2 Escape House Fire in Portland 2-18-13

[Dickey]

Just a question out there. I am seeing a lot of pictures on this and other sites that command is on a car / SUV and does not get out this loots like a mid-west west coast thing. Is this normal for command to do that. I know that all the commands i have seen in the northeast they are out of the car in front of the building. In classes it is taught that command does a 360 then back to the front of the building. just a question with command in a SUV in front of of the building does this work ? I am not sure as a command officer i think that having done a walk around give the officer a better idea of what the building looks like and the hazards.  

 

Lad4Lt,

 

To answer your question, it is very common, at least in my state of WI, that the IC is either in an SUV or some other command post that you can actually be inside of. It is not common for IC to stand outside behind an SUV and certainly not standing in front of the building. It is taught in the WI technical college system that the first arriving officer does a 360 and then is IC until releived by a higher ranking officer. In my department, myself and the chief respond directly to the scene. If I am on scene first, I do a 360 then get back in my truck to run command. That is pretty common in my neck of the woods. I have a buddy who lives in Pennsylvania who says it's common there for the IC to do a 360 then stand outside near the pumping engine. In my opinion, I would rather be inside a quiet place to listen to my radios and so I can keep track of my assignments on my command boards. I carry all this with me in my truck.

 

I'm sure it's a regional thing. I have seen commanders who stand outside who have no idea what their assignments were and miss radio traffic because they are standing next to a loud engine or fan or something. Personally I wouldn't be caught dead without some sort of command board or at least a yellow pad to keep track of assignments if there would ever be a MAYDAY.