High-Rise Smoke Drill With a Freelancing Company
At 1900 hours, Central County Fire Rescue conducts a smoke drill in a vacant 9-story office building with six companies, 42 personnel, and a safety officer. Smoke machines are running on floors 4 and 5. The building’s elevators are locked out, and the stairwell doors are propped open for hose lines. The incident commander is a battalion chief in the command post; the safety officer is outside at the entry control point. Company 3, led by a newly promoted lieutenant, enters Stairwell B with four firefighters to “check floor 5” without an assignment from the IC. Radio traffic becomes congested. Twelve minutes later, a probationary firefighter’s low-air alarm activates on floor 5; the company exits without injury. The after-action review is scheduled for the next morning. The training division has no written entry-control procedure for drills.
1. What immediate actions should the incident commander and safety officer take at the drill, before the after-action review?
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First, account for every person. The entry control point should conduct a roll call by company and confirm that all 42 personnel are out or in a known location. Company 3 must report to rehab and provide a brief statement: entry time, route, floor, air status, and why they entered without assignment. The probationary firefighter’s cylinder should be swapped and the low-air event documented, not treated as a routine outcome.
Second, stop the free-play. The IC should suspend further evolutions until a formal entry-control brief is delivered to all company officers. The safety officer should verify that stairwell doors are controlled, hose lines are marked, and radio traffic is managed. If the drill continues, the IC should assign a dedicated entry-control recorder and a separate radio channel for interior companies.
Third, preserve information. Collect the entry-control log, radio recordings, company assignments, and the safety officer’s notes. Do not wait for the next morning; memories and logs fade. The lieutenant’s action is a supervisory failure, but the immediate priority is safety and facts. Disciplinary decisions come later, after due process. The IC should notify the training chief and the deputy chief that a near-miss occurred and that the drill is paused.
2. How would you structure the after-action review so it produces learning rather than blame?
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Separate the review into three questions: what was supposed to happen, what actually happened, and what system conditions allowed the gap. The stated plan was company assignments from the IC and entry control at the stairwell. What happened was an unassigned company entering Stairwell B. The system conditions include no written entry-control procedure, congested radio traffic, a newly promoted lieutenant without a drill-specific briefing, and propped stairwell doors that made unassigned entry easy.
Use a facilitated format: the safety officer presents the timeline; Company 3 describes its decision without interruption; the entry-control recorder describes what was tracked; the IC describes command intent. Then ask “what would have made the correct action easier?” Answers might include a written entry-control board, a company assignment card, a separate interior tactical channel, a radio check before entry, and a pre-drill leaders’ brief that explicitly authorizes no self-deployment.
The review should not end with “the lieutenant should have known better.” That is true but incomplete. The output should be a small number of corrective actions with owners and dates: written entry-control procedure, revised drill briefing checklist, radio discipline standard, and a supervisory coaching plan for the new lieutenant. Follow up in 30 days.
3. What changes would you make to the training program and supervision model, and how would you document them?
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Program changes: adopt a written entry-control procedure for all drills, require a dedicated entry-control recorder separate from the safety officer, and use a company assignment board or card system. Require a leaders’ brief before every multi-company drill that states “no company enters without an assignment from the IC.” Add a radio-discipline component and a separate tactical channel for interior operations. Build a scenario inject for “unassigned company arrives at entry control” so future drills test the system, not just the firefighters.
Supervision changes: new lieutenants should be paired with a drill mentor for their first two multi-company drills; the mentor observes but does not take command. The safety officer should have a stop-work authority brief and a checklist that includes entry control, stairwell status, and air management. The IC should conduct a personnel accountability check at a set interval, not only at the end.
Documentation: issue a training bulletin with the procedure, revise the drill plan template, record the after-action review attendees and corrective actions, and file the near-miss report with the training division and safety committee. Assign owners and due dates, and verify completion at the next drill. The record should show that the department responded to a near-miss with system changes, not just a verbal warning.