BY DAN SHERIDAN
How do we take all the information we receive from an alarm ticket and translate that data into a strategy? In a department as large as the Fire Department of New York, we depend heavily on our standard operating procedures (SOPs) to assist the incident commander (IC) in managing the incident. Units, depending on their order of assignment and the type of structure, are expected to follow the department’s SOPs. When everyone is on the same page, the operation is safer and more efficient.
When the department receives a call for a fire, the battalion chief (BC) will try to gather as much information as possible before and as he responds to the incident. The BC will immediately try to get the address of the incident, and hopefully this will bring an image of the building to mind. I can generally get a good idea of the building and the street based on the address given. As the house watch calls out the information to the units, everyone assigned should begin sizing up the situation based on their roles. Let’s take the following response ticket as an example:
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