Tactical Thoughts

This week I want to share something that I stumbled on. It was a new look or twist on a subject that I love and that is Firefighting tactical considerations. There are a million acronyms out there on size up such as COAL WAS WEALTH, WALLACE WAS HOT and all of those that we have discussed here before but this was the same information presented in a different way. It might be helpful so I am passing it on.

The information comes from a book called Firefighting Essentials published by Delmar publishing and it was extracted from a chart diagram there.

Try it out using the fire problem this week on the Tactical problem page.

The basis of this is that rather than look at size up and some 14 factors it looks at three major categories and then creates some sub categories all related under that.

Major factors to be considered:

* The fire itself

* The occupancy type

* The building

Under the Fire category the sub thoughts in no particular order are as follows:

Size / Location within the building / Direction of travel / Time since ignition / Extent right now / Materials involved / Material left to burn / Fire Load / What stage of the fire?

Under the Occupancy category:

Type / Value / Fire Loading related to occupancy / Status (used or vacant) / Hazards of occupancy / Life Hazard / Arrangement of stock / Inherent or actual obstructions

Under the Building category:

Size / Construction type / Condition / Age / Openings / Utilities / Concealed spaces / Access / Effect of the fire / Interior fuel load / Exterior fuel load

Now I don't think there is anything that is earth shattering or any great revelation here, but my point of these simple bulletins is to make you think and share a variety of ideas of how to present material in different ways. I think Delmar did a nice job with this and it might be a different way to present the same old drill.

As mentioned try it out on the fire problem this week and look at the photo and ask yourself the questions as above.

If you have a good training idea, please send it in and share it with others. Let's make the site work for us.