This is a great video of wood trusses in fire conditions versus dimensional, stick-built lumber under fire conditions.
We all know about the hazards associated with wood truss roof systems, but it is worth looking at again, and again and again.
Training and recognition are key in keeping ourselves and our crews safe.
Check it out and pass on to others, it really is a cool video.
This is a good example of the need for more resources. It concerns me when I see lines in a building and there is nobody at the entry point for a back up.
In addition, we are constantly training on coordinated attacks. We have no available crews for ventilation or search and rescue that I can see.
There are no crews for RIT or to secure utilities. How about keeping the civilians out of harms way?
There are other issues with this scene, but I will let you discuss the tactical side of things.
Let’s look at this video in two ways. First, how would your department tackle this fire with your typical response? Let’s pretend that we don’t know the status of occupants. Whatever your department gets is what you get.
Second, discuss your concerns with how this went down. I am not going to beat up on any department, this department looks to be short staffed and doing the best with what they have. But, I am willing use it as a learning tool. So, where is there room for improvement?
Thanks for taking a look. Stay safe and train hard.
This is a fire in a breezeway on a single family home. As you can see, the garage is on the right and the home is on the left.
We have doors from the breezeway to both the house and the garage.
Smoke is issuing from the attic vent on the house and windows are dark. All occupants are out of the house. Side C has a deck off of the kitchen that is about five feet off the ground.
The front door is locked, the family was called by neighbors and they are all together at the store.
This is a fairly simple fire, but some responses I got in a tactics class made me curious how it would go over here.
Okay, I know this is not a real challenging scenario, but, the first line answers may be diverse. They were in the tactics class I taught.
So, have fun, be creative and take it for what it is, just a scenario to practice.
Sometimes you need to practice the short shot too, not just the three-pointers.
Take care and thanks for visiting.
How do you assign these firefighters?
Here is the scene. You are the officer in charge here and when you arrive this is what you see.
You have reports of possible victims in an early morning fire.
Now, this house is approximately 1600 square feet with a basement. Single story about 25-30 years old.
Based on your tactical priorities, start assigning these crews where it is most appropriate. Explain where and why you sent your crews there. Keep in mind you are a medium sized department that is a suburban island. Meaning that basically you have three trucks on the scene with this number of personnel.
Your next truck in is 10 minutes away. You have public water supply.
The neighbor got up to go to work and noticed smoke coming from the house next door. Exposure B and D are about 15 feet away on both sides.
What do you do?
Looks dangerous!
I first must admit that I have never worked off of an elevated platform. I have only worked at agencies that have had straight sticks.
But, this picture is a little harrowing. Could be that this photo was taken right at the moment that it vented.
Just be careful and be aware. It looks like the fire was already vented or close to it because they aren’t on the roof and it looks like it would be difficult to physically cut from that bucket.
Again, I only have this small capture of time to go by. But if that fire ball had been bigger this could have gotten ugly.
Stay safe and be careful.
This fire is working, hard. It seems pretty straight forward, but let’s take a look at it anyway.
You are the first arriving engine with a three person crew.
Your second due is 7 minutes away. Water supply is limited but available about 250 from the home. You have a report that the callers are not sure everyone is out of the home. (Caller is down the block.) Time of day is 6:30AM.
What do you do?
Are there any special considerations?
Post here and comment. Get your morning coffee and pull the crew together and get a little Kitchen Table Tactics training in.
Stay safe and have a great day.
Sometimes you can tell a lot about a building before you every get inside of it.
Use this picture to identify some basic characteristics about this house as the first arriving company.
As the first arriving company officer, you have a great number of responsibilities. You decide the type of attack your going to use. The size line that will be deployed. You decide where the line goes or where you start your search if victims are suspected.
All of these things plus some others are all decisions swimming inside that first officers head when pulling up to a working fire.
Let’s say you are that first arriving officer. Ignore the firefighters in the photo and explain what you have, how you would proceed and why.
Some of the things I want to ask about specifically are:
Add additional comments, thoughts and ideas. These little scenarios are for everyone to learn from one another and discuss with your crews. Especially in this kind of weather, it is tough to get outside to train. So, here we can take a picture of a house fire, regardless of what is shown in the photo, make it our fire and share our tactical ideas.
Take care and stay safe. Be careful and train hard.
This a lot of fire. It looks to be a large residential property in an urban-suburban area.
With what you can see, discuss your tactics and what you are thinking as you pull up on this job.
Where and what size is your first line?
Discuss this with your crews and share your thoughts. It is really good to hear other’s ideas and thoughts on these fires. Stay safe and be careful.
It’s difficult to tell from the picture how many floors are on this building, but it is at least 3 or 4 above ground level.
We can make some assumptions about how this building is occupied; store fronts on ground level and residential tenant spaces above, maybe some storage immediately above the store fronts. This obviously creates some challenges for us and our operations.
Although you individually may not be able to make it around this building, you need to get units on every side looking for possible victims.
Take some time to go over this and report back and share your discussions. Have a Happy and Safe New Year.
How many of these do you have in your response area?
No doubt that we all have a building like this in our jurisdiction, if not several.
In many cases these buildings have been several different kinds of business and altered some fashion or another.
These are not simple fires, especially if there are part of a main street block or strip mall type of set up.
We can see some pretty thick smoke from the attic vent on the front. I see a fan set up and can’t tell if it is running, but at this point in the fire, should it be?
Post your comments and give your thoughts. Happy New Year, stay safe.
What have we got here?Go over this with your crews and post all of the discussion points to share with everyone. This can turn into a great one hour training session, especially with the snow and ice all about. Stay safe and let us know what you come up with.
This is the response from the posting from the other day. Our fried Fred commented with the following details:
Assuming wood frame construction of main structure. Challenges: fire already past egress point at patio doors of main structure. Exposure of propane tank in backyard. Possible hazardous storage in garage. Garage may be block construction.
1st attack line (1 1/2) would be in main structure towards opposite end of house from fire (to push fire back towards spent fuel. 2nd line would be 1 1/2 inch line deployed to attack garage from rear outside and provide exposure protection to propane tank.
Size up would be working residence fire fully involved with detached garage involved. Request 2nd engine if not already dispatched for water supply.
(Let’s see if I’ve forgotten all I learned from 1977-89.
One other thing that I would like to add is the house sits off of the road a pretty good ways. Laying line will be needed but depending where you are, water supply might be an issue too. If this is the case in your jurisdiction, plan for water supply needs. Also, with fire already in the attic and moving, I would probably choose a second line of a 2 1/2″ line. I like to go bigger with the second line when I’ve got a lot of fire showing at the get go. This works well to back up the first line in case it isn’t enough initially, the bigger second line is already deployed and ready to go to work.
Have great week and stay safe.
Here is another look at a residential house fire. What challenges might we have with this fire and where would your first attack line go? Where would you put your second line and what size? How would your size-up be transmitted? What type of contruction are you assuming? Post you comments and I will post mine later. Have a safe and happy weekend.
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