Size-up is the process of gathering and ana lyzing information that will influence decisions fire officers make and actions firefighters take. This article examines size-up information and factors to consider to intelligently fight a fire without putting firefighters at excessive and unnecessary risk. Before we examine specific size-up factors, let's consider four fundamental rules concerning size-up: 1. Size-up begins when an alarm is received. Information received on dispatch or while responding can influence critical decisions before arriving on the scene. For example, there are several rooming houses in my company's district that are extremely overcrowded and replete with fire hazards. We are quite familiar with these occupancies because we respond to them frequently on medical calls. When a fire is reported in a rooming house, the 911 call taker will ask if it is a house or an apartment. The answer is almost always that it is a house; consequently, a house fire assignment that is inadequate for a serious fire in such an occupancy is dispatched. Hopefully, someone on the assignment will recognize the address as being a rooming house, which will prompt a request to dispatch additional companies, filling out an apartment fire assignment. It isn't always an officer who remembers or is familiar with a particular address; it is often a firefighter.
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