Download - Fire Reporting & Initial Attack (IA) Scenarios Imagine you’re the engineer on the fire train with the person sitting next to you as your crew. Take a radio.

Fire Reporting & Initial Attack (IA) Scenarios

• Imagine you’re the engineer on the fire train with the person sitting next to you as your crew.

• Take a radio mike and use it for all radio traffic

• Go through the steps for I. A. • Briefly describe what you’d do• Instruct your crew what to do

Fire Reporting and IA Scenario 1a

• You’re patrolling westbound from Ballast towards Huckleberry crossing. It’s a clear day with light wind, temperature in the 80’s on a late July afternoon.

Fire Reporting and IA Scenario 1b

• You spot some wispy smoke about 25’ from the tracks in light fuel.

• Action on your part:• Initial Radio Report• Size-up

Fire Reporting and IA Scenario 1c

• Initial Attack • With what• With who• How• Report back to Sumpter Depot with

progress and status

Fire Reporting and IA Scenario 1d

•Critique: • What do have?• What are your main concerns?• What are your safety concerns?• How difficult would your

suppression activities be?• How would this situation impact

the railroad?


• You’re patrolling westbound from Highway 7 towards Ballast. A beautiful warm afternoon in mid-August with a light breeze. You notice some thunder heads building to the west of Sumpter and they appear to be moving your way.


• Suddenly your crew alerts you to a small column of smoke off to your left in some moderately dense brush



• Initial Attack • With what• With who• How• Radio traffic, if any


• As you start attacking the fire, you notice the wind picking up and see flames about three feet high in heavy brush ahead of you.

• Now What?• Size up• Radio Traffic• Your Action

Fire Reporting and IA Scenario 2e



the railroad?


• You’re patrolling eastbound between Bad Water crossing and Huckleberry on a hot, muggy summer afternoon with little wind.

• A thunder storm had rolled through the valley the previous night, with rain and numerous downstrikes.


• You catch a whiff of wood smoke and slow down to investigate

• Suddenly a man pops out of the brush, pointing south, and says There’s a fire over there and your train started it!”


• You stand up on the fire car and can just barely see some smoke rising lazily above some heavy brush a hundred yards or more from the track.



• Initial Attack • With what• With who• How




the railroad?


• You’re sitting on the stub track at South Sumpter on another warm afternoon in mid-August with a light breeze.

• The steam train has just whistled off from the depot at Sumpter to begin the last run of the day back to McEwen.


• You look down the main line and notice smoke rising from a tie near the Sawmill Gulch crossing.

• What do you do?• Radio traffic• Instructions to the steam train• Fire suppression activities




the railroad?


• It’s a hot late August afternoon and you’re patrolling between Hwy. 7 and Ballast westbound.

• There’s a light, erratic wind and thunderheads west of Sumpter.

• The steam train has had firing problems and needed to stop twice to build up steam.

• You’ve waited back for them to get going again.


• As you get close to Ballast, you see a column of light gray smoke on the right in moderate fuel about ten feet from the track.

• You notice some foot high flames licking at the base of a pine tree.

• Your crew spots another smoke on the left side about twenty feet from the track in light fuel.



• Initial Attack • With what• With who• How• Directed at which fire(s)?


• As you get you start your initial attack on the fire to the right, the wind starts to pick up.

• That fire starts moving up into a pine tree.

• Meanwhile, your ever vigilant crew spots a third smoke on the right, further away and in denser fuel.


• Action on your part:• Ongoing Size-up • Radio Report

• Concerning Attack on these fire:• With what• With who• How• Directed at which fire(s)?

Fire Reporting and IA Scenario 5f



the railroad?

Fire Reporting and IA Scenario 6a (variation on #5)

• It’s a hot late August afternoon and you’re patrolling between Hwy. 7 and Ballast westbound.

• There’s a light, erratic wind and thunderheads west of Sumpter.

• The steam train has had firing problems and needed to stop twice to build up steam.

• You’ve waited back for them to get going again.


• As you get close to Ballast, you see a column of gray smoke on the right in moderate fuel about thirty feet from the track.

• You notice some foot high flames licking at the base of a pine tree.



• Initial Attack • With what• With who• How


• You decide to pull a 1” hose line for initial attack, fire up the pump and start into the woods with your crew and the hose.

• Your tactic appears to be working! Just as the fire starts up a tree, you hit it with water and the flames calm down.

• Some flame remains on the ground. As you prepare to douse them….


• …you discover you are now standing in dense brush… …ALONE.

• You call out to your crew and he doesn’t answer.

• How many problems do you now have?

• Your action at this point is?


• So, you retrace your steps and find your crew sitting on the motor car, sweating profusely and gasping for breath.

• What’s your Radio Traffic?• What do you do?




the railroad?


• It’s a very hot early August afternoon and you’re patrolling between Hwy. 7 and Ballast westbound.

• There have been minor problems all day and you’re following Train # 3, which is running an hour late.

• Finally, a light breeze has picked up to cool you off just a bit.


• As you come through the rock cut, there it is! You and your crew see it at the same time!!

• A fire has started on the right of the tracks in grass and light brush and is burning uphill towards a structure.

• The smoke is light gray and the flames a couple feet long.


• To top it off, there’s that breeze you were cherishing just minutes ago, encouraging the fire towards a rather nice looking home.

• Action on your part:• Initial Radio Report• Size-up • Exposures threatened.


• Initial Attack • With what?• With who?• How?• Directed at what?• What are your priorities?


• The fire is in light fuels and not burning terribly hot.

• You decide to deploy a hose line and work one flank.

• Your goal being to work the flank up to the head and be able to protect the structure.

• Action on your part:• Ongoing Sizeup• Initial Attack


• However, the wind is not helping and you’re having trouble on the flank.

• The fire is getting very close to the house and it doesn’t look like you’re going to get there before the fire does.

• Action on your part:• Ongoing Sizeup Report• Your strategy

Fire Reporting and I A Scenario 7g

• About the time you’re ready to tell Sumpter that the house is about to become involved, a man shows up with a 1” hose drawing water from a small irrigation pump in the river and begins to hose down the area between his house and the fire.

• Action on your part:• Ongoing Sizeup Report• Your strategy

Fire Reporting and I A Scenario 7h



the railroad?