As everyone mentioned, it's a Personnel Accountability Report. For the Incident Commander, it gives him information as to where every firefighter is and there assignments. An example, if Q16 is the roof vent crew and all is accounted for on Q16 during PAR, then the IC can continue with operations as normal. However, if Q16 is missing a man or one man has split up from his crew, then it's up to the Incident Commander to try and locate this man. The IC may have to sound a MayDay and silence all radio traffic, to get this man to answer. And if he doesn't, the IC can dispatch the Rapid Intervention Crew or RIC team to find out where the firefighter was working last and locate the unaccounted firefighter.
The PAR has become a very important part of fire operations. It controls free-lancing on the fire scene and creates a task specific operation. PAR counts also protects the firefighter while operating in hostile and extreme conditions. It keeps him in direct communication with the outside world, while working an interior attack on a structure fire. In others word, if you get to far into a warehouse and your digital portable radio decides to malfunction, every 30 minutes, a PAR will be used to try and account for everyone. The IC will know that if you don't answer your radio and your crew can't locate you, the IC will put his priorities on you and get the RIC team in to locate you.
