1. First make an appointment to ensure the owner or manager will be there to grant you all access to the building and answer any question.
2. Gather all forms provided by your fire department for pre-planning. Those things may include even taking a(n) book on building construction which may aid you in writing strategic and tactical objectives.
3. Firefighters should seek answers on anything they are questioning such as building codes and safety violations believed to have been committed. Seek answers from Fire Marshals or Code Enforcement personnel. Do not give information for which you do not have the authority or don’t know to be an absolute fact.
4. Ensure you have a site plan as well as a building sketch.

Future post will actually allow you to interact with pre-planning to aid in getting better at this task

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1. Define and advocate the need for a cultural change within the fire service relating to safety; incorporating leadership, management, supervision, accountability and personal responsibility.
2. Enhance the personal and organizational accountability for health and safety throughout the fire service.
3. Focus greater attention on the integration of risk management with incident management at all levels, including strategic, tactical, and planning responsibilities.
4. All firefighters must be empowered to stop unsafe practices.
5. Develop and implement national standards for training, qualifications, and certification (including regular re-certification) that are equally applicable to all firefighters based on the duties they are expected to perform.
6. Develop and implement national medical and physical fitness standards that are equally applicable to all firefighters, based on the duties they are expected to perform.
7. Create a national research agenda and data collection system that relates to the initiatives.
8. Utilize available technology wherever it can produce higher levels of health and safety.
9. Thoroughly investigate all firefighter fatalities, injuries, and near misses.
10. Grant programs should support the implementation of safe practices and/or mandate safe practices as an eligibility requirement.
11. National standards for emergency response policies and procedures should be developed and championed.
12. National protocols for response to violent incidents should be developed and championed.
13. Firefighters and their families must have access to counseling and psychological support.
14. Public education must receive more resources and be championed as a critical fire and life safety program.
15. Advocacy must be strengthened for the enforcement of codes and the installation of home fire sprinklers.
16. Safety must be a primary consideration in the design of apparatus and equipment.

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D.E.R.  Deep Environmental Retrofit, the process of adding large amounts of insulation and wind proofing to older buildings.  The concept is simple; Add more layers of insulation and wind proofing to cut down on the amount of energy needed to heat or cool a building.

The layers are:

1. Blown in cellulose insulation in the original wall cavity.  Most turn of the century homes in this area didn’t have any insulation.

2. Wrap the entire inside wall with Tyvek, then fur out the walls and add another layer of blown in cellulose.

3. On the exterior wall add 8+ inches of rigid insulation with staggered seams. All seams are taped on each layer and another layer of Tyvek is added.

4. Indicates the 2 layers of Tyvek inside the house, 1 of which is wrapped under the floor.

The end result is 16+ inches of insulation with very little chance of air infiltration.  All of the areas that cannot be filled with blown in or rigid insulation is filled with spray foam.  Even the windows are triple glazed to prevent air infiltration.  The vendor says you could heat the finished room with a hair dryer.

You can see the before and after mock up  in the picture.  In the before picture there is no insulation and plenty of cracks and voids for air to permeate the building.  These leaks help heat from a fire escape and allow fresh air to be sucked in, which is great for firefighters but bad for heating bills.

Firefighters are all too aware of what happens when fresh, oxygenated air runs out at a fire.  The fire darkens down and the temperature continues to rise until something fails or something is opened by a firefighter.  When this happens you get a back draft or a smoke explosion.

We have all been taught that building contents are far different than they were for previous generations of firefighters.  Flashover is being reached at a shorter time than a couple decades ago, and I can post a side by side video if you’d like.  The lower times are caused by a combination of better sealed buildings and the composition of the contents.

So after that overview, how long would it take to starve a room and contents fire of oxygen when the room is sealed and insulated this well?

A couple side notes:

The floor joists were notched during the original construction.  That’s pretty common in these houses.  But you can see in the after picture that the floor is still notched.  How much extra weight has been added to this building and it remains on the original inferior construction?

The vendor indicated they have done dozens of houses in my area and the biggest concern they heard was from electrical inspectors who wanted the power lines from the solar panels to be candy striped.  PV power too?  I think that is a discussion for another day.

Stay Safe.

Donovan

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The point of view in this video shows almost everything that is happening so you have to imagine yourself showing up at street level and the limited view you would have had.  The first arriving companies thought it was a fire in the rear porches.  They were right, but, the fire was already inside the second building when they arrived.  

 I spoke with the officers on scene and from their point of view upon arrival they thought it was back porches and they thought they may have inadvertently pushed the fire into the second building.  The officer on the first line to the rear was wondering why the fire was going to 3 alarms, let alone 4.   It was obvious to command what was going on, but from the rear it was a different story.  You can see the rear was a floor lower than the front. 

I wish we could just get a couple second video from the front when the first arriving companies got on scene, but that’s not going to happen.  Too often when someone posts a video the commenter gets to watch the whole thing and then decide what they would have done.  It would be better to just get a few seconds and then watch the comments, to keep everyone honest.  But comment away. 

Was going to the rear with the first line a good choice?

Would going in from the front then making a basement attack have worked?

What size line are you going to bring?

Are there any other issues that should be brought up?

I may sometimes sound like a stickler for rules because a firefighter should at least know the procedures that way if they do something that isn’t in line with the procedures they have to provide reason instead of “I didn’t know”.  My only critique is that at least one of the trucks arriving on the subsequent alarms should have looked at the roof instead of just putting the stick up.  This would have minimized the chance of a guy alone on the roof, especially a relatively new guy.  That’s just my opinion and I have had that opinion since this video was taped almost 9 years ago.

Stay safe.

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I was checking out some of the other firefighter blogs looking for something entertaining.  Lucky for me I stumbled across Lt. Lemon at ELAFF complaining about Radio Redundancy.  http://elaffhq.com/2011/08/19/radio-traffic-redundancy/

I suddenly have the urge to complain about the way some people use the radio.  For entertainment purposes only:

Push and hold the little button before you start to speak, and hold it down until you are finished speaking. Nothing is better than getting the middle and the end of a message. “…teen update for the EMS, patient is not….conscious…”

You aren’t in the military anymore.  “Roger, Wilco” and you don’t have to worry about the enemy tracking you so you don’t need to do the 5 second rush.

On the 5 second rush note, don’t think with the mic on.  Think, THEN speak, and make it short.

Don’t over lawyer it.  Yes you are being recorded, but you still have a job to do.  Don’t start changing protocols or common phrases at random.  For example; MVC or MVA, not giving updates if the patient/incident status changes, don’t hide things that should be broadcast.

Speaking of lawyers; you are being recorded, be professional.  “applyin O2″  classic.  “Patient is disorientated”,”It’s just a bum-he’s moving on”.

You aren’t a Doctor (If you are why are you reading this?). In my department we are only authorized 1st responder level care, EMT-B or P doesn’t matter so-”This guy is drunk” I prefer “altered mental status”.  “Heroin overdose” unless there is a needle nearby I usually go with “respiratory arrest”. 

If you aren’t first to the scene, you don’t need to call off, especially if you have no intentions of leaving the piece, thanks. Exceptions; it is a working incident, you are the chief, the ambulance we are all waiting for, or you are positioned out of sight and ready to provide a function from there. “E12 to dispatch, we are investigating on High St” …3min later…”Ladder 3 is on High St” Good job, the engine is already inside investigating, maybe even done already, they’ll see you when they are done.

Last but not least. DON’T EAT THE DAMN THING!  Keep it away from your mouth.  Did you know you may actually be able to leave it on the clip and speak? That’s 2′ from your mouth!

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 D — Defensive Operating Mode (Defensive Operations)

 U  — Unable to Determine the Extent (Size) or Location of the Fire

 L — Large, Uncompartmented Areas

 T  — Tons of Water  (One ton of water per minute with a 1-1/8” tip)

 S   — Standpipe Operations

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Remember; the Fire Service is goal oriented.  When we do a job there is a mission to accomplish and steps that need to happen along the way.  What are the goals of chocking the door? 

1. We can get out easily if needed, no locked doors behind us.
2. Others can get to our location easily, no locked doors in front of our back-up.
3. Cause no damage or as little as possible if appropriate.
4. Walk out with all of our equipment.

There are 2 basic ways to chock the door, the first is so its wide open with unobstructed access, and the second is to prevent it from securing.  Preventing the door from securing is usually pretty simple; obstruct the frame, wrap the latching hardware or some sort of complex remove the cylinder process (I’m not a fan).  Preventing the door from securing is the most reliable, the door will usually hold these things in place, they may fall out the first time the door is used but that may be all that is needed.  Propping the door wide open is actually more complicated because whatever you use has to be heavy enough or wedged in adequately to hold the door open reliably

Honestly the highest demand for propping a door open is on the routine medical calls where the apparatus arrives before the ambulance.  An example is a semi-secure building with a desk guy or a buzz to enter building.  The goal is to allow the door to be opened without someone there.  All of these will work and I prefer to use a magazine or flyer of some type at these places.

Everyone loves to talk about chocking a door at a fire. “Door control is paramount” true, but at a legit fire I don’t give a shit about the door, put the Adz end of the halligan behind the hinges and pop the bottom ones free, the door will shift and sit on the ground.  If you need to shut it the top hinge is still in place and the door can be closed if needed.  Understand I’m not talking about forced entry here.

Stay safe

At a tech rescue call where all the other options to chock the door were more of a problem.

Cord, rope or inner tube with 2 holes wrapped around door knobs.

Rug, Mat or some item of clothing thrown over the door.

Old reliable

Floor mat, Magazine, Newspaper under/opening side of the door

Floor mat, Magazine, Newspaper Hinge side of the door

Trash can, furniture, Flower pot as a chock on an open door or agaist the frame.

Some purchased hinge hanger, could also us a wooden Dowel 3/4"X3" with a bent nail for this.

The inverse old reliable, watch out, it falls, but it has it's application.

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