SWP - Emergency Vehicle Response and Backing

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. It applies to every authorized driver of every department vehicle, career and volunteer, and to the officer in the cab, who is a working part of this procedure, not a passenger (NFPA 1550, 2024, ch. 8; NFPA 1010, 2024, ch. 11).

• Intersection collisions in emergency mode: a driver who did not hear or see the apparatus, a lane the officer could not see, passing stopped traffic on the left.
• Rollover: tenders and other high centre-of-gravity units on curves and rural roads, partly full tanks, speed for conditions.
• Ejection of unbelted occupants; standing to don SCBA; loose equipment in the cab.
• Speed beyond what weather, road, load and the unit’s brakes allow; brake fade on long grades.
• Backing strikes on members, civilians, vehicles and bay door frames; blind spots behind and on the right.
• Fatigue and distraction: mobile data terminals, phones, radio traffic at the wrong moment.
• Railway crossings; school zones; following too closely behind another apparatus.
• Defective units driven anyway: brakes, steering, tires, lights.

A unit with a completed check on Form - Apparatus Daily and Weekly Check Sheet and no open out-of-service item; working belts in every occupied seat; mirrors and camera clean; radio; the response mode matrix in the cab; a spotter for every backing move; wheel chocks.

Driver authorized for the apparatus type on Form - Driver Qualification and Training Record with the licence class and endorsement the law requires (J30 Emergency Vehicles, Drivers and Licensing) and re-evaluation inside 24 months; an officer or senior member in the right seat who calls lanes and belts; for backing, one spotter at the rear, two for aerials and tenders where staffing allows. A single-driver repositioning move is permitted only where the department has recorded it, with a full walk-around first.

1. Driver confirms the unit is in service (check sheet complete; no out-of-service item). A unit with a brake, steering, tire, belt, mirror, exhaust or lighting defect does not go; the officer tells dispatch and the deputy chief on duty.
2. Decision point: fit to drive? A driver who has been awake beyond the department’s limit, is unwell, impaired or shaken says so; the officer assigns another driver or holds the unit. This is a stop-work reason, not a performance matter (Policy - Fatigue and Hours of Work).
3. Everyone seated. Officer calls “all belted” only after looking. The apparatus does not move on the apron, in the bay or anywhere else until it is answered. SCBA is donned in the seat bracket while belted, or at the scene; nobody stands in a moving cab.
4. Loose items secured; doors closed; bay door fully open; a member or the camera clears the apron.

5. Dispatch assigns the mode from the matrix with the call. The driver acknowledges the mode by radio. Decision point: does new information change the mode? The officer may downgrade at any time and may upgrade only on information that meets the matrix. Emergency mode is lights and siren together; lights alone is never a mode.
6. Speed: within the posted limit plus the department’s stated margin in emergency mode on clear dry roads; the posted limit in school zones, work zones and in adverse weather regardless of mode; the posted limit in non-emergency mode. The statutory exemption applies only while the driver is reasonable and prudent with due regard for everyone else on the road, and on the other conditions the applicable traffic law sets (J30 Emergency Vehicles, Drivers and Licensing); the driver, not the call, decides what is prudent.
7. Weather: reduce speed to conditions; no emergency mode on ice or in whiteout; double the following distance; treat bridges and shaded curves as ice; tenders slow further on curves and never carry a partly full tank at speed where a full or empty one is possible.
8. Mobile data terminal and phone are the officer’s, never the driver’s, while moving. Radio traffic is handled by the officer except an acknowledgement.

9. On approach: change siren tone, air horn, cover the brake, scan every lane. The officer calls lanes from the right (“right clear”) and the driver confirms the left.
10. Decision point: red signal or stop sign against the apparatus. Come to a complete stop. Enter one lane at a time, making eye contact where possible, accounting for every lane before proceeding to the next. Never trust a green light to be seen; expect the car that does not stop.
11. Never pass stopped traffic on the left at an intersection unless every lane is confirmed stopped and the officer has called it. Never cross a median or enter opposing lanes at speed. Never follow another emergency vehicle through an intersection on its clearance; clear it again.
12. Railway crossings: full stop, windows down, siren off, look and listen, then proceed; never stop on the tracks.
13. School zones and crosswalks: posted limit, expect children, no opposing-lane movement.

14. Position per SWP - Roadway Incident Scene Blocking on any roadway; otherwise park out of the collapse zone and the apparatus movement path, parking brake set, wheels chocked, pump operator on the protected side. Warning lights to scene mode.

15. Stop. Walk around the apparatus and look under and behind.
16. Spotter out: at the rear on the driver’s side, visible in the mirror, never between the apparatus and a fixed object. Second spotter for aerials and tenders where staffing allows. Radio is a backup, not the primary signal. The camera is an aid, not a replacement.
17. Agree the signals before moving: stop (fist up), come back (arms waving toward self), turn (point), distance (hands closing).
18. Back at walking pace only while the spotter is in view. Lost sight of the spotter means stop. Bay doors: the spotter stands inside the bay at the rear corner, visible in the mirror, and stops the unit before the door frame and the exhaust hose.
19. Any contact, however minor, is reported before the end of the duty period.

20. Return in non-emergency mode, always. The debrief question is asked in the cab or at the station.

• Collision: stop; secure the scene per SWP - Roadway Incident Scene Blocking; care for the injured; call dispatch for police and another unit to take the call; nobody moves the apparatus except to protect life; the data recorder is preserved; the officer starts Form - Vehicle Collision Report; the HSO and the deputy chief are told; statutory reporting as the applicable law requires (J08 Incident Reporting and Investigation; J30 Emergency Vehicles, Drivers and Licensing).
• Brake failure or fade: downshift, use the engine and retarder, parking brake in stages, escape route; report and ground the unit.
• Tire blowout: hold the wheel, no sudden braking, ease off, steer straight, slow and pull off.
• Rollover: belts are what save the crew; after the stop, account for everyone, shut down, exit on the up-slope side if safe, treat as a Tier 2 or 3 event.
• Driver incapacitated while moving: the officer steers to a stop, parking brake, hazard lights, calls for help.
• Near miss (any of the above nearly happened): report it as a near miss; the learning review asks what made it possible, never who to blame (Incident Investigation and Learning Program).

Check sheets for every duty period or week; radio acknowledgement of the response mode; the monthly data recorder or telematics summary reviewed by the station officer and used for coaching under the policy; every collision, backing contact and near miss on Form - Vehicle Collision Report or Form - Near-Miss and Good-Catch Report before the end of the duty period; triage under the learning system; findings to every driver through a change notice; counts in the quarterly indicator worksheet.

Drivers: the department driver program for the apparatus type (classroom, closed course, supervised road hours) before solo response; road re-evaluation within 24 months and after any collision; tender rollover awareness for tender drivers. Officers: lane calling, the belt call, the mode decision and the coaching conversation in the officer refresher every three years. All members: spotter signals annually. The Apparatus, Driving and Roadway team reviews this procedure annually and after any collision, with a learning-team session with drivers. Sign-off: the program manager; consulted: the JOHSC.

• Program: Apparatus, Driving and Roadway Operations Program sections 5.2, 5.5 to 5.13 and toolkits T2, T4, T5.
• Policy: Policy - Apparatus and Driving; Policy - Fatigue and Hours of Work.
• Procedures: SWP - Roadway Incident Scene Blocking; SWP - Personal Vehicle Response (Volunteers); SWP - Aerial Device Operations.
• Forms: Form - Apparatus Daily and Weekly Check Sheet; Form - Driver Qualification and Training Record; Form - Vehicle Collision Report; Form - Near-Miss and Good-Catch 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.