Planning
Rules of Engagement
Optimizing the tactical response to strategic priorities is best achieved through a set of rules of engagement that support the incident strategic priorities.
Rules of engagement are predicated on the presence of occupants and their survivability profile, fire conditions, building stability and available crew resources and capabilities.
Rules of Engagement have traditionally been used by both the military and law enforcement to provide the critical rapid assessments needed to address threats to life safety. In the fire service, firefighting strategies have traditionally been divided into offensive and defensive strategic modes, and any given tactic has been associated with one or the other. It is important, however, to realize that while a strategic objective may well be associated with either of these modes, a given tactical application can be used in either an offensive or a defensive mode.
Figure 9 shows how traditional strategic modes relate to our strategic objectives. Each of these objectives have associated Rules of Engagement that apply to fire ground operations, indicating when the strategic objective is to be addressed (shown below). Moving from the strategic to the tactical level, it is often best to regard a tactical application as independent from the strategic objective, allowing for better and more specific decision making on the fire ground.
Associated with the Offensive Strategic Mode are three strategic objectives. Their rules of engagement are defined below:
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Evacuation: Confirmed occupant loads requiring immediate evacuation from a building threatened by rapid fire development or structural collapse. Rescue: Viable occupant(s) in known or suspected location(s) requiring immediate rescue. Fire Attack: Possible occupant(s) in unknown location(s) requiring rapid fire extinguishment/control to support primary search and ventilation operations and/or property conservation requiring rapid fire extinguishment/control to prevent additional loss. Fire conditions and building stability support interior operations. |
The Defensive Strategic Mode also has three strategic objectives, shown with their rules of engagement here:
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Confine (Surround and Drown): Building instability or extent of fire conditions preclude interior operations. Protect (Exposures): Extension of fire to exposures is foreseeable and requires mitigation. No Attack: Due to the products involved in the fire, or imminent situational hazards, the best option is to allow the fire to continue to burn. |