced inspection is the detailed, layer-by-layer examination of every element of a structural or proximity ensemble by a trained person. |
| FSSMS-SWP-10 | SWP - Bunker Gear Advanced and Specialized Cleaning and Repair | 1 | Advanced cleaning is the thorough machine cleaning of structural and proximity ensemble elements in a dedicated extractor, by a trained PPE technician or a {{Verified ISP}}. |
| FSSMS-SWP-10b | SWP - Bunker Gear Retirement and Records | 1 | This procedure takes an element of a structural or proximity ensemble out of emergency service for good, makes sure it can never go back, and keeps the record that proves what happened to every element from purchase t… |
| FSSMS-SWP-11 | SWP - Rehabilitation at Incidents and Training | 1 | Setting up and running rehabilitation (rehab) for members at incidents and training, and going to it. |
| FSSMS-SWP-12 | SWP - Accountability and Personnel Accountability Reports | 1 | Maintaining a continuous record of every member’s location and assignment at an incident, and confirming by roll call that everyone is accounted for. |
| FSSMS-SWP-13 | SWP - Two-In Two-Out and Rapid Intervention | 1 | Setting up the outside team before anyone goes inside, and keeping a dedicated rapid intervention crew (RIT) ready for the whole time members are in a hazard zone. |
| FSSMS-SWP-14 | SWP - Mayday | 1 | Declaring that a member is in trouble inside a hazard zone, and the actions every member, the incident commander, the rapid intervention crew and dispatch take from that moment until the member is out and everyone els… |
| FSSMS-SWP-15 | SWP - Ground Ladder Operations | 1 | Carrying, raising, placing, climbing, working from and lowering ground ladders at incidents, in training and at the station (ladder inspection and cleaning). |
| FSSMS-SWP-16 | SWP - Aerial Device Operations | 1 | Setting up, operating, climbing, working from and stowing aerial ladders, aerial platforms, ladder platforms, buckets and water towers at incidents, in training, and in station checks. |
| FSSMS-SWP-17 | SWP - Roof and Vertical Ventilation Operations | 1 | Going to, working on and leaving a roof at a fire: vertical ventilation (cutting), inspection holes, checking for extension, rescue from a roof, and defensive operations from a roof position. |
| FSSMS-SWP-18 | SWP - Fall Protection on Apparatus and at Heights | 1 | Any non-emergency work at height that is not covered by the ladder, aerial or roof procedures: loading and packing hose beds; retrieving or stowing equipment on apparatus tops; working on training towers and elevated … |
| FSSMS-SWP-19 | SWP - Confined Space Entry and Rescue | 1 | Part A: any planned, non-emergency entry by a member into a confined space (training props, station pits and tanks, vessel voids, inspections, contracted standby). |
| FSSMS-SWP-20 | SWP - Trench Rescue | 1 | Rescue of a person trapped or buried in a trench or excavation, at the department’s declared level (Trench and Structural Collapse Rescue Program section 5.1). |
| FSSMS-SWP-21 | SWP - Rope Rescue Systems Rigging and Inspection | 1 | Building, checking, operating, taking down and inspecting rope systems that carry a person: lowering and raising at any angle, litter operations, pick-offs, confined space and trench vertical lifts, water and ice teth… |
| FSSMS-SWP-22 | SWP - Ice Rescue | 1 | Rescue of a person who has gone through the ice or is stranded on ice, from shore, from the ice surface, or from an inflatable platform, at the department’s declared ice rescue level (Water, Ice and Swiftwater Rescue … |
| FSSMS-SWP-23 | SWP - Swiftwater Rescue | 1 | Rescue of a person in moving water (rivers, creeks in flood, spillways, culverts, flooded streets, storm channels) at the department’s declared swiftwater level (Water, Ice and Swiftwater Rescue Program section 5.1): … |
| FSSMS-SWP-24 | SWP - Boat Operations | 1 | Launching, operating, working from, recovering and securing any department vessel: inflatables, rigid-hull inflatables, aluminum rescue boats, airboats, ice rescue craft, and fireboats for the rescue and transport ele… |
| FSSMS-SWP-25 | SWP - Hazmat Entry and Decontamination | 1 | Entering a hazard zone at a hazardous materials or CBRN incident, and bringing every member and every piece of equipment back out through decontamination. |
| FSSMS-SWP-26 | SWP - EV and Lithium Battery Fire | 1 | Responding to a fire, a crash or a suspected thermal runaway involving a lithium-ion battery: electric and hybrid vehicles, e-bikes and scooters, mobility devices, power tool and consumer batteries, and batteries in v… |
| FSSMS-SWP-27 | SWP - Solar PV and Energy Storage Systems | 1 | Operating at a fire or emergency in a building, on a site or on a roof that has a solar photovoltaic (PV) array, a stationary energy storage system (ESS), or both. |
| FSSMS-SWP-28 | SWP - Downed Power Lines and Utility Emergencies | 1 | Operating where electrical conductors are down, damaged or in contact with vehicles, structures, fences, trees or water; positioning apparatus, ladders and aerials near intact overhead lines; and responding to natural… |
| FSSMS-SWP-29 | SWP - Roadway Incident Scene Blocking | 1 | Positioning apparatus, equipment and people at any incident on or beside a roadway so that an errant vehicle strikes steel, not a member, and so that the road reopens as soon as the hazard allows. |
| FSSMS-SWP-30 | SWP - Emergency Vehicle Response and Backing | 1 | Driving an apparatus from the station or the road to a call and back, in emergency or non-emergency mode, including intersections, speed, weather, seat belts, and backing anywhere, including into the bay. |
| FSSMS-SWP-31 | SWP - Personal Vehicle Response (Volunteers) | 1 | Driving a personal vehicle to the station or to a scene in answer to a page or app alert, and parking it when you get there. |
| FSSMS-SWP-32 | SWP - Live Fire Training Evolutions | 1 | Planning, setting up, running and closing out any training evolution with real fire: in an acquired structure, a fixed burn building, a container or flashover simulator, a gas-fired prop, or an exterior prop such as a… |
| FSSMS-SWP-33 | SWP - Training Tower and Prop Inspection | 1 | Inspecting every training structure and prop before each use, monthly where this procedure says so, annually by a competent person, engineer or licensed gas fitter, and after any event that could have damaged it; then… |
| FSSMS-SWP-34 | SWP - Wildland Deployment, LCES and Heat | 1 | This procedure applies every time a crew engages a grass, brush, forest or interface fire, from the first arriving apparatus on a roadside grass fire to a crew on day six of an out-of-area deployment. |
| FSSMS-SWP-35 | SWP - Violent Scene Staging | 1 | Responding to, approaching, working at and leaving any call where violence is flagged, threatened, possible or happening. |
| FSSMS-SWP-36 | SWP - Diesel Exhaust and Station Zoning | 1 | Every start, move and shutdown of an apparatus or other diesel vehicle inside a station; the daily check of the exhaust capture system; and every movement of people, gear, tools and equipment between the station’s zones. |
| FSSMS-SWP-37 | SWP - Lockout and Shop Safety | 1 | Any servicing, maintenance, cleaning, adjustment, repair, inspection or clearing of a jam on a machine or system that can release energy, in a station, shop or training ground, and the shop work around it. |
| FSSMS-SWP-38 | SWP - Infection Control and Post-Exposure | 1 | This procedure applies to every member on every call with patient contact, whether the department is the medical agency or arrives first at a collision, a fire or a rescue. |
| FSSMS-SWP-39 | SWP - Workplace Inspection | 1 | Planning, walking, rating, recording and following up a workplace inspection: the monthly station inspection by the station officer with a member, the joint occupational health and safety committee’s inspection, the a… |
| FSSMS-SWP-40 | SWP - RPAS Flight Operations | 2 | Flying a department remotely piloted aircraft (RPAS) at an incident, a training session or a planned event, from tasking to data download. |
How the department checks itself, closes its findings and reviews the system.
| Chapter | Title | Stage | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| FSSMS-AUD-01 | 01 Audit Program | 2 | The audit program is how the department finds out whether its safety management system works, rather than whether it exists on paper. |
| FSSMS-AUD-02 | 02 Audit Checklist Master Index | all | The audit is organized into 20 categories. |
| FSSMS-AUD-03 | Annual Inspection and Review Schedule | 1 | One table of everything the department inspects, tests, services, reviews or renews on a cycle: the interval, who does it, who is qualified to do it, the standard it is done against, the record it leaves and the month… |
| FSSMS-AUD-04 | Corrective Action Register | 1 | The register is the one place where every deficiency the system finds is tracked from the day it is found to the day someone checks that the fix held. |
| FSSMS-AUD-05 | Management Review | 2 | The management review is the one meeting a year at which the fire chief, with the senior team and the JOHSC co-chairs in the room, looks at the whole safety management system on evidence and decides what changes, what… |
| FSSMS-AUD-C01 | Checklist - Leadership, Policy and Program Management | all | Category 1 audits whether the department’s leaders have built, resourced and visibly lead a safety management system, rather than delegated one to the safety division. |
| FSSMS-AUD-C02 | Checklist - Worker Participation and JOHSC | all | Category 2 audits whether workers participate in the safety management system in fact, through the joint occupational health and safety committee and outside it. |
| FSSMS-AUD-C03 | Checklist - Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment | all | Category 3 audits whether the department knows its hazards, has assessed the risk of each in a consistent way, has chosen controls in hierarchy order, and keeps the picture current as the work changes. |
| FSSMS-AUD-C04 | Checklist - Procedures and Document Control | all | Category 4 audits whether the department’s written procedures describe the work as it is actually done safely, are controlled so that only the current version is in use, were built with the people who do the work and … |
| FSSMS-AUD-C05 | Checklist - Training and Competency | all | Category 5 audits whether every member is trained and competent for the work they are assigned before they are assigned it, whether the training itself is safe, and whether the department can prove both. |
| FSSMS-AUD-C06 | Checklist - Records and Information | all | Category 6 audits whether the department keeps the records the law, the standards and its own programs require, keeps them for as long as required, protects the ones that are confidential, turns them into statistics t… |
| FSSMS-AUD-C15 | Checklist - Department Emergency Preparedness and Continuity | all | 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 kil… |
| FSSMS-AUD-C17 | Checklist - Contractors and Mutual Aid | all | Category 17 audits the safety of work the department does not do with its own members but is still responsible for: contractors on its stations and training grounds, the safety content of what it buys, the agreements … |
| FSSMS-AUD-C18 | Checklist - Monitoring, Inspection and Indicators | all | Category 18 audits the department’s own checking: the inspection schedule and checklists for stations, training grounds and equipment; the apparatus and equipment inspection, maintenance and test regime; occupational … |
| FSSMS-AUD-C19 | Checklist - Audit and External Verification | all | This category audits the audit. |
| FSSMS-AUD-C20 | Checklist - Management Review | all | This category audits the top of the loop: the annual management review chaired by the fire chief, the inputs it must receive, the decisions it must make, how those decisions are resourced and communicated, and whether… |
| FSSMS-AUD-P01 | Checklist - Respiratory Protection | all | This category audits Respiratory Protection Program (FSSMS-PRG-01) and Policy - Respiratory Protection (FSSMS-POL-07): the written program and its administration; hazard assessment and selection; fit testing and facia… |
| FSSMS-AUD-P02 | Checklist - Protective Clothing and Equipment | 1 | This category audits the Protective Clothing and Equipment Program: selection and specification, issue and fit, routine and advanced inspection, routine, advanced and specialized cleaning, repair, storage, retirement,… |
| FSSMS-AUD-P03 | Checklist - Cancer Prevention, Exposure and Screening | 1 | This category audits the Occupational Cancer Prevention, Exposure Tracking and Screening Program: the evidence base as stated, the exposure risk assessment, verification of the prevention controls, the exposure record… |
| FSSMS-AUD-P03a | Checklist - Decontamination and Contamination Control | 1 | This category audits the Decontamination and Contamination Control Program: the hierarchy of contamination control, on-scene preliminary exposure reduction, clean cab and transport, post-call station decontamination, … |
| FSSMS-AUD-P04 | Checklist - Medical, Fitness and Wellness | 1 | This category audits the Medical, Fitness and Wellness Program and the Hearing Conservation Program: the fire department physician, essential job tasks, candidate and member medical evaluation, respirator clearance, f… |
| FSSMS-AUD-P05 | Checklist - Psychological Health and Peer Support | 1 | This category audits the Psychological Health and Safety and Peer Support Program and Policy - Psychological Health and Safety: commitment and governance, the psychosocial hazard assessment, prevention and resilience … |
| FSSMS-AUD-P06 | Checklist - Rehabilitation | 1 | This category audits the Firefighter Rehabilitation Program: triggers, sector setup, medical monitoring and release thresholds, rest and rehydration, active and passive cooling, cold-weather rehab, return to duty, doc… |
| FSSMS-AUD-P07 | Checklist - Emergency Operations Safety | all | Category 12 of 02 Audit Checklist Master Index (Emergency Operations and Incident Scene Safety). |
| FSSMS-AUD-P08 | Checklist - Training Safety and Live Fire | all | This program checklist audits Training Safety and Live Fire Program (FSSMS-PRG-08), the training safety clauses of Policy - Training and Competency (FSSMS-POL-11), SWP - Live Fire Training Evolutions, SWP - Training T… |
| FSSMS-AUD-P08b | Checklist - Infection Control and Medical Response | 1 | This category audits Infection Control and Medical Response Safety Program: the written program and designated officer, routine practices and PPE for patient contact, sharps, exposure response and the post-exposure cl… |
| FSSMS-AUD-P09 | Checklist - Apparatus, Driving and Roadway | all | This program checklist audits Apparatus, Driving and Roadway Operations Program (FSSMS-PRG-09), Policy - Apparatus and Driving (FSSMS-POL-12) and their procedures: specification and acceptance; inspection and out-of-s… |
| FSSMS-AUD-P10 | Checklist - Facilities and Station Safety | all | This program checklist audits Facilities and Station Safety Program (FSSMS-PRG-10), Policy - Facilities (FSSMS-POL-13), SWP - Diesel Exhaust and Station Zoning, SWP - Lockout and Shop Safety and the station-level use … |
| FSSMS-AUD-P11 | Checklist - Hazardous Materials and Energy Hazards | all | Category 13 of 02 Audit Checklist Master Index (Hazardous Materials and Energy Hazards). |
| FSSMS-AUD-P14 | Checklist - Working at Heights and Fall Protection | all | This checklist audits Working at Heights and Fall Protection Program (FSSMS-PRG-14) and Policy - Working at Heights (FSSMS-POL-16): the written position on emergency operations, the fall hazard inventory, procedures a… |
| FSSMS-AUD-P15 | Checklist - Confined Space, Trench and Rope Rescue | all | This checklist audits three technical rescue programs: Confined Space Program (FSSMS-PRG-15) with Policy - Confined Space (FSSMS-POL-17), Trench and Structural Collapse Rescue Program (FSSMS-PRG-16) and Rope Rescue Pr… |
| FSSMS-AUD-P18 | Checklist - Water, Ice and Marine Operations | all | This checklist audits Water, Ice and Swiftwater Rescue Program (FSSMS-PRG-18) and the procedures it owns: SWP - Ice Rescue, SWP - Swiftwater Rescue and SWP - Boat Operations. |
| FSSMS-AUD-P19 | Checklist - Wildland, Heat and Weather | 1 | This category audits Wildland and Interface Program (FSSMS-PRG-19) and Heat, Cold and Weather Program (FSSMS-PRG-20): qualifications and fitness for the fireline, wildland PPE and the structural-gear limit, LACES and … |
| FSSMS-AUD-P21b | Checklist - Workplace Violence and Harassment | 1 | This category audits Workplace Violence and Harassment Program and Policy - Workplace Violence and Harassment: the violence risk assessment and prevention plan, dispatch information, staging and scene safety, station … |
| FSSMS-AUD-P22 | Checklist - Incident Reporting, Investigation and Learning | all | This category audits whether the department reports, triages, reviews and learns from events, and whether it meets its statutory reporting and committee duties. |
| FSSMS-AUD-P25 | Checklist - RPAS, Marine and ARFF (Conditional Modules) | 2 | This category audits three conditional modules: RPAS Program (remotely piloted aircraft), Marine Firefighting Program (vessels and shipboard fire) and Airport Rescue and Firefighting Program (ARFF at an aerodrome). |
How to stand the system up, in what order, at what cost.
| Chapter | Title | Stage | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| FSSMS-IMP-01 | 01 Implementation Roadmap 0-36 Months | all | This is the order of work. |
| FSSMS-IMP-02 | 02 Business Case and Cost Model | all | This note gives the fire chief what council and the chief administrative officer will ask for: why the department should do this, what it costs by stage, what it avoids, and where the money comes from. |
| FSSMS-IMP-03 | 03 Communication, Training and Rollout Plan | all | A safety management system is adopted by people, not by a resolution. |
| FSSMS-IMP-04 | 04 Quick Start - First 90 Days | 1 | The first 90 days decide whether the members believe it. |
Every form the programs call for, with field definitions.
| Chapter | Title | Stage | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| FSSMS-FRM-01 | Form - Annual Program Appraisal | 2 | One appraisal per program, completed by the program manager with the team, due March 15 for an April to March fiscal year (two months before the budget submission where the municipality’s cycle is earlier), presented … |
| FSSMS-FRM-02 | Form - Audit Plan and Report Template | 2 | Part 1 is the audit plan, issued by the lead auditor 15 working days before an annual audit and five before a spot-audit (01 Audit Program section 10). |
| FSSMS-FRM-03 | Form - Fatigue Self-Report and Officer Response | 2 | Three parts on one form, used under Policy - Fatigue and Hours of Work. |
| FSSMS-FRM-04 | Form - JOHSC Recommendation and Employer Response | 1 | Part 1 is completed by the committee and sent to the fire chief by the co-chairs; Part 2 is completed by the fire chief or delegate and returned within 21 days, or sooner where the statute requires; Part 3 records wha… |
| FSSMS-FRM-05 | Form - Management Review Decision Record | 2 | Completed during the management review by the senior officer responsible for H&S, read back at the close, signed by the fire chief, and issued within 10 working days to attendees, program managers and the JOHSC; a mem… |
| FSSMS-FRM-06 | Form - Management of Change Checklist | 1 | Completed before any change to a task, procedure, service level, staffing model, apparatus, equipment, PPE, facility, substance, supplier, contractor, operational software or organizational structure takes effect, as … |
| FSSMS-FRM-07 | Form - OHS Policy Statement (Signature Page) | 1 | The signature page is attached to Part A of Policy - Occupational Health and Safety and is the record the regulator asks to see first: that the statement was prepared in consultation with the committee or representati… |
| FSSMS-FRM-08 | Form - Program Team Budget Worksheet | 2 | One worksheet per program per year, prepared by the program manager with the team and the training officer, attached to the annual program appraisal two months before the department’s budget submission (06 Program Imp… |
| FSSMS-FRM-09 | Form - Program Team Charter | 1 | One charter per Program Improvement Team, built from the terms of reference shell in 06 Program Improvement Teams section 12. |
| FSSMS-FRM-10 | Form - Quarterly Program Progress Update | 1 | Completed by the team lead for every Program Improvement Team within 15 days of quarter end (July 15, October 15, January 15; the fourth quarter is folded into the annual appraisal) and sent to the program manager, th… |
| FSSMS-FRM-11 | Form - Volunteer Participation Annual Confirmation | 1 | One confirmation per volunteer or paid-on-call member per calendar year, prepared from the department’s attendance system and signed by the fire chief or deputy chief. |
| FSSMS-FRM-12 | Form - Breathing Air Quality Test Record | 1 | One record per sample per air source (compressor outlet, mobile fill unit, cascade bank, purchased air bank). |
| FSSMS-FRM-13 | Form - Fit Test Record | 1 | One record per member per respirator make, model and size. |
| FSSMS-FRM-14 | Form - Respirator Medical Clearance Request | 1 | Two parts. |
| FSSMS-FRM-15 | Form - SCBA Inspection and Maintenance Log | 1 | One log per SCBA for its service life, kept by the SCBA technician in {{Records system}}. |
| FSSMS-FRM-16 | Form - Exposure Report | 1 | Purpose. |
| FSSMS-FRM-17 | Form - PPE Advanced Inspection Checksheet | 1 | Purpose. |
| FSSMS-FRM-18 | Form - PPE Cleaning and Repair Log | 1 | Purpose. |
| FSSMS-FRM-19 | Form - PPE Issue and Return Record | 1 | Purpose. |
| FSSMS-FRM-20 | Form - PPE Retirement Record | 1 | Purpose. |
| FSSMS-FRM-21 | Form - PPE Routine Inspection Card | 1 | Purpose. |
| FSSMS-FRM-22 | Form - PPE Specification Template | 1 | Purpose. |
| FSSMS-FRM-23 | Form - Decontamination Log | 1 | Purpose. |
| FSSMS-FRM-24 | Form - Annual Medical and Fitness Completion Tracker | 1 | Purpose. |
| FSSMS-FRM-25 | Form - Peer Support Activity Log (Aggregate) | 1 | Purpose. |
| FSSMS-FRM-26 | Form - Rehabilitation Log | 1 | Purpose. |
| FSSMS-FRM-27 | Form - Incident Safety Officer Report | 1 | Completed by the incident safety officer (ISO) for every assignment that meets a trigger in Emergency Operations Safety Program section 5.3, and by the incident commander where no ISO was assigned at an incident with … |
| FSSMS-FRM-28 | Form - Personnel Accountability Report Log | 1 | The paper record behind the accountability board. |
| FSSMS-FRM-29 | Form - Training Evolution Risk Assessment and Live Fire Go-No-Go | 1 | Part A is completed by the lead instructor before every practical evolution and reviewed with the crew at the start; a recurring drill may use a standing assessment with a “today” check. |
| FSSMS-FRM-30 | Form - Body Fluid Exposure Report and Post-Exposure Checklist | 1 | Confidential health record. |
| FSSMS-FRM-31 | Form - Apparatus Daily and Weekly Check Sheet | 1 | One sheet per unit per week, kept in the cab or in {{Records system}}. |
| FSSMS-FRM-32 | Form - Driver Qualification and Training Record | 1 | One record per driver, opened when a member starts the driver program and kept current for the member’s service. |
| FSSMS-FRM-33 | Form - Vehicle Collision Report | 1 | For every collision, backing contact, rollover, roadway struck-by and near miss involving a department vehicle, or a member’s own vehicle on response (Policy - Apparatus and Driving 5.15). |
| FSSMS-FRM-34 | Form - Hazard Report | 1 | The one-minute report of a hazardous condition: anything in a station, shop, training ground, vehicle or piece of equipment that could hurt someone. |
| FSSMS-FRM-35 | Form - Station Safety Inspection Checklist (Full) | 1 | The annual full inspection of a station, shop or training ground by the health and safety officer with facilities, with the station officer and an invited JOHSC member (Facilities and Station Safety Program section 5…. |
| FSSMS-FRM-36 | Form - Workplace Inspection Checklist (Station) | 1 | Monthly, by the station officer with a worker member; a JOHSC member joins at least once a year per station and on the quarterly sample (02 JOHSC Integration section 5.9). |
| FSSMS-FRM-37 | Form - Hazmat Entry Log and Air Monitoring Record | 1 | One record for every incident where air is monitored or a member enters a warm or hot zone: hazmat releases, unknown substances, gas leaks, carbon monoxide calls, battery and energy storage incidents, and overhaul mon… |
| FSSMS-FRM-38 | Form - Fall Protection Equipment Inspection Card | 1 | One card per item of fall protection equipment: harnesses and ladder belts worn on aerial devices, towers and apparatus, lanyards, energy absorbers, self-retracting devices, connectors, anchor connectors and lifelines. |
| FSSMS-FRM-39 | Form - Ladder and Aerial Inspection and Test Record | 1 | One Part A record per ground ladder per test, and one Part B record per aerial device per inspection. |
| FSSMS-FRM-40 | Form - Confined Space Entry Permit | 1 | One permit for every planned entry by a member: training entries into props and real spaces, maintenance, inspection and contracted standby (Policy - Confined Space clause 5.3). |
| FSSMS-FRM-41 | Form - Rope and Rescue Equipment Log | 1 | One log per rope and one per hardware item or matched set: harnesses, descent control devices, pulleys, rope grabs, rigging plates, carabiner sets, anchor straps, webbing, prusiks, edge protectors, litters and escape … |
| FSSMS-FRM-42 | Form - Vessel Pre-Launch Checklist and Log | 1 | One form for every launch of a department vessel: incidents, training and maintenance runs (SWP - Boat Operations). |
| FSSMS-FRM-43 | Form - Heat and Cold Stress Monitoring Log | 1 | One log per extended incident or training evolution in heat or cold, kept by the rehab officer or the training safety officer. |
| FSSMS-FRM-44 | Form - Wildland Deployment Briefing and Work-Rest Log | 1 | One form per crew per engagement or operational period. |
| FSSMS-FRM-45 | Form - Violence Incident Report | 1 | Complete for every incident of violence against a member: physical assault, attempted assault, threat (in person, by phone, written or online), verbal abuse that gives reasonable cause for concern, sexual harassment b… |
| FSSMS-FRM-46 | Form - After-Action Review (Tier 1) | 1 | The crew’s own review, led by the company officer or incident commander, within 72 hours of every working fire, significant call, multi-unit or multi-agency response, exercise or live-fire evolution, good catch, or an… |
| FSSMS-FRM-47 | Form - Event Triage Record | 1 | Completed by the Triage Group for every reported event above a clear Tier 1, within 24 hours or by the next business day of the report. |
| FSSMS-FRM-48 | Form - Injury and Incident Report | 1 | One form for every injury, every exposure outside the routine crew exposure log, and every equipment failure. |
| FSSMS-FRM-49 | Form - Near-Miss and Good-Catch Report | 1 | The 60-second report. |
| FSSMS-FRM-50 | Form - Post-Incident Analysis Report Outline (Tier 2) | 1 | The outline every Tier 2 Post-Incident Analysis report follows, so that reports are comparable, auditable and readable by a crew. |
| FSSMS-FRM-51 | Form - Work Refusal Record | 1 | The record of every exercise of the statutory right to refuse unsafe work and of every stop-work call that was not resolved by an immediate “yes.” The supervisor completes Parts A and B at the time; the JOHSC worker m… |
| FSSMS-FRM-52 | Form - Contractor Orientation Checklist | 1 | Completed with every contractor worker before work starts in a department workplace, and every year for standing contractors (Policy - Contractors and Mutual Aid 5.2 to 5.5; Contractor and Mutual Aid Safety Program se… |
| FSSMS-FRM-53 | Form - RPAS Flight and Battery Log | 2 | One record per flight and one line per battery event, so the department can show every flight was lawful and every battery was fit, and so an occurrence can be traced to the aircraft, battery, pilot and conditions inv… |
What the law requires on each topic in every province, territory and federal workplace, and a pack for each jurisdiction.
| Chapter | Title | Stage | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| FSSMS-JUR-00 | 00 Jurisdiction Index | all | The rest of this book is written once, for every fire department in Canada. |
| FSSMS-JUR-01 | J01 OHS Legislation, Regulator and Enforcement | all | This page names the occupational health and safety (OHS) statute and the main regulations that govern a fire department in each jurisdiction, the regulator that enforces them and how to reach it at any hour, and what … |
| FSSMS-JUR-02 | J02 Duties of Employers, Supervisors, Workers and Contractors | all | Every OHS statute in Canada opens with general duties: the employer’s duty to protect workers so far as is reasonable or reasonably practicable, with information, instruction, training and supervision; the worker’s du… |
| FSSMS-JUR-03 | J03 OHS Policy and Program | all | Most Canadian OHS laws require a written OHS policy, a written OHS program, or both, once a workforce reaches a set size. |
| FSSMS-JUR-04 | J04 Hazard Assessment and Workplace Inspections | all | This page sets out the employer’s duty to identify, assess and control hazards, whether the law requires the assessment to be written, dated and repeated, and who must take part. |
| FSSMS-JUR-05 | J05 Joint Committee and Health and Safety Representative | all | Every Canadian jurisdiction builds worker participation into its OHS law through a joint health and safety committee above a set headcount and a worker health and safety representative below it. |
| FSSMS-JUR-06 | J06 Written Procedures and Committee Consultation | all | This page sets out when each jurisdiction requires written safe work procedures (standard operating procedures and guidelines in fire-service language), the rules some jurisdictions add about keeping them adequate, av… |
| FSSMS-JUR-07 | J07 Right to Refuse and Reprisal Protection | all | Every Canadian jurisdiction gives a worker the right to refuse work they believe is dangerous. |
| FSSMS-JUR-08 | J08 Incident Reporting and Investigation | all | This page covers what a fire department, as an employer, must report to the occupational health and safety regulator when one of its own members is killed or seriously injured, which events are reportable even when no… |
| FSSMS-JUR-09 | J09 Records Retention | all | This page covers the general duty to keep occupational health and safety records and statistics, any default retention period the OHS law sets, and the specific periods for the records a fire department holds: investi… |
| FSSMS-JUR-10 | J10 Privacy and Health Information | all | This page covers two families of law. |
| FSSMS-JUR-11 | J11 Volunteer Firefighters | all | This page covers how the law treats volunteer and paid-on-call firefighters: whether they are “workers” or “employees” under the occupational health and safety statute, whether they count toward the thresholds for a w… |
| FSSMS-JUR-12 | J12 Fire Service OHS Rules and Fireground Operations | all | This page covers the occupational health and safety rules written specifically for fire departments: a fire-service part of a regulation, a code of practice issued under the OHS statute, or an official guidance series. |
| FSSMS-JUR-13 | J13 Firefighter PPE and Protective Equipment | all | This page covers two layers of protective equipment law. |
| FSSMS-JUR-14 | J14 Respiratory Protection, Fit Testing and Breathing Air | all | This page covers the written respiratory protection program, the medical clearance or capability assessment a member needs before wearing a respirator, how often and by what method a tight-fitting facepiece must be fi… |
| FSSMS-JUR-15 | J15 Equipment Inspection, Ladders and Aerial Devices | all | This page covers the general duty to inspect, maintain and repair tools and equipment (before use, at set intervals, by a competent person, to the manufacturer’s instructions) and how long the records must be kept. |
| FSSMS-JUR-16 | J16 Fall Protection and Rope Access | all | This page covers the height at which fall protection becomes mandatory, when a written fall-protection procedure or site-specific plan is needed and what it must contain, how often workers must be trained, the equipme… |
| FSSMS-JUR-17 | J17 Confined Space | all | This page covers where each jurisdiction’s confined space rules sit, how a confined space is defined, the written program, entry plan, permit or certificate, the atmospheric limits for entry (oxygen range, percentage … |
| FSSMS-JUR-18 | J18 Excavation and Trench | all | This page covers the depth at which an excavation or trench must be sloped, benched, shored or protected by a trench box or cage, when a professional engineer must design or certify the protective system, how far spoi… |
| FSSMS-JUR-19 | J19 Lockout, Machine Guarding and Electrical Safety | all | This page covers lockout and other energy isolation (written procedures, personal locks and tags, verification and lock removal), safeguarding of machinery in stations and shops, the minimum distances workers and equi… |
| FSSMS-JUR-20 | J20 Stations, Premises and Building Codes | all | This page covers the general premises rules that apply to a fire station as a workplace (floors and housekeeping, stairs, guardrails and openings, lighting, ventilation, emergency exits and evacuation, washrooms, chan… |
| FSSMS-JUR-21 | J21 WHMIS, Hazardous Materials and Asbestos | all | Three related duties. |
| FSSMS-JUR-22 | J22 Exposure Limits, Heat and Cold Stress | all | Where each jurisdiction gets its occupational exposure limits for chemical and physical agents, and what it requires for heat and cold. |
| FSSMS-JUR-23 | J23 Noise and Hearing Conservation | all | The occupational noise exposure limit, the exchange rate used to trade sound level against time, the level that triggers measurement or a hearing conservation program, and whether the employer must arrange audiometric… |
| FSSMS-JUR-24 | J24 First Aid | all | Workplace first aid for the department’s own members: the certificate level and number of first aiders required by the number of workers on a shift, the hazard of the work and the travel time to hospital; the first ai… |
| FSSMS-JUR-25 | J25 Infection Control and Medical First Response | all | The rules that protect members from blood and body fluids and other infectious hazards: exposure control plans, safety-engineered sharps, vaccination, and what happens after an exposure, including the laws in some pro… |
| FSSMS-JUR-26 | J26 Workplace Violence | all | Every Canadian jurisdiction treats violence against workers as an occupational hazard, but the rules differ in three ways that matter to a fire department. |
| FSSMS-JUR-27 | J27 Workplace Harassment | all | Every Canadian jurisdiction now requires employers to deal with workplace harassment through occupational health and safety law, separately from human rights law. |
| FSSMS-JUR-28 | J28 Psychological Health and Safety | all | This page covers whether each jurisdiction’s occupational health and safety law treats psychological health as part of health and safety (in the definition of health, in the purpose clause, or not at all), any duty th… |
| FSSMS-JUR-29 | J29 Occupational Diving | all | This page covers whether each jurisdiction’s occupational diving rules apply to a fire department’s public safety dive team, any relief for emergency rescue dives, and what a department with a dive team must have: a d… |
| FSSMS-JUR-30 | J30 Emergency Vehicles, Drivers and Licensing | all | The provincial or territorial traffic statute that governs fire apparatus: what makes a vehicle an emergency vehicle, the rules an emergency vehicle may break and the conditions attached (lights, siren, due regard), t… |
| FSSMS-JUR-31 | J31 Roadway Incident Scenes | all | The rules that protect members working on or beside a road: the OHS temporary traffic control requirements for work near moving traffic and whether they apply at an emergency scene; the provincial traffic control manu… |
| FSSMS-JUR-32 | J32 Workers' Compensation and Firefighter Presumptions | all | Each province and territory has a workers’ compensation statute and board, and each has written presumptions for firefighters into it: lists of cancers presumed to be caused by firefighting after a minimum number of y… |
| FSSMS-JUR-33 | J33 Return to Work, Accommodation and Hours of Work | all | Three bodies of law decide whether an injured, ill or fatigued member works, and how. |
| FSSMS-JUR-34 | J34 Fire Services Legislation and Firefighter Certification | all | This page covers the fire services law that gives a department its legal standing: the statute that lets (or requires) a municipality to provide fire protection and establish or register a department, the fire chief’s… |
| FSSMS-JUR-35 | J35 Wildland and Interface Fire | all | This page covers the provincial or territorial wildfire statute and the agency that leads wildfire suppression, where its responsibility ends and the municipality’s begins, the fire or burning season, burn permits and… |
| FSSMS-JUR-36 | J36 External Verification and Funding | all | This page covers the independent checks open to a municipal fire department’s safety management system: the Certificate of Recognition (COR) through a certifying partner, the compensation board’s own certification or … |
| FSSMS-PACK-01 | Jurisdiction Pack - British Columbia | all | The chapters of this book are written once for every Canadian fire department: where a requirement comes from provincial law, a chapter states it generically and links the topic page that holds each jurisdiction’s ver… |
| FSSMS-PACK-02 | Jurisdiction Pack - Alberta | all | The chapters of this book are written once for every Canadian fire department: where a requirement comes from provincial law, a chapter states it generically and links the topic page that holds each jurisdiction’s ver… |
| FSSMS-PACK-03 | Jurisdiction Pack - Saskatchewan | all | The chapters of this book are written once for every Canadian fire department: where a requirement comes from provincial law, a chapter states it generically and links the topic page that holds each jurisdiction’s ver… |
| FSSMS-PACK-04 | Jurisdiction Pack - Manitoba | all | The chapters of this book are written once for every Canadian fire department: where a requirement comes from provincial law, a chapter states it generically and links the topic page that holds each jurisdiction’s ver… |
| FSSMS-PACK-05 | Jurisdiction Pack - Ontario | all | The chapters of this book are written once for every Canadian fire department: where a requirement comes from provincial law, a chapter states it generically and links the topic page that holds each jurisdiction’s ver… |
| FSSMS-PACK-06 | Jurisdiction Pack - Quebec | all | The chapters of this book are written once for every Canadian fire department: where a requirement comes from provincial law, a chapter states it generically and links the topic page that holds each jurisdiction’s ver… |
| FSSMS-PACK-07 | Jurisdiction Pack - New Brunswick | all | The chapters of this book are written once for every Canadian fire department: where a requirement comes from provincial law, a chapter states it generically and links the topic page that holds each jurisdiction’s ver… |
| FSSMS-PACK-08 | Jurisdiction Pack - Nova Scotia | all | The chapters of this book are written once for every Canadian fire department: where a requirement comes from provincial law, a chapter states it generically and links the topic page that holds each jurisdiction’s ver… |
| FSSMS-PACK-09 | Jurisdiction Pack - Prince Edward Island | all | The chapters of this book are written once for every Canadian fire department: where a requirement comes from provincial law, a chapter states it generically and links the topic page that holds each jurisdiction’s ver… |
| FSSMS-PACK-10 | Jurisdiction Pack - Newfoundland and Labrador | all | The chapters of this book are written once for every Canadian fire department: where a requirement comes from provincial law, a chapter states it generically and links the topic page that holds each jurisdiction’s ver… |
| FSSMS-PACK-11 | Jurisdiction Pack - Yukon | all | The chapters of this book are written once for every Canadian fire department: where a requirement comes from territorial law, a chapter states it generically and links the topic page that holds each jurisdiction’s ve… |
| FSSMS-PACK-12 | Jurisdiction Pack - Northwest Territories | all | The chapters of this book are written once for every Canadian fire department: where a requirement comes from territorial law, a chapter states it generically and links the topic page that holds each jurisdiction’s ve… |
| FSSMS-PACK-13 | Jurisdiction Pack - Nunavut | all | The chapters of this book are written once for every Canadian fire department: where a requirement comes from territorial law, a chapter states it generically and links the topic page that holds each jurisdiction’s ve… |
| FSSMS-PACK-14 | Jurisdiction Pack - Federal | all | The chapters of this book are written once for every Canadian fire department: where a requirement comes from the law of a jurisdiction, a chapter states it generically and links the topic page that holds each jurisdi… |
251 chapters.
Each program with the policy, safe work procedures, forms and audit checklist it links to. A blank cell means the program links none of that kind; check the program’s own toolkit section.
- The indexes of forms, checklists and safe work procedures above.
| Version | Date | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | 2026-10-23 | First complete draft for review |
| 0.3 | 2026-10-24 | Review edition: every chapter and the bibliography checked against their sources, citations linked to their DOIs, Part 10 (Jurisdictions) section citations checked, legal notices in force |
Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46 (Canada; consolidated to 2026-09-30; ss. 22.1, 22.2 and 217.1). https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-46/
CSA Group. (2013). CAN/CSA-Z1003-13/BNQ 9700-803/2013 (R2022), Psychological health and safety in the workplace: Prevention, promotion, and guidance to staged implementation (free to read from CSA Group and the Mental Health Commission of Canada). https://www.csagroup.org/store/product/CAN-CSA-Z1003-13-BNQ%209700-803-2013/
Dekker, S. (2016). Just culture: Restoring trust and accountability in your organization (3rd ed.). CRC Press.
Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. doi:10.2307/2666999
Hollnagel, E. (2014). Safety-I and Safety-II: The past and future of safety management. Ashgate.
International Organization for Standardization. (2018). ISO 45001:2018, Occupational health and safety management systems: Requirements with guidance for use. https://www.iso.org/standard/63787.html
National Fire Protection Association. (2024). NFPA 1550, Standard for emergency responder health and safety (consolidates NFPA 1500, 1521 and 1561). https://www.nfpa.org/codes-and-standards/nfpa-1550-standard-development/1550
Reason, J. (1997). Managing the risks of organizational accidents. Ashgate.