Death during operational duty protocol

The death of a colleague during an operational incident is among the most tragic and complex situations a fire and rescue service can face. The first 48 hours are critical in establishing the foundation for all following investigations, inquests, legal proceedings, and ceremonial arrangements. 

This protocol outlines the essential actions and responsibilities for fire and rescue service leaders during this period, ensuring a structured, compassionate, and legally compliant response. The welfare of all those involved – including family members, colleagues, and responders – must be considered throughout.  

The protocol also recognises the importance of maintaining rolling resilience within the incident team during the first 48 hours, ensuring staff welfare, rest, and rotation are actively managed to sustain effective leadership and decision-making. This guidance emphasises the need to prioritise and coordinate welfare support alongside other key operational and governance actions. 

This guidance is intentionally designed as a concise collation of positive practice, statutory requirements, and clearly defined actions that have been drawn from across the sector. It does not seek to replace existing policies or procedures but to provide a structured framework that fire and rescue services can adapt and tailor to their local needs, resources, and governance arrangements. By setting out a clear approach, this guidance enables services to act swiftly, consistently, and confidently in the most challenging of circumstances. 

An immediate, coordinated approach is required across multiple areas including family liaison, personnel welfare, scene preservation, accident investigation, business continuity, internal communications, and media management. Clear management structures must be activated, with defined roles from strategic leads through to specialist teams (cells) managing communications, evidence handling, and external liaison.  

All actions must align with the fire and rescue authority’s constitution and scheme of delegation. As such, every key decision must be contemporaneously recorded alongside its rationale and legal basis, in anticipation of future scrutiny by coroners, investigators, or the courts. 

This protocol also highlights the importance of compassionate leadership, transparent communication, and effective coordination with partner agencies such as the police, Health and Safety Executive (HSE), and national bodies including the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC). NFCC can provide a range of practical support to services following a death in service, which is outlined in the command structure section of this document. 

For further information on ceremonial aspects of a death during operational duty, this protocol should be read in conjunction with the NFCC Ceremonial protocol guidance. 

By following these actions and protocols, fire and rescue services can respond with professionalism, dignity, and care – honouring deceased colleagues while safeguarding the service’s and fire authority’s responsibilities to its workforce, the bereaved, and the wider public. 

Reminder on personal wellbeing 

Those carrying out the roles outlined in this guidance are likely to be deeply affected by the death of a colleague during an incident. This may be not only by the nature and impact of the loss itself, but also by the emotional and physical toll of managing a complex response while potentially grieving or processing shock. It is essential that everyone involved takes time to check in on their own wellbeing and that of their colleagues. Everyone involved must also be able to access welfare support both during the incident response and after it has concluded.  

Action cards 

This guidance is structured around a series of role-specific ‘action cards’, aligned to the specialist cells that form part of the response (for example communications, welfare, family support, and business continuity). Each section is designed to function as a standalone, practical checklist that can be printed or used independently during an incident. Actions are deliberately mirrored across cells where coordination is required, ensuring clarity of responsibilities while reducing cognitive load during a high-pressure response.