Timeless Tactical Truths

摘要

Early in my career, I developed the habit of writing notes on things I would see, comments I would hear, and thoughts I would have about stuff that related in some way to trying to understand my job as a firefighter. Most of them in some way had to do with firefighting and fireground operations. I thought I would depart from my usual column and talk about some of the old truths and a few recent ones. You can only save the savable. We must always operate on the fireground with the understanding that we typically inherit a tactical situation that is underway when we arrive. The fire has created physical damage/injury/death that is basically irreversible-simply, we cannot "UNburn" the structure and its contents or "UNin-jure" the occupants the fire has beat up (or murdered) before our arrival. A major challenge for us is to estimate how long the fire has been present and the effect it has already created. Being able to accurately evaluate "what time it is" in tactical terms is the foundation for establishing an attack plan that realistically separates what is lost and what is savable. Don't go anywhere you cannot come back from. We must always operate with the awareness that our survival depends on our always maintaining the capability to go into and then to come out of the hazard zone. The logical, and least painful, time for us to evaluate the round-trip entry-exit profile of the interior layout is at the very beginning of the attack process. This up-front exterior size-up requires us to slow down a bit and consciously decide (before we enter) if the overall situation is offensive or defensive. The size-up must be based on a nonemo-tional understanding that it is easier (and a lot more fun) to go into a hazard zone than it is to come out (which can be a lot less fun). When we decide if conditions will allow an interior attack, we must then decide on the best entry/exit "door" that will get us into the high-impact rescue and fire control points.