You are sitting around the dinner table with the crews talking about some of the calls you have been on and laughing about the pranks you pulled on the rookies. About halfway through dinner, you get tapped out for a large two-story residential structure fire. You arrive on-scene. Command gives a scene size-up, conducts a walk-around, and then gives a plan. You and your partner are assigned search and rescue on the second floor. At the door, your partner radios Command that you are on air and entering the structure on the alpha side. You make your way to the second floor. You end up going down a long hallway, searching through a couple of large rooms, a den, and a bathroom. You find nothing. The smoke is getting thicker, and visibility is decreasing.
As you crawl down the end of the hallway, you find another room. You and your partner go in and search it together, trying to cover as much space as possible. You move furniture, look in a closet, and look in a bathroom when suddenly your low-air alarm starts to go off. You turn to your partner to inform him that you both need to get out and change bottles, but you cannot see or hear him. You call out to him a bit louder, thinking he is only a few feet away. Again, there is no answer. You call for a third time, even louder; still, there is no answer.
You hear a PASS alarm go off in the distance but cannot distinguish the source direction over the noise of your low-air alarm. Is it yours? Is it your partner’s? Could it be another crew member’s alarm? You try yelling your partner’s name again, but the low-air alarm and the PASS device make it difficult to hear and be heard. You quickly try to locate the wall you came in on but cannot, since your partner is anchored on the wall and verbal communication is now virtually impossible.
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