Why are 3 to 4 firefighters needed on each fire engine?
Fire departments are established and staffed to fight fires, a very dangerous, labor intensive, and exhausting endeavor. Assignments given out at a fire are typically assigned to all the firefighters assigned to an individual fire engine, called engine companies, so the assignment can be accomplished as a team. Because firefighting is so dangerous this team concept provides some margin of safety. The smallest size of an engine company in the WFD is 3 firefighters. Running an engine company with four (4) firefighters is safer and more productive on an emergency incident, but due to budget reductions, all WFD engines are being reduced to 3 firefighters. The requirement for initial arriving apparatus to be staffed with at least 4 personnel to initiate an interior fire attack is not new. It has been the fire service standard and industry practice for most of the twentieth century, as well as recognized and recommended by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) since at least 1962.
