Appointed a Safety Officer Lately?

When was the last time your ARES/RACES group appointed a Safety Officer for an exercise or incident? That long, huh?

No, the last time I should have appointed a Safety Officer, I didn’t think of it, either. Fortunately, nobody fell off the roof of the served agency building while two of our more technically-inclined members installed antennas. But, next time, I hope to do better.

The Safety Officer position is familar to anyone who has taken an Incident Command System course. The Safety Officer is a direct report to the Incident Commander and has authority to stop anything that s/he believes to be unsafe. On large incidents, multiple Safety Officers may be appointed, though the typical ICS org chart doesn’t show it.

The Safety Officer must be someone senior/experienced enough to recognize “unsafe” at all levels of an operation. And it must be a person who isn’t afraid to take action.

I am mentioning this because a few minutes ago I heard a fire agency’s Safety Officer—it’s a fulltime job—checking back in-service on the radio. That reminded me that a fire department ham group I belong to is required to do mandatory safety presentations at all meetings and before we head into the field. And we all must sign a paper saying we participated in the safety chat.

This group appoints a Safety Officer whenever we’re doing anything even vaguely dangerous and expecially before provably dangerous activities like Field Day. And that got me thinking about posting this message.

Having an ARES/RACES safety officer is a good idea. Amateur Radio, like firefighting, is a potentially fatal activity. It’s important that we do everything the right—meaning safe—way. Being safety conscious—and putting someone in charge of safety—is our best protection. Provided we remember to do it.