Here is a short video that you can use for a drill or training night. Feel free to use however you like. This is from a recent basement fire and what was looked for and what was done. There are some considerations to think about. This is not everything for all basement fires. Just a simple tutorial. Feel free to add your experience and ideas to this video.
Stay safe,
Jason
This post is just a simple challenge of tactical considerations. The photos that are posted show a single-family house that had fire venting from the C/D corner when first units arrived. The first in crews could not make the entire hallway on the first push do to intense heat and smoke.
The smoke was banked almost to the floor even with the fire venting from that corner bedroom.
What are some considerations that must be looked at with this fire? What would be your next plan of action? Why ist there so much heat and smoke with the fire venting the exterior? What is your size up?
Share your thoughts and answers with everyone and use this as discussion with your crew.
As always, train hard and stay safe,
Jason
We all know that it is easy to fall into a rut when it comes to training and even operating at what is labeled the "routine" call. Especially for those that are in suburban, mostly bedroom communities.
If your like most of the country, you pull past the house to get three sides, stretch a pre-connected hand line and make entry into the front door. Does this sound familiar to anyone? And, more times than not, this works just fine.
However, sometimes the bigger issue becomes where to take the second line? What apparatus does it come from and what size should it be? What about the length?
For most single-family, single story homes, line placement becomes mundane and we get a bit complacent. The second line many times gets pulled from the same rig as the attack line and goes in the same door as the attack line.
Again, I prefer a seconday apparatus for the back up line, but in most house fires the front door is appropriate for the back up line too. Of course, it all depends on what is taking place and many other variables as well.
One of the biggest problems I see quite often is on two story house fires. The first line goes to the fire up stairs and the back up line is at the door. One of the primary concerns is the integrity of those stairs. That second line needs to go to the stairs to protect the egress for the crew operating on the second floor.
The same has to be done if you have an attack team on the first floor and a search team on the second; a line needs to be deployed to the stairs. We must protect that egress point. In addition, note changing conditions to the search team and the attack team. Maybe the fire has spread or can't be found by the attack team and your observations are important.
What are your operational guidelines for the back up line? Share you experiences and thoughts.
As always, stay safe and train hard.
Jason
I debated myself on whether I should post this video or not. I don’t like to be critical of fire departments and how they handled a call. I, and many others have made poor decisions on the fire ground over the years and we will likely make unintentional mistakes in the future. After all, we are human.
But, the more I thought about it the more I believe that there is just too much to learn from here. Notice the word learn? This video is being shared as a learning tool and to show how easy it is to fall into the trap of thinking it will never happen to me. We have all been there and done that and this video will hopefully provide as a reminder of what we need to consider on the fire ground.
So, I ask you, what is to be learned here? What lessons would you share with your crew and fellow firefighters? Be constructive and not critical. Remember, you never know when the camera will be on you and I know I am not perfect.
Let’s learn something that will keep us safe and make us better and thank the guy who filmed and posted the video for the experience.
Stay safe and be careful.
This is an incident that could turn out to be very interesting.
This is going to address the use of back up lines and when they are deployed.
I had an interesting conversation about assignments, as you could tell from the previous post.
This discussion circled around the deployment of the second apparatus on the scene. This is not a metro response where engines do engine work and so on. Rather, this is where the second in unit is assigned upon arrival.
With this picture in mind, what does your second in unit do? Does it backup the first in crew with a hand line? Does it perform ventilation? Just where do you order this second in crew and what are the tactical priorities?
I believe that there is a time and situation for using the second in unit for a back up line, but not automatically just because they are the second unit there.
What do you think and why? You gave some great insight into run procedures, so I know there will be some great conversation on this one.
Stay low and be safe.
What do you notice that could be crucial to your decisions?
We have recently had discussions about size up, so I thought this would be a good picture to post.
If you are the officer pulling up on this one and nobody is out front, what are some immediate “red flags?”
I know this one is easy, but it just drives the point home.
What if this was a vacant house and you noted the same conditions and “red flags?” Would it change how you approach this fire?
What would be your tactics and how much would you risk as the first arriving officer?
Let’s talk fire!
Stay safe and keep training.
This is another post of our Kitchen Table Tactics. These are great for sitting down with your crews to go over some tactics and to practice size up and initial company actions with new officers and acting officers.
This looks like a typical residential fire that could be in any jurisdiction. Smoke is pushing hard and there is a lot of heat in this house.
With no further delay, here we go:
Post your comments for others to see. I really encourage that, some need the view points of others the help them progress.
Take care and thanks for visiting.
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