Writing Pre-Incident Plans: How to Build Plans That Crews Actually Use

Every fire department knows they should be doing pre-incident planning. Most departments have a stack of pre-plans somewhere, maybe in a binder on the rig, maybe in a shared drive on the station computer, maybe in a filing cabinet that nobody has opened in three years. The problem is not that departments fail to create pre-plans. The problem is that most pre-plans are written in a way that makes them useless when you actually need them.

I have walked into buildings with officers who pulled out a pre-plan that was ten years old, did not reflect the current tenant, had an outdated floor plan, and contained so much information crammed onto one page that you could not find anything useful in the thirty seconds you had before making entry. That is not pre-planning. That is paperwork.

Good pre-incident plans save lives. They give you critical information about a building before you arrive under emergency conditions. They help you anticipate hazards, plan your operations, and make better decisions under pressure. But they only do that if they are written right, kept current, and formatted in a way that crews can actually use in the field.

What a Pre-Plan Should Actually Contain

NFPA 1620 at nfpa.org is the standard for pre-incident planning in the fire service. It provides a comprehensive framework for what should be included in a pre-plan. But here is the reality: if you try to include everything NFPA 1620 covers in a single document, you end up with a plan that is so comprehensive nobody can find the information they need during an emergency.

The best pre-plans I have seen balance thoroughness with usability. They include the information that first-arriving crews need to make immediate decisions, and they organize it in a way that can be absorbed in under a minute.

Here is what should be on the front page of every pre-plan, the page your crew sees when they pull it up on the way to the call.

Building name and address. This sounds obvious, but I have seen pre-plans where the address is buried or formatted in a way that is hard to read quickly.

Construction type. Is it Type I fire-resistive, Type II non-combustible, Type III ordinary, Type IV heavy timber, or Type V wood frame? This determines how the building will behave under fire conditions and how long you have before structural elements start to fail.

Occupancy type and use. Is this a warehouse, a restaurant, a church, an apartment building, a daycare? What is stored here? How many people are typically inside, and at what times of day?

Number of stories. Include any basement levels, mezzanines, or loft spaces that might not be obvious from the exterior.

Square footage. This tells you the scale of what you are dealing with.

Fire protection systems. Does the building have sprinklers? What type? Where is the fire department connection? Where is the alarm panel? Where are the standpipe connections? Is there a fire pump? What about a fire alarm monitoring system?

Utility shutoffs. Where are the gas, electric, and water shutoffs? Are there any special utility considerations like solar panels on the roof, high-voltage equipment, or backup generators?

Known hazards. Hazardous materials storage, compressed gas cylinders, fall hazards, structural concerns, security features that impede access, any conditions that could injure or kill your crews.

Access points. Where are the main entrances? Where are the service entrances, loading docks, and emergency exits? Are there gates, fences, or security barriers that will slow your access?

Water supply. Where are the nearest hydrants? What is the flow capacity? Are there any water supply limitations?

A simple diagram showing the building footprint, access points, hydrant locations, and fire department connection locations is worth more than a paragraph of text.

Writing for the Firefighter, Not the Inspector

One of the biggest mistakes in pre-incident planning is writing the plan from a fire prevention perspective instead of an operations perspective. Pre-plans written by fire prevention bureaus tend to focus on code compliance details that are important for inspections but useless for suppression crews. The first-arriving engine company does not need to know the occupant load calculation or the exact fire code section that applies to the sprinkler system. They need to know whether the building has sprinklers, where the FDC is, and whether the system is operational.

Write your pre-plans in the language that suppression crews use. Be direct. Be specific. Use terminology that the firefighter riding backwards on the engine will understand at three in the morning after being woken up by the tones.

Instead of writing "The structure is equipped with a wet-pipe automatic fire sprinkler system in accordance with NFPA 13," write "Wet sprinkler system throughout. FDC on Side Alpha, left of the main entrance. Alarm panel in the lobby on the right wall."

Instead of writing "The occupancy contains quantities of combustible storage that may present elevated fire loading conditions," write "Heavy stock storage on the warehouse floor. Expect deep-seated fires with high heat release. Pallet racks floor to ceiling, 20-foot clearance."

Get to the point. Your crews do not have time to parse technical writing during an emergency.

Keeping Plans Current

A pre-plan that is three years old might be worse than no pre-plan at all. Buildings change. Tenants change. Construction and renovations alter floor plans. Storage contents change. Fire protection systems get modified or taken out of service. A pre-plan that tells your crew there is a sprinkler system in a building where the system was removed during a renovation could lead them to make tactical decisions based on false information.

The best departments I have seen build pre-plan updates into their regular routine. Companies do walk-throughs of their target hazards on a rotating schedule, typically quarterly for high-hazard occupancies and annually for moderate-hazard buildings. During each walk-through, they update the pre-plan if anything has changed. They note new construction, new tenants, new hazards, and any changes to fire protection systems or access.

Some departments assign specific buildings to specific companies. Engine 3 owns the pre-plans for the strip mall, the apartment complex, and the manufacturing plant in their first-due. It becomes part of their identity and responsibility, not a department-wide chore that nobody takes ownership of.

Making Plans Accessible

The best pre-plan in the world is worthless if your crews cannot access it when they need it. Think about how your crews will actually use the plan during a response. If the plan lives in a three-ring binder buried in a compartment on the rig, nobody is going to dig it out while they are pulling up to a working fire.

Digital pre-plans that can be displayed on an MDT or tablet in the cab give crews the ability to review critical information during the response. Some departments have pre-plans that automatically populate on the MDT when a target hazard address is dispatched. That is the gold standard. The plan appears on the screen as soon as the tones drop, and the officer can review it on the way to the call.

If your department is not there yet technology-wise, consider creating simplified "cue cards" for your highest-hazard buildings. A laminated card with the building name, construction type, hazards, and a simple diagram that lives in the officer's clipboard or on a ring in the cab. Something that can be grabbed and referenced in ten seconds.

The Walk-Through Process

The walk-through is where the real value of pre-planning happens. It is not just about collecting information for the plan. It is about building mental maps of the buildings in your district so that when you show up at three in the morning in zero visibility, you have a sense of the layout.

When you walk through a building for pre-planning, think like a firefighter, not like an inspector. Walk the route you would take to advance a hoseline. Note the stairwells, the hallways, the doors, and the obstacles. Look up at the ceiling and think about what is above you. Look at the floor and think about what is below you. Identify the places where a firefighter could get lost, trapped, or disoriented.

Take photos. Take lots of photos. Exterior shots from all four sides, interior photos of stairwells, utility rooms, alarm panels, FDC locations, and any unusual features. Photos can be included in the digital pre-plan and are invaluable for training.

Get the building owner or manager involved. They know their building better than anyone, and most are happy to cooperate. They can show you access points, utility locations, and hazard areas that you might not find on your own. Building a relationship with the occupants also improves your fire prevention efforts, because they start to see you as a resource rather than an enforcement agency.

Training With Your Pre-Plans

Once you have a solid pre-plan, use it for training. Run tabletop exercises using your pre-plans as the scenario basis. Give your crew a dispatch for a target hazard, pull up the pre-plan, and walk through your tactical decisions. Where would you position the first engine? Where would you stretch the first line? What are the search priorities? Where would you ventilate? What would make you go defensive?

This is where pre-planning pays the biggest dividends. You are not just creating a document. You are building operational familiarity with the buildings in your district so that when something happens for real, your crew has already thought through the problems.

Pre-incident planning is one of those tasks that feels like extra work until the day it saves your life. Put in the effort now, write plans that are practical and usable, keep them current, and train with them regularly.

First Due Co. builds training tools that help you practice the same tactical decision-making that good pre-planning develops. Realistic scenarios, size-up practice, and command skill building, all designed for the working company officer. See what we have at firstdueco.com.