Fully Involved?
2 drills to practice the age-old fireground size-up question, “What do I have?”
By Homer Robertson

The other morning while I was getting ready to go to work, the news caught my attention, as it always does when there’s a report about a fire. The young reporter told of a fatal overnight house fire, saying police and firefighters arrived to “find the house fully involved.” The film crew had a great vantage point, with the reporter standing in front of the house in question. And like you would, I looked past the reporter to the house to see if it really had been fully involved. Not surprisingly, it looked like it had just been a good working fire with a room or two going and heavy smoke conditions.

Now I know the reporter wasn’t present when emergency responders first arrived and that she was only basing her report on what she learned from people on the scene. But when people’s perceptions differ so greatly, how do we develop and teach a standard system for describing conditions when we arrive at a structure fire?

How many times have you received a radio update from dispatch that they’re receiving calls from citizens, EMS or law enforcement about a “fully involved” structure—only to arrive to find something much different? While well meaning, their perception of fully involved and ours may be a long way from each other. A very wise fire officer once told me to never completely believe any information provided by anyone outside the fire department until you can see it for yourself. After all, we’re the experts when it comes to fire.

But the difference in perception goes beyond just us vs. them; even our own personnel differ in the way they describe fireground conditions. Think back on how you learned to describe conditions as you were arriving at a structure fire. Most likely, it wasn’t in a formal class; it involved trial and error and listening to and watching others. Now, I’m not saying that’s a bad way to learn, but I also think we can develop and present a more standardized way of learning so that everyone has the same picture of what “fully involved” or “light smoke” looks like.

Every fire department has their own way of performing their initial-arrival radio announcement, but most will include the three following points:
1. What do I have?
2. What do I need?
3. What am I doing?

Today we’re going to focus on the first question: “What do I have?”

Listen & Learn
Like most of you, I listen to the fire dispatch channel all day long, listening for the “big one” to come in. When a fire call is dispatched, there are certain company and chief officers that I just love to listen to as they give their size-up. When the “good ones” do it, you can be sitting in a station across town and feel the heat and smell the smoke.

Today’s communications technology allows us to record and store fireground radio traffic, which in turn creates an excellent training and teaching tool. Listen for incidents where the first-arriving company officer did the size-up right and use the recorded fireground traffic to show others how the organization wants it done. Review these recordings with your crew to help them learn how to provide a clear picture of the incident for other incoming companies. It’s also a great form of flattery and praise when you use someone’s size-up as a teaching tool.

Tip: Try to avoid using radio traffic from incidents where things didn’t go well. Using negative examples can backfire on you even when your intentions are good. It’s not that hard to find good examples.

Look & Learn
If you can find photos or video of the same incident for which you have recorded radio traffic, you can create an even more powerful training tool.

Even if you don’t have any good photographs of your own incidents, there are plenty out there to use. Look at fire service magazines and websites for still shots of incidents that could take place in your department’s first-due area. Ask the crew to use terms such as well involved, heavy or light smoke showing, etc., then use this as an opportunity to discuss how such terms should be used within your department.

Video has really made some huge gains in the last few years. You can purchase hundreds of DVDs that show fires of all types and sizes. These make great training tools that we can use to teach the size-up and arrival announcement processes.

Don’t forget the Internet for video, too. With more departments using dash-cam recorders, incident video is becoming more and more accessible. Lots of fire service news websites post daily video updates from fires around the country and the world. Use those incidents to work on your form. Turn down the volume so you don’t know what the first-arriving officer is saying and have your crew do their own size-up. Then listen with the radio traffic turned up and compare.

In Sum
Fireground size-up is one of the most critical skills for incident commanders and company officers because dispatch and later-arriving crews depend on this information to determine their response. Breaking down size-up into manageable parts is a great way to master this important skill. Start with the question “What do I have?” Only when your crew can reliably answer this question for multiple types of incidents using standard definitions and terms are you ready to proceed on to the other aspects of size-up.

Captain Homer Robertson has been involved in the fire service since 1978, starting as a volunteer with the Granbury (Texas) Fire Department, of which he is a life member. He has served with the Fort Worth Fire Department since 1985 and is currently in charge of the fire equipment division, which includes the apparatus fleet.


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