"Respect the floor above; don’t become complacent and think that everything is good just because there is no heat or smoke around you," writes Daniel P. Sheridan.
Top-floor fires are of concern for incident commanders because common cocklofts can cause rapid and undetected fie spread, a danger for personnel operating below.
Firefighters, officers, and chiefs are accustomed to certain ways of responding. If a person calls the fire department for an odor of smoke coming from the kitchen during dinner time, the responding units will make assumptions based on the type of call and the time of day it occurs.
How do you take all the information you receive from an alarm ticket and translate that data into a strategy? In a department as large as the Fire Department of New York, members depend heavily on standard operating procedures. When everyone is on the same page, the operation is safer and more efficient. DAN SHERIDAN
Daniel P. Sheridan says, take that extra time in your size-up and ensure that you have a way out, off the roof, or a general means of egress depending on the situation.