Today’s Mayday: Applying Maneuver Warfare to the Fire-ground
(Room 2A)
21 Feb 18
1:00 PM
-
5:00 PM
Tracks:
Strategy and Tactics
In the simplest terms, on any structure fire there are two important objectives; to extinguish the fire and to search for and remove any victims. What changes when a mayday occurs? The need for extinguishment still exists and there are still potential victims. In many situations, extinguishment should remain the main effort, however historically this has not been the case. The big change during a mayday is the human reaction which causes officers, incident commanders and firefighters to become obsessed with rescuing one of our own. This program will highlight how we can adjust our RIT training programs for a better outcome of decision making on the fire-ground. This program will show why, if immediate available resources can only focus on one of these objectives, in many cases it should be the fire. As Korean War veteran James Brady states when referring to being attacked, “That’s what counts in a firefight, not the casualties but where the fire came from.” Brady’s point is that if you don’t identify and handle the threat first, the casualty won’t matter because everyone will end up a casualty.