10 Minute-Training: You’re IC No. 1 at a 2nd-floor apartment fire with unknown occupancy. What’s your move?
10-Minute Training
You're IC No. 1 at a 2nd-floor apartment
fire with unknown occupancy. What's your move?
By Ed Hartin
B Shifter Buckslip, Feb. 17, 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.
You are the initial IC on the scene of a second-floor apartment fire in a three-story apartment building. Your decisions will set the tone for the entire incident. What do you do?
Apartment fires often demand immediate action—with the first few minutes shaping the entire outcome. In February’s 10-Minute Training, you are the first-arriving company officer at a three-story, center-corridor apartment building with fire showing from the second floor. With multiple companies en route, winter conditions, and uncertain occupancy status, your ability to size up the incident problem and communicate clearly will determine the effectiveness of the initial response.
This drill emphasizes:
- Conducting a focused size-up and identifying the critical factors that drive strategy.
- Translating strategy into clear task-level assignments and radio reports.
- Managing resources and anticipating needs.
- Evaluating searchable space, survivability and risk in a multi-unit occupancy.
- Practicing structured communications like follow-up reports, CAN reports, and command transfer.
Click the image below to download the drill.
For other Ten-Minute Trainings, visit 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.