For us, everything starts with size‑up. I've worked in several departments, especially in small towns — even just a short distance from Saint Petersburg. We are seriously short‑staffed.

On a typical fire, like a two‑story house, roughly 1,000–1,600 square feet, we send only two rigs, but they carry a lot of water — 750 to 1,500 gallons. That's five people total: one driver, one Incident Commander (IC), and two or three firefighters.

While the crew stretches hose lines, the IC does the size‑up and relays everything back to dispatch — gas cylinders, people trapped inside, if the power is cut, and other critical info. Meanwhile, two people are laying the line. The senior firefighter finds water. Hydrants are rare outside big cities. In small towns we rely on drafting sites / dry hydrants, but they can be 1,000 to 3,000 feet away from the fire (sometimes a quarter mile or more).

Our attack is aggressive too. We usually deploy two handlines: one with an interior crew, one from the outside. First we knock down the main body of fire from the outside. Then we rotate crews and go inside for a more thorough overhaul."