The Model Incident Command System Series: Size-Up
FEATURES
STRATEGY AND TACTICS
Emergency scenes are not restricted to fire incidents. Hazardous material spills and leaks, rescue situations, plane crashes, train derailments, wildland fires, natural disasters, etc., are all emergencies, and are all subject to command and control. If you are to direct your forces in an efficient, effective operation at the incidents that you command, then an incident command system is a necessity.
Up to this point, we have dealt mainly with operational areas that should be considered by your department before ever receiving an alarm. In this ninth article in the series on the National Fire Academy’s model incident command system, we will begin to discuss incident scene policies and procedures. In this and future articles, we will expound on both the mental and physical processes necessary to achieve a wellcoordinated operation.
The first arriving officer at an incident has a responsibility to perform a size-up of the situation. A size-up is a rapid and continuous mental evaluation of the facts that could influence an emergency, either negatively or positively. But, which of the many facts are the most important? Which facts should be part of our analysis? On which facts are our decisions based?
Photo by Bob Pressler
Without proper size-up, the fire attack can be a haphazard operation, often degenerating into “free enterprise” firefighting. This type of operation gives the incoming officer (and sometimes firefighter) the feeling that he may choose his position or work assignment individually. If allowed to continue, free enterprise firefighting can result in major increases in injury, death and property loss statistics.
The primary job of the fire department officer is coordination. This means directing the actions of groups (companies) of firefighters toward a common end—everybody rowing in the same direction. An accurate size-up of the situation is an absolute must if officers are to make good decisions regarding strategy and tactics. Under the pressures of an emergency situation, the fire officer needs a method to logically search for the proper facts. Here’s where a size-up system becomes an important tool.
There are a number of systems that have been developed over the years to help us to logically cover the important areas from which facts must be gathered. In this article, we will discuss four systems that can be used:
- The Layman system
- The sequential system
- The four questions method
- The “FIRE” system.
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THE LAYMAN SYSTEM
The Layman system, developed many years ago by Lloyd Layman, is as valid today as it was then. The system has five components: facts, probabilities, own situation, decision, and plan of operation.
After considerable study of the mental processing that needs to be done to effectively deal with emergencies, Layman determined that certain facts were required to make accurate decisions. Under each of this system’s five components a number of factors must be gathered and analyzed:
- Facts that the situation presents.
- Time of the emergency
- Location of the emergency
- Nature of the emergency
- Life hazard
- Exposures
- Building or buildings involved
- Fire size and location
- Weather.
- Probabilities or predictions based upon the existing situation.
- Life hazard
- Extension of fire
- Explosions
- Collapse
- Weather changes
- Preventable damage.
- Own situation, including your resources and the resources you can control.
- Personnel and equipment on the scene
- Additional assistance available
- Water supply available
- Private fire protection on site
- Action already taken.
- Decision as a result of items 1,2, and 3.
- Initial decision
- Supplemental decisions.
- Plan of operation or your strategy.
- Orders and instructions, or tactics
- Supervision of operations.
From the National Fire Academy’s advanced incident command class, an acronym for Layman’s facts is borrowed:
Weather
Area
Life
Location and extent
Apparatus and manpower
Construction
Exposures
“WALLACE WAS HOT” provides an easy method by which we can remember these 13 important factors in the size-up system. An indepth explanation of these factors can be obtained by reading Layman’s FIRE FIGHTING TACTICS available through the National Fire Protection Association. This book is highly recommended for the serious fire officer and those personnel striving for an officer rank.
THE SEQUENTIAL SYSTEM
The sequential system takes the factors to be evaluated and organizes them sequentially, from the time of alarm to the setting of strategic priorities. This system emphasizes that size-up begins when the alarm is received. In fact, sizeup is started when the officer enters the fire station for his tour of duty. Size-up does not begin as you arrive on the fireground and confront an out-of-control scene. Facts and data must be gathered mentally from alarm receipt up to and after the strategy is set and attack priorities ordered. More about this later. The modes and factors of the sequential system are:
- Alarm receipt
- Type of call
- Location of call
- Personnel responding
- Water supply/topography
- Construction/occupancy
- Proprietary systems
- Life hazards
- Special hazards
- Time of day, day of week, season
- Weather
- Fuel type (amount and properties)
- En route
- Response routes and arrival times
Water
Auxiliary
appliances
Special
hazards
Height
Occupancy
Time
- Map and pre-plan review
- Visible signs (smoke, etc.)
- Types of occupancies nearby
- Additional information from dispatcher
- Access around the fire
- Hydrants and water
- Street width
- Exposure distance
- Knowledge of the structure or area
- Weather
- Special hazards in pre-plan
- Call for additional help
- Arrival and on-scene
- Nature of the fire
- Life hazard (actual, probable, or possible)
- Extent of fire
- Projection of fire path
- Exposures and obstacles
- Speed of fire
- Size of fire
Does exterior appearance indicate the type of interior construction?
Type of construction
- Managing by objectives (priority of attack)
- Analyze safety factors
- Rescue
- Extension control
- Extinguish
- Damage control
- Need for ventilation
- Potential need for additional alarms
- Media notification
- Need for investigator
FOUR QUESTIONS METHOD
The Four Questions Method is as simple a size-up system as anyone could possibly ask for. It is only necessary to answer the questions:
- What do I have?
- What’s burning?
- Where is it going?
- What (and who) is in its way?
This system may appeal to many fire officers due to its apparent simplicity. But, we would caution you to take a look at the questions and attempt to answer them about any given incident to which you have recently responded. We believe that you will find that you need the facts that Layman has outlined in his system to answer those four simple questions. There is no shortcut to accurately sizingup an incident.
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THE FIRE SYSTEM
The FIRE System was obviously developed by someone who figured that firefighters could surely remember the word “fire” and with a little effort tie that word to a size-up acronym. The system is as follows:
Forecast
- Path
- Location
- Load Involvement
- Extent
- Speed of spread
- Exposures
Risk
- Occupants
- Personnel
- Property
Effort
- Personnel needed
- Equipment needed
Regardless of which system is selected, a size-up system is a must for the modern fire officer. We, as incident commanders, need a logical basis for making strategic and tactical decisions. The use of a system disciplines the incident commander to make a thorough size-up, even when he faces a critical situation in which incoming officers are pressing for an assignment.
From the receipt of an alarm, it is the officer’s responsibility to begin gathering the facts surrounding the situation. Look at the sequential system. The officer surely has a considerable amount of thought processing to do before and while en route to the incident. This is all but impossible if he becomes involved in concentrating on the duties and responsibilities of the chauffeur.
Most of you probably control various audible response devices from the officer’s side of the apparatus. And it would be our guess that these implements of noise generation are used almost constantly by the officer who is riding the right front seat. He will concentrate most heavily on other vehicles ahead and to the side of the apparatus. He will watch intersections with the utmost intensity. His brain will spend a lot of time decoding what his eyes see to his muscle system to react to traffic input.
However, is the responsibility for getting us to the incident without hitting other vehicles on the road the officer’s? Or, is it rightfully the pump operator’s or engineer’s? If you are encoding and decoding traffic information, who is doing size-up? The driver? The firefighters? The officer is charged with all apparatus and response functions, true. But chauffeur direction and control must be minimized through ongoing training methods learned both before and after the alarms.
There are many factors that must be considered before good decisions can be made on the incident scene. It is your responsibility to do this thought processing if you are riding in that right front seat. Let the driver do his job. This will leave you time to do yours. If you waste those precious minutes while en route to the scene, you will be forced to do a hurried size-up, if, in fact, you do any at all after arrival on the incident scene. There is no way that your decisions will have anywhere near the accuracy that they could have if you use the time during response for mental processing.
The resulting confusion and inefficiency from your “less than good” decisions will reflect on your ability to command. Your subordinates and superiors will draw lasting impressions of your ability to supervise at working incidents. If you are mentally prepared to give orders and directives based on the facts of the situation, there is a greater chance that those impressions will be positive. How others perceive you is truly in your hands. Give yourself the best shot.
