Fire Dispatch (EFD) - Determinants, Occupancy, and Trapped Occupants
This section covers the fire dispatch portion: applying the Fire Priority Dispatch System (FPDS) to structure, vehicle, wildland, and hazardous-materials incidents. The exam tests whether you can classify the fire problem, choose the determinant, and give evacuation and safety instructions without guessing.
Case Entry and the fire chief complaint
As with medical, Case Entry fixes the address and callback number first, then asks what is on fire. For fire, the critical early questions are: what is burning, where in the structure, is smoke or flame visible, and is anyone trapped or unaccounted for. Occupancy type - single-family dwelling, multi-unit apartment, commercial, high-rise, vehicle - drives the response as much as flame size does.
Determinants and response
FPDS determinant levels follow the same Echo-to-Alpha ladder. Echo is used when there is an imminent life threat such as confirmed trapped occupants or a person in the fire. Hazards that change the determinant include hazardous materials, exposure to adjacent structures, and reported explosions. Information gathered later can and should upgrade the determinant; it is not frozen at Case Entry.
Worked example
Caller reports "smoke coming out of the upstairs window of a two-story house; the family is standing on the lawn." Case Entry confirms the address. Key questions establish: smoke visible from the second floor, flames not visible, all occupants out and accounted for, no attached garage. A working structure fire with no reported trapped occupants is dispatched at the structure-fire determinant, and the caller is told to keep everyone well back and not to re-enter. Reasoning: flame visibility does not lower the determinant - a reported smoke condition from a residential structure is still a fire response, and the trapped-occupant answer is what would escalate to Echo.
Traps
- Failing to ask whether anyone is trapped, which is the single biggest determinant driver.
- Downgrading because the caller says "it's just a small fire."
- Not re-triaging when the caller reports the fire has spread or someone is missing.
- Giving re-entry advice; instruction is always to stay out.