In “Fireground Tactics Take-Home Model,” Chief (Ret.) Bill Godfrey of the Deltona (FL) Fire Department offered FDIC students a method for analyzing tactics as well as a tactics teaching method for fire instructors. A firehouse discussion of the “right” tactics for a given scenario can be brutal. But tactics are not necessarily about right and wrong, but whether the tactical plan is sound: “Will this list of tactics take down that fire with these resources?”
Differences in tactics almost always lie in the available resources (firefighters) on the scene. According to Godfrey, “The fire doesn’t care that you used a smaller hoseline because you didn’t have enough people.” The laws of physics are not suggestions. If you engage in a fire with eight firefighters and use a tactical plan that calls for 23, he said, “Somebody is going to get hurt—or worse—killed.”
Attendees learned how to take apart and diagram a tactical plan so one firefighter’s plan could be compared to another’s, and most importantly, one could easily spot shortcomings in one’s own plan. At the class, they broke out into small groups, each of which was assigned a specific set of resources. Given a specific fire scenario, each group discussed the tactics they would employ using only the resources they were given. Students received a book with software designed to create a turnkey instructor’s kit. Also included were slides, video case studies, and the student handouts annotated with complete instructor’s notes.
A 25-year fire service veteran, Godfrey is the chief consultant for FutureFD.com, a fire department and homeland security consulting firm. He retired as chief of the Deltona (FL) Fire Department, and served as planning manager of Florida USAR TF-4.
