All personnel should have a thorough knowledge of the capabilities of special emergency fire vehicles to ensure they select the correct type for the needs of the incident. They should also be aware of those that could be requested to help minimise the number of pumping appliances and personnel needed to deal with that particular incident. Their knowledge of the risks on their fire ground will be backed by regular visits and deployment planning, enabling them to assess the additional resources required at an incident involving fire.
Incident commanders should begin assessing the need for additional resources as soon as they are mobilised to an incident, based on the number of calls received, information received by fire control, visual indications en route and knowledge gained on visits and through pre-planning, which may give indications of what may be required.