How does the Incident Commander conduct a PAR?

• A. By calling for each Branch, Group, or Division in order and having them account for their personnel.
• B. By recording all names on a single sheet for the entire incident.
• C. By asking unit leaders to report only missing personnel.
• D. By using automatic tracking devices in each firefighter.

Answer: (A)

A PAR is a roll call of everyone assigned to the incident to verify accountability and location. The Incident Commander initiates it by asking for a status report from each Branch, Group, and Division and the supervisors of key units. Each supervisor reports the personnel under their supervision, noting who is accounted for, who is operating at a specific location, who is out of service, and who is missing. The IC then tallies these responses to determine if anyone is unaccounted for and to guide safety actions if needed. This unit-based approach is preferred over a single master list for the entire incident because it reflects the distributed, dynamic nature of the operation and allows rapid identification of missing personnel, relying on the people actually supervising crews rather than on devices or a single consolidated sheet.