It takes three points to define a common ground: breathing apparatus fire-fighters’ communication during rescue operations

This paper compares two styles of communication used by fire-fighters during breathing apparatus (BA) rescue operations. BA rescue is a risky business and while performing a BA rescue operation, effective communication is essential for the operation to be successful. This communication involves information sharing, coordination, safety, and so on. How this communication is supposed to be carried out is not regulated. To study the establishment and maintenance of common ground between fire-fighters, communication in two pairs of BA fire-fighters was analyzed. One pair did well, while the other performed less successfully. The pair that performed better communicated using a three-step procedure: step I was an informative utterance by speaker A; step II was a confirmation by speaker B of step I; and step III was an acknowledgment by speaker A of B's confirmation. The less successful pair seldom communicated using more than two steps.