General fire fighting practice
Objective
What you should learn and remember from this lesson is the following:
- What does ABC approach stand for?
- What are the tasks of the Attacker, Buddy and Communicator?
ABC-approach
A generally used method to combat onboard fires is by applying the ABC-approach. The crewmember that discovers the fire or smoke is acting as Attacker (firefighter), alarming another crewmember to act as Buddy (assistant) and a third crewmember shall act as Communicator.
If there are only two crewmembers, the Buddy is also the Communicator (there are also other names being used such as Firefighter, Coordinator or Runner).
Attacker
The tasks of the Attacker are as follows:
- Alarm Buddy
- Obtain firefighting equipment
- Identify source of the fire
- Use PBE, if necessary
- Extinguish fire
- Identify cause of the fire
- Monitor for re-ignition
Buddy
The tasks of the Buddy are as follows:
- Alarm Communicator
- Obtain additional firefighting equipment
- Remove flammable materials from the scene
- Use PBE, if necessary
- Support Attacker
Communicator
The tasks of the Communicator are as follows:
- Inform flight crew
- Inform passengers
- Relocate passengers, if necessary
- Use PBE, if necessary
- Keep flight crew informed
