The deeper into a building firefighters advance hoselines under immediately dangerous to life or health conditions (IDLH) and further from their means of escape, the more risk they have of becoming, lost, disoriented, running out of air, or being caught in a collapse.
To reduce risk, our department embraces the concept of the “Short Interior Attack” (SIA). An SIA involves advancing hoselines to the seat of a fire via the shortest route possible. Consider a fire in a large commercial building: often, the shortest, fastest and most direct route to the fire is not from doorways on the Alpha side.
In multi-story buildings, determining the most direct route to the fire and choosing the closest fire attack stairwell is not possible without knowing the location of the fire. Companies that advance hose blindly in dense smoke without knowing the location of the fire will more than likely run out of hose and personnel before they reach it.
Read More: https://www.fireengineering.com/2020/01/06/482833/count-off-personnel-accountability-when-advancing-hoselines/?topic=333348
