Equipping a Person with Breathing Apparatus:
There are three different ways to do this.
If you select the vehicle and press the Equip BA button, one person from the crew will be equipped with a breathing apparatus (BA). This can be done while driving, whether the crew is inside or outside the vehicle. If the crew is outside, a firefighter will run to the vehicle to equip the BA there.
In both cases, only one person is equipped with breathing apparatus.
The same happens if you select a firefighter and then click the Equip BA button. This option only works if the firefighter is outside the fire engine.
In Emergency One multiplayer, you can select multiple firefighters at once, who will then run to the nearest vehicle with BA units and equip themselves simultaneously. (Unfortunately, the host currently cannot do this.)
Activating BA Monitoring:
By clicking the corresponding button on the selected vehicle commander, BA monitoring for that specific vehicle is activated.
You can recognize this by the breathing apparatus board on the rear of the fire engine.
If BA monitoring is not active, firefighters with breathing apparatus can be injured when their air supply runs out.
With BA monitoring active, the firefighting effectiveness of the firefighter is reduced by half when the air supply is empty. In the Emergency One modification, they even stop working completely. (This has surprised some players because they checked the water supply but forgot about the BA logic.)
To restore normal performance, you must either replace the oxygen tanks (remove and re-equip the BA) or acquire a breathing apparatus component (explained further below).
Checking Air Supply:
In reality, BA monitoring is usually delegated from the group leader to the engineer, who documents the air supply.
Similarly, in Emergency One, you can check the air supply of the firefighters in a vehicle by selecting the engineer. A blue bar will then appear above each firefighter with BA.
This function is only available if BA monitoring is active.
Air consumption varies depending on the firefighter’s activity:
- Standing still uses less air
- Walking uses more
- Physical work (e.g., extinguishing) consumes the most air
When firefighters have only 25% of their air supply left, a warning beep sounds, alerting the player to bring the BA roll container (AB-ATS) to the scene!
Breathing Apparatus Roll Container (AB-ATS):
To ensure continuous fresh air supply for firefighters at large incidents, the BA roll container (AB-ATS) is used. It is stationed at Fire and Rescue Station 1.
Once the container is unhitched and activated via the button, the supply is active. (With the Emergency One mod, there is also the GW-ATS.)
It’s not the firefighters themselves but their vehicles that must be within the supply radius.
The supply radius is visible when the activated AB-ATS is selected.
Increasing the Supply Radius:
At large incidents, not all fire engines can be placed within the AB-ATS supply radius.
For this, a chain of command vehicles (ELW) can be set up.
The AB-ATS must remain activated.
If an ELW is inside the supply radius of the AB-ATS, the ELW’s supply radius becomes active as well. Selecting the ELW makes its radius visible.
Such a chain can be formed with the AB-ELW, B command unit, and any C command units.
Therefore, proper vehicle positioning is very important.
You should carefully maintain the fire department’s command structure:
- The AB-ELW and A command are on the same level and do not affect each other (although the AB has a significantly larger radius).
- Both can only influence the B command unit.
- The B command unit can only influence the C command units.
- The C command units influence only the "normal" vehicles.
The breathing apparatus component itself affects every vehicle.
If a fire engine is within the radius of the breathing apparatus component or a C command unit, its firefighters will be supplied with fresh air again.