"How and Why We Do Things"
Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue's Pre-Fire Planning Program

By CKFR Battalion Chief Mike Tague, Shift Commander, Pre-Fire Plan Administrator

Firefighters encounter many dangers while responding to and working at the scene of emergencies. While our business involves taking acceptable risks to preserve lives and protect property, we can take measures to improve our own, as well as the public's safety. Ensuring we can provide the necessary personnel to adequately handle the work load at an emergency scene is paramount. Structural fire calls, especially commercial, require an incredible amount of manpower to safely mitigate. Access to well maintained, modern firefighting equipment and apparatus, and the proper training to operate it is also essential. Adopting fire and building codes that provide for the necessary water supplies, fire detection and protection systems, and fire resistive construction practices help reduce these risks as well. However, possessing pre-incident knowledge of a structure and its relative hazards is absolutely critical. This is known as pre-fire planning, and Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue has a model program.

Pre-fire planning involves obtaining building information and drawings on specific commercial buildings that will assist responders in fire suppression and rescue efforts in the event of an emergency. Firefighters are assigned building complexes to visit, collect information, and then develop plans. Pre-fire plans consist of pertinent building information which includes names, addresses, and phone numbers of the building and business owners, emergency contacts and phone numbers, water supply information, access and alarm system instructions, and fire suppression and rescue strategies. Special hazards are also noted, as well as the type of construction for the main "shell" and roof.

Drawings are made to scale to include an overall site and building plan. Site plans show the entire complex, surrounding exposures, street accesses, and hydrant locations. Building plans show a comprehensive floor by floor diagram of interior partitions and fire walls as well as locations of utility shut-offs, fire suppression systems, fire department connections, fire alarm panels, key boxes, and roof and attic accesses.

Firefighters create drawings utilizing a computer aided design (CAD) program. This facilitates standardization in each plan as well as assisting with future updates. All pre-fire plans are stored in a master data management program that is accessed from Mobile Data Terminals (MDT's) in individual fire apparatus. This program also shows digital pictures of each building, street maps, water main and hydrant locations, and satellite imagery of the building and surrounding area.

All this information is accessible to firefighters and command staff to assist with the response and operations when on scene. Pre-fire plans are also utilized during non-emergency periods for training exercises. Firefighters will familiarize themselves with a selected complex and review possible scenarios and strategies to best handle potential emergencies.

Central Kitsap Fire & Rescue is committed to providing the highest level of service to our community. Pre-fire planning is one way we strive to accomplish this. It allows us to mitigate emergencies involving commercial structures as safely as possible, protecting lives, as well as assisting in property conservation.

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