As Kerry Dirk mentions in Navigating Genres, “when a situation is repeated, the prior responses are incorporated into that person’s response and follow this form for the responses to follow, therefore creating a new genre” (Dirk 252). This doesn’t mean genres can’t adapt or change, but it does mean that they all start from one response that is mimicked in all future responses. When society saw it fit to establish emergency response units, someone set the standard of how communication should take place within that community, thus establishing the genre. Today that genre still exists and is even more specific than before. With multiple different types of emergency response units, each have a slightly different genre under the overall umbrella of the emergency response community. The fire service community is one part of that community that has developed a very specific genre within its discourse community.
Dirk goes on to state, “once a recurring situation is recognized, responses to that situation can be guided by past responses” (Dirk 252). Fire fighter call logs have taken a form that is specific to their genre for this reason. After analyzing so many different situations in the the past, their discourse community has come up with the most effective way of documenting emergency call logs that follow a specific format. This basic format is followed by everyone in the community and has multiple different aspects. First off, the call log is headed by what type of problem that is being reported, whether it’s a medical aid, structure or wild land fire, or an unknown problem. It continues to provide information about the dispatcher receiving the call, their name, and the priority of the call. The highest priority is priority one, which means there’s an immediate need for emergency personnel, and moves down in rank based on the nature of the call. Records and notes of the call the dispatcher receives is what follows next and he or she does their best job to note as much relevant information. This is important for recording keeping, but also in providing the emergency response crews as much information about the scene they are going to as possible. In addition, the notes that are taken must best done so in a timely manner and the use of abbreviations and acronyms are commonly used. For example, the abbreviation VEH is used to refer to a vehicle, where ADV is used to refer to the word advised or advised that. Furthermore, the address of where the call originated from, as well as the location to where firefighters are responding to are present on the call log. Lastly, every call log has an incident number associated with it in order to reference that call and for fire personnel to use when completing an incident report form once they’ve returned from the call.
Incident report forms are completed for every call firefighters respond to. They contain the basic information, such as date and time, up to very specific information. These reports must be completed in full with the most amount of detail as possible. Each incident report will include the incident number and either the fire Captain or Chief that was present at the scene. Furthermore, it does outline who responded to the call, such as certain departments, especially if there is more than one. However, different fire departments can have different incident report forms. All follow the basic outline that is apart of their genre in the fire service, but may report on different aspects to which they responded to. For example, departments in the foothills of a forest will have a different incident report than departments that deal primarily with inner cities. The department near the forest will focus on wild land fires and their report will be more directed to the concern of fighting wildfires. Their reports can include terrain types, types of fuel such as brush or trees and what kind of vegetation they are. In addition, they can include the cause of the fire with regards to it being a fire caused by lightening, arson, or smoking just to name a few. They also will include the type of resources that was assigned to combat the fire. This can include different type of trucks, whether hand crews were used or not, or if there was any kind of aerial support. While departments that operate mainly in cities or urban environments will include some of the same aspects in their reports such as officer in charge, the location, and maybe even the type of equipment that was used one scene, their incident reports will include slightly different information. Since majority of calls to the fire department are medical aid calls, they will have more emphasis on the medical conditions that were possibly treated. They also include the reason for the call, if it was medical aid or if it was a structure fire or possibly an alarm sounding.
Works Cited
City of Golden, Colorado. “Fire Incident Report.” Web.
http://sitetools.cityofgolden.net/files/wildfirereport.pdf
Dirk, Kerry, “Navigating Genres.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Eds. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Parlor Press, 2010. 249-262. Web. http://writingspaces.org/essays.
Weinstein, Adam. “911 Call Log.” 29 July 2014. Web.
http://gawker.com/911-call-logs-past-legal-cases-add-new-details-to-prof-1612696037
Williamsburg Fire Department Incident Report. Web.
http://xls.control3.net/r/run-sheet-williamsburg-fire-department-e800.html
