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Providing firefighters working on the frontline of interventions with ubiquitous computing support remains an open challenge. Designing meaningful solutions for this complex work environment requires reflective thought and conceptual understanding of its social configuration. This paper presents organizing patterns of firefighting frontline practice as a means to inform ubiquitous computing design processes. The patterns originate from a qualitative analysis of an extensive range of user studies conducted with French and German firefighters. As the patterns show, firefighting on the frontline is based on a rigid structure that gains its flexibility through independent units whose safety is ensured by a number of monitoring activities. We conclude that the interaction between the presented patterns forms a balanced whole and needs to be recognized by ubiquitous computing design.