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Interior Attacks or Not?
Does your volunteer dept do interior attacks on fire runs? Some volunteer departments do not do interior attacks. Does your department? Our department always look at safety first however if your department feels that they can safely go in do they? Some volunteer departments feel led to do only exterior attacks. What does your department do?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on
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If it is reasonably safe then yes, we go in after it....after all its the only way you are going to put it out with anything other than a cellar left....Paul
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Permalink Reply by Dewayne and Diana Bean on
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Just for the record my father-in-law was killed in the line of duty on a paid department. He had been in the fire service for 27 years(I think) anyhow. He was the captain and didn't have to go in but he believed in what he did and suffered a stress induced heart attack. Shortly before he passed I remember him saying if he had to go he wanted it to be fighting fires. I have heard many great stories about my FIL and I just wanted you to know I believe every firefighter is a hero whatever their stance may be.
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Permalink Reply by Aaron Robbins on
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If its not safe then we dont but if it is then we do.
If there is a person in there then thats a different story.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff on
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Depends on the situation. Every house is different. If they guys going in and the chief feel safe about going in then we will go in.
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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In my FRS we have Brigades that don't do internal attacks. The key word being don't, not won't. Why don't they? Simply because my Service has a layered form of training and equipping Brigades. If a Brigade is seen to have little to no structure risk, that has very few calls a year, and those are wildfire, then the training and equipment will simply not be supplied. ( Do I agree with this? Not really, but that's how it is.) Another thing that's taken into account by the Service, is response time - these Brigades usually don't have a township, often the only public building in the area is the shed protecting the truck from the rain. Twenty minute response times. I'm talking about very small Brigades right out in the country.
Now, are there fatalities in house fires in those areas? In some there may have been. Is the risk there? Certainly, the risk is always there. But the risk of a fatality in a house fire is there with suburban Brigades also. Guess where most fatalities happen? That's right, in the areas that have a higher rate of structure fires, areas where the Brigades are trained and equipped for structure fires. Areas with short response times. And after saying all that, a single fatality is one too many! And I've been to one this year.
The Brigade I'm a member of is one of those with the training and equipment. Will we always go internal on a fire? No. Risk assessment - is there a viable save? If not then no, we wouldn't go in. Before I get jumped on, I've yet to go to a house fire where we didn't go internal. We have the training, we have the equipment, we do the job. The fatality? A crew went in, the poor man was dead already.
So. There can be reasons why a Brigade (or Department) doesn't do internal attacks. Before jumping on them, we need to know what those reasons are.
Time to comment on the 'born loser' photo that was shown earlier. I'm shocked that nobody has come up with a perfectly reasonable, and safe method of direct attack on that fire. One that occured to me immediately. A chopper...
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Permalink Reply by Dustin J. Millis on
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I dont know of any dept. that doesnt do interior attacks. Whats the point of being a fire department if your just gona let em burn to the ground anyway. Yes, my dept. fights interior attacks as much as we can. The shit has to be really thick for us not too. No one ever said firefighting was safe.
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Permalink Reply by Trainer on
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Well I read through all the posts; the training burn thing caught my eye, at every live burn I’ve done there comes a point at the end burn-down, I always say now we ought to try to put it out. We have spent all day putting out small room fires and finally got a good one going, sorry it’s just me, and then control gets the better of me and I keep my thoughts to myself, after all its training, besides I may have some idiot take me up on it.
Back to this thread; up until a couple of years ago I though everyone did interior attacks, then I learn there’s a lot that don’t, ok that statement is not right. There’s a lot that don’t do aggressive interior attacks, they tend to classify it a born loser long before it really is. The ones I know of around us I attribute this to 1 thing, lack of commitment to do the training necessary.
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Permalink Reply by Shareef Abdu Nur on
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I am not a volunteer firefighter, but I have always had respect for those who volunteer. I am a full time firefighter/paramedic and I was always under the assumption that the volunteers were just as aggressive as we were on the full time FD's. I assumed that they trained for aggressive interior attacks just as we do and that they went defensive only when the situation dicateted to do so, just as we do. It is so sad that there are firefighters out there who plan on going defensive before they even leave the firehouse. What ever happend to "protecting life and property?" Defensive is OK, but it has it's place.
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Can't put it out if you can't see it....Of course a reasonable amount of safety should be utilized....Risk little to save little....Risk a lot to save a lot......Paul
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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Whats the point of being a fire department if your just gona let em burn to the ground anyway.
What good is an FD with no members because they died trying to save an unsavable property?
No one ever said firefighting was safe.
THat doesn't mean we have to go out of our to kill oursleves.
I'd suggest you go back through the responses thus far, particularly from senior members such as Ben and re-read them. Risk assessments are the key.
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Permalink Reply by Doug on
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My dept. will make a Interior attack. When conditions permit it and yes we are a vol. fire dept.. I know a dept. that do not do Interior attack we do Interior attack for them as a mutual aid dept.. The dept. has scbas and good trucks.
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Permalink Reply by HAZMATCAP on
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My former VFD (I'm now retired) was very aggressive w/ interior attack. You CAN"T save lives and property from the outside. We followed the 2 in/ 2 out whenever possible. We had the best gear and SCBA's we could afford, and we had good equipment and TRAINING! Water was an issue, but we learned to conserve and manage it. Manpower was an issue, but we set up mutual aid agreements and got resources rolling IMMEDIATELY! I would rather disregard 15 pieces than wait 15 minutes for help to arrive. You're a FIRE department! That means fighting fires...from the inside.
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