Walkthrough: a residential structure fire

This builds one complete scenario from an empty file: a single-family dwelling with fire showing on the Bravo side, a victim inside, three responding units, an aerial for apparatus placement, and interior views for companies working inside. Both modules are optional; skip those sections if your drill does not need them.

Allow 30 to 45 minutes the first time.

1. Create the scenario#

Open Scenario Builder, click + New scenario, and name it for the building, not the drill. 412 Oak St single family will still make sense in six months. Tuesday drill will not.

2. Add the exterior views#

Crews walk around a structure, so build all four sides. On the Views tab, click + Add view and use whichever source fits.

1. Side A. Use Street View, enter the address, and adjust heading until you are looking at the front of the building. Choose Side A from the name dropdown and add it.
2. Sides B, C, and D. Street View rarely covers the back of a house. Use AI fill, which generates the other sides from the image you already have. Name each one from the dropdown as you add it.
3. Photographs you took yourself are the best source when you have them. Use Upload for those.

Full detail on each source, and what the sliders do, is in Views.

3. Add the aerial#

Click + Add view again, choose Aerial, enter the same address, and set the zoom so the structure and the street in front of it are both visible. Pick Aerial from the name dropdown, which also marks it as the tactical map rather than a walkable position.

Open the aerial view and calibrate it:

1. In Center mode, click the structure itself. The quadrant lines converge there, not at the middle of the photo.
2. Switch to Ⓐ Side A mode and click the street side of the building, the side the address faces. Sides B, C, and D fall clockwise from there.

See Aerial calibration and the sides for why this matters.

4. Put fire and smoke on the building#

Open Side B.

1. Click Fire, then click a first-floor window. Drag it into place and scroll to size it to the opening.
2. With it still selected, set Stage in the right panel. For a working fire on arrival, Growth (stage 2) is a reasonable starting point.
3. Set Growth per minute. At 0.00 the fire holds where you set it. At 0.30 it advances about one stage every three minutes if nobody puts water on it.
4. Click Smoke and place smoke above the fire. Set Density for how much, and Darkness for how black it reads.

Now open Side A and place lighter smoke showing from the eaves. Remember that elements belong to the view they are on: a crew standing at Side A sees only what you placed there.

5. Add a victim#

Open Side C and place a Victim at a window, then set Status to Down. Victims are visible to whoever can see that view, so a victim at a rear window is information the crew has to walk around to get, which is the point.

6. Set up the response#

Open the Setup tab.

1. Incident address. Type the street address. The dispatcher reads this aloud when the drill starts, so write it the way you want it spoken.

2. Elapsed-time notification every. 10 minutes is a common interval. The dispatcher announces elapsed time on that interval.

3. PAR every. 20 minutes prompts command for a personnel accountability report on that interval. 0 turns it off.

4. Responding units. Add the units you want:

   Callsign	Type	Arrives
   Engine 52	engine	1 to 4 min
   Truck 4	truck	2 to 5 min
   Engine 61	engine	6 to 9 min

Each unit arrives at a random time inside its own window, so no two runs of the scenario are identical. If you have designated an IC before the clock starts, that officer's unit is moved to the earliest arrival, because the first-arriving officer establishes command.

7. Optional: apparatus placement#

On the Setup tab, tick Apparatus placement. It requires the aerial view you added in step 3.

During the drill, the IC (or an officer the instructor designates) marks where each rig should set up. Arriving crews place their own apparatus without seeing that plan, and anything spotted away from the plan is flagged to command. Nothing else in the builder changes.

See Module: apparatus placement.

8. Optional: interior simulation#

Still on Setup, tick Interior simulation, then choose a Interior layout. For this scenario that is Single-family residential, which stamps three interior views: Living area, Kitchen, and Bedroom hallway.

Open the Kitchen view and build the interior conditions:

1. Place Fire at the seat of the fire.
2. Place Smoke and turn Density up. Inside a structure, smoke banks down from the ceiling instead of rising as a plume, so a dense, dark setting produces the near-blackout a crew would actually face.
3. Place a Victim in the Bedroom hallway if you want a search objective.

During the drill, only companies whose assignment is marked as an interior duty can enter, and only after their unit arrives. The IC never sees inside.

See Module: interior simulation.

9. Optional: stage the escalation#

If you want the fire to jump at a moment of your choosing rather than only growing on its own:

1. Arrange the scene the way it should look after the escalation, for example fire through the roof and heavier smoke on all sides.
2. On the Levels tab, save that arrangement as a level named Roof involvement.
3. Put the scene back the way it should start.
4. On the Injects tab, add an inject named Roof involvement, link it to that level, and either schedule it for a time or leave it manual so you can fire it when the drill calls for it. Add dispatcher text if you want it announced.

See Situation levels and Injects.

10. Check your work#

Before you run it with a crew:

• Open every view and confirm the images are the ones you meant.
• Confirm the header says Saved.
• Confirm the aerial has both marks set.
• Confirm each responding unit has a callsign and a sane arrival window.
• If you enabled interior, confirm each interior view has conditions on it. An interior view with nothing placed shows a clean room, which reads as "nothing wrong here."

Then create a session and run it. See Quick start for the session steps.