Tactical Fire Problem - Two Vacant dwellings

This week we have an urban fire problem of two vacant dwellings with some tactical questions.


1.) Consider your department's first alarm response and within the first thee-four minutes 2 pieces of apparatus and a supervisor show up first. How do you deeply them?

2.) Which house gets checked first and why?

3.) What are the hazards that can be found based upon your view of this scenario?

4.) Have you and your department defined for everyone in your department the difference between, vacant, unoccupied ,and abandoned ? Are your procedures any different for the different definitions.

5.) In an urban department this might be routine. In a small suburban department it might not be so common. Train for it, prepare for it, and remember that you might have to conduct a "protected search". I am using the term protected search because the rescue profile exists but it is low, and your crews should be protected by a hose line. The life of your firefighters must be protected.


Pete Lamb
Copyright 2013