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First Due Arriving with a Working Fire Commercial Structure
You've arrived at a Commercial Building, occupied by a Laundry and Cleaners.
The fire is reported in the rear storage area of the structure. The building is occupied and operating. The structure is a Type III building, built in 2002. There is moderate, escalating smoke conditions, visible fire, with the first due engine just getting into operations and pulling a 2.5 inch attach line into the rear. The alarm response is robust, with Three Engine Companies, One Truck Company, One Heavy Rescue Company, One EMS(ALS), Two Battalion Chiefs. Suppression company staffing; 4 per apparatus.
What are the strategic and tactical issues affecting this incident?
Discuss the safety considerations and risks that must be assessed and planned for in the IAP?
What's the worst that you must anticipate?
As the incident expands, within 15 minutes of incident operations, fire self vents through the roof. You have multiple companies operating within the interior.
What's are the issues, assignments, concerns and needs?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Trainer on
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Chris, I have to say you come up with the best scenarios, and great visual effects. I haven’t had enough coffee yet, will get back to this.
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Permalink Reply by Christopher J. Naum, SFPE on
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Mission Critical Info: The structure is a Type III building, built in 2002.
You made an assumption on structural roof assemblies. Each one has somewhat different strategic outcomes relative to integrity and compromise....One of the structural roof assemblies you mentioned is the correct one.
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Take your time, enjoy the Joe & morning paper, it's a Sunday morning no less.....
thanks..LOL
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Mission Critical Info: The structure is a Type III building, built in 2002.
Also, look at the smoke pushing under pressure thru the brick facing on the Charlie side (4th photo down from the top)
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Is that why the guy's in the 5th photo are coming out? Had my coffee, read the paper during morning const….never mind.
From the looks of the smoking bricks, pretty tight ceiling and not just a drop. Hazmat situation!! Lots of chemicals, some maybe explosive in nature, do you know what chemicals there are? Lots of plastic. You know it’s in the storage room? A lot of heavy equipment on the roof, you said self vent, have to pull out interior before that happens. I’d like to say copious amounts of water…but…you may make more of a problem with runoff. Cap the city drains, dike if you can, master stream on roof, big hand lines in windows. If you got explosive product, have to pull back and lob water..but that runoff thing again, maybe just protect exposures and try to cool, and let it burn. You do come up with thinkers.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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This fire is Marginal on arrival, likely going Defensive. Without rehashing some excellent points that have already been brought up, the roof construction, roof-mounted HVAC units, and hazmat are big strategic considerations.
The first priority is to get the people out. Rescue 1 will be split. The Officer and Irons will do a primary search of the public areas and restrooms on a search line, carrying tools and a TIC. The Driver and Can will locate the manager, have him do a quick employee PAR, and identify the work area for any employee who can't be accounted for. If the employees are all present, the Rescue Driver/Can will go to the rear, force those two container modules, and find out what is in them. There's a good chance that they are hazmat storage for perchloroethylene or other dry-cleaning chemicals. If so, we need an immediate second alarm plus the hazmat team for that exposure. The 16-foot cargo trailer is likely a delivery trailer that picks up dirty clothes from remote locations and then delivers them back to those locations after they're cleaned. It's still an exposure, and we may be able to get a vehicle in to tow it to a non-exposed location and save that much more property.
Building orientation is critical. It appears that the beveled corner (the Gunn's Cleaners sign area) is the C-D corner. Command needs to make sure that info gets to everyone ASAP.
The second priority is to look in the truss void. Truck 1's Officer and Irons should take a TIC and a hook, go just inside the front door, and pop a ceiling panel. When they look in the void, there are several key things to look for. 1) Truss construction. 2) Truss orientation - in this case, they look as if they run A to C, but some run B to D and IC needs to know. 3) Smoke or fire conditions in the truss void, how big, how fast is it moving, and where is it going? Truck 1's Driver and Tiller set up the aerial on Side A and get ready to go defensive.
Engine 1 isn't making headway on the fire. If we can't get them two additional 2.5 lines and knock the fire right now, then they need to pull out and protect the container module exposures. They need to get their own utility control in the rear as they go.
Engine 2 should stay together and put a 2.5 inch line in the rear to back up Engine 1.
Engine 3 is the IRIT, with their driver spotting a secondary hydrant to support Truck 1's pending aerial operation.
If fire is moving laterally through the truss void and we can't stop it quickly, we're going defensive. If we get structural moving, shaking, groaning noises, or other signs of pending collapse, we're bailing out right now. When the smoke starts pushing through the mortar cracks, it's a sign of impending collapse and we're evacuating the building. Ditto if the roof autovents first.
1st Chief gets Command, in the parking lot across the side A street. 2nd Chief gets Safety, and initially gets eyes on the rear. EMS - behind Command in the parking lot, near the D street for quick egress prior to 2nd alarm water supply lines being laid.
2nd alarm - Truck 2 to Side D for exposure protection for the container modules.
Engine 4, 5, 6 provide additional water supply, manpower, and surround-and-drown.
3rd Chief gets the rear, 4th Chief gets Accountability if we don't have chief's aides.
A collapse zone is mandatory on this one. Move the civilian cars if we can do so without risk.
Once Rescue 1 and Truck 1's Alpha teams complete their first assignments, I'd have them do a secondary search of the cars to ensure than mommy didn't leave her kids in one of the cars while she dropped the laundry.
Now we'll settle in for a nice long master stream excercise...or not. While we're thinking about surrounding and drowning, we need to think about hazmat smoke, contaminated runoff, and maybe just letting this one burn. If the hazmat smoke and runoff are now the biggest strategic consideration, we might just want to purify them with fire, and not have contamination in everyone's drinking water for the next 6 months.
If we decide that we need to fight the fire in the defensive mode, then we'll settle in for a nice long master stream excercise. We can demobilize RIT at that point, get extra EMS units for Rehab, call the local Red Cross or buff unit to support Rehab, notify the FAA to get us a 3,000 ft. exclusion zone to keep the news helicopter noise and rotor wash away, set up the fixed command post, and make sure that the PIO is on the way.
If we have a big hazmat smoke or runof problem, then the local and state health/environment people should be notified, as should Emergency Management and the city manager/mayor/council.
At least one extra engine should be assigned to brand patrol downwind, and maybe a 3rd truck should be put on this as well.
The hazmat team won't go play in the fire area in their rubber suits until the fire is out...and cold. We may have an extended hazmat mess on this one. If so, we may need a mutual aid hazmat team and go to operational periods.
The crux issue for the initial alarm is the rescue vs. pending collapse issue.
The crux for the extended operation is whether or not the hazmat problem is big enough to just let this one burn.
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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MARGINAL MODE OPERATION with the first in units.
Command should be thinking transferring to DEFENSIVE once certain benchmarks have been met but fairly quickly! First in units should pop as many of the egress doors as possible and look for unconscious victims and complete a very limited primary from behind a line and using a TIC from the immediate area of the doorways. RIT team ready? This is a high risk / low frequency event. Won't need multiple RIT's because I am going defensive here in minutes. What I need is a bunch of S.O. Officers or Division Officers who are disciplined enough to keep our brothers safe. Big building, geographically and will needs alot of exterior officer/safety presence.
First arriving IC would have requested the 2nd Alarm, then Special Called all of the Aerials/Towers from 3rd and 4th Alarm Cards direct to the scene, to operate above and protect the exposures out back.
Find the business representative for the building or the cleaners, obtain a number of employees working today, determine how many are missing? Police need to shut down the area, (crowd control) LEO commander to the Command Post, start operating in a unified command system. Establish a PIO as the media will love to cover this one. Contact water department depending on the GPM we will demand.
This is a LOSER. Urban renewal here and soon to be a parking lot, thus NOT worth losing a firefighter over. Account for all of my people, get them out, keep them out, re-confirm the collapse zone, maintain them, surround and drown with municipal water.
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There's also a roll-up door blocked by the container modules. It might be difficult-to-impossible to check this one from the outside.
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Hazmat, yes definately, our run-off in my city will go back to our wastewater treatment facility, so I will call the DPW and get the Department Head to the scene and in the command post as a unified command resource.
FD HAZMAT Team Coordinator(s) - to the scene for recon/evaluation of the threat, provide a report to IC. What I don't want is to lose any of the other tax base from the two sides and/or accross the street.
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Permalink Reply by Richard Anderson on
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Owner has already done a risk analysis and decided not to sprinkler the building. Big water from out side manage run-off, protect exposures, order bulldozers, everyone goes home.
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Permalink Reply by Ron Ayotte on
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You've arrived at a Commercial Building, occupied by a Laundry and Cleaners.
The fire is reported in the rear storage area of the structure. The building is occupied and operating. The structure is a Type III building, built in 2002. There is moderate, escalating smoke conditions, visible fire, with the first due engine just getting into operations and pulling a 2.5 inch attach line into the rear. The alarm response is robust, with Three Engine Companies, One Truck Company, One Heavy Rescue Company, One EMS(ALS), Two Battalion Chiefs. Suppression company staffing; 4 per apparatus.
On arrival:
Do a quick search using a guide rope if everyone is nthe structure is not accounted for.
Get a handline in to protect the means of egress and kill the fire if at all possible with extreme prejudice.. smoothbore is the weapon of choice in this situation.
What are the strategic and tactical issues affecting this incident?
Discuss the safety considerations and risks that must be assessed and planned for in the IAP?
What's the worst that you must anticipate?
Full involvment and structural collapse.
Being a cleaners, there may be a signifiacnt amount of hazmats due tio the cleaning fluids and solutions.
The overhead view shows HVAC equipment on the roof. Built in 2002, it is lightweight steel truss over steel decking. probably a rubber membrane roof.
Smoke is pushing through the cracks already... there is a lot of pressure anad fire gasses built up... one must anticipate a CO explosion is possible.
As the incident expands, within 15 minutes of incident operations, fire self vents through the roof. You have multiple companies operating within the interior.
What's are the issues, assignments, concerns and needs?
If the fire isn't out or under control, do an PAR, sound the evac signal to make everyone knows it is time to get the hell ouuta Dodge and surround and drown. This building will be razed and another built in its place in no time.
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Permalink Reply by Jenny Holderby on
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Ouch! I'm thinking chemicals. Clothing and probably lots of it.
There is a lot of weight on that roof with all that equipment up there. There is a gas meter there so that also means there is something inside using natural gas. Probably feeds the dryers. It could be feeding the fire. Lets get that turned off pretty quickly.
That is some really yucky smoke in the back. That looks like vents near the top of the brick facade so it is vented but it is has also burned through the roof. What is going on on the Charlie side? The roofline is lower on that little square but I can't tell if it is actually part of the building or if it is a seperate storage area and if that could be a point of entry.
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