First-In Officer’s Decisions Set Pattern for Operations
departments
The Volunteers Corner
The first-in officer at a fire bears a particularly high degree of responsibility because his initial decisions should establish the base for an effective strategy for continuing fireground operations.
Whether the first-in officer is a company officer or a first-alarm chief, his actions must conform to his department’s standard operating procedures and match what his superior officer would have done if he had been first on the fireground. In other words, the initial action of the first-in officer should allow for that action to be expanded into a heavier attack on the fire, a more extensive rescue effort, an expanded protection of exposures, or whatever else is required to handle the situation.
The responsibility of the first-in company officer is to take command of the fireground until a superior officer (usually a first-alarm chief officer) arrives. He must issue assignments not only to his own company, but also to other arriving companies, that will fit into the strategy he expects the first officer to adopt. If the company officer does that, then the chief officer will find it easy to take over command of the fireground without having to change any company assignments. Establish priorities: Remember, once apparatus is committed to a position, it is practically impossible to move it. In urban areas, it usually takes less time to call another company and position its apparatus properly than it is to move an apparatus from an ineffective position.
In sizing up the fire, the first-in officer must determine what actions must be taken to bring the situation to a successful conclusion. As he rapidly considers everything that, ideally, should be done, then he must establish priorities—what should be done first, second, and so on.
However, with limited manpower in a limited number of companies, only a limited amount of work can be done. That is why the establishment of priorities is so important. The most important actions must be taken first. Then the other actions in the list of priorities are taken as additional companies reach the fireground.
Working with Priorities For example, if a store is fully involved in a one-story building housing several stores, the first priority it to get a heavy stream on the fire. The second priority is to open up the roof to prevent—or at least slow—the spread of fire in the cockloft, and the third priority is to pull ceilings to search for and prevent spread of fire in the cockloft over the other stores, starting with the stores that are two stores away from the fire. At the same time, lines must be taken into these stores where ceilings are being pulled.
Even though several companies may respond to such a fire, the first-in company officer may find that he has only one other company for the next two or three minutes—and in some cases longer. Therefore, he must assign these two companies to work on the first two priorities.
He knows that if the first-in company can darken down the fire with a 2½ -inch line or a master stream from the pumper, then he will minimize all the other problems on the fireground. He will buy some time to open the roof and pull ceilings on the other stores. In a few minutes, there may be enough companies and manpower on the fireground to open the roof and to pull ceilings in only one of the exposed stores. In that case, he has to order the ceilings pulled in the store where the priority is the highest—the one toward which the fire in the cockloft is believed to be spreading faster.
Make apparatus work: The alert first-in officer will also put his apparatus to work for both immediate and subsequent effectiveness. For example, if a 2 ⅛ -inch line is to be the initial line taken into a building, then the pumper that lays this line to the hydrant—or static water source—should stretch parallel lines whenever possible. Now the first-in engine company will have the capability to operate only one line, but the second line is ready for the second company—or additional volunteers arriving in their cars—to operate without further delay.
On the other hand, if the fire increases in volume and the use of a deluge set is desirable, these two hand lines can be put into the deluge set with minimum effort. In this way, we use apparatus and minimum manpower with maximum effectiveness. The deluge set is put into operation quickly and a third line to the set can then be stretched by the fire fighters released from the hand lines.
If an aerial ladder or elevating platform is raised to open a roof, the officer must also consider the possible need to later use the apparatus for an aerial stream for rescue work. There are situations where access to the roof is possible from several points, and the officer should select the spot that also would be good for either rescue or aerial stream operations—or both.
The fireground commander, whether he be the first-in company officer during the first few minutes of a fire or the later arriving chief officer, must consider the future possibilities and try to take immediate actions that also can become a base for expanding operations. That’s the way to take the edge off the problem of limited apparatus and manpower.
