SOG/SOP- Standard Operating Guidelines or Standard Operating Procedures - established or prescribed methods to be followed routinely for the performance of designated operations or in designated situations. SOG's/ SOP's dictate safety, training , and strategy used in operations of the fire department . These documents also go to court with you in litigation for accidents and or death. EXAMPLES of SOG/SOP (Google " volunteer fire sog")
PERSONNEL- How many firefighters do you have, what are their capabilities? Get their phone numbers, email addresses, work schedules, and other contact information.
BYLAWS- What are bylaws? Title 18 departments should have the incorporating bylaws. Thru turnover and possible tyranny they sometimes tend to come up missing. Your originals would have been filed with the Oklahoma Secretary of State (search here). Should you find yourself needing to update your bylaws there is an example HERE
DOCUMENTATION- Do your firefighters have workman's compensation coverage? This is typically done by Compsource of Oklahoma. Are you trucks insured properly? Are they covered through Liability or Added Physical Damage (APD) Coverage. The state agency is FDIP aka Risk Management but many also use VFIS. If whomever was in charge before you either had no records or destroyed all the records you can call the above agencies and ask for records under your fire department name.
What type of fire department are you? Title 11 (city) Title 19 (county)Title 19 (fire district) Title 18 non profit . If you need help with these contact your Rural Fire Coordinator HERE
TRAINING- Does your current roster have trained personnel? Do they need more training? Training records go to court with you. Any and all training needs to be documented and kept at the station and the firefighter needs to keep copies of their training. HERE
EQUIPMENT- Inventory your trucks . What do you have? What do you need? Contact your state ISO representative about the equipment on your apparatus that effects your community insurance ratings.
AUTOMATIC AID - Who are the departments around you and what do they bring to the table? Get their contact information. Do you need their firefighters, their equipment? Once you decide what you need create automatic aid agreements with them in writing.
RUN REPORTS- Every call you make you should be filling out a run report. EXAMPLE These vary from department to department. After the run will you will file that report on NFIRS or file all your reports quarterly with the Oklahoma State Fire Marshall office. For more information click HERE
FINANCING- (Best practices) What is your working budget? Has the board set an amount you are allowed to spend before approval? If you are allowed to be a member of the board or on the board make sure you are seeing monthly bank statements. This keeps everyone on the department honest.
VFIS INSURANCE COMPANY'S MANAGING THE VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANY
PLEASE SEE OUR FORMS PAGE TO HELP YOU GET ORGANIZED HERE
NFPA GUIDELINES
National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) Did you know you can read any NFPA standard for FREE? All you have to do is create an account 1 time and after that just log in each time you want to see a standard. No matter what you're trying to accomplish in the fire service there is a code or standard affiliated with it. These standards are not law in most states and jurisdictions but they can give you a guideline to follow . Attorneys also use them in court as the authority on fire service applications. Click HERE
RURAL FIRE COORDINATOR- Contact your Rural Fire Coordinator and let them know you are the chief Click HERE
PERSONNEL- How many firefighters do you have, what are their capabilities? Get their phone numbers, email addresses, work schedules, and other contact information.
BYLAWS- What are bylaws? Title 18 departments should have the incorporating bylaws. Thru turnover and possible tyranny they sometimes tend to come up missing. Your originals would have been filed with the Oklahoma Secretary of State (search here). Should you find yourself needing to update your bylaws there is an example HERE
DOCUMENTATION- Do your firefighters have workman's compensation coverage? This is typically done by Compsource of Oklahoma. Are you trucks insured properly? Are they covered through Liability or Added Physical Damage (APD) Coverage. The state agency is FDIP aka Risk Management but many also use VFIS. If whomever was in charge before you either had no records or destroyed all the records you can call the above agencies and ask for records under your fire department name.
What type of fire department are you? Title 11 (city) Title 19 (county)Title 19 (fire district) Title 18 non profit . If you need help with these contact your Rural Fire Coordinator HERE
TRAINING- Does your current roster have trained personnel? Do they need more training? Training records go to court with you. Any and all training needs to be documented and kept at the station and the firefighter needs to keep copies of their training. HERE
EQUIPMENT- Inventory your trucks . What do you have? What do you need? Contact your state ISO representative about the equipment on your apparatus that effects your community insurance ratings.
AUTOMATIC AID - Who are the departments around you and what do they bring to the table? Get their contact information. Do you need their firefighters, their equipment? Once you decide what you need create automatic aid agreements with them in writing.
RUN REPORTS- Every call you make you should be filling out a run report. EXAMPLE These vary from department to department. After the run will you will file that report on NFIRS or file all your reports quarterly with the Oklahoma State Fire Marshall office. For more information click HERE
FINANCING- (Best practices) What is your working budget? Has the board set an amount you are allowed to spend before approval? If you are allowed to be a member of the board or on the board make sure you are seeing monthly bank statements. This keeps everyone on the department honest.
VFIS INSURANCE COMPANY'S MANAGING THE VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANY
PLEASE SEE OUR FORMS PAGE TO HELP YOU GET ORGANIZED HERE
NFPA GUIDELINES
National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) Did you know you can read any NFPA standard for FREE? All you have to do is create an account 1 time and after that just log in each time you want to see a standard. No matter what you're trying to accomplish in the fire service there is a code or standard affiliated with it. These standards are not law in most states and jurisdictions but they can give you a guideline to follow . Attorneys also use them in court as the authority on fire service applications. Click HERE
RURAL FIRE COORDINATOR- Contact your Rural Fire Coordinator and let them know you are the chief Click HERE