Lead a crew and control a Level 1 structure fire

What is going on

Your crew leader assessment is a simulated fire in a single storey dwelling at the Ballan training campus with a report from a neighbour that an elderly occupant may still be inside. You are the officer on the first arriving pumper with a crew of four, two of them breathing apparatus wearers, and a second pumper is four minutes behind you. You are the incident controller until relieved. The communications centre expects a situation report on arrival and at each change. The organisation's policies require a dynamic risk assessment before committing crews, an entry control point for breathing apparatus, a safety officer decision, a crew briefing in the standard format and a hot debrief. A breathing apparatus low pressure warning may sound early during the exercise.

Your brief

Size up the incident, make and communicate a dynamic risk assessment, brief and commit your crew safely with entry control and a rapid intervention plan, manage the arrival of the second pumper, give clear situation reports, respond to an emergency inside, achieve control and run a hot debrief that captures lessons.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

• Read the Incident Management and Command Policy, the Breathing Apparatus and Hazardous Materials Entry Procedure and the Incident Scene Safety, Traffic Management and Debrief Procedure, and prepare a one page command card for a Level 1 dwelling fire.
• On arrival position the appliance to protect the scene, conduct a 360 degree size up, confirm the report of a person inside and give the arrival situation report to the communications centre in the standard format.
• Complete and communicate a dynamic risk assessment covering fire behaviour, building condition, the rescue priority and the resources available, and decide whether to commit an internal search and attack.
• Brief the crew using the situation, mission, execution, administration, command and safety format, and appoint the entry control officer and, when the second pumper arrives, the safety officer and the rapid intervention crew.
• Commit the breathing apparatus pair with the entry control board completed, monitor their time, and manage the water supply and exposure protection with the remaining crew.
• Respond to the simulated early low pressure warning or distress signal: sound the evacuation, deploy the rapid intervention crew, account for every member and report to the communications centre.
• Bring the incident under control, declare stop, record the key decisions, times and the safety officer appointment in the Incident and Dispatch Log, and report any equipment failure in the Health and Safety Incident Register.
• Run a hot debrief with both crews covering what happened, what went well, what went wrong and what must change, and record the outcomes and actions.

What someone in this role would produce

• A command card for a Level 1 dwelling fire
• A recorded dynamic risk assessment and crew briefing
• The Incident and Dispatch Log entry with decisions, times and appointments
• Hot debrief notes with actions and any health and safety register entry