This course introduces the basic concepts of occupational health and safety as it relates to emergency service organizations. Risk evaluation and control procedures for fire stations, training sites, emergency vehicles, and emergency situations involving fire, EMS, hazardous materials, and technical rescue are covered.

Entry Level Competencies: It is recommended that you have completed FST 100. Principles of Emergency Services or have certifications as a Firefighter I and II.

If you do well in this course, you will be able to:

• Identify and describe the occupational health and safety programs found in industry and emergency services today.
• Discuss the standards that impact health and safety in the fire service.
• Explain the concepts of risk identification and evaluation.
• Identify and describe programs and actions used by the fire service to ensure the safety and health of responders.
• Describe how incident management, incident priorities, and controlling hazards at an emergency response are used to protect the health and safety of responders.
• Describe how OSHA laws and adherence to the laws varies by state.
• Describe the responsibilities related to health and safety of all levels of emergency responders.
• Identify and describe post-incident methods of improving the health and safety of responders.
• Discuss the process and value of post incident analysis.
• Identify the components and discuss the value of critical incident management programs.
• Analyze the major cause of line of duty firefighter deaths, including recommendations for decreasing them.

Possible Assignments Include: (Subject to change each semester. The actual assignments are available in the Syllabus in the Blackboard course site on the first day of classes.)

Your final grade may be based on the following scale. Please note that you must also pass at least several exams in order to pass the course, regardless of your scores on the other assignments.

There are 2 exams in this course.

Last Updated: November 30, 2010