Scan means that you should gather information from all available sources and use all your senses and experience. Scan with a thermal imaging camera, use your bare eyes, drones, collect information from the property owner, look at floor plans, and get local knowledge from crews. The Scan step includes not only gathering information but also creating new information based on the scanned information – for instance, risk assessment. The risk assessment then indicates what to do next. Always continuously scan the situation in order to change tactics as the situation changes.
The Cobra SAVE method of Scan, Attack, Ventilate and Enter is developed by firefighters. It is a dynamically applied method where each step could be used in any order.
