It never fails - when you get on the scene of a job (fire) everybody and their brother crowd the stairs or the hall to the fire area. I believe the problem comes from companies not going to many fires. Not everyone can be on the line or be the primary search team. Firefighters need to understand how dangerous crowding the stairs or hallway is. If the need to evacuate the structure arises how long will it take to get everyone moving towards the exit? How many firefighters will be knocked down, stepped on or even worse, have their mask pulled away from their face? There needs to be more control on the fire ground. Companies need to do their job, not the first in company’s job. Like I said before, not everyone can be on the first attack line. Three years ago a company in Maryland (outside Washington DC) came very close to loosing a firefighter because he could not exit the building when the floor he was on erupted in flames and he ran out of air. He literally had to jump down a flight of stairs (12 steps). In the process his mask was knocked off and he suffered burns to his face and airway. The stairs had been clogged with 7 to10 firefighters. The sad thing is that the firefighters on the stairs had no assignment - they just wanted to be near the fire. A total of 3 firefighters were injured because they had to jump over other firefighters on the stairs. Now if you think this only happens in volunteer fire departments, you are very wrong - it happens in both career and volunteer companies.

I feel that the only way to prevent stair and hallway crowding is to follow your SOP’s, as well as promote crew integrity and discipline. The incident commander needs to assign an interior commander at the very beginning. The interior commander will act as the eyes for the incident commander. The interior commander can advise the incident commander what he has inside as well as what crews he needs. He can also maneuver crews on the inside to prevent over crowding. During bigger incidents, the incident commander can assign an entry control person. This person is responsible for the crews going in and coming out of the structure. The incident commander will let the entry control officer and the interior commander know who is coming in and their assignment.

The bottom line is this: it is important for all crews on the fire ground to do their job and not someone else’s. The fire ground is a dangerous place, let’s not make it worse by freelancing. Remember next time it might be your exit blocked by firefighters crowding the stairs.

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