I have to express dismay at the comments made by those purporting to be professional pilots. inviting evacuation due to fire into a "discussion" arena is a further example of how Captain's authority has been degraded resulting in some very weak command decisions in our industry in recent years. CRM pundits love all this. That lot would have us use "all available resources" and damn us for not calling Mummy on the HF prior to making decisions.
Way back, in my experience, we stopped making evacuation a discussion item. Captain made the call "Evacuate, evacuate" and informed control. That was it. Cabin crew made the decision as to the use of all , or , selected exits.They were in a far better position to make this judgement. In my last company, cabin crew were also given full authority to order the evacuation if it looked necessary and no call by the captain had been made. No, they did not rush up to the Flight Deck & enter into any discussion. Fire, lots of smoke , the latter being the real quick killer............evacuate, evacuate.
All this nonsense about cosy little discussions with Fire Fighters,cabin crew, Tower etc, Good grief............jump & slide people. Oh, & preferably not into a burning engine. The BA incident, recently, much applauded, looked to me as though evacuation was guided straight into the burning side . I might be wrong and apologise if that was not the case.
A different thread describing the disgraceful plight of one of our US Colleagues facing dismissal for ordering an evacuation highlights this trend of undermining Commander's authority. Stop it & we might resist the trend towards appallingly weak command judgements.