What Would You Do? Residence, Office, or…?

By John “Skip” Coleman

This fire occurs in an older part of the city in a residential structure now occupied as an office. It is unknown if the second floor is still residential, vacant, or offices.

The building was built in the late 1930s and is wood frame.

The fire occurs at 6:30 a.m. on a Tuesday.

Assume you are responding as the first due unit. (Choose the type–engine, truck, heavy squad, or other–that you normally ride.)

Other units responding are what your department would send on a report of a fire in this occupancy type.

Answer the questions this worksheet (PDF) or make your own strategic, tactical, and task level questions to answer.

It would be great if you would give your thoughts on initial Strategies and tactics on the comment section below.



Skip Coleman: Firefighting RoundtableJohn “Skip” Coleman retired as assistant chief from the Toledo (OH) Department of Fire and Rescue. He is a technical editor of Fire Engineering. a member of the FDIC Educational Advisory Board; and author of Incident Management for the Street-Smart Fire Officer (Fire Engineering, 1997), Managing Major Fires (Fire Engineering, 2000), Incident Management for the Street-Smart Fire Officer, Second Edition (Fire Engineering, 2008) and Searching Smarter (Fire Engineering 2011) and 2011 recipient of the FDIC Tom Brennan Lifetime Achievement

L.A.’s Historic Pacific Dining Car Under Demolition After Early-Morning Fire

Fire severely damaged Westlake's historic Pacific Dining Car restaurant Thursday morning, leading to demolition of much of the structure at the site later that afternoon.
West Hurley explosion

Two Dead in West Hurley (NY) House Explosion, Police Say

Two people died Wednesday when a house on Brueckner Lane exploded, state police said.