Fire response is a fixed order that everyone has rehearsed: sound the alarm, get the occupants out, assess, fight only a small fire with the exit behind you, otherwise contain it by wetting the neighbours, and then count everyone. Drills should time each link from the alarm, so that the slowest link is found and fixed before a real fire finds it.
Part of Fire Prevention in Settlements
A response protocol is the agreed sequence of actions and roles for a fire, and training is the repeated, timed practice that makes people follow it when frightened.
A Protocol Is What People Do When They Cannot Think
The fire guide’s sequence is six steps. First, sound the alarm, even before attempting to fight the fire. Second, alert the occupants and get people out first if the building is occupied. Third, assess whether the fire can be contained with the resources at hand or is too far advanced. Fourth, fight it if it is small, by bucket brigade, sand or smothering, at the base of the fire. Fifth, if it is large, stop fighting the burning building, wet the adjacent structures, clear combustibles from the fire’s path and maintain the fire break. Sixth, account for everyone with a head count at the assembly point. It asks for monthly bucket-brigade practice.
The sequence has one decision in it, the third step, and that is where people die. The sections below make the decision explicit.
The Decision To Fight Or To Leave
Fight only if all of these hold: the fire is small, no larger than something one or two buckets can put out in the first minute; the exit is behind you, not on the far side of the fire; nobody is trapped or hurt in the building; and a second person is with you with water. This is a working rule of thumb built on the fire guide’s “fight if small”, not a figure from a test.
Leave if any of these appears: smoke is lowering to head height; the fire has reached the roof or ceiling; you cannot see the exit; the first minute of water has not reduced it. A bucket chain into a building that is already well alight kills people. The water arithmetic shows why: a brigade can absorb a few megawatts at best and about one megawatt in practice, and a burning room is more (Water Reserve Sizing).
Worked Example: Reading A Drill
A drill is useful only if it produces numbers that can be compared. The times below are invented to show the method, not measurements. Time from the alarm in a night drill:
| Link | First drill | After fixes |
|---|---|---|
| Alarm heard in the farthest house | 45 s | 20 s |
| Occupants out and moving | 150 s | 70 s |
| First bucket at the fire | 240 s | 150 s |
| Line formed and passing | 420 s | 240 s |
| Head count complete | 900 s | 400 s |
- The slowest link relative to its target is the one to fix first. The evacuation guide’s target is 60 s from the signal to movement (Evacuation Procedures) and the fire guide’s is that water arrives within the first 3 minutes (180 s).
- In the first column, the occupants take 150 − 45 = 105 s to get moving after hearing the alarm, against the 60 s target, so the evacuation link is the one to fix first.
- Improvement is the difference: head count 900 − 400 = 500 s (more than halved).
Record each drill and compare it with the last.
What You Need
- A roster per cluster, with a named warden and a deputy (Emergency Assembly Areas)
- Roles: alarm, wardens, brigade commander, water leader, a person for burns and a counter
- A watch with a second hand or a counted pace to time the links
- A written record of every drill and every real fire
- Count by name against the roster, twice, independently (Accountability and Headcount)
Method: A Training Cycle
Step 1: Monthly, a bucket-brigade drill at one water point, as the fire guide asks.
Step 2: Twice a year, a full alarm, evacuation and head count, one of them at night, as the assembly-area guide asks. The evacuation guide for small groups says quarterly; the two do not conflict if the quarterly drill is the household one and the twice-yearly one is the settlement one.
Step 3: Time the links from the alarm and write them down.
Step 4: After each drill, meet for ten minutes and change the one thing that cost the most time.
Step 5: Vary the conditions: night, rain, one exit blocked, a missing person.
Step 6: After a real event, watch the site for hours for a rekindle, and write up what happened.
Common Mistakes
- Drilling only the water. The deaths are in the evacuation.
- Always the same drill. People learn the drill, not the fire.
- Re-entering for belongings or a missing person. Report it to the crew and let them decide.
- No record. Without numbers, improvement is a feeling.
Safety
A drill must not injure
Do not use real fire in a drill, and keep running off wet surfaces. Keep the doors of every building that holds more than a handful of people opening outward by pushing, with no bar or latch to work first; a drop bar that is fine on a dwelling becomes a crush mechanism when a crowd presses the door (Defensive Architecture).
What’s Next
- Learn next: Evacuation Routes & Assembly — where everyone goes
- Combine with: Bucket Brigade Organization — the brigade the drill trains