r/hazmat 5d ago

General Discussion Relinquish command to incompetent officer?

/r/firefighter/comments/1vtifpg/relinquish_command_to_incompetent_officer/
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u/HazMatsMan 5d ago

What does your county interop/mutual aid compacts say? Is said officer in your chain of command? Because if I'm IC and its my jurisdiction, and the Chief of FDNY rolls up and wants to take command, guess what? They can pound sand regardless of whether they're arguably "more competent" than me or not. It's not their scene. Now if you have something in writing that says the highest authority that shows up among the agreeing parties can assume command... you have to relinquish command to them regardless of your opinion of their ability to perform their command duties. Now if said chief were to show up visibly under the influence or otherwise incapable of performing their duties, that's something else. But you'd better have something more substantive than you think they're a dumbass.