B737 Area of Responsibility question re Fire Handle Actuation.

[411A]

In that case they had no choice but to evacuate but it could well be safer to keep pax on board and out of harm's way if at all possible.

If at all possible, it is nearly always safer to keep 'em on board unless the situation dictates otherwise.
In these cases, you absolutely need cabin crew who will listen to instructions rather than acting on their own perhaps misguided thoughts.

[Old Fella]

Who does what?

It would seem to me that the time and place to determine just who is going to do what, if not mandated by company SOP's, would be in the pre-flight briefing. Surely the Captain can, and should, clearly indicate to his or her F/O just who will action memory recall/checklist items and who will confirm the correct action BEFORE it is carried out. All seems pretty simple to me.

[Centaurus]

This obviously relies upon you having an FO you can trust - which they do because their selection and training are up to scratch.

I would treat that assumption with great caution. Just because someone does a faultless job under simulated conditions does not always translate into a faultless job under conditions of stress when faced with the same event. You only have to observe some pilots reactions when faced with a simulated thunderstorm in the box and their reaction when faced with a seriously nasty CB when airborne. I have always worked on the premise of never completely trust the other pilot be he captain or first officer. We all have different brain wiring. You don't have to make a federal case of it, but a silent quiet monitoring of what the other guy has done or is about to do, has successfully served this Ppruner for decades

[Zenj]

This is our procedure, also same with SAA

Our Briefing clearly says , part of it
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CAPT: If we have a fire related problem on the ground, I will position the a/c with the problem area downwind and set the park brake and advise the cabin crew to sby,

we will asssess the problem and you will ACTION THE RECALL ITEMS ON MY COMMAND,

we will re-assess the situation and if an evacution is required , my actions will be PARK BRAKE SET , SPEED BRAKE LEVER down detent , START LEVERS cut-off, EVACUATION Initiate, FIRE WARNING switches override,pull , and ROTATE if there is fire

simultaneously yours actions will be ?

F/O: Flap lever to 40, Sby power switch to Battery, Pressurization mode selector to manual DC, outflow valve open and notify tower on vhf1

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ROTATE IF THERE IS FIRE , this used to be just rotate it irrespectively but now unless there is fire , no need to rotate


So in my company its the captain doing it !

[Centaurus]

CAPT: If we have a fire related problem on the ground, I will position the a/c with the problem area downwind

Caution. The FCTM mentions only if the wind is strong and you have to be careful that the fire services can position themselves for optimum fire attack and that may depend on proximity to side of the runway (getting fire services bogged on the grass). In other words, positioning the aircraft with the problem downwind is only a consideration - not always a definate action.
There is no need for the captain to brief chapter and verse on who does what and when. What is SOP does not need to be briefed. That said, it is wise to remember that the legal people will try to hang you in any major incident and some think it a good idea to cover their backsides by making a long speil for the sake of the CVR. Call it good insurance...