Two-Alarm Apartment Fire with a Reported Trapped Occupant
You arrive first at a three-story, wood-frame apartment building with fire showing from a second-floor window and heavy smoke pushing from the third-floor windows. A woman on the lawn screams that her two children are in a third-floor rear bedroom. Your apparatus carries four personnel. A second engine is three minutes out; a ladder company is five minutes out. The building has one interior stairwell at the front and a rear exterior stair serving the third floor. A hydrant is 150 feet from the front door. The fire has been burning long enough that the second-floor windows are beginning to crack.
1. State your initial incident action plan and explain how you allocate your four personnel before additional units arrive.
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Declare a working fire on arrival, establish command, and give a clear, brief size-up: three-story wood-frame, fire on two, heavy smoke on three, reported two children trapped in a third-floor rear bedroom, one interior stair and one rear exterior stair.
The rescue report drives the plan, but a four-person crew cannot simultaneously mount an interior fire attack, conduct a search, and secure a water supply. The correct allocation is to announce the rescue, establish a water supply, and begin an aggressive interior attack to protect the interior stair - the primary means of egress for occupants and firefighters - while assigning the second-arriving engine to the rear exterior stair for the search.
With four personnel: the officer and one firefighter advance a 1¾-inch line through the front door to the second floor to confine the fire and protect the stair; the driver establishes a hydrant supply and pumps; the fourth firefighter stretches a backup line and controls the front door. Do not commit a two-person search team up the interior stair ahead of a charged line - that is how firefighters get trapped above a fire. Instead, direct the incoming ladder company to the rear exterior stair for the primary search of the third floor, and tell them exactly which bedroom and that the stair is intact.
If the second engine arrives before the ladder, reassign it to the rear search with a charged line. Ventilation must be coordinated with the attack; uncontrolled vertical ventilation before the line is in place will pull fire onto the third floor and onto the children.
2. At the five-minute mark, the second-floor fire has extended into the attic and the interior stair is compromised. What changes, and how do you communicate them?
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Switch from an offensive to a defensive posture for the interior operation while preserving the rear rescue effort if it is still viable. Attic fire in a wood-frame building with a compromised interior stair means the building is no longer tenable for interior crews working above the fire.
Order all interior companies out over the radio by name, using a clear, unambiguous transmission: "All companies, evacuate the building, interior stair compromised." Account for every member at a personnel accountability report point. Notify the rear search team specifically and confirm their status and egress route; if they are on the third floor with the exterior stair intact, they may complete the search and exit that way, but only if the officer confirms the route is clear.
Establish collapse zone boundaries based on the building height and construction - for a three-story wood-frame with attic involvement, a zone at least equal to the building height is a reasonable starting point. Reposition apparatus out of the collapse zone. Transition to exterior master streams to protect exposures and knock down fire through the windows, and request a second alarm if not already struck.
Communicate the change in strategy to dispatch, incoming units, and the safety officer. Brief the occupants' family through a single point of contact and keep the rescue status updated. Document the time of the evacuation order, the accountability check, and the strategy change.