On the Scene
It only takes six minutes to get to the scene of the fire. It is a three-story wooden apartment building with 24 units. People are standing around everywhere outside the building. They are screaming and crying.

Right now only one part of the building is burning. But, the flames are already shooting out the broken windows. Wooden buildings like this burn fast and hot because the wood is so dry and nearly everything inside -- paper, clothes, furniture and so on -- wants to burn. This thing will go up like a can of gas if you and the team do not act fast.

You jump out of the truck. Most people don't know this, but the truck can start spraying water instantly. There's over 1,000 gallons of water in a huge tank in the middle of the truck. Your first job is to connect a 2-inch hose and start attacking the fire. You grab a hose and start running. Tom is doing the same thing with another 2-inch hose, and you will both be heading for those broken windows first.

Santos, the engineer, starts the truck's main pump and sends water down your line as you get into position. Your hose kicks as it charges -- with 100 gallons per minute shooting out of the hose at 100 PSI, it's like holding onto a jet engine. You are aiming at the base of the flames, trying to cool down the fuel. This is called confinement. You want to keep this fire as small as possible to buy everyone some time.

Meanwhile, Julia is hooking a 5-inch hose to the hydrant. She has to get the water flowing from the hydrant to the truck before the tank runs dry. The second truck is hooking up to your truck because there is only one hydrant nearby. The paramedics from the third truck are grabbing their equipment so that they can stabilize anyone who is injured.

With a big fire like this and multiple trucks on the scene, one person will act as the incident commander. The incident commander keeps the team organized and accounted for. Everyone stays in touch using radios. As other trucks arrive, the incident commander will position them, make sure they get connected to the water supply and deploy the new firefighters.

Sometimes it's necessary to attack the flames from above. A ladder truck equipped with a huge telescoping aerial ladder helps firefighters handle the job. A long pipe that runs the length of the aerial ladder acts as the water line. Hydraulics get the ladder, firefighters and the water above the blaze - pressurized fluid moves through tubes, pushes pistons and drives motors to swivel the entire ladder, raise it up and extend all the sections. Or, you could also use a snorkel. A snorkel is a hydraulic-powered cherry picker with a high-powered water cannon on top.

Matt is getting all the apartment residents into a group away from the building. His most important job is to keep these people safe and find out if anyone is still inside the apartment building. Gabino, Robert and Lee have the hard part -- they have to get inside this tinderbox and do a thorough search. This is rescue, and it is the most important job of any firefighter. If there is anyone left inside that building, your team needs to get them out no matter what. The firefighters may even die trying.