Instructor guide
The instructor runs the exercise: creates the session, loads the scenario, assigns crews, starts the clock, controls conditions, and ends it. This page follows that order.
Before the drill#
Have a scenario built and saved. See the scenario builder section.
Decide who will have command. If you designate an incident commander before starting the clock, that officer's unit is moved into the first arrival slot, which matches the convention that the first-arriving officer establishes command.
Create the session#
From Sessions, name the session and create it. You get a four-character code that members use to join.
Guest joins. By default, members must sign in with a department account. Turn guest joins on when you create the session if you have people without accounts, for example mutual-aid crews or a visiting class. Guests type a name and the code, nothing else.
Load the scenario#
Until a scenario is loaded, the main pane shows Load a scenario with your department's scenarios listed. Click one to load it. Members see "Waiting for the instructor to load a scenario" until you do.
You cannot start the clock without a loaded scenario. The ▶ Start button stays disabled and says so, because a drill with no scenario has nothing in it.
You can load a different scenario before starting. Loading resets the scene.
Assign crews#
The assignment bar sits above the scene before dispatch. Every member who has joined appears with a dropdown of the scenario's responding units. Assign them.
- A member with a unit responds and arrives on that unit's time.
- A member with no unit is an observer and sees the scene from the start.
- If the scenario has no responding units, the bar says so: everyone will see the scene the moment you start, with no dispatch and no arrival timing.
Ready check#
Click Ready check in the header while still in the lobby. Every member gets a large I'm ready button on their lobby card. Confirmations show as a count in the header (3/5 ready) and as check marks next to names in the roster.
The check stays open until you start the clock. Use it to confirm everyone has audio working and knows their assignment before you commit to the run.
Start#
▶ Start starts the exercise clock, which:
- dispatches the call in the dispatcher's voice: units, address, and time-out,
- closes every open lobby microphone and switches the radio to push-to-talk,
- begins arrival timing for every unit,
- closes the ready check.
⏸ Pause stops the clock. Fire growth and arrival timing stop with it. Use it to hold a drill for a teaching point. Pausing does not stop the radio.
During the drill#
Quick actions under the scene#
| Control | Effect |
|---|---|
| Flashover | Jumps fire to its maximum stage. With an element selected it applies to that fire; with nothing selected it applies to every fire. |
| Knockdown | Puts water on the fire: intensity decays to out, smoke turns to steam. Same selection rule. |
| PAR | The dispatcher prompts command for a personnel accountability report. |
Bringing a unit in early#
The responding-unit chips along the top show each unit's countdown while it is
en route. Click a countdown chip to put that unit on scene immediately, as
if its timer had reached zero. Hovering shows now so you can see which
chip you are about to trigger.
Use it when the drill needs a unit sooner than the roll gave you: a crew is standing idle, the scenario has stalled waiting on a truck, or you want to compress a long response for a short training window. The crew's scene appears at once and their apparatus placement unlocks, exactly as a normal arrival.
The early arrival is recorded (⏩ Truck 4 brought on scene early), so the
review shows it was your call rather than the timer, and arrival order in the
debrief still makes sense. Units already on scene cannot be triggered again.
Editing the scene live#
Select any element and change its settings exactly as in the builder. Its controls appear beside the other quick actions under the scene: select a victim and their status is right there, Ambulatory, Down or Rescued. Crews see the change immediately. This is the finest-grained control you have: dropping one fire's stage, moving a victim, marking someone rescued the moment a crew carries them out.
Building the next situation privately#
One edit at a time is right for a small correction and wrong for a real turn in the incident. Dragging fire across the building while the crew watch shows them your hand, and it fills the record with thirty small changes nobody wants to scrub through.
Change conditions opens a draft. From that moment your scene is yours: add fire, smoke, victims or hazards, move what is there, change what is selected, take as long as you need. Nothing reaches the crew until you push it. They are still working the scene as it was.
The draft starts from the scene as it actually stands, not from the scenario as you authored it, so everything you have already done in this drill is carried into it.
Push to crew asks what changed and why, then delivers the whole thing as one change at one moment. The reason is optional, and worth typing: it is what the debrief reads back. "Fire extended to Bravo" says what happened. "No line on the seat of the fire" says why, and that is what a crew learns from.
Discard (or Escape) backs out without showing anyone. If the draft had real work in it, an undo appears so a mis-click does not cost you the minute you just spent.
Injects and levels#
The Injects tab in the right panel lists the scenario's injects. Click one to fire it. Scheduled injects fire on their own when the clock reaches their time. Situation levels can be applied from the same panel to rearrange the whole scene at once.
Marking the tactical map#
The aerial view gives command a pen: freehand strokes, short labels, and an eraser, in five colors. Marks appear on everyone's overview the moment they are drawn, because the map command draws is doctrine the whole incident reads: division breaks, drop points, water shuttle routes. The after-action review replays the board as it stood at any moment, including marks that were later erased.
Both you and the incident commander hold the pen; crews read the map and work the radio.
See Injects and Situation levels.
What the crew's feed shows#
The crew read the scene, not the log. Nothing about a conditions change appears in their Events list: not a level you applied, not an inject that fired, not a situation you composed and pushed. They see smoke bank down and fire take the Bravo side, and they size it up themselves, which is the drill.
Your own feed shows all of it, with the names and reasons you gave, so you can see what you have done and when.
Everything appears for everyone in the after-action review once the drill has ended. That is the point of recording it: the debrief is where "fire extended to Bravo, no line on the seat" does its teaching, and the crew are ready to hear it then.
Moving people#
Bring all here snaps every participant to the view you are looking at. Use it sparingly: walking the building is part of the exercise. It is useful for a mid-drill teaching moment when you want everyone looking at the same thing.
Notes#
The note field at the bottom of the right panel records a timestamped note in the drill record. Notes are visible to everyone in the feed and appear in the review, which makes them useful for marking moments to discuss in the debrief.
Command#
Assign or transfer command from the Board tab. Transferring command mid-drill is itself worth drilling. If command lands on someone standing inside the structure, they are walked outside automatically, because command works from the exterior.
End the session#
■ End session asks for confirmation, then seals the session: no further actions are recorded, no new joins are accepted, and everyone moves to the after-action review together.
If a drill breaks up without anyone pressing it, it closes itself an hour after the last person leaves. See How a drill runs.
Once ended, a session cannot be reopened. The record is complete and permanent.
Practical notes#
- Watch the occupancy counts on the view tabs to see where everyone is standing. Crews clustered on one side usually means nobody is doing a 360.
- Resist narrating over the radio. Let the drill produce the information; if crews are not asking, that is the finding.
- The drill holds up to 50 participants. Instructors are always admitted, even at the cap.