And when the building collapses or they become disoriented inside, more lives will be lost because more firefighters were inside. A review of on-scene firefighter deaths and injuries a few years ago revealed that most happened when there were far more than four firefighters on scene. That's logical, since the more people present when something goes wrong, the more will be victims of that misfortune. As a result, the fire service of some other nations is reluctant to put firefighters inside any structure where the fire has grown beyond the incipient stage. That policy results in fewer injuries and a negligible increase in the cost of recovery for the property owner and insurer.
Fire suppression is a last resort when all other efforts have failed.
But we have not devoted much more than lip service to our prevention efforts. And the fire suppression forces are not enamored of fire prevention. Yet they save far more lives in this country every day than all the firefighters in the world put together. If the fire service were truly concerned about saving the lives and property of firefighters and civilians alike, they would agree to minimum standards for physical performance for all incumbent firefighters. I know of one case where a firefighter filed a grievance claiming an unsafe condition existed, because another firefighter was too grossly overweight to be capable of rescuing him if he needed help.