Gordon Graham
Category: Fire

Gordon Graham here with Today’s Tip from Lexipol. And Today’s Tip deals with fire ground safety and guns with chambered cartridges in a fire.

Consider adding this question to your structure fire or vehicle fire checklist for the incident commander.

Although Today’s Tip is mainly directed at my friends in the fire service, it also has important information for you law enforcement personnel out there.  

Many of you think about “what’s in the fire” when you size up a working fire. It’s the usual stuff like furniture, lightweight building construction and other factors that we always think about. But, have you ever considered guns and ammunition and what could happen? Firefighters have been accidently shot by a weapon that discharged due to the heat of a fire.

This is an important safety issue and it’s a question that may be answered easily on a fire scene. 

Ask the home or business owner if there are any weapons inside. If the answer is yes then ask them if any of the weapons have a cartridge in the chamber? Ask about the location of the firearm in the building or vehicle. Try to determine the orientation of the firearm if possible. If there is a weapon involved in the fire, keep fire fighters and bystanders out of the path of the projectile. 

Consider adding this question to your structure fire or vehicle fire checklist for the incident commander. Develop training for the initial company officer to ask about weapons upon arrival to the fire. 

This is a real safety concern for everyone on scene. A couple of quick questions can help identify this safety concern so you can take immediate action to keep people safe. 

Remember folks, the fire ground can be a dangerous place for a number of reasons and firearms discharges are one of them. 

And that is Today’s Tip from Lexipol. Gordon Graham, signing off.