Resilience in Firefighting Emergency Response: Standardization and Resilience in Complex Systems

This study presents an analysis concerning the use of standard operating procedures (SOPs) and identifying sources of resilience and brittleness in an emergency response exercise conducted as training for Rio de Janeiro State Fire Department's captains, Brazil. From the audiovisual record of the exercise performed by 35 young officers, it was noticed the partial activation of 13 SOPs relevant to the exercise. Not all steps under each SOP were activated or even used. Some possible reasons are the novelty related to the use of simulation as well as the exercise design. This bias in the SOPs use was somehow compensated by sources of resilience that contributed to the actions outcome. Positive and negative aspects of this relationship between standardization and resilience were observed and described, contributing to a better understanding of the activity analysis of these professionals.