BY JAMES MASON
A wise old fire instructor once told me, “If you anticipate the next actions to take, you will always look good when it comes time to act.” I often remember this when I receive the alarm for a response as a second-due company to a structure fire. As the operator is driving to the scene, I’m listening to the radio to gather as much information as possible. I’m listening for what the first on-scene company reports so when my crew arrives we can support the actions the first-due company has taken.
Although the first-arriving company has a lot to accomplish at a structure fire, providing a good radio report before it takes any actions will enable later-arriving units to start sizing up for the firefight while en route. The first-due company’s initial efforts will be more effective when the subsequent responders understand the situation before reaching the scene. Even on single-engine responses, a first-due radio report will inform the neighboring mutual-aid department of the fire problem before the alarm is activated. The initial radio report should provide the needed information as concisely as possible.
FIRST-DUE RADIO REPORT ESSENTIALS
A good radio report from a first-due company should include the following:
- Company identification,
- “On the scene” confirmation,
- Incident location,
- Direction of arrival for that company,
- Fire building construction, and
- Fire conditions observed on arrival.
Consider the following initial radio report: “Engine 2 is on the scene at 123 Main Street. We are southbound with a 2 1/2-story balloon frame with fire on the first floor.”
Let’s break it down:
Company identification, “on the scene,” and incident location. This section of the report provides details to other responding companies about the function of the apparatus that has arrived. In departments with single-role engines and trucks, the general plan is for an engine to arrive at every emergency as first due. The engine normally would take a position past the structure, leaving the front of it available for truck company operations. Occasionally, a truck company will still arrive first at the scene because the engines are delayed in some way. When this happens, the report identifying the first company as a truck will alert the delayed engines that they need to position accordingly.
In some departments, all the companies are quints, which can work as an engine or a truck; the order of arrival to the scene will determine how such a company functions. The first quint acts as an engine, and the second works as the truck.
In still other operations, second-arriving engines will need to act as truck companies to perform search and ventilation. Once the first company on-scene has been identified, the still-responding companies can determine the support they will have to provide on arrival.
“On the scene” indicates that command is established and confirms the location of the emergency. There are times when the first-arriving company will change the location of the response because the civilian caller mistakenly gave the wrong address to the dispatch center.
Direction of travel and arrival. Depending on the department’s full preplanned response, the direction of travel of the first-arriving company may vary in importance. For example, in a single-role apparatus department, the radio report specifying this direction may be vital to achieve proper apparatus placement. Engine company hose loads may be set up with a standard fire attack method in mind.
For example, the Chicago (IL) Fire Department extensively uses a reverse-lay hosebed for fire attack (photo 1). This arrangement offers advantages for pump use at a water source, and it keeps the front of the fire building clear for the anticipated use of elevated streams. In a typical neighborhood setting, the first-arriving engine will stop one or two buildings past the fire building, leaving the front of the building open so a truck company can have unobstructed access to the building for the aerial ladder to perform rescue and vertical ventilation.
The second engine will back down to the rear of the already positioned truck. This way, the two engines will be able to drop attack hose at the fire and drive away to secure separate hydrants at the opposite ends of the block. If one engine breaks down or connects to a bad water source, the other can contain the fire until additional help arrives (Figure 1).
If the engine and truck companies are coming from different fire stations, the direction of travel of the first-arriving engine may require that the truck circle around the block to avoid blocking the engine’s lay to the corner hydrant. If the truck arrives first, a radio report including the company identification, that it is on the scene, and the incident location should be enough to notify the responding engines that they will have to back down to the fire building, leaving the ladder company in between.
Also, older residential and one-way streets are often too narrow for two vehicles to pass each other without difficulty. When companies are experienced in responding in an alarm district, they usually respond in the same manner each time. If the first engine is coming from another alarm and is going to travel in a different direction than normal or backward on a one-way street, the officer should report this change of approach to alert the other companies about the street placement. This again would avoid a truck company’s blocking the engine’s reverse lay access to a corner hydrant.
Fire building construction. The first-arriving company should also identify the fire building’s construction type in the radio report. Just making an initial determination of the construction should give the other responding companies an idea of what actions they can expect to perform, based on the differences of fire performance in the construction styles.
The identification of the construction type should be based on the worst-case performance scenario. If the fire building is identified as ordinary with a lightweight wood frame, it should be assumed it will act as if it were an all-frame structure, with all the expected fire extension and collapse tendencies. Intercompany drills on tactics to perform at a fire involving a particular construction type will help incoming companies to understand the support a first-arriving engine would need. If there is a chance that the building has trusses, this information should clearly be transmitted on the radio so other companies don’t enter the building from another sector unaware of this possible danger. Smoke may be obscuring the sector of the structure from which another company may enter, leaving that company unable to determine construction type until it is too late.
In this part of the radio report, the officer may also need to add specific building information that could help the other companies that have not yet arrived. One common reason for this is that the fire situation may be severe enough and have a confirmed civilian life hazard so that the first-due engine officer will have to go to work with his company instead of establishing a formal command out front.
Imagine an engine company arriving at a 2 1/2-story residence of ordinary construction at 2 a.m. with fire involving two rooms on the first floor. The officer determines this by counting windows showing fire. A truck company is soon to arrive on the scene. If the on-scene engine officer can report the occupancy type of this residence, it will help the search team pinpoint the areas for the primary search. For example, if this building is occupied as a single-family residence, the bedrooms most likely would be upstairs, whereas a two-unit apartment building normally would have bedrooms on both floors because each floor is a separate living unit.
The initial radio report should also consider whether the truck can even get down the street. Large truck apparatus often have trouble reaching the position in front of the fire on smaller streets. In this case, the construction portion of the radio report should identify the building’s height so the appropriate size ground ladder can be brought down from the corner position of the ladder truck, which is very important if civilians are hanging from windows or vertical venting is needed for interior hose advancement (photo 2).
Fire conditions observed on arrival. The last part of the initial radio report, fire conditions observed on arrival, combined with the fire building construction type and its expected worst-case scenario performance, complete the picture for the incoming companies. If a two-story building of ordinary construction is fully involved on the first floor, the incoming truck companies should expect to throw enough properly sized ladders to the sides and rear to perform vent-enter-search operations on the second floor. These ladder companies also would have an idea that the ordinary construction of the building would likely limit the vertical fire extension to the plumbing wall. Consideration of vertical fire extension is critical when search teams are entering the structure above the fire. For its own safety, the search team needs to confirm the fire location/extent and the structure’s construction type on arrival. Based on listening to the first-due radio report, the truck officer could give last-minute safety instructions to the firefighters while en route.
If a first engine reports on the scene with a vacant 100- × 100-foot, single-story factory building of ordinary construction with fire showing through the roof, the second engine should expect to drop a supply line and find a second water source. This scenario would likely require calling for extra alarms.
Finally, in reporting fire conditions observed on arrival, the first-due officer should indicate whether protecting an upper-floor stairway is strategically more important than putting water on the seat of the fire. If protecting the stairway is more important for civilian life hazard concerns, the second engine company should be directed to stretch a hoseline to the seat of the fire for extinguishment.
For example, consider a fire in the basement of a 2 1/2-story, balloon-frame structure at which the engine company observes people hanging from the second-floor windows above the fire. The vertical fire extension in such a building would be through the exterior walls because they lack fire stops. In this case, the first hoseline should be placed to protect the stairway to this upper-floor area and the first-due officer/incident commander should direct the second engine company to a basement entrance that has access to the seat for extinguishment.
It is important to anticipate the next action to be taken on the fireground. When the first-arriving company gives a detailed initial radio report, it tells the companies that have not yet responded what support the operation will need when they arrive.
JAMES MASON is a lieutenant in the Chicago (IL) Fire Department, where he has served since 1993. He is a classroom instructor at FDIC.
