Stephen Giving Orders to Tim?

One thing I've wondered about was the part in the high-rise fire, why is Stephen directing Tim around?

Tim, was -as shown by his helmet- a member of the Ladder 46 crew. Stephen was the officer for Engine 17. Ladder 46 had it's own officer (Pengelly) who, presumably would be responsible for the the ladder truck's crew.

Now, with his rank, Stephen could certainly issue orders to Tim -or to any firefighter lower in rank than him. However, it wouldn't be considered proper procedure for Stephen to take the probie assigned to another officer and go along the hallway to help teach him. Tim would have his own job to do as part of the ladder truck crew and would have been waiting for Pengelly to give him his orders.

Stephen's job, as the engine company officer, would have been to see that his men had their hoselines set up and ready to go once the ladder truck crew had forced doors open, pulled down ceilings, etc, to expose the fire. What Stephen did was not only ignoring his own primary responsibility as Engine 17's officer, but he was seriously impeding on Pengelly's authority by personally trying to do the job Pengelly's crew would have been doing and starting to order around a firefighter under Pengelly's command.

After Tim got burned, not only would Stephen have to likely answer questions from a Chief, but so would Pengelly as to why his rookie was taking extensive direction from an another officer.

Now, I would presume that around a station that has two officers, the command division wouldn't be so terribly strict with matters such as chores like meals, cleaning, etc. However, when it came to the supervision of training for probies and their work at a fire, there would be a clear division for probies answer to their specific officer.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?