RescueFit

What a Playbook looks like

One sample play, start to finish. Made-up department, real structure.

Anytown Fire Department does not exist. Everything below is invented so you can see the shape of a play without reading somebody else's internal document. A real book is your department's — your apparatus, your riding assignments, your SOPs, your wording, your arguments. I don't write the tactics. The company does, at the kitchen table, and the book is where the answer lands so the next crew inherits it instead of re-deciding it at 0300.

27 plays, five categories

Every call type a company runs, each one a single page you can hold on a phone.

Fire

  • First-due building fire
  • Building fire — not first due
  • Automatic fire alarm
  • High-rise / standpipe
  • Vehicle fire
  • Dumpster, brush & outside fires
  • Waterfront & marina fire
  • Lithium-ion battery fire

Rescue

  • Motor vehicle accident
  • Elevator entrapment
  • Water rescue — with a boat
  • Water rescue — no boat
  • Ice rescue
  • Rope / high angle
  • Confined space
  • Interstate & major bridge

EMS

  • Medical
  • Cardiac arrest
  • Trauma
  • Mass casualty

Hazmat

  • Gas leak / odor of gas
  • CO alarm
  • Wires down
  • Hazmat / spill

Service

  • Lockout / rapid entry
  • Flooding / water problem
  • Storm response

One play, in full

01 · Fire · Anytown FD · Engine 4

First-Due Building Fire

First due — what changes as each unit lands, and what changes when we're short.

v0.4 Reviewed 12 Aug 2026 Shift-reviewed 9 of 11 decided

On arrival four things are ours: the initial report, the first line, primary search, and Command. Search and the line start together. Everything else waits for the second due or for water.

The call

Dispatched
Reported structure fire, full assignment
We are
Engine 4 — officer, driver, two riders. Four on scene until the next unit lands.
Coming
Engine 6, Truck 1, Rescue 1, Battalion 1. RIT is the fourth-due engine on the working fire.
Talkgroup
County dispatch on response, Fireground 1 on arrival. Officer stays on Fireground 1.
Tanks
Engine 4 carries 750 gallons. About two minutes of a 1¾" line, and less than that if it's flowing.

Critical functions

Priority order. Priority is not sequence — the first line and the search start at the same time, and supply runs alongside both.

  • OfficerInitial report and size-up, with the ask in it
  • RidersPrimary search — the fire floor and the floor above, egress paths first
  • EngineWater on the fire from the safest place that reaches it, then move in
  • DriverWater supply — second due when they're close behind, the driver when they're not
  • OfficerCommand, accountability, and knowing where every crew is
  • AllDoor control — every door we open is a decision, not a habit
  • TruckVentilation, coordinated with water. Not before.
  • AllExtension check and overhaul — it is out when that says it's out

Who has what

Function and tools, by seat. This is the part every department fills in differently, and the part that ends most of the arguments.

Officer

Size-up on arrival, then Command until Battalion 1 takes it. Goes in with the line. Owns the radio and the count of who is where.Radio · TIC · irons

Driver

Pump, then supply. Stays with the rig. Knows the tank number out loud, not in his head.Hydrant bag · supply line · gated wye

Rider 1 & 2

Stretch the first line, then search off the line. Search does not wait for water supply.1¾" line · hook · can · search rope

Ambulance crew

Rehab and treatment position, upwind and out of the collapse zone. Stages, does not free-lance into the building.Jump bag · monitor · O₂

First 60 seconds

  • 0:00Wheels stopped. Officer gives the initial report before anyone gets off the rig.
  • 0:10360 if the building allows it. If it doesn't, say so on the radio — a missing 360 is information.
  • 0:25Line stretched to the door, flaked out, not charged yet. Driver on the panel.
  • 0:40Door control set. Charge the line. Bleed it before you go through the door, not after.
  • 0:60Entry. Officer announces going in and with whom. Clock starts on the count.

Radio — what gets said

Wording the company agreed on, so it comes out the same when it's loud.

Engine 4 "Engine 4 on scene, two-story wood frame, smoke showing from the second floor Delta side. Engine 4 is stretching a line to the front door and starting a primary. Engine 4 has Anytown Command." On arrival, before anyone leaves the rig.
Engine 4 "Command to Engine 6 — catch the hydrant on Second Street and give me a supply." As soon as the second due is assigned, not when they arrive.
Command "Command to all units — PAR check, fire floor and floor above." At the twenty-minute mark and at every change of tactic.

As units arrive

  • 2nd EngSupply, then back up the first line. Does not pass the first line to find its own fire.
  • TruckForcible entry beyond the door, ladders, search above the fire, ventilation on Command's word.
  • RescueSecond search team, then RIT until the fourth due lands.
  • BattalionTakes Command face to face, not over the radio. Officer goes back to the line.

When we're short

Three on the rig
  • The line and the search cannot both start. The company decided the line goes first and the search starts when the second due lands — write down what your company decided, because the crew will do whatever is written here at 0300.
  • Driver stays on the pump. He is not a third interior firefighter, no matter how it looks.
  • Say it on the radio. "Engine 4 is short, we are going with the line only" is a size-up, not an apology, and it changes what the second due does before they arrive.

Company decisions

With three, does the line go first or does the search go first?

Line first

Who catches the hydrant when the second due is more than four minutes out?

Driver, on arrival

In the live book these are dropdowns your company fills in, with a name and a date against each one. The index shows how many of a play's questions are still open, so you can see at a glance what the shift hasn't settled yet.

Anytown FD · Play 01 · v0.4 · Sample — fictional department · Discussion and training aid — the SOP manual is the controlling document

What the real book does that this page doesn't

  • Everyone signs in. Every pick, note and edit carries a name and a date.
  • Company decisions get answered. Dropdowns and text fields at the end of each play. The index shows how many are still open.
  • Anyone can add a note or fix the wording of a play directly, and it waits in a bar until someone saves it to the book.
  • History. Every saved change, who made it, when.
  • Print. The whole book, every section open, for the guys who want paper.
  • It's one file. No install, no account, works on a phone in the bay with no signal.

Would your company use this?

That's the only question I'm trying to answer right now. If the answer is yes, say so and I'll know where to spend the next month. If it's no, tell me what's missing — that's just as useful.

Yes, we'd use it Ask for access