Make rapid intervention work for you, not against youIs your department trying to provide a rapid intervention team (RIT) with your first-alarm assignment companies? If so, ask yourself the following questions: In the days before RIT, how many companies were dispatched on structure fires? Did your department add a company on the assignment, or are you using the same number of companies as before?
如果你的部门和其他部门一样,the answer is, "No, we have not added staffing or companies. We are trying to add a RIT to our fireground inventory, but we have not added the appropriate number of firefighters to do it." The result of this effort to make the fireground safe has made it more dangerous.
How is it dangerous? If you short-staff your alarm assignment, something is not getting done on the firegroundthe line is not getting into position soon enough, the search is not getting completed in a timely fashion, the backup line is being delayed, the water supply is not getting established, and ventilation is all but forgotten. Why? Because the company that used to do it is busy making the fireground safe by standing around in the RIT staging area. This is ludicrous. Could the flashover that trapped and killed the firefighters have been prevented if the truck company was doing its job venting instead of standing by as a RIT? The end result of these oversights will be firefighter and civilian casualties. At a minimum, more and more property will be lost.
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