AUTHOR DRAFT. Do Not Publish. 10 Minute-Training: First Due at a Structural Collapse with Trapped Victims. What’s Your Plan? #2

10-Minute Training

First Due at a Structural Collapse with Trapped Victims. What’s Your Plan?

By Ed Hartin
B Shifter Buckslip, June 23, 2026

Every month, the B Shifter Buckslip features a 10-Minute Training scenario designed to provide a bit of synthetic experience while enhancing your ability to recognize patterns, identify relevant cues, expectancies and anomalies, set plausible goals, and develop a workable incident action plan.

Although technical rescue incidents present different challenges than structure fires, we use the same critical factors-based approach to guide decision-making and incident command.

When a building under construction suddenly collapses with multiple workers trapped, IC No. 1 has only minutes to make critical decisions that shape incident outcomes. In this month’s 10-Minute Training, you’re in command of a real-world structural collapse, challenging you to perform an effective size-up, establish strategy, assign tactical objectives and manage incoming resources during the critical initial operational period. Sharpen your incident command, structural collapse and technical rescue decision-making skills in a fast-paced drill designed for company officers and aspiring incident commanders.

Click the image below to access the drill. For other 10-Minute Trainings, visit https://commandcompetence.com/

Author picture

Ed Hartin retired as fire chief with East County Fire and Rescue in Camas, Wash., after a 50-year fire service career. Ed maintains an active international training and consulting practice and is a Blue Card instructor. He holds the Chief Fire Officer designation from the Commission on Professional Credentialing and is a Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers. Ed has undergraduate degrees in fire protection technology and fire service administration and a master’s degree in education. Since 2017, Ed has developed more than 450 10-Minute Trainings to provide ICs with deliberate practice to build competence.