10 Minute-Training: You’re IC No. 2 at a Residential Fire with Changing Conditions. What’s the Strategy?
10-Minute Training
You're IC No. 2 at a Residential Fire with Changing Conditions
By Ed Hartin
B Shifter Buckslip, July 21, 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.
This incident involved a residential fire at 2428 West Adams Street in Phoenix, Arizona on Sunday, June 28, 2026. What critical factors would you consider when dispatched and during response?
Effective incident command depends on continuous size-up and risk assessment. As conditions change, commanders must continually evaluate whether the current strategy still applies or whether the incident now warrants a transition from offensive to defensive operations. In this month’s 10-Minute Training, Ed Hartin takes us to Phoenix for a residential fire. The initial radio report describes a working fire in a small, one-story house. IC No. 1 has implemented the offensive strategy and has assigned the first three companies. You are serving as IC No. 2 and must evaluate changing incident conditions to determine if a strategic shift is necessary.
Click here or the image below to access the drill. For other 10-Minute Trainings, visit https://commandcompetence.com/
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.