Firefighters have policies and procedures that they are required to abide by, and many people who are not involved as a firefighter, do not understand the extent of limitations or liberties that firefighters and fire authorities are subjected to on the scene of a fire. Once you have a firm understanding of what policies and procedures allow firefighters to do, you will greatly increase the chances of surviving disasters such as wildfires, vehicle fires, and structure fires. 

Educating the masses should be the focus. In order for firefighters to do their job safely and effectively, there has to be procedures that are in place and practiced. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has noticed a significant and welcomed decrease in firefighter line of duty deaths over the past thirty years. The primary catalysts for the change are fire protection clothing, technology, and the most effective, integration of new safety procedures. 

Rules of Engagement can change the fire safety behaviors of the fire service. This assures that firefighters know how to scout out the scene, evaluate their individual risk exposure, and determine the safest approach to completing their assigned tactical tasks. The incident commander of the scene must factor in many things and make on the spot, authoritative decisions during the course of fighting a fire. Some of the incident commander's primary considerations ae as follows: 

• The location of any resources available

• Ever-changing fire conditions

• Escape plans

• Rescue mission plans

In this article, we will discuss the Rules of Engagement for fires, the need for the Rules of Engagement, and the rules and procedures that firefighters must live by in order to keep themselves safe when conducting search and rescue operations.

A.  Rules of Engagement for Structural Firefighting

The military and law enforcement agencies developed the original "Rules of Engagement" regarding the use of deadly force, many years ago. They describe the rules as specific terms, which military and law enforcement personnel can learn and remember easily. The military and law enforcement use this to justify the use of deadly force, critical rapid assessments, or CRA's. The fire service has developed their own "Rules of Engagement", which have had a significant impact of the safety and survival of fire fighters.

The International Association of Fire Chiefs or (IAFC) is dedicated to reducing firefighter fatalities and injuries through continuing education and prevention. As part of the effort in reducing the injuries and fatalities, the IAFC Safety, Health and Survival (SHS) segment provides "Rules of Engagement for Structural Firefighting" to provide regulations to individual firefighters and incident commanders when it comes to the risk and safety issues on a fire scene. The Rules of Engagement come with their own rules and specifications as well. The rules should be simple and concise, and clearly define critical risk issues and be accompanied by a detailed explanation document.

From 1990 to 2006, the U.S. Firefighter Disorientation Study completed a review of over four hundred firefighter deaths during this period. The study looked at the traumatic firefighter fatalities, which occurred in open and enclosed structures. They defined open structures as smaller structures with an adequate amount of doors and windows available to allow for proper ventilation and evacuation. In addition, they defined enclosed structures as large buildings with inadequate doors and windows to allow for proper ventilation and evacuation.

The research determined that when a firefighter conducts a fast and aggressive interior attack on an open structure, the firefighter fatality rate rose. On the other hand, when a firefighter conducts a fast and aggressive attack in an enclosed structure, the fatality rate rose even higher, which is a good reason to have the Firefighters Structural Rules of Engagement, in which to conduct their rescue operations in the future. In all of the fatalities, the only human fatalities in the structures were the firefighters themselves. Therefore, firefighters died trying to save buildings, that can be rebuilt; the lives of the firefighters cannot ever be replaced.

All fire personnel are responsible for identifying and reporting unsafe practices, conditions and taking the appropriate corrective action on a continuous basis while on a fire scene. It is the responsibility of the fire incident commander to minimize the exposure of fire safety hazards of all of their firefighters under their command on a structural fire scene. The Rules of Engagement allow all fire personnel to apply and process the principles in the proper manner that will save their lives.

The Rules of Engagement require that the fire personnel at most risk be the first to be able to identify unsafe conditions and practices, and take corrective action. The Rules of Engagement compel the firefighter to use risk assessment skills in the decision-making process. The fire personnel that demonstrate these skills the best should be the ultimate decision maker to decide if attack is a viable option and to keep all fire personnel safe.     

B.   Rules of Engagement for Firefighter Survival

Firefighters and commanders alike should always remain aware of the condition of all equipment, air supply levels, and the level of intensity of the fire. Make sure to keep up with all scene communications closely in case of major condition shifts. If a firefighter is ever at a point, where they are separated from the crew or feel that conditions are becoming increasingly harmful, one should waste no time calling mayday. If you happen to witness any unsafe practices, make sure to discreetly report to your incident commander.

I.   Scene Size-up

The objective of a scene size-up is to assess the entire scene with your primary focuses being, climate, and location, direction of the smoke, intensity of the fire, and over operational function and the safety of everybody on the scene.

II.   Occupant Survival Rate

This very crucial consideration point for the incident commander is assessing and determining the approximate rate of survival of the occupants in a fire, in case of rescue.

III.   Under No Circumstance, Save Another Life Over Your Own

If you cannot rescue the occupants without putting yourself or the occupant(s) in a position where the potential for death is high, do not attempt the rescue. Moreover, by no means should firefighters attempt to save any material possession over human lives.

IV.    Extend Limited Risk to Protect Salvageable Property

During a fire, fire specialists do their best to preserve and salvage the property and possessions the best they can, while extinguishing the fire. Firefighters assess and decide the condition or salvage-ability, of the items that were not destroyed by smoke, heat, or water. Firefighters should never put the importance of property over lives.

V.  Measured Risk to Protect and Rescue Savable Lives

The object is to search and rescue in a safe measured and controlled manner, while remaining alert for ever-changing conditions, specifically during high-risk primary search and rescue operations where lives can saved.

VI.  In Together, Out Together

The idea behind this rule is that firefighters enter a scene and leave a scene together as a team. Doing so minimizes the potential for firefighters becoming separated or trapped. Firefighters are to enter a structure fire in groups of two or more. Do not allow any firefighter to be alone at any time when entering a structure, operating, or exiting a structure.

VII.   Awareness, Air Supply, Location, and Fire Conditions

Maintain awareness of the entire fire scene and regularly check your equipment and gear for any unforeseen changes or breaches. Always remain aware of everyone's location in relation to dangers and the fire itself. Although SCBA systems typically have audible warning bells to alert when oxygen is low, make sure to check your air supply religiously. The last thing you want is to run out of air inside a burning structure.

VIII.  Closely Monitor Scene Communications

IX.   Stop, Assess, and Report

While on scene, all firefighters should keep a solid sense of awareness to not only location but also, safety and operational procedures. If a firefighter witnesses any kind of unsafe events they are to stop and assess whether the people involved are putting themselves or others at risk, or otherwise compromising the operation, then discreetly report the event to your scene command. Doing so can save lives.

X.   Do Not Hesitate to Retreat and Mayday

Firefighters should not hesitate to alert and mayday or all together retreat at any point they realize that conditions are intensifying to a point that the risk of death continues to increase. A false alarm is better than being trapped by hesitating.

C.   Firefighter Procedures

As previously mentioned, the incident commander is responsible for factoring in the resources on scene, the growing fire conditions, and the time required to complete a fire rescue in a safe manner. Search and rescue missions of any trapped victims from the building takes time and often occurs when conditions are deteriorating rapidly. In this situation, the possibility of a victim surviving the fire decrease, while there is an increased risk to the firefighters.

There is a delicate balance against time, conditions, and resources, when making a search and rescue mission decision. There are cases in which search and rescue missions will be delayed or abandoned, until the fire is controlled, due to deteriorating conditions. When this happens, the incident commander has to determine if the victims can survive the fire conditions as part of their evaluation. If there is not a potential for survival, the incident commander will base their decision on that determination. For example, if a fire occurs at night and shows fire out of the windows of a house and there is a modest amount of smoke in the rest of the house, victims may survive in non-involved compartments. If on the other hand, the fire is showing significant amounts of fire from the windows and many of the rooms have dense smoke that is under pressure, pushing smoke out of the windows may not allow victims to survive the fire. In addition, if the fire is well involved in a structure, the survivability rate declines to zero.

Firefighters must fully understand the resources necessary for each search and rescue mission. They must also be fully aware of the time it takes to search, locate, and remove any victim from the structure. Firefighters must also be aware of what affects the wind is having on fire development and intensity. Wind can have a negative influence on occupant survival and a successful rescue. Wind speeds over ten miles per hour begin to have increasingly dangerous affects by increasing the intensity of the fire conditions in a structure, which increases risk to any firefighters downwind while in a structure. In these conditions, the incident commander may want to alter the plan by attacking the fire from the upwind side of the fire.

When entering abandoned or dilapidated structures, firefighters are presented with a distinctive consideration and have to choose if it is a no-go situation during the initial size up of the fire. Firefighters must consider a defensive strategy, when an active and progressing fire is present. This does not mean that they cannot initiate primary search and rescue operations, it just suggests that there are fire conditions present in which the firefighter cannot penetrate to get to the victim, or the victim cannot possibly survive the fire. The bottom line is that if firefighters have to wear SCBA and PPE to survive an eleven-hundred degree fire, then most likely a victim will not survive the fire.