Near Miss: Defensive to Offensive Tactics
This is a short near-miss report regarding a switch from defensive tactics to offensive tactics, but it raises all kinds of questions in my mind. NOTE: Because this report is so short, there could be other factors influencing the incident that we don't know about.
Dispatched to a building fire. Building was well off on arrival and identified as a vacant/abandoned building. Command initially called for a defensive attack mode. Approximately one hour into the event with no progress made on the fire, command shifted to an offensive strategy and had a company go into the building. Upon making entry into the building floors were giving way and ceiling collapsed with plaster falling on a member's head. An air conditioning unit fell close by one of the members of the attack crew.
What the heck was command thinking? Where was their risk versus benefit analysis? What were they going to save? What were they trying to accomplish?
OK, now I'm done with my list of "Geez, they need to pull their head out" questions. Here is another question that we should examine.
In this situation, does an interior attack crew have to obey the command to enter the building?
I believe in this situation, the interior attack crew has the right and the responsibility to ask the incident commander why the interior attack has been ordered. If the incident commander doesn't have a good answer, the crew certainly has the option to refuse to enter the building.
Chime in if you have some thoughts you would like to share.
