An examination of close calls reported within the international association of fire chiefs database

Abstract

Close calls or near misses are common occurrences in the field of firefighting. As in many other domains, they represent a source of valuable information to inform personnel training and improve safety. Firefighting is uniquely complex because of the many possible causes of injury or death. Database repositories for close call narrative reports exist; however, they contain a wide variety of information that varies in usefulness. The authors applied a published taxonomy to categorize narrative reports within the www.firefighternearmiss.com online database. The authors analyzed 61 narratives from the database, categorizing them by situational variables, level of situation severity, and reported error frequencies. Results showed that the majority of narratives described close call events that were preceded by a sensory signal and attributable to human error. Notably, the vast majority of narratives included information from which actionable recommendations could be generated. The article concludes with suggestions for future database development.