A Support Team

A Person in the Wheelhouse

• Hose Team One: Composed of the leader of the fire-fighting effort and one other person, preferably but not always the wiper. For a crew with eight people there can be three people on this team.
• Hose Team Two: Led by someone proficient in fire-fighting. One other person.
• Support Team: Usually but not always composed of the chief engineer and the cook.
• Wheelhouse Person: Either the captain or a mate

Hose Teams are the only groups that enter the Hot Zone. The Hot Zone is the area in which SCBAs must be used for breathing. Hose Teams spend no more than 10 minutes in the Hot Zone. This is not a suggestion. You will spend no more than 10 minutes "on air" (breathing air from your SCBA). This is meant to give you enough time to leave the Hot Zone before your air runs out.

PLAN FOR TWO-TEAM ROTATION: THIS IS A TACTIC THAT MAY BE CALLED FOR IN THE CASE OF STUBBORN, LONG TERM FIRES.

Only one Hose Team at a time enters the Hot Zone. Hose Team One (lead by the mate or captain usually) tries to find the seat of the fire and devise a plan. Once their 10 minutes is up they leave the Hot Zone and pass their information on to Hose Team Two, which then acts upon it, either continuing the search where the first team left off, or actually extinguishing the fire. When their ten minutes are up they leave the Hot Zone and quickly brief Team One, who by that time have changed air bottles and briefed the wheelhouse.

The ten-minute rule provides a margin of safety for firefighters and a measure of control over the situation. While the fire will not run on a timetable the firefighters will. If anything interrupts the schedule, if a team does not return in ten minutes, the back-up team goes into rescue mode. After 8 minutes in the Hot Zone firefighters must be warned to come back out, by any means possible: air horns, general alarm, banging on bulkheads, etc.

Radios taken in to the Hot Zone are for emergency use only. Once in the Hot Zone save your air for dealing with the fire, not briefing the wheelhouse. The Radio should have its volume turned all the way up.

George Collazo

Port Captain