Fire Prevention and Preparedness
Prevention work at the company level
Firefighter II includes company-level prevention: preincident surveys, fire safety surveys, public education, and company-level fire cause determination. Inspections require legal authority and consent; a fire safety survey produces recommendations and is not code enforcement.
A preincident plan records occupancy, construction, access and hydrant locations, utilities, built-in protection (sprinklers, standpipes, alarm panels), special hazards, contents, and contacts. Crews review the plan and photographs of all four sides before the incident, not during it.
Readiness tasks belong here too: apparatus and equipment checks, hydrant inspections, extinguisher checks, and knowing how built-in systems will behave when you operate on them.
Fire cause determination starts with origin, then cause classified as accidental, natural, incendiary, or undetermined. Look for burn patterns, deepest char, V-patterns, pour patterns suggesting ignitable liquids, the state of doors and windows, and whether a competent ignition source existed at the origin. Protect the scene: avoid overhauling through the area of origin, limit foot traffic, and document with notes and photographs before anything is moved. NFPA 921 is the technical guide for fire and explosion investigations. The company reports observations and preserves evidence; it does not declare a fire incendiary, which is the investigator's determination.
Traps: blaming the electrical system because the fire is near a panel without checking for ignitable-liquid patterns; moving evidence before documenting it; and treating a survey recommendation as a violation citation.
Rule of thumb: photograph it, sketch it, then pick it up.