SWP - Accountability and Personnel Accountability Reports

Maintaining a continuous record of every member’s location and assignment at an incident, and confirming by roll call that everyone is accounted for. This procedure applies at every incident and every training evolution where members leave the apparatus, and in full form at every incident where any member enters a hazard zone or an atmosphere that is or may be immediately dangerous to life or health (NFPA 1550, 2024, ch. 10 and s. 21.5). It is also the first step of a mayday response and the test of whether a building evacuation worked.

• A member lost, trapped or injured inside a building and nobody knows they are missing; members have died this way when no roll call was done (NIOSH, 2003b, F2002-07).
• Crews separating inside a hazard zone; a member working alone.
• Freelancing: members working outside an assignment, so that command does not know they are inside the building.
• A collapse, flashover or evacuation after which command cannot tell who is out.
• Mutual aid crews arriving and entering without lodging their identity with the host incident.
• Volunteer stations where tags are stale because the roster changed.

Accountability tags or passports for every member, current to today’s roster; the company passport holder on every apparatus; the command accountability board; entry control boards or Form - Personnel Accountability Report Log sheets with a grease pencil or marker; a portable radio per member on the tactical channel; a watch or the dispatch elapsed-time notification; a thermal imager at the entry point where available.

• Company officer: accounts for the crew at all times; trained in the PAR procedure.
• Accountability officer or command aide: assigned at every working fire as soon as the first-alarm companies are working and before a second alarm is struck; trained on the board and the PAR procedure annually (Emergency Operations Safety Program section 6).
• Entry control officer: one member at each entry point in use during IDLH operations; may be the pump operator at a single-entry residential fire only while no other member is available, and is replaced as soon as one is.
• Incident commander: calls and logs PARs; trained in command of the initial incident.
• Dispatcher: gives elapsed-time notifications at the department’s interval and prompts a PAR if command has not called one.

1. At the start of every shift or on every response, each member confirms their tag or passport entry is correct; the company officer updates the passport for the crew actually on the apparatus, including a member riding from another station.
2. Volunteer stations check tags against the roster at the monthly station inspection and after any roster change; the check is recorded.

3. The first-arriving officer establishes command and announces the command location. Nobody enters a hazard zone before this.
4. Each company’s passport goes to the accountability board at the command post, or, where the company is entering, to the entry control point. The company officer tells command the crew’s assignment and entry point on the radio.
5. Decision point: is any member about to enter an IDLH or hazard zone? If yes, an entry control point is staffed at that entry before entry, and the entry crew gives the entry control officer: crew, officer, members, assignment, location, time in, air pressure at entry and expected time out. The entry control officer writes it on the board or the log.

6. Crews stay together inside and report to command on arrival at their assigned location, on completing the task, and on leaving. A crew that changes its entry point tells command and the entry control officer.
7. The accountability officer keeps the board current from the radio traffic, writes in every change of assignment, moves crews into and out of rehab and staging, and tells command of any crew whose expected time out has passed.
8. Mutual aid companies report to staging or to the entry control point and lodge their passports before any assignment. A company without a passport writes its members on the log.
9. Decision point: has a PAR trigger been reached? Command calls a PAR:
   • at the department’s elapsed-time interval from the first-arriving unit, prompted by dispatch (default 20 minutes; see Customize);
   • immediately on a mayday, a collapse, a flashover or backdraft, a change from offensive to defensive, an evacuation order, a report of a missing member, or any sudden event that could have trapped a crew;
   • at “fire under control” and before demobilization.
10. To run a PAR: command announces “All units stand by for PAR”, then calls each crew in turn by its unit designation. Each crew supervisor answers with the unit, the location and “PAR” when every member is physically confirmed by sight or touch, or “negative PAR” with the number missing. Command repeats the answer back. The accountability officer logs each response with the time.
11. A crew that does not answer on two calls is treated as missing. Command announces emergency traffic, starts the mayday procedure in SWP - Mayday, and deploys the rapid intervention crew to the crew’s last known location.
12. Command announces “PAR complete” with the time, or the missing crews and the action under way.

13. Before demobilization, a final PAR; crews recover their passports and tags; the accountability officer gives the board and the PAR log to command.
14. The PAR log is filed with the incident record. Any missed PAR, any negative PAR and any crew found off the board is a near miss and is reported through the near-miss system and reviewed under the learning firewall.

• Member missing on a PAR: mayday procedure; RIT deployed; second RIT assigned; additional alarm; PAR of all other crews; EHS staged at the entry point (SWP - Mayday).
• Board lost or damaged (dropped, soaked, wind): command announces a PAR immediately and rebuilds the board from the responses; crews repeat their entry information.
• Radio failure in a crew: the crew exits on its last instruction and reports in person at the entry control point; command treats a crew that cannot be raised as missing after two calls.
• Evacuation: signal given, PAR at the entry control points, crews report in person, no re-entry until PAR complete and command has decided.
• Electronic system failure: fall back to tags and the paper log without delay; note the time of the failure for the debrief.

Form - Personnel Accountability Report Log completed for every incident with IDLH entry and every PAR called; retained with the incident record per 05 Document Control and Records. Negative PARs, missed PARs and crews off the board reported as near misses within the shift. PAR compliance reported in the quarterly indicator worksheet of Emergency Operations Safety Program.

Every operational member drills the procedure annually, including a PAR with a crew deliberately missing; every accountability officer and command aide is signed off annually on the board and the log; every officer runs a PAR in the annual command simulation. Dispatchers drill the elapsed-time prompt annually. The Fire Suppression and Emergency Operations team reviews this procedure annually and after any incident where accountability failed, with a learning-team session with crews before any change. Sign-off: the program manager; consulted: the JOHSC.

• Program: Emergency Operations Safety Program sections 5.4, 5.15 and 5.17.
• Policy: Policy - Emergency Operations Safety.
• Procedures: SWP - Two-In Two-Out and Rapid Intervention; SWP - Mayday; SWP - SCBA Donning, Use and Air Management.
• Forms: Form - Personnel Accountability Report Log; Form - Incident Safety Officer Report.

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.