Engine Company Problems on the Fireground

Just about every fire station/fire department has an engine company assigned to it, or some other type of vehicle set up to perform engine company functions (e.g., applying water to a fire). And since just about every fire station has one, every fire department has the opportunity to do some really good things with their engine companies, but they also have the opportunity to make some mistakes with them.

At the end of the day, everyone makes mistakes–that’s human nature. However, if we can keep our mistakes to a minimum, and minimize the implications of our mistakes, we can be very effective in our jobs.

But before we can try to reduce errors or their effects, we need to understand what can cause them. In this article, I’ll offer some explanation for many of the problems that can occur during engine company response to house and building fires. Then, in the next few Fire Attack columns, we’ll provide suggestions on how to avoid those problems, or at least how to make the best of the situation.

Got Staff?
One critical problem for engine companies on the fireground: lack of staffing. Getting the job done quickly and effectively requires having the right number of people at the right time. Although the exact number of firefighters needed to be successful at a particular incident is debatable, the number of firefighters needed to accomplish a particular job at an incident, such as stretching a handline into the second floor of a single-family dwelling, is a bit easier to agree on.

Once the company officer/incident commander (IC) determines which jobs or tasks are needed to take care of the incident, they must then decide when the jobs should be done and how many can be done at the same time. This helps the IC decide if they have enough staffing on scene or if they need more. Not enough staffing is a difficult problem to deal with, so determining the number of jobs, and therefore the number of personnel needed, sooner rather than later, will make the IC’s job easier.

Longer-term solutions include upgrading initial assignments, recruiting and training more volunteers or figuring out how to get additional career staffing. (If you’re able to crack any of these, many people will be interested in your story.)

Crew Cohesion
If you have sufficient staffing, it’s crucial to have all members working toward the same goal. Whether that’s extinguishing the fire, conducting a search/rescue, protecting an exposure or some other task, each member of the engine company crew must know what the other members are doing now, where they’re doing it, and what they’ll be doing next.

As the crewmembers work together on incidents and gain experience with each other over time, they’ll begin to gain confidence in each others’ abilities, and learn how they react to and perform in given situations.

Unfortunately, as the number of working fire incidents declines and member turnover occurs, crew cohesiveness becomes harder to achieve and can be lacking in many engine companies.

Another factor that can affect crew cohesion: competitiveness. Firefighters have always been competitive among themselves. (Ever hear someone say “That nozzle is mine!”?) Competition between companies has always been there too, but aggressive competition for arrival and positioning at the reduced number of working fires can become downright dangerous.

Assume the Position
There are a number of errors that can be made related to positioning. Engine companies can position in locations that put them in danger of exposure to the fire or incident, or in a place that’s not optimal for using engine company equipment. The rig may start out in a perfect position to perform the initial attack, but if the crew doesn’t consider the progression of the fire, the position can become a problem. If they need to deploy their deck gun or aerial master stream, and the deck gun isn’t designed to operate 360 degrees around the apparatus (and many aren’t), they have a problem.

Improper positioning can also result in:
– Inability to access the fire department connection or another water supply;
– Difficulty deploying the appropriate hoseline, whether pulled from the front, side or rear of the apparatus;
– Inability to deploy aerial ladder jacks or access ground ladders from aerial or other engine companies;
– Inability to protect the scene or personnel;
– Deployment of hoselines that block access for the truck or other special service company (rescue squad) or EMS. (Patient transport presents special challenges at the scene, as EMS units must not only position on the scene to access the patient, but they must also be able to quickly and easily load patients into the unit for transport.)
– Positioning of headlights or other clear primary lights that doesn’t properly illuminate the area for oncoming traffic.

Making a positioning mistake with your engine company can severely hamper your ability to perform, as well as the ability for additional apparatus to perform, creating ongoing difficulties at the emergency scene.

Size Up Your Size-Up
Another key area in which errors occur and can have a major impact on operations is size-up of the fireground. The first error: not performing an adequate size-up–or any size-up at all. Many fire officers base decisions on first impressions without looking at the entire picture. They see smoke and immediately think “working fire.” Or they see nothing and immediately think “false alarm.”

Many initial-arriving company officers have difficulty determining the scope and progress of a major incident. They’re amazed at the rapid progression a fire can take. They may also have done a poor job of preplanning key hazards, and thus have little idea of what they’re up against. A poor size-up can result in selecting the wrong size hoseline or applying a hoseline in the wrong place, which allows the fire to grow, risking lives and property.

Initial-arriving officers must understand both the value of establishing incident command and the value of passing command. Certain situations may demand action immediately, requiring first-arriving officers to pass command rather than establish it while a moderate incident accelerates into a major catastrophe.

Competency in performing size-ups comes from training and experience. But unless you have experience at hundreds, or perhaps thousands of calls, you must have some size-up training, preferably in a training environment rather than on the job.

Don’t Forget the Water!
Although a primary responsibility of engine companies at a fire is establishing an adequate water supply, many initial-arriving companies get so focused on the working incident that they neglect this task. They fail to lay in or establish a water supply by a following unit, such as the next-in engine company or tanker/tender.

Companies may also fail to anticipate long-term fireground needs and rely upon other apparatus to maneuver into position in a crowded scene to reverse lay a supply line out. Establishing an adequate water supply is tied directly to an effective incident size-up. Failing to recognize a working fire can result in an engine company missing an opportunity to “lay out.”

Less Superman, More Taxi
Finally, engine company personnel may not fully comprehend what equipment is carried and how it can be used. They need to know what to carry, as well as the limitations of what they’re carrying. A certain size hoseline can only extinguish a certain amount of fire. Ground ladders on an engine company can only reach so high. (You’re not Superman, no matter how hard you might try.)

Engine company personnel must also realize that on some incidents, they may not be performing engine company roles. They may be needed to fill incident command system roles, or perform EMS or some other duties at the incident scene. In these cases, your engine isn’t much more than a taxi.

The 5 Elements
The College Park (Md.) Volunteer Fire Department (CPVFD) has a list of critical engine company tasks that their members are expected to get right every time (because there’s no second chance to get them right):
1. Go to the right place.
2. Lay a supply line.
3. Pull an attack line.
4. Protect means of egress.
5. Confine and extinguish.

You might not agree exactly on these five elements, but you have to admit they’re a very good start to fundamental engine company operations. Good engine company work sets the tone for the incident and gives a vivid first impression of the performance of any fire department.

The next few columns will explore these problems in more detail, but more importantly, how to avoid them on the fireground.