Tonight was set up as a refresher of sorts on the initial priorities of the initial arriving companies at a fire. The Officer of the Engine then assumed the role of the initial incident commander until the arrival of a Senior Officer. The priorities as established reinforced were the securing of a water supply, advancement of the initial line, Search and Rescue and ladders being thrown.

Of course as we begin the scenarios the Rescue was dispatched to an accident on Old Wilmington Rd. So the crew of 6 handled that incident while the Engine crew began the scenario. This at times, of limited manpower could be very realistic until the arrival of mutual aid companies.

The scenario was set at the West Caln Township Garage in which Road Foreman Touchton opened up for our use. Our smoke machine was set and began to fill the building with simulated smoke and our victim and simulated fire was put in place. The engine arrived with the crew doing their 360, setting the plan and making entry.

The Crew of six split assignments and gained entry stretched the leader line and high rise pack into the big garage area then made entry into the offices. The other crew assumed the search and rescue group and together they located the simulated fire and victim in short order. While this was going on, the Engine operator secured a water supply and set up lighting and additional functions outside.

The scenario was repeated and changed a little for the Rescue crew that arrived after clearing the accident; they too took a very similar approach, each time letting the Lieutenants have time commanding the incident. This training was valuable as we have a few new members who we ran through the scenario and also let the senior members take charge of a crew and give reports.

The evening concluded with members re-entering practicing search and rescue and we also practiced a "Mayday" incident when one of the members became low on air. This was a perfect setting to practice this procedure of locating and removing a downed firefighter.

A quick debrief was conducted and a lot of good ideas, training points and learning came out of tonight's training. This type of scenario based training always reinforces what is learned in training, but also provides the data to rely on when an incident happens.