The purpose of an emergency scene accountability program is to account for all firefighters, at any time, within the most dangerous area of an incident. The use of a Personnel Accountability System may provide enhanced personnel safety for the individual firefighter and provide the incident command organization staff an improved means to track and account for personnel and their whereabouts within the danger area.

The division or accountability officer is the one who tracks the assignment of teams on a status board and collects responder information. When no officer is available for this collection, place the tags at the designated entry point accountability location. Team members then retrieve their tags upon exiting the danger zone.

Accountability supervisors are responsible to track and account for personnel working in their division or danger area. Division supervisors maintain accurate tracking and awareness of crews and/or individual firefighters who are assigned to them. Because of this, assign the division exposure supervisor to his/her area so they can maintain close supervision of crews.