Are you strategically negligent? Keep reading to learn what it is & how IC’s avoid it.

We can view strategic negligence from two different perspectives: Some may quickly assume that strategic negligence implies recklessness—taking excessive risks without caution, endangering firefighters on scene. This belief coincides with the study of various NIOSH LODD reports we cover in our Mayday Management workshops. Most of the reports analyzed in that workshop involve crews operating in offensive positions during defensive fire conditions.     

Another perspective is that strategic negligence stems from risk aversion, where individuals may prioritize their own safety and that of their team over saving lives and property.     

Both of these opposite ends of the spectrum could be strategically negligent.  To better understand this term, let’s break down the term by each word’s meaning.  Let’s look at the root of the word strategic, which is strategy. Strategy is defined as “a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.” (Oxford Languages). Another definition is “the science and art of military command exercised to meet the enemy in combat under advantageous conditions” (Merriam-Webster).  Regarding firefighting, the enemy is the incident (or the fire).  In Blue Card Command, only two strategies exist:  offensive and defensive. There is no middle ground when it comes to strategy. There is no transitional, marginal or middle-of-the-road strategy.  We can apply water exteriorly and still be in the offensive strategy; this is a tactic (not a strategy) called a “quick hit.”  We do this before making entry for interior fire attack.    

Negligence is defined as “failure to take proper care in doing something”  (Oxford Languages).  A better definition may be “failure to behave with the level of care that a reasonable person would have exercised under the same circumstances” (Cornell Law). This second definition aligns more closely with how we describe negligence in emergency medical services.  When we fail to give patients a medication they qualify for based on their signs and symptoms, we are negligent and may be held responsible by our chain of command and/or medical direction.      

When we marry these definitions, we can see that strategic negligence is when a strategic IC (IC No. 2) fails to command the fire (or any incident) to the level that another reasonable IC would under similar circumstances. I purposefully left the initial IC (IC No. 1) out of this conversation for the following reasons:   

1. IC No. 1 typically has less experience at overall incident command.  
2. IC No. 1 approaches the incident with a “small unit” mindset, i.e., “Let’s get in there and get the job done!”  
3. IC No. 1 typically performs the size-up and then proceeds to the interior. This prevents them from seeing the big picture and making adjustments based on all the information.  This is why Blue Card stresses the importance of getting that strategic IC (IC No. 2) in place as quickly as possible.