Firefighting Simulator – The Squad – Basic Guide

A little guide on the general behaviour of Firemen.

Guide to Basics

All credit goes to Andreas!

General Information

First things first

• A fireman has the primary function of saving lives, not property.
• Meaning that above all else finding and transporting victims to a paramedic is your prior assignment.
• And yes even if it means hurting yourself doing it, thats our sacrifice.

Know your equipment

• Every fireman should know the equipment he uses, what is onboard the fire engine, where it is and how to set it up properly.
• Thankfully things like foam injectors, water-shields and different kinds of adapters for your attack lines are not yet simulated which makes everything a little easier.

Think first act second

• Know your sorroundings, know your situation while your commander may give you initial orders you will need to make decisions when you´re inside a burning building that can make a difference.

Luckily its not that harsh in game

• But still it´s always a good idea not to open a door that has already started to turn black with smoke coming out of every little opening.

Be a teamplayer

• Firefighting is not only a military like hierarchy it´s a team sport, again the simulation is very nice to you in reality handling a C-size attack line with 10-16 bar pressure is a two man job especially with oxygen masks.
• Try to help your fellow firefighters as much as you can, this will always decrease mission time, property damage and will keep you from failing the mission.

Equipment

Let´s start of with our equipment.

Thankfully there´s not as much equipment as on a real fire engine otherwise this list would be a lot longer and more complicated.

Axe/Haligan/Crowbar

• All of those tools fullfill the same purpost, provide acces to locked doors.
• The Haligan and Crowbar are much faster in opening doors though, since opening a door with a axe is quite fiddly in this game and frankly in reality you wouldn´t use a axe for it neither.
• The Axe has another party trick, it can open pathways where little damages in the wall can be seen.
• Meaning you can break down the wall at certain points.
• This can be helpful if you can not acces a room where a victim lies because of fire blocking the entrances.
• So you make a new one.
• But beware opening up a wall brings a lot of Oxygen into the room, which probably will make the fire spread quicker.

Hoses

• There are two hoses simulated.

The yellow supply hose

• Usually a A or B-size hose to supply the fire engines pressure booster pump with water.

And the red attack hose

• Usually a C-Size hose for the fireman to take into the Quenching attack,

Quenching adapters

• As of now we only have the hollow jet pipe to put onto our attack hoses, hopefully we will see more in the future 🙂

Fire extinguishers

• And of course we got pre-filled, pressurized fire extinguishers on board.
• There seems to be only one fire extinguisher as of now, I will reedit this if fire classes will be implemented.

Angle grinder

• It´s an Angle grinder…

That pretty much sums it up, if you don´t know what is what the Tutorial ingame does a good job of showing you what is what and how to use it.

The Alarm Drive

Basically I don´t need to write too much about it, it´s pretty straight forward.

Currently there doesn´t seem to be a penalty system in place for crashes or the like, but still it´s always a good idea to stay in character even on your way there.

In reality there are rules for alarm drivers but here we can stick to the basics:

You´re here to help not cause even more damage

• Manage your speed, faster is not always the answer.

Use your air horn before crossing red lights and stop signs

• Some traffic participants are a little slow to realize that theres a fire engine coming….

Watch traffic closely

• Keep that in mind when you see a car rolling into a junction, you never know what the next move will be.
• Drain speed before you need to react, it gives you more options.

Space is everything

• Leave some space between your truck and the cars your overtaking, just because someones turning signal is telling you they go right the might surprise you.

Arriving at the Scene

So you´re at the scene and nobody died on your way there, wohoo…

So step by step there are a few things that should have been fixated on the lobby screen.

Like who does the supply line, who does a situation check and who does what.

If not react to what your colleagues are doing and react accordingly.

Things to be done at every fire sight are the following.

These steps are not realistic, normally you shouldn´t enter a burning building along with oxygen tanks you need to be in groups of three AND you need another trio of masked firefighters on standby to rescue you if you were in danger.

Ingame we have for firefighter, thats it so we have to split up to be effective

Identify cause of fire, check for chemicals, electricity and find victims

• That should happen before anyone starts to quench, rescue or even enter the burning building.
• Get an overview, where are the fires. Possible risks of fire spread, gasoline, chemicals or anything that could cause the fire to spread.

Establish supply line

• The very first thing you do is establish the supply line so water supply is established.
• This should happen at the same time your commander is considering his attack plan.

Open all compartments of your fire engine

• Another thing one member of the attack team should do, open all compartments people need to see inside of them its faster than reading the text and pressing a button for every single shutter.
• This is realistic, the machinist will automatically open all comparments and will activate lighting aswell as the pressure boosting pump.

Start laying attack lines

• Irrelevant if you can not start your attack yet, prepare one or two attack lines, so the quenching attack goes quick.

You´re now ready to start the actual mission

Search and Rescue

So you´re now ready to actually work.

The fire engine is ready, supplied you have an overview and you are ready to enter the building.

But not everyone should enter the building!

First off, the targets in the first phase are:

Get everyone you find dead or alive out of the burning building ASAP

• The deadly thing when it comes to fires are the fumes not the heat.
• Most People don´t burn to death, they suffocate or die from toxins the inhaled.

Search every room for possible survivors

• If it´s a apartment complex open every door, every flat every little compartment you can find even toilets.
• Make absolutely sure that no one is left in the building before you start doing anything else.

Vent smoke

• As stupid as it may sound opening windows is you friend when it comes to quenching.

You see theres a thing called Flashover:

In a Flashover situation the fire fumes will ignite and the whole room is on fire in an instant.

That´s why wee need to vent fumes out of the building.

Open Windows to get airflow going, it increases your sight inside the building and keeps the fire from spreading.

!Rooms filled with smoke!

When you can´t see into a room because it is filled with smoke, and the door shows signs of fire damage and smoke exits the door at any point! Don’t open it!

Never open a door in this situation!

You will set the whole hallway on fire and kill yourself or possibly others.

Vent the room from the outside by opening windows, start quenching from the outside in. The room will be fully lit.

Wait for the fire to have enough air and then open the door and start your attack.

Begin quenching

• Your target is to keep the fire from spreading, if it´s to big to quench on your own keep it at bay until you colleagues arrive.

Turn off electricity, gas or comparable sources of danger

• A fire is a all consuming thing, better be safe then sorry.
• Sometimes turning off the electrictiy is not simulated.

This should all happen basically at the same time.

So Teamwork is key!

Priority is getting people out of there, so vent the house throw away your tool and help evacuating people.

When you´re done evacuating get a attack line and start quenching.

Quenching

So your building is empty, all people are saved, the hallways are vented and you pick up a attack line and start quenching.

Where do you start?`

• That depends…

You got a burning roof?

• Look for a turntable ladder, check if the supply line is attached and quench the roof from above.

Use the assets you have

• Think about where you are, are you on a industrial site then look for chemical spillages that are burning, get the extinguisher so your colleage doesn´t need to drop the attack line.

If you see a fire spreading because everyone else is busy somewhere else, get to it.

In general you will need to attack a fire from front to back, and from floor to ceiling.

But you need to watch if the fire gets overhead.

Afterall you are inside of a building, the fire can spread above and behind you if you´re not careful.

Don´t enter a room if you can not get the fire under control by yourself, wait for a comrade.

Advance only if you have the feeling the fire is getting smaller.

Theres no shame in quenching through a window neither, why not?