From Pre-Incident Plan to Incident Command: Getting Preplans on the Board

Fire departments spend hours walking buildings, sketching site plans and noting where the sprinkler riser is. Then a working fire comes in at 2 a.m., and the preplan stays in a binder on the rig or a folder on a laptop. The work was done. It just never made it to the command post.

This post covers what goes in a fire preplan, why preplans often fail to reach incident command, and what changes when the preplan is on the command board itself.

What Is a Fire Preplan?

A fire preplan, also called a pre-incident plan, is a record of a building’s layout, access, water supply and hazards, built before an emergency. Crews gather it during a walk-through, then use it to size up the building on arrival.

The national standard for preplanning was NFPA 1620, Standard for Pre-Incident Planning. In 2024, NFPA folded it into NFPA 1660, Standard for Emergency, Continuity, and Crisis Management, along with NFPA 1600 and NFPA 1616. If your SOPs still cite NFPA 1620, it may be time to update the reference.

What Goes in a Fire Department Preplan?

Most departments use a pre plan template with a cover sheet, a site plan and floor plans. Eugene Springfield Fire’s preplan guidance is a good example of what each part holds:

• Cover sheet: the responsible party and how to reach them, address, building designations and number of floors, including basements and mezzanines.
• Site plan: apparatus access routes, gates and how they open, entry points, utility shutoffs, hydrants, water valves, fire department connections (FDCs), key boxes and site hazards such as tanks or outdoor storage.
• Floor plans: exits, stairwells, fire-rated walls and doors, the sprinkler riser and valves, standpipes, elevators and alarm panels.
• Roof plan: roof access, skylights, smoke vents, mechanical equipment and construction type.

For taller buildings, crews also note which systems each FDC feeds, standpipe outlet locations, floor-level sprinkler valves and elevator recall controls, as Lt. Brad French of the Dayton Fire Department lays out in Fire Engineering.

Why Don’t Preplans Reach the Command Post?

The preplan is built by one part of the department and needed by another. Inspectors and company officers create it during the week. The incident commander needs it in the first minutes of a call, often while driving, talking on the radio and setting up the board.

The Preplan Lives in a Different Place Than the Board

Many departments keep preplans in binders, shared drives or a separate preplan app. The command board is a whiteboard or a tactical worksheet. To use both, the IC has to stop, find the right building and flip between two sources.

The First Minutes Are the Busiest

Size-up, first assignments and the first PAR all happen early. Pulling up a preplan competes with every one of those tasks. If it takes more than a tap or two, it often gets skipped.

Mutual Aid Crews May Never See It

A preplan stored in one department’s system rarely reaches the engine coming from the next town. Those crews arrive without the hydrant locations, FDCs or hazards your department already mapped.

Out-of-Date Plans Lose Trust

Buildings change. Tenants move, storage grows and doors get locked. When a preplan is years old, officers stop relying on it, even when most of it is still right.

What Changes When Preplans Are on the Command Board?

When preplans and the command board share one platform, the IC stops switching between sources. The building information is already on the map they use to run the call.

One Map for the Whole Fireground

In Fireworks Incident Command, hydrants, preplans, hazards, staging and landing zones sit on your department’s Esri layers. The IC assigns units on the same map that shows the FDC and the nearest hydrant. For more on how the board itself works, see Digital Incident Command Boards.

Crews See It on the Way

The Fireworks Response App puts preplan information and hydrant locations into its maps and routing, so crews can review the building before they arrive. See Mobile Responder Apps for how the Response App and Pro App split the work.

Mutual Aid Works From the Same Plan

With county preplan sharing, neighboring stations and mutual aid partners see the same building layouts, hazards and hydrant locations. The engine from the next town arrives with your department’s preplan, not a blank page.

Preplans Stay Current Because They Are Part of the Routine

In Fireworks Fire Prevention & Safety, preplans are assigned automatically by station and shift. Each property keeps one record with its inspections attached. Crews update preplans in the Pro App, online or offline, and changes sync when they reconnect.

It Still Works Without a Signal

Incident Command keeps working offline and syncs when the connection returns. A basement fire or a rural call does not take the preplan off the board.

Frequently Asked Questions About Fire Preplans

Take the Next Step Toward One Incident, One Record

Preplans are one part of running command in a single platform. Read The Incident Command System for Fire Departments and Fireground Accountability: From Tags and Boards to a Digital PAR.