Interior operations in a drill
Module. This page covers how it plays out during a drill. To build interior views into a scenario, see Module: interior simulation.
Companies work inside the structure. Command stays outside with no view of the interior at all. Everything command knows about conditions inside arrives by radio and CAN report.
Who gets in#
A member can enter an interior view when all three are true:
- The drill has started.
- Their unit has arrived on scene.
- Their unit's current assignment on the command board is marked as an interior duty (the house flag).
Anyone else sees the room tabs with a lock, and the tooltip says why. Members with no unit assigned do not enter. The incident commander follows the same three rules: a first-due IC whose unit holds an interior duty can make entry.
Instructors move freely and see everything.
How command clears a company in#
On the Board tab, give the unit an assignment carrying the house flag. Fire Attack, Search & Rescue, Backup Line, Overhaul, and Salvage are interior duties in the default list; Ventilation, Water Supply, RIT, Exposure Protection, Rehab, and Utilities are not. Your department can edit this list, including the interior flag, in Department settings.
Access is live: assign an interior duty and the tabs unlock for that crew. Reassign them to an exterior duty and access is revoked immediately, with anyone inside walked back out to an exterior position. The move is recorded.
Inside#
An interior view shows what the scenario author built: fire, smoke, victims, hazards.
Smoke behaves the way it does inside a structure. Rather than a plume, it banks down from the ceiling as a layer. Heavy, dark smoke drops the layer far enough to approach blackout, and a victim low in the room stays visible until the layer reaches them. What you can see is a function of conditions, which is the point.
Reporting#
Use the CAN report control:
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| Conditions | What you have. |
| Actions | What you are doing. |
| Needs | What you need. |
| Heat | Low, Moderate, High, Untenable. |
Heat is declared by the crew inside because heat is felt, not seen. There is no way for the software or the IC to know it otherwise.
Reports appear in everyone's feed, tagged with the room. The most recent heat for a room shows as a colored badge on that room's tab, so command can see at a glance that the kitchen was reported at high heat even though they cannot see the kitchen.
You can send heat alone, which is the fast way to report deteriorating conditions.
What command sees#
Nothing of the interior. Command sees:
- the exterior views and the aerial,
- who is inside and which room they are in, from the occupancy counts on the view tabs,
- every radio transmission and every CAN report, including reported heat.
Accountability is not hidden; conditions are. Command knows where crews are, and knows only what they report about what it is like there.
Common failure modes worth drilling#
- Crews that do not report. Command has no information at all. This shows up immediately in the review as a long gap in CAN reports.
- Command that does not ask. Elapsed-time notifications go by with no request for conditions.
- Heat reported late. The crew reports Untenable one transmission before they would have been in trouble.
- Reassignment without acknowledgment. A crew pulled to an exterior duty is walked out of the structure; if command did not tell them why, expect confusion, which is itself a finding.
In the review#
The after-action review shows interior views to everyone with no restriction, including conditions at any point in the timeline. The blind rules exist during the drill; the debrief is where you compare what was happening inside with what command was told.