SWP - Two-In Two-Out and Rapid Intervention

Setting up the outside team before anyone goes inside, and keeping a dedicated rapid intervention crew (RIT) ready for the whole time members are in a hazard zone. This procedure applies whenever a member enters an atmosphere that is or may be immediately dangerous to life or health at a structure fire or any other incident where entry is in SCBA, and whenever the incident is a working fire (NFPA 1550, 2024, cl. 3.3.140, 3.3.140.1 and ch. 10).

• A crew in trouble inside with nobody outside equipped and ready to reach them.
• A “RIT” that is really the pump operator and the incident commander, or that has been reassigned to pull hose (MLITSD, n.d., GN 6-11).
• A rescue attempt by an untrained or unequipped member that produces a second casualty.
• Entry by a short crew at a volunteer station with no second unit coming.
• The RIT itself becoming lost or running out of air in a large or complex building.

Full structural PPE and SCBA for every IRIC and RIT member; the RIT equipment in Emergency Operations Safety Program toolkit item 3 (RIT pack, thermal imager, radios, search rope, lights, forcible entry tools, saw, rescue rope and sling, stokes or sled, ladders staged, collapse tape, a charged line assigned); the accountability board and tags.

• Initial rapid intervention crew (IRIC): two members of the initial attack crew, outside the IDLH, in full PPE and SCBA, in radio contact with the entry crew and command, assigned to rapid deployment if the entry crew calls for help (NFPA 1550, 2024, cl. 3.3.140.1). One may be the pump operator only if the operator can leave the panel without abandoning a charged line to a crew inside; the second has no other duty.
• Rapid intervention crew (RIT): a dedicated crew with no other assignment, trained to the rapid intervention crew training standard (NFPA 1550, 2024, cl. 3.3.140; NFPA 1407, 2020). The regulations consulted set a minimum of two members (J12 Fire Service OHS Rules and Fireground Operations); this system’s default is an officer and three members.
• Target: full RIT in place within 10 minutes of the first interior entry, a benchmark that at least one jurisdiction sets by regulation and that this department adopts (J12 Fire Service OHS Rules and Fireground Operations).
• Not the RIT: the incident commander, the ISO, division supervisors, the accountability officer, pump and aerial operators, as some jurisdictions also require by regulation (J12 Fire Service OHS Rules and Fireground Operations).
• Buddy rule: no member inside a hazard zone alone; a member on SCBA is accompanied by another similarly equipped with the same air capacity (J12 Fire Service OHS Rules and Fireground Operations).

1. Command established; 360 completed or received; strategy declared (Emergency Operations Safety Program sections 5.2 and 5.8).
2. Decision point: how many members are on scene in full PPE and SCBA?
   • Four or more: two enter, two stay outside as the IRIC, in contact, facepieces ready. Entry may proceed.
   • Three: the crew holds outside, sets up the line and the entry point, and enters when the fourth member or the second unit arrives.
   • Two: no interior entry. Exterior attack through an opening where it will help; this is a legitimate tactic, not a failure (Emergency Operations Safety Program section 5.10).
3. Decision point: is there a known, specific, savable person inside who will die without immediate action? Only then may the officer enter without the two outside. The officer reports it on the radio before entering (“Command, Engine 1 is entering for a reported occupant, second floor, no IRIC”), command makes the IRIC or RIT the first priority, and the event is reviewed afterwards. The exception never applies to property and never to a search without a sign of an occupant.
4. The IRIC positions at the entry point, monitors the tactical channel, watches the entry crew’s air time, keeps a charged line ready, and does not take any other task.

5. Command assigns the RIT from the first available company that is not needed for the attack, by name and on the radio, and tells the accountability officer. The RIT reports to the entry point, not to staging.
6. The RIT officer: confirms the equipment against the checklist, gets the strategy, the crews inside and their locations from command, and positions where the crews can be reached.
7. The RIT softens the building without entering: ladders to upper-floor windows, secondary doors forced and marked, bars and obstructions removed, lighting, a second egress identified for each crew inside. The RIT officer reports what it finds to command and the ISO.
8. The RIT monitors the tactical channel continuously and watches conditions on the sides it can see; it walks the building when the entry crews have moved.
9. Decision point: 10 minutes since first entry with no RIT in place? Command decides whether to continue the interior attack with the IRIC only, hold crews at their position, or go defensive, and says so on the radio. The decision is written up afterwards (step 15).

10. On a mayday or a missing crew, command deploys the RIT to the last known location with the RIT pack, thermal imager and search rope, and announces it (SWP - Mayday).
11. Command immediately assigns a second RIT from the next-arriving company and requests an additional alarm. A deployed RIT is a working crew; it comes off the board as a RIT and the accountability officer tracks it as an entry crew.
12. The RIT works as a crew, stays together, manages its own air with a turnaround point, and reports progress every two to three minutes; a second RIT backs it up and relieves it.
13. The RIT brings the member to the nearest exit, not back the way it came unless that is nearer; EHS is staged at that exit.

14. The RIT stands down only when the last crew is out of the hazard zone and the final PAR is complete.
15. If the interior attack continued without a RIT within 10 minutes, the incident commander completes the “RIT not in place” report (Emergency Operations Safety Program toolkit item 4) to the fire chief within 24 hours. It is a learning record: what the department needs so it happens less.
16. RIT equipment is checked and restored before the apparatus goes back in service.

• Entry crew calls for help before the RIT is in place: the IRIC goes, command assigns the next crew as RIT and strikes an additional alarm.
• RIT runs low on air inside: the RIT officer calls it, the second RIT relieves, nobody stays past the turnaround air.
• RIT member in trouble: mayday from the RIT, second RIT deploys, command requests further alarms and goes defensive if the fire is not controlled.
• No second unit coming (rural, aid delayed): defensive operations; exterior water; no entry. Record it for the team and the deployment review.

CAD and radio timestamps for first entry and RIT assignment; RIT equipment checklist weekly and after each deployment; “RIT not in place” report within 24 hours; RIT deployment recorded in the incident record and triaged to a Tier 2 Post-Incident Analysis under Incident Investigation and Learning Program. RIT-in-place rate and report counts in the quarterly indicator worksheet.

Every suppression member: annual RIC skills refresher (search for a downed member, air supply transfer, packaging and removal, breaching, ladder rescues, large-area search) with sign-off (NFPA 1407, 2020). Every officer: the decision points in section 6 in the annual command simulation. Joint RIT drill with automatic aid partners annually. The Fire Suppression and Emergency Operations team reviews this procedure annually, after every deployment, and after every “RIT not in place” report, with a learning-team session with crews before any change. Sign-off: the program manager; consulted: the JOHSC, which also receives every “RIT not in place” report.

• Program: Emergency Operations Safety Program sections 5.5 and 5.6.
• Policy: Policy - Emergency Operations Safety.
• Procedures: SWP - Mayday; SWP - Accountability and Personnel Accountability Reports; SWP - SCBA Donning, Use and Air Management.
• Forms: Form - Incident Safety Officer Report; RIT equipment checklist and “RIT not in place” report in the program toolkit.

This chapter relies on the following legal requirements, which differ by province and territory. Check your jurisdiction’s section on each topic page before adopting it.

Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development [MLITSD]. (n.d.). Firefighter guidance notes (Section 21 Advisory Committee; individual notes revised to 2026). https://www.ontario.ca/document/firefighter-guidance-notes