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To date, the American fire service has not officially collected the number of or means of which civilians are rescued at fires. The result of this information gap is a service unable to quantify if or how, presence, actions, or operations result in saving lives. For the fire service to deliberately improve outcomes and not just reduce loss, the mission (saving lives) must match the metrics (lives saved). Until then, the operational impact of the American fire service will remain unknown. The purpose of this graduate research project is to demonstrate the scope and value of fireground civilian rescue reporting using mixed methods of positive metrics and qualitative survey methods. The results will support an improved understanding of fireground operational influence on outcomes. A clearer vision of the nation’s fire problem for the future includes the knowledge of both the parameters of our problem (loss) and the dimensions of our success (saves). The results presented demonstrate a study conducted over the first 90 days of 2021.
 
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Our friends at Clay Fire Territory in South Bend Indiana created an awesome Firefighter Rescue Survey training bulletin for their members and they are sharing it with all of us. The PDF is attached and ready to be downloaded for email or printing at will. THANK YOU CLAY FIRE. Keep pushing evidence based vigilance!  Download and print the PDF here 
For 2021 we have documented 431 residential fire incidents with civilian rescues by U.S. firefighters. From these 431 incidents, 829 civilians were removed by the direct actions of firefighters. This demonstrates that at residential fires where a rescue is made, odds are multiple victims will be encountered. From those 829 rescues, 229 follow up Firefighter Rescue Surveys have been completed for a 28% response rate. The 229 Firefighter Rescue Surveys are demonstrating a 76% survival rate for the fire victims who are rescued from the fire building by firefighters and evaluated for treatment by EMS. When this 76% survival rate is applied to the total number of 829 rescues, it is estimated that 630 civilians have been saved through the direct actions of firefighters involved in fireground rescues already this year. Our firefighters and our civilians need to know that rescues are not only possible but probable. Please continue to share and support the Firefighter Rescue Survey and the mission of evidence based vigilance. Brian Brush Brush@okstate.edu  Download and print the report here:
For 2021 we have documented 411 residential fire incidents with civilian rescues by U.S. firefighters. From these 411 incidents, 768 civilians were removed by the direct actions of firefighters. This demonstrates that at residential fires where a rescue is made, odds are multiple victims will be encountered. From those 768 rescues, 216 follow up Firefighter Rescue Surveys have been completed for a 28% response rate. The 216 Firefighter Rescue Surveys are demonstrating a 74% survival rate for the fire victims who are rescued from the fire building by firefighters and evaluated for treatment by EMS. When this 74% survival rate is applied to the total number of 768 rescues, it is estimated that 568 civilians have been saved through fireground rescues by firefighters already this year. Our firefighters and our civilians need to know that rescues are not only possible but probable. Please continue to share and support the Firefighter Rescue Survey and the mission of evidence based vigilance. Brian Brush Brush@okstate.edu  Download and print weekly report here
The goal is to search low and search fast for victims in a house fire. These exercises were done in bare concrete buildings for years — but new data is calling for a change. Firefighters are now training by searching in a space that is modeled after an actual home. “The data that we’re getting now from firefighter rescue surveys tells us where we’re making the rescues,” said Strickland. “We’re going to where the victims are in terms of probability. Which are generally the bedrooms.” Link to news story here: Spokane Fire Search Training  Year to date in the U.S. there have been 690 confirmed reports of civilians rescued from residential fires by the direct actions of firefighters. From those 690 rescues, 200 follow up Firefighter Rescue Surveys have been completed for a 29% response rate. The 200 Firefighter Rescue Surveys are demonstrating a 74% survival rate for the fire victims who are rescued from the fire building by firefighters for evaluation and treatment by EMS. When this 74% survival rate is applied to the total number of 690 rescues, it is estimated that 511 civilians have been saved through fireground rescues by firefighters already this year. Our firefighters and our civilians need to know that rescues are not only possible but probable. Please continue to share and support the Firefighter Rescue Survey and the mission of evidence based vigilance. Brian Brush Brush@okstate.edu 
Stay hydrated and mission focused when you are training and contribute to the development of the Firefighter Rescue Survey App. $5.00 from the sale of every one of these 32oz insulated bottles comes back to us and goes towards our mission of putting the survey data in the hands of every firefighter through the creation of the Firefighter Rescue Survey App. Purchase now at this link: Firefighter Rescue Survey Water Bottle Fundraiser  Through the morning of 3/7/21, a total of 646 fireground civilian rescues by firefighters have been reported in U.S. news media and department press releases. 186 of these rescues were associated with a completed Firefighter Rescue Survey. The current survival rate for rescues by firefighters displayed in these follow up reports is 73%. When the 73% survival rate is applied to the total number of rescues recorded for 2021, it is estimated that in the U.S. 472 civilian lives have been saved this year through the direct actions of firefighters on the fireground. A clearer vision of performance informs realistic comprehension and evaluation of strategy. Our war has two fronts. The reduction of fires and pre-event record belongs to prevention. When a fire does start, this is where we measure the performance of operations. We must continue to support the wins of prevention through the mission of reducing the number of fires, while simultaneously pushing to go forward more deliberately by defining and reviewing the wins of operations through the mission of improving outcomes for fire victims. 
For years the Firefighter Rescue Survey has been run by mission driven firefighters through the free or low cost platforms and out of pocket expenses. We hav now reaches a point that in order to improve the data collection and access for all we need to ask for reach out for help. With a $5.00 donation through the link below, we will send you a Firefighter Rescue Survey Shield Sticker: https://www.paypal.com/instantcommerce/checkout/VV3CQ9TULVGVN 100% of the donations collected will be reinvested into FirefighterRescueSurvey.com and the development of a Firefighter Rescue Survey App. Thank you for your past and future support of recording fire service wins and actively researching improved outcomes for them.  The purpose of this graduate research project is to demonstrate the scope and value of fireground civilian rescue reporting using qualitative survey methods. The results will support an improved understanding of fireground operational influence on outcomes. A clearer vision of the nation’s fire problem for the future includes the knowledge of both the parameters of our problem (loss) and the dimensions of our success (saves). For the first two months of 2021 (59 days), 594 civilian rescues from residential fires by firefighters were collected from U.S. news media or fire department press releases. This is the eighth consecutive week that U.S. firefighters averaged 10 or more fireground civilian rescues a day. There were 309 residential fire incidents where the 594 reported rescues occurred. This informs us that residential fire incidents with a rescue are more likely to have multiple victims.
The impact of moving victims from a toxic, hostile atmosphere to one of treatment and care in fresh air is an intervention that can be measured. For residential structure fires with potential occupants, this should be both the highest priority intervention and data collection point for the discipline of operations. 
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