Clarification: A more accurate description of the bullet situation was that the bullet bounced off the firefighter’s right shoulder and came to rest on the floorboard of the engine (passenger side). The bullet did not penetrate the firefighter’s fire shirt nor did it break his skin.
Radio traffic: At the time of the fire response the firefighter radioed to the incident commander that there was ammunition cooking off in the house and was hit by a bullet. Once this was announced over the radio, the channel was flooded with radio traffic. It took the firefighter approximately 45 minutes to get back to the incident commander and relay that he was uninjured. Radio discipline must be adhered to when an emergency is declared over the radio. The appropriate channel must be cleared so communications pertaining to the emergency can occur unimpeded.
Chain of Command: During the fire response the submitter heard three different names as being the incident commander for the fire. This led to much confusion as to who was in charge of the fire as incident commander. Finally, an incident commander was identified over the radio and all resources on scene acknowledge the new incident commander. Operations seemed to run smoothly after the chain of command was firmed up. Upon arrival to an incident an in-brief should be provided to all arriving resources. |
