Frequently asked questions
Straight answers about running fire training drills with Scene SizeUp. Something not covered here? Request a demo and ask us directly.
What is Scene SizeUp?
Scene SizeUp is incident command training software for fire departments. Instructors build scenarios on real addresses in their own district, run live multi-company drills that members join from their own devices, and review every decision afterward in an exact replay with the radio traffic in sync.
What do members need to join a drill?
A browser and the session code. Phones, tablets, and laptops all work; there is nothing to install. Members sign in with their department account, and a drill can optionally allow guest joins with no login at all.
Can we train on our own buildings?
Yes. Views come from your own photos, Street View, or aerial imagery of a real address. You place fire, smoke, victims, and hazards on those views, save worsening arrangements as situation levels, and schedule injects that fire on the exercise clock.
How does the radio work?
Push to talk, one transmission at a time. If someone else is on the air, the channel reads busy, just like real traffic. Every transmission is recorded and transcribed, and the after-action review plays it back at the moment it happened.
Is there a dispatcher?
Yes. When the instructor starts the clock, an automated dispatcher reads the call, and each responding unit arrives on its own response time. Crews see the scene when their unit arrives, not before. Elapsed-time notifications and PAR prompts fire on the schedule you set.
What happens after the drill ends?
The record is sealed and becomes the after-action review: an exact replay of the scene, the feed, and the radio, in sync. The crew can gather in a review room with open voice, the instructor drives the playback, and scored evaluations are released to members when the instructor decides. Any drill also prints as a one-page after-action record you can save as a PDF and file.
Does it track training hours?
Yes. The training report totals each member’s drill time for any period you pick, split into time holding command and time as crew, with evaluations attached. It exports to CSV for continuing-education documentation and recertification packets, and any single drill prints as a one-page after-action record to file alongside it.
Does it cover wildland incidents?
The wildland module builds drills on real terrain from a map coordinate: contour maps, a drawn fire perimeter with real acreage, weather that changes mid-drill, structured size-up reports, and LCES with a safety-zone check based on flame length.
Can companies go interior?
With the interior module, companies travel inside the structure while command stays outside. Interior access follows the command board: a company goes in when its assignment is an interior duty and its unit has arrived. Crews inside report conditions with structured CAN reports.
Can we drill at night?
Yes, and the scene looks like night rather than a dimmed daytime photo. Set the scenario to night and every view darkens live. For exterior views built from a daytime photograph, the app relights the image into a true night scene: the sun shadows are gone, the light comes from where it would at 0200, and fire and emergency lighting read the way they do on a real night call. Your original photo is untouched, so the same scenario can be run in daylight or in the dark.
Can we keep a scenario private for promotional evaluations?
Yes. A department admin can mark a scenario admins only, which hides it from everyone else even when your whole crew has instructor access. The drill you run from it stays private too, including its after-action review, because a review replays the scenario in full and the firefighter being evaluated knows the drill code. When the promotion cycle is over you can share the scenario, or release just that one review so the crew can learn from the drill while the scenario stays usable for the next candidate. Training hours always count either way.
What does it cost?
One subscription includes everything: scenario building, live drills, radio, after-action review, apparatus placement, interior simulation, wildland, hazmat, and training-hours reporting. Pricing is per seat: $49 a month or $499 a year per block of 30 seats. Departments can pay by card, ACH, purchase order, or invoice.
Is our training data private?
Each department’s scenarios, drills, and recordings are private to that department. Nothing reaches another department unless you send it there: an admin can link a mutual-aid partner so the two can drill together, or publish a scenario to the public library. Both are deliberate acts, and evaluations stay in-house either way. Radio audio is retained for 14 days; transcripts stay with the training record. The services we rely on to run the product are listed on the security page, and the full privacy notice is public at getsizeup.com/privacy.
Anything else
The full documentation is public: how to build a scenario, run a drill, and read the after-action review, in detail, with no account needed.