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The lack of pre-fire planning has claimed the lives of many fire service professionals in the recent past. Today's fire service mangers must use pre-fire planning to serve as a safety net when managing the modern fireground. Proper risk management coupled with a structured firefighter survival program enables the modern firefighter to quickly identify and understand the associated risk he/she is about to encounter. It is through these preparatory efforts that we can provide the modern firefighter with advantages unbeknownst to firefighters of the recent past.

Pre-fire Planning / Pre-fire Analysis - What we do in preparation for ultimately determines the success or failure of our efforts. Case studies have clearly identified that the success or failure of any "Mayday!" incident is a direct result of effective incident management and pre-incident planning. No better preparatory effort can be afforded the modern fireground commander then the pre-fire analysis.

Fire service building construction veteran Francis Brannigan once said, "There is no substitute for the fire department developing a system of accumulating and organizing information for retrieval at the time of the fire. This situation is analogous to military intelligence. It is vital to know the disposition of the enemy." Knowing your enemy is a rule every firefighter and fireground commander should live by. No fireground can ever be made entirely safe, but it goes without saying, if we know the enemy up front the odds of winning the war are dramatically increased in our favor.

Consider the following PRE-FIRE INDICATORS and how they that can potentially lead to a fireground "Mayday!" and/or compromise the Safety Engine/RIT operation:

• Weight - Pre-fire indicators of excessive weight in the overhead should be of immediate concern to the fireground commander when deciding whether to deploy additional personnel during a rescue effort. Excessive weight may include such items as: HV/AC units, large billboards, storage tanks, etc.
• Fuel Loads - Excessive fuel loads (flammable/combustible) noted in the pre-fire planning are an indication of potential rapid-fire development which may lead to firefighters becoming trapped or overcome firefighters during the initial firefight.
• Building history - The history of a building should play a major part in the strategy and tactics deployed at every fire incident. Previous fires, structural collapses, renovations, which are known, and unknown to the fireground commander may lead to the entrapment of firefighters.
• Deterioration - A factor of the modern fireground continues to be vacant buildings or buildings of poor repair. As firefighters going through most fire academies we are taught that all buildings are occupied until proven otherwise. As a fireground commander, proper risk management must play a significant part in our decisions to deploy initial crews into an occupancy in which a high potential for firefighter injury or loss exist. Pre-fire planning should enable us to identify which buildings within our response district require absolute defensive operations to support firefighter safety and survival.
• Support Systems / Truss Construction - Examples of firefighter fatalities have been shared with the fire service concerning truss collapses for years, from the bowstrings of Hackensack to the lightweight large spans of Chesapeake, bowstring and lightweight truss construction must be of the utmost concern to the fireground commander.

Consider the following ON-SCENE indicators and how they that can potentially lead to a Mayday incident:

• Prolonged burn time, continued or heavy fire throughout the structure
• Smoke showing through walls - extensive structural damage, gas accumulations
• Inadequate ventilation / flammable gas accumulations, potential for rapid fire development
• Sagging floors, bulging walls, interior collapse - major damage to structural integrity
• Water between bricks, excessive water in the building - excessive downward force
• Two or more floors involved in fire - multi-point structural compromise
• Unprotected steel - direct flame impingement of structural components, collapse pending

Firefighter survival training - Firefighters who have been properly trained in self-survival skills can greatly enhance the possibility of a successful Safety Engine/RIT team rescue. Standardized, predicable actions of a trapped, lost or disoriented member will enable rescuers to locate and extract the member in a much more timely manner.

Standardized self-survival actions:

1. Initiate an emergency "Mayday" / Activate Emergency Distress Button
2. Stay Calm, Preserve Your Air Supply
3. Activate P.A.S.S.
4. Provide a situation / problem report
5. If trapped or disoriented as a crew, stay together
6. Search for an exit - look for light
7. Attempt to follow a hose line / life line to safety
8. Retreat to an area of safety
9. Assume a horizontal position to enhance the audible signal of your P.A.S.S. and enhance thermal protection
10. Use your flashlight as a beacon device / Attempt to make tapping noises using tools or other objects.

• Proactive ladders - Provide secondary means of egress for trapped, lost or disoriented members and serves as an immediate point of access for Safety Engine/RIT personnel.
• Four-point scene lighting/Entry-point lighting - Provides enhanced firefighter accountability and directional orientation for lost or disoriented members.
• Back-up/Safety lines - Provides an additional line of support incase of rapid-fire development.
• Proactive security bar removal - Establishes secondary means of egress for interior crews incase of rapid-fire development or an air supply emergency.