This is a video that has been making the rounds since it went up on You Tube. The fire occurred on June 11, 2011 and gives us room for some good discussion.
First let me say excellent work by the firefighter who was caught when the roof began collapsing. He seems to keep his head and gets himself over the ridge quickly giving his partner the critical seconds needed to get to his position to help. I also like that the members of the roof team were dressed to play and not standing on top of one another. I think if this same situation occurred with two firefighters standing in 16 square feet worth of roof the outcome would have been different.
As always there are some "do betters" in this but all in all I think the operation seems fairly well executed. A secondary means of egress was established. MOST folks seem to be wearing all their PPE. So what could have been done differently here to avoid this near miss?
There are a dozen opinions for every person who watches this video but the only thing that I would ask would be, "Did he really sound the roof?"
To be honest I did not see it in the video. Given that this appears to be an attic fire and the roof failed on the more heavily involved side of the house I think the only thing that might have made this more preventable was doing a good sounding of the roof prior to walking on it. For those who say roof ladder I hear your point, but to be honest with a roof this shallow I wouldn't automatically deploy a roof ladder.
Use this video in your next company drill. Use it as a reminder about remaining calm when things go wrong. Use it to remind your folks about the importance of wearing all their PPE. Use it for size up and combat decision making skills.
Showing posts with label Ventilation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ventilation. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Interesting first arriving video.
So, what's your size-up on this one? Building Construction & Occupancy, Fire Location, Fire Development, Operating Mode.
Here's mine.
"Engine 1 is on the scene with a one story frame, 50 by 25, fire in the rear, possible exposure problem on the D side. We are going into a transitional attack."
Now, I am not always a fan of transitional attacks but if we look at this scene we have obvious structural involvement, we have a lot of heat, and the attic space is charged. IF I was told there was a victim inside I might go in a different direction (like fast attack with a primary search), but we have to consider that this building is a candidate for a ventilation controlled flashover. If we make entry through the front here we have to coordinate our ventilation and HAVE TO be able to get enough water on the seat of the fire in 60 seconds. Why 60 seconds? Look at the UL study Impact of Ventilation on Fire Behavior in Legacy and Contemporary Construction. A compartmentalized building like this can see conditions become untenable in 70 seconds and flashover within another 30 seconds.
This is why I keep coming back to our Fireground Capacity. Capacity is our ability to provide service on the fireground. Some departments have the skills, abilities, and the manpower to execute an interior attack on a fire like this, most won't. We need to understand the capacity of our department and our companies.
As a reminder the Fire Department Instructors Conference is right around the corner. I will be presenting Situational Awareness on Monday from 1300 to 1700 in Rooms 109-110 and The Ready Position on Wednesday from 1330 to 1515 in Rooms 234-235. Please come on by, check out the programs, and introduce yourself. I plan on being at the ISFSI Event on Tuesday, the FOOLS Brotherhood Bash on Wednesday evening and will be running in the Courage & Valor run on Thursday. I look forward to seeing you there.
So, what's your size-up on this one? Building Construction & Occupancy, Fire Location, Fire Development, Operating Mode.
Here's mine.
"Engine 1 is on the scene with a one story frame, 50 by 25, fire in the rear, possible exposure problem on the D side. We are going into a transitional attack."
Now, I am not always a fan of transitional attacks but if we look at this scene we have obvious structural involvement, we have a lot of heat, and the attic space is charged. IF I was told there was a victim inside I might go in a different direction (like fast attack with a primary search), but we have to consider that this building is a candidate for a ventilation controlled flashover. If we make entry through the front here we have to coordinate our ventilation and HAVE TO be able to get enough water on the seat of the fire in 60 seconds. Why 60 seconds? Look at the UL study Impact of Ventilation on Fire Behavior in Legacy and Contemporary Construction. A compartmentalized building like this can see conditions become untenable in 70 seconds and flashover within another 30 seconds.
This is why I keep coming back to our Fireground Capacity. Capacity is our ability to provide service on the fireground. Some departments have the skills, abilities, and the manpower to execute an interior attack on a fire like this, most won't. We need to understand the capacity of our department and our companies.
As a reminder the Fire Department Instructors Conference is right around the corner. I will be presenting Situational Awareness on Monday from 1300 to 1700 in Rooms 109-110 and The Ready Position on Wednesday from 1330 to 1515 in Rooms 234-235. Please come on by, check out the programs, and introduce yourself. I plan on being at the ISFSI Event on Tuesday, the FOOLS Brotherhood Bash on Wednesday evening and will be running in the Courage & Valor run on Thursday. I look forward to seeing you there.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Frank Brannigan Was Wrong...
Bold words from some random guy blogging, I know but I think I am onto something here. Francis Brannigan, a Fire Protection Engineer who many of us know from his writing on building construction and his classic text Building Construction for the Fire Service, used to say, "The Building is your enemy; know your enemy!" He was wrong. The Building is the battleground, it is the terrain in which we and the enemy do battle.
Fire is the enemy and fire behavior is a predictiable indication of how the enemy will behave. If we look at line of duty death and injury statistics we see far too many of our brothers and sisters being injured or killed because of fire development. Just last week Mark Falkenhan-FF/Medic, Lutherville Volunteer Fire Company, Baltimore County FD was killed after being trapped in what sounds like flashover conditions. On Sunday a woman and three firefighters were injured at a building fire in Springfield, Virgina.
The video below show us the progression of the fireground. Dave Statter has some good comments about this over at his blog.
We can get into a debate (I suppose) about exactly what fire behavior we are seeing. It is not a backdraft. It is not a smoke explosion. This is a rapid spread of fire because of (probably) ineffective ventilation techniques. I'm not going to launch into some Tactics diatribe here because I do not know exactly what occurred at this fire. I don't know if this was a townhouse type building where the second floor was a different occupancy. I don't know if they pulled up with a two person Engine and one person on the Truck. Something different did have to occur for that fire to be vented in a way that prevented the spread of fire over the heads of the attack team.
What we can talk about is the fire progression and why the fire spread was predicable.
Look at the smoke conditions at the start of the video. This entire building is heavily charged. The structure of the building is involved. The fire is deep seated. Based on info from http://www.wunderground.com the temperature was in the low 20's(F). The somewhat "lazy" nature of the smoke once it is outside the building is due to the temperature. The key factors though should be the volume of dense smoke we see and the color. We have to recognize that if it was 65 degrees outside this smoke would push away from the building with great velocity. In this case it is "pushing" out pretty hard but then hanging more than we would normally expect from a hot fire. WHY? Because the "fluid" that is unburned products of combustion carried by heat contracts and slows when it hits that cold air.
Something worth considering is the inherent relationship between temperature and pressure.
How well do your firefighters understand Boyle's Law and Charles's law of fluid dynamics? I know, I know, that's HazMat... right? Maybe I'm biased to looking at this through a lens of Chemical and Physical properties because I just got back from a validating committee for a HazMat Technician Text Book.
Charles's Law simple says that as temperature increases so does pressure in a closed container. Boyle's Law tells us that if you keep temperatue constant as pressure doubles volume halves/ as volume doubles pressure is halved. In other words if you give a fluid more space the pressure is lessened, if you give it less space pressure increases. Here is where they come together. As temperature is building because of unrestrained fire the pressure in the building begins to increase. If the building was perfectly sealed that increase in pressure would eventually smother the fire by consuming oxygen. If it cools off the fire goes out and all the unburnned products of combustion just congeal on surfaces.
However, once we allow the building to ventilate (in any manner) we create a place for that "fluid" to go. However because it is a small opening relative to the amount of product temperature and pressure continue to build. The exiting "fluid" is heated but to rich to burn (I know, more HazMat).
At the 1:45 mark you can see flame in the C/D corner window on the D side (if you call the front door side of the building where the truck is parked A). In 15 seconds heavy fire is venting out the window. 30 seconds after the flame is viable we can see through the A/D corner window the fire is extending. Three seconds later (2:14) the unburned fuel that is exiting the front lights up. Once it lights up you will notice that the smoke is moving a lot faster up and away. That's because the heat is now outside and overcoming the slowing/contracting effect of the ambient temperature.
We MUST study these fires and understand what is happening in the building. I was in Tulsa over the weekend and spent a few minutes talking with Ed Hartin who teaches extensively about Compartment Fire Behavior Training Ed is a Fire Behavior guy. We talked about how it is the lack of knowledge about Fire Behavior that is getting us hurt and killed on the fireground. While fire behavior may not be predictable with 100% accuracy I venture to say if you are a student of this trade we can get close to 95%. We don't know until we are inside the compartment what effect the layout may have on fire growth and spread. However we should understand intuitively what the smoke conditions are telling us about the growth, stage, and location of the fire.
The building is the battleground, and warriors going back as far as Sun Tzu have taught us how important it is to understand the terrain. The ENEMY though is the fire. You can know all you want about the terrain but if you do not know what the ENEMY is going to do you will still end up killed. The Fire is Your Enemy, Know You Enemy; The Building is the Battleground, Know the Terrain.
Fire is the enemy and fire behavior is a predictiable indication of how the enemy will behave. If we look at line of duty death and injury statistics we see far too many of our brothers and sisters being injured or killed because of fire development. Just last week Mark Falkenhan-FF/Medic, Lutherville Volunteer Fire Company, Baltimore County FD was killed after being trapped in what sounds like flashover conditions. On Sunday a woman and three firefighters were injured at a building fire in Springfield, Virgina.
The video below show us the progression of the fireground. Dave Statter has some good comments about this over at his blog.
We can get into a debate (I suppose) about exactly what fire behavior we are seeing. It is not a backdraft. It is not a smoke explosion. This is a rapid spread of fire because of (probably) ineffective ventilation techniques. I'm not going to launch into some Tactics diatribe here because I do not know exactly what occurred at this fire. I don't know if this was a townhouse type building where the second floor was a different occupancy. I don't know if they pulled up with a two person Engine and one person on the Truck. Something different did have to occur for that fire to be vented in a way that prevented the spread of fire over the heads of the attack team.
What we can talk about is the fire progression and why the fire spread was predicable.
Look at the smoke conditions at the start of the video. This entire building is heavily charged. The structure of the building is involved. The fire is deep seated. Based on info from http://www.wunderground.com the temperature was in the low 20's(F). The somewhat "lazy" nature of the smoke once it is outside the building is due to the temperature. The key factors though should be the volume of dense smoke we see and the color. We have to recognize that if it was 65 degrees outside this smoke would push away from the building with great velocity. In this case it is "pushing" out pretty hard but then hanging more than we would normally expect from a hot fire. WHY? Because the "fluid" that is unburned products of combustion carried by heat contracts and slows when it hits that cold air.
Something worth considering is the inherent relationship between temperature and pressure.
How well do your firefighters understand Boyle's Law and Charles's law of fluid dynamics? I know, I know, that's HazMat... right? Maybe I'm biased to looking at this through a lens of Chemical and Physical properties because I just got back from a validating committee for a HazMat Technician Text Book.
Charles's Law simple says that as temperature increases so does pressure in a closed container. Boyle's Law tells us that if you keep temperatue constant as pressure doubles volume halves/ as volume doubles pressure is halved. In other words if you give a fluid more space the pressure is lessened, if you give it less space pressure increases. Here is where they come together. As temperature is building because of unrestrained fire the pressure in the building begins to increase. If the building was perfectly sealed that increase in pressure would eventually smother the fire by consuming oxygen. If it cools off the fire goes out and all the unburnned products of combustion just congeal on surfaces.
However, once we allow the building to ventilate (in any manner) we create a place for that "fluid" to go. However because it is a small opening relative to the amount of product temperature and pressure continue to build. The exiting "fluid" is heated but to rich to burn (I know, more HazMat).
At the 1:45 mark you can see flame in the C/D corner window on the D side (if you call the front door side of the building where the truck is parked A). In 15 seconds heavy fire is venting out the window. 30 seconds after the flame is viable we can see through the A/D corner window the fire is extending. Three seconds later (2:14) the unburned fuel that is exiting the front lights up. Once it lights up you will notice that the smoke is moving a lot faster up and away. That's because the heat is now outside and overcoming the slowing/contracting effect of the ambient temperature.
We MUST study these fires and understand what is happening in the building. I was in Tulsa over the weekend and spent a few minutes talking with Ed Hartin who teaches extensively about Compartment Fire Behavior Training Ed is a Fire Behavior guy. We talked about how it is the lack of knowledge about Fire Behavior that is getting us hurt and killed on the fireground. While fire behavior may not be predictable with 100% accuracy I venture to say if you are a student of this trade we can get close to 95%. We don't know until we are inside the compartment what effect the layout may have on fire growth and spread. However we should understand intuitively what the smoke conditions are telling us about the growth, stage, and location of the fire.
The building is the battleground, and warriors going back as far as Sun Tzu have taught us how important it is to understand the terrain. The ENEMY though is the fire. You can know all you want about the terrain but if you do not know what the ENEMY is going to do you will still end up killed. The Fire is Your Enemy, Know You Enemy; The Building is the Battleground, Know the Terrain.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Succeeding In Spite of Our Selves...
I think there are days that as firefighters we end up succeeding in spite of our best efforts to get killed. There are folks who drive too fast, refuse to wear seat belts, think a healthy lunch is ordered off the McDonald's Value Menu, and whose exercise regime consists of shuffling to the pop machine on the apparatus floor during commercials. I'm pretty sure at this point anyone who is regularly reading this blog knows that that kind of behavior will cause you to meet an early death.
What scares me are tactical errors that we make that by shear luck work out okay. There is a maxim I've read from the fine folks over at Magpul Industries (click on their Mindset tab for some great quotes), "Familiarity and prolonged exposure without incident leads to a loss of appreciation of risk."
Watch this video to see what I'm talking about. It's a fire from the 13th of January, 2011. By all rights it could have become a NIOSH report in my opinion.
I dislike being a "Monday Morning Quarterback" of a fire department's actions if I wasn't at the fire, but this video scares me. There are issues with opposing lines, a PPV operation that I think spreads the fire, and committing to an interior operation with what looks like too few resources.
Look at the smoke conditions on the "A" side. That front eve is highly pressurized, and that was before the PPV went into operation. That is a sure sign that the attic is well involved. Fire burning above me concerns me. If you go to the YouTube video and read the comments the video's author says they had problems with water supply.
I think if we want to be serious about reducing firefighter injuries and LODDs we have to acknowledge that our ability to operate in a relatively safe way on the fireground has a direct coloration to our staffing. That was the key point in my article "Why We Need Firefighters" that Fire Engineering featured on their website.
I know there are people who see my writing and my ideas as advocating an overly-aggressive mindset. I really don't think that is the case. This is one of those fires where I think we needed more people on scene to make the building behave. Again, I was not there, and I can only judge based upon what the video shows. I have to say that I spent the six minutes and forty odd seconds waiting for a collapse.
Consider the last fire you had where Everyone Went Home but it was only because of the grace of whatever divine creator is looking down on you that you did. We all have those stories where things could have broken bad at any moment. Learn from the fires where things "went right" as well as the one's where things went wrong. My buddy Dave LeBlanc talks about this some in his post "From Sir Lancelot To Wyatt Earp to Dick Winters, Putting Others Ahead Of Ourselves".
I'm glad everyone from the Lafayette County Fire Department went home. Believe me I'm not criticizing the guys and gals who put the fire out. I think this is one that needs to be learned from and not repeated with that "loss of appreciation of risk." This is a fire where something could have broken bad. While I think we sometimes have to place our toes over the edge to fulfill out duty it cannot be allowed to happen without careful thought, discussion, and post fire analysis.
On another note, take some time to look into what's happening in Camden New Jersey today, too. Tomorrow, January 18th, 1/3 of their Firefighters are due to be laid off. Thoughts are with the Brothers and Sisters there.
What scares me are tactical errors that we make that by shear luck work out okay. There is a maxim I've read from the fine folks over at Magpul Industries (click on their Mindset tab for some great quotes), "Familiarity and prolonged exposure without incident leads to a loss of appreciation of risk."
Watch this video to see what I'm talking about. It's a fire from the 13th of January, 2011. By all rights it could have become a NIOSH report in my opinion.
I dislike being a "Monday Morning Quarterback" of a fire department's actions if I wasn't at the fire, but this video scares me. There are issues with opposing lines, a PPV operation that I think spreads the fire, and committing to an interior operation with what looks like too few resources.
Look at the smoke conditions on the "A" side. That front eve is highly pressurized, and that was before the PPV went into operation. That is a sure sign that the attic is well involved. Fire burning above me concerns me. If you go to the YouTube video and read the comments the video's author says they had problems with water supply.
I think if we want to be serious about reducing firefighter injuries and LODDs we have to acknowledge that our ability to operate in a relatively safe way on the fireground has a direct coloration to our staffing. That was the key point in my article "Why We Need Firefighters" that Fire Engineering featured on their website.
I know there are people who see my writing and my ideas as advocating an overly-aggressive mindset. I really don't think that is the case. This is one of those fires where I think we needed more people on scene to make the building behave. Again, I was not there, and I can only judge based upon what the video shows. I have to say that I spent the six minutes and forty odd seconds waiting for a collapse.
Consider the last fire you had where Everyone Went Home but it was only because of the grace of whatever divine creator is looking down on you that you did. We all have those stories where things could have broken bad at any moment. Learn from the fires where things "went right" as well as the one's where things went wrong. My buddy Dave LeBlanc talks about this some in his post "From Sir Lancelot To Wyatt Earp to Dick Winters, Putting Others Ahead Of Ourselves".
I'm glad everyone from the Lafayette County Fire Department went home. Believe me I'm not criticizing the guys and gals who put the fire out. I think this is one that needs to be learned from and not repeated with that "loss of appreciation of risk." This is a fire where something could have broken bad. While I think we sometimes have to place our toes over the edge to fulfill out duty it cannot be allowed to happen without careful thought, discussion, and post fire analysis.
On another note, take some time to look into what's happening in Camden New Jersey today, too. Tomorrow, January 18th, 1/3 of their Firefighters are due to be laid off. Thoughts are with the Brothers and Sisters there.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Nope, Venting There Isn't Helping.
This is the video I was talking about earlier. There is a TON of great things to talk about in this video, but I'm going to restrict my comments to a few areas. 1) Conditions at the start; 2)The statements about the roof (1:25); 3) the Venting of Division A (4:05 mark)
Okay, this is a prime example of smoke conditions telling you that you are losing at the get-go. The smoke is pushing out of here in a violent manner. Dave Dodson talks about Velocity, Volume, and Density. THEY ARE ALL HERE! This thing is structural and ready to flash. Then we get to the commentary about the Roof being unstable. There is a rule I learned at 15 years-old when I started hanging out in firehouses, "If you can't be on it, you shouldn't be under it." In other words, if the roof is too unstable for vertical ventilation then it isn't safe to be underneath. After all, when was the last time you saw a rood collapse upwards? Next let's look at what happens at the 4:05 mark when the Division A window gets vented. The front room finally gets enough good air to light up. Watch how the fire quickly extends to the smoke over the heads of the members on the front porch. Smoke is FUEL!
As always I am not criticizing the actions of anyone on the scene. I don't know what orders were given, only what I see in the video. Just throw this one up at roll-call and get some conversation going.
Okay, this is a prime example of smoke conditions telling you that you are losing at the get-go. The smoke is pushing out of here in a violent manner. Dave Dodson talks about Velocity, Volume, and Density. THEY ARE ALL HERE! This thing is structural and ready to flash. Then we get to the commentary about the Roof being unstable. There is a rule I learned at 15 years-old when I started hanging out in firehouses, "If you can't be on it, you shouldn't be under it." In other words, if the roof is too unstable for vertical ventilation then it isn't safe to be underneath. After all, when was the last time you saw a rood collapse upwards? Next let's look at what happens at the 4:05 mark when the Division A window gets vented. The front room finally gets enough good air to light up. Watch how the fire quickly extends to the smoke over the heads of the members on the front porch. Smoke is FUEL!
As always I am not criticizing the actions of anyone on the scene. I don't know what orders were given, only what I see in the video. Just throw this one up at roll-call and get some conversation going.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
The Exception to the Rule
I have said and written here that you should not vent behind the Engine, because you will pull the fire on top of them. That rule is 99.9% effective in preventing injuries to our Brother and Sister Fire Service Warriors. Of course every rule has it's exceptions. Take the video below.
November 17, 2010 Newark, NJ
So the front door is open, the line is ready to enter and then some Truck guy pops the front window. Come on man! Right?
If you notice the picture window was already open, the Truck popped the side window which gives the Brother with the nozzle a chance to darken down the fire venting from the window reducing the chance of it wrapping around behind them. Then the Engine makes their push into the building. At the :17second mark we can see into the fire room, which is the living room just to the left of the front door. Dollars to doughnuts the stairs are right in front of the Engine as the lead in. I'm going to assume that when the Team gained entry to the front door they saw the fire was in the living room. Rather than lead out to the rear (which would take time to go down and back) they quickly enter the front, get the line between the fire and and potential victims on the second floor and have a vent opening (the front window) to get the bulk of the products of combustion out. Outstanding Job!
The only complaint I have is the Engine position right in front restricting the options for the Truck. Remember Hose Stretches, Ladders Don't!
Take this one and sit down with your crew for a quick drill one day. What are do your SOG's say about making this attack?
November 17, 2010 Newark, NJ
So the front door is open, the line is ready to enter and then some Truck guy pops the front window. Come on man! Right?
If you notice the picture window was already open, the Truck popped the side window which gives the Brother with the nozzle a chance to darken down the fire venting from the window reducing the chance of it wrapping around behind them. Then the Engine makes their push into the building. At the :17second mark we can see into the fire room, which is the living room just to the left of the front door. Dollars to doughnuts the stairs are right in front of the Engine as the lead in. I'm going to assume that when the Team gained entry to the front door they saw the fire was in the living room. Rather than lead out to the rear (which would take time to go down and back) they quickly enter the front, get the line between the fire and and potential victims on the second floor and have a vent opening (the front window) to get the bulk of the products of combustion out. Outstanding Job!
The only complaint I have is the Engine position right in front restricting the options for the Truck. Remember Hose Stretches, Ladders Don't!
Take this one and sit down with your crew for a quick drill one day. What are do your SOG's say about making this attack?
Monday, November 29, 2010
Ventilation - What not to Do.
Great video to illustrate exactly how ventilation effects fire spread. Pay attention from about the 3 minute 27second mark.
On YouTube this is titled "Fire Fighter Freelanced Ventilation". I don't know if this was freelancing, was an ordered act, or a case of lack of knowledge of fire behavior married with a SOG that encourages implicit coordination. What is clear is that we can see EXACTLY how ventilation works. When you open up, the smoke and trapped heat flow out the opening. If that is not channeling the superheated products of combustion out of the building in a controlled manner then we are going to spread the fire.
Take the time to study these videos when you find them. We only get to see a very small number of fires during the course of our operations. These videos are a good way for us to watch, replay, study and learn.
On YouTube this is titled "Fire Fighter Freelanced Ventilation". I don't know if this was freelancing, was an ordered act, or a case of lack of knowledge of fire behavior married with a SOG that encourages implicit coordination. What is clear is that we can see EXACTLY how ventilation works. When you open up, the smoke and trapped heat flow out the opening. If that is not channeling the superheated products of combustion out of the building in a controlled manner then we are going to spread the fire.
Take the time to study these videos when you find them. We only get to see a very small number of fires during the course of our operations. These videos are a good way for us to watch, replay, study and learn.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Bread and Butter Fire Attack
Pretty decent little fire attack.
Okay, this really is a bread and butter fire attack for every fire department in the country. One story, frame, occupied, probably 25' by 30'. The front room is involved, but the smoke doesn't look ugly from what you can see on the video. The nozzleman does a reasonable job of leading out, and the fire is knocked quickly. I like the entry through the front door. It's faster than trying to get around to the rear (did you see the fence?) and also makes sure your Engine is doing a primary of the likely escape route if there was someone inside.
They get up and open the roof fairly quickly. To my way of thinking that is a two person roof job but I know some departments prefer to send a larger crew. All in all a nice little video of what happens when we get water on the fire.
Think about what you would do if things were different.
Mental Rehearsal number 1: Let's say you pull up as the first Engine. You are the experienced nozzleman and your officer is a bit of a worrier. As you step off the rig and take a look you go to stretch and the officer says, "Hit it from the window first." Does that sound like a good idea? Is this a fire that needs a defensive to offensive mode of operation to make it safe? No. Be ready to step up and say, "If we put the line in the window we are going to push fire into the house. We can get this one boss."
Mental Rehearsal number 2: What would you do as the Truck if you were first on scene and there was someone standing on the front lawn saying, "The baby is in the back room!" Are you waiting for the Engine? Obviously not waiting for water will put you in a situation that could become untenable quickly. Waiting for water could mean the kid dies. I think this is one of those situations where you do some RECON and see if you can make the grab. You have 600 square feet tops here. Based on the smoke the door to the fireroom may be closed. If not, you may be able to scurry down the hall with a can and get control of the door. Even a hollow-core door will buy you a few minutes to do a primary back towards the front of the house.
My only "do better" on this video is that I hate to see people getting off the rig with their SCBA Facepiece on. I know MSA has the ability to let you breathe ambient air, but the mask limits your peripherial vision and makes it much harder to take in the big picture. Look at the guy running up to the door with the axe. Running on the fireground should only be away from the building, otherwise you are moving forward faster than you can visually process. Take the second to don your mask prior to making entry, that way you can slow down and "pull your boots up" the way generations of folks did. It gives you that second to get a sense of the whole scene and prepare for the job.
Again, just my two cents. Cheers!
Okay, this really is a bread and butter fire attack for every fire department in the country. One story, frame, occupied, probably 25' by 30'. The front room is involved, but the smoke doesn't look ugly from what you can see on the video. The nozzleman does a reasonable job of leading out, and the fire is knocked quickly. I like the entry through the front door. It's faster than trying to get around to the rear (did you see the fence?) and also makes sure your Engine is doing a primary of the likely escape route if there was someone inside.
They get up and open the roof fairly quickly. To my way of thinking that is a two person roof job but I know some departments prefer to send a larger crew. All in all a nice little video of what happens when we get water on the fire.
Think about what you would do if things were different.
Mental Rehearsal number 1: Let's say you pull up as the first Engine. You are the experienced nozzleman and your officer is a bit of a worrier. As you step off the rig and take a look you go to stretch and the officer says, "Hit it from the window first." Does that sound like a good idea? Is this a fire that needs a defensive to offensive mode of operation to make it safe? No. Be ready to step up and say, "If we put the line in the window we are going to push fire into the house. We can get this one boss."
Mental Rehearsal number 2: What would you do as the Truck if you were first on scene and there was someone standing on the front lawn saying, "The baby is in the back room!" Are you waiting for the Engine? Obviously not waiting for water will put you in a situation that could become untenable quickly. Waiting for water could mean the kid dies. I think this is one of those situations where you do some RECON and see if you can make the grab. You have 600 square feet tops here. Based on the smoke the door to the fireroom may be closed. If not, you may be able to scurry down the hall with a can and get control of the door. Even a hollow-core door will buy you a few minutes to do a primary back towards the front of the house.
My only "do better" on this video is that I hate to see people getting off the rig with their SCBA Facepiece on. I know MSA has the ability to let you breathe ambient air, but the mask limits your peripherial vision and makes it much harder to take in the big picture. Look at the guy running up to the door with the axe. Running on the fireground should only be away from the building, otherwise you are moving forward faster than you can visually process. Take the second to don your mask prior to making entry, that way you can slow down and "pull your boots up" the way generations of folks did. It gives you that second to get a sense of the whole scene and prepare for the job.
Again, just my two cents. Cheers!
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Training Video Time, Kids!
Watch what happens at roughly the :45sec mark.
This is why we don't vent behind the Engine! By the 1:18 mark you can see that there was an Engine Company inside making what was probably a very difficult push to the seat of the fire. Even with the failed window in the fire room there was still a tremendous amount of heat in the front. Read the smoke! It's pushing out under pressure from the front of the building. This is one of those times we have to open the roof!
Most departments out there are operating at a deficit when it comes to responding manpower. There aren't enough people to go around. Regardless we have to figure out a deployment that allows us to open the building up properly. You'll see once they are outside and choose a defensive attack (any attack made from outside the building is defensive) it takes roughly :10sec of water to get a knock on the fire room that was causing the problem.
Once one interior room has flashed over the rate of heat transfer to the rest of the house skyrockets. Think of it like your oven. Until the thing heats up you can set potatoes in there bare handed all day long. Once it is 400 degrees though it gets warm just standing in front of the open door. The interior of the fire building is the same way, just that room that flashed is radiating 1500 degrees or more into the rest of the house.
Back to the embed video. About the 4:00 mark you see two guys head to the roof and then hear the saw running. We can see that the D side still has a well seated fire. At 5:02 we see a member venting the front gable window of the 1/2 story (which is probably occupied living space). There is probably the same window in the rear. These windows aren't the best for "vertical " ventilation, but they do pop the cap and start to relieve some of the pressure. They may be better than not having any kind of top side opening. The primary concern has to be not dragging the fire into unburned areas where victims may still be. However given the level of fire development there is little chance that without venting those windows anyone on the second floor would live long. We have to control the environment!
As you continue to watch the video there are some questionable choices made. Why? Lack of Situational Awareness! Do we perceive, comprehend and predict what is going on? This is one of those videos to sit down and have a shift drill with. Talk about what is going on and then how you would handle the fire if it was in your town.
As always it is easy to Monday morning quarterback someone's fire and pick out things that could have gone differently. However only by looking at these things do we have the opportunity to learn from the experiences of others. How many fires have you been to this month, or even this year? These videos, and hopefully my blog, are the mental rehearsal opportunities I keep talking about. Make the most of every fire you can watch and review. It's no different that a professional athlete watching game video! Make the most of every fire you see.
Just some thoughts and a good video. Cheers and be safe.
This is why we don't vent behind the Engine! By the 1:18 mark you can see that there was an Engine Company inside making what was probably a very difficult push to the seat of the fire. Even with the failed window in the fire room there was still a tremendous amount of heat in the front. Read the smoke! It's pushing out under pressure from the front of the building. This is one of those times we have to open the roof!
Most departments out there are operating at a deficit when it comes to responding manpower. There aren't enough people to go around. Regardless we have to figure out a deployment that allows us to open the building up properly. You'll see once they are outside and choose a defensive attack (any attack made from outside the building is defensive) it takes roughly :10sec of water to get a knock on the fire room that was causing the problem.
Once one interior room has flashed over the rate of heat transfer to the rest of the house skyrockets. Think of it like your oven. Until the thing heats up you can set potatoes in there bare handed all day long. Once it is 400 degrees though it gets warm just standing in front of the open door. The interior of the fire building is the same way, just that room that flashed is radiating 1500 degrees or more into the rest of the house.
Back to the embed video. About the 4:00 mark you see two guys head to the roof and then hear the saw running. We can see that the D side still has a well seated fire. At 5:02 we see a member venting the front gable window of the 1/2 story (which is probably occupied living space). There is probably the same window in the rear. These windows aren't the best for "
As you continue to watch the video there are some questionable choices made. Why? Lack of Situational Awareness! Do we perceive, comprehend and predict what is going on? This is one of those videos to sit down and have a shift drill with. Talk about what is going on and then how you would handle the fire if it was in your town.
As always it is easy to Monday morning quarterback someone's fire and pick out things that could have gone differently. However only by looking at these things do we have the opportunity to learn from the experiences of others. How many fires have you been to this month, or even this year? These videos, and hopefully my blog, are the mental rehearsal opportunities I keep talking about. Make the most of every fire you can watch and review. It's no different that a professional athlete watching game video! Make the most of every fire you see.
Just some thoughts and a good video. Cheers and be safe.
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