WBAL TV in Baltimore has some amazing video of a fire running through a slew of rowhomes in Baltimore last week. The overhead footage from the news chopper shows just minutes after the fire is reported, residents evacuating prior to the fire department's arrival and then the first arriving units on what eventually became a three alarm response.

Click the screenshot or here to view the video (opens new window)


Like last week's hot topic on 'SCBA on the Roof', just at about the four minute mark of the video, you can see a firefighter on the roof in heavy smoke conditions and a rapidly advancing fire without any SCBA.

Statter911 covered the story last week and additional information on the blaze can be found on WBAL's web site.

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Did anyone else also notice that the firefighter on the roof was dragging his axe behind him, rather than sounding the floor he was stepping on??? Scary. But here we are, instead of supporting our brethren, we are bashing. Instead of constructive criticism, we are simply cutting him down. Instead of teaching, we are condemning. I hope that if I ever do something stupid, and knowing myself and adrenalyne, I probably will, that my fellow firefighters will try to teach and remind me to slow down and think of my training instead of just bashing me.
What was he thinking!!!! When we have a fire what do we forget the basics. Primary OUR SAFETY.
Wow people actauly doing there job and all you guys can do is talk shit about them when you have no idea how that departments operates. If that were Boston, FDNY, Chicago, or LA would you guys be talking shit then too? Instead of talking shit some of you guys should watch and maby learn something because what you see in that vid is one of the most agressive departments working.
Lack of personal safety, to me it doesn't matter what department the video is of, it is not right. So your "doing the job" not wearing your SCBA or PPE, sucking the sh-t in... that is great your a hero now, but when it catches up to you down the road, and you leave your family early because of cancer that has popped up 10 years later? What about when the roof falls in and you have no SCBA on to help you survive the fire/heat and smoke? Then what? Who should have learned something from the video then?

What were we suppose to learn from this video from the aggressive department? I am not trying to be sarcastic here, but I really don't see any GOOD things that they did that I should be taking note of to apply to my career in the fire department.
Besides not wearing SCBA on the roof, the FF on the roof was walking the roof without sounding it at all. At least the first floor had been fully-involved, the fire was still burning, and the fire had already self-vented at the Charlie side of the roof, who knows if the rest of the roof structure is fire-compromised or not and just waiting for a FF to step through a weak spot?

I don't know what they teach in Baltimore, but I was taught to sound the roof in front of you when you on it like your life depended on it holding your weight...which it does.

Didn't they ever watch Ladder 49? :-)

GM
It looked as though there was a firefighter on the roof without scba???? Anybody see that or was I just seeing things????????Who could of sent that man up there by himself without training?This incident would have been a perfect time for the incident commanderto get a view from above....
Thats what the entire discussion has really revolved around. Did you see the 1st page of comments
That guy prolly has more real fire training then you will see in you entire career
Probably. Does that mean once you're trained you stop doing following safe practices like sounding the roof?

GM
OK here are my observations: The row looks like a typical 1910-20's ish Northeast rowhomes. Big ceilings, plaster and lathe. These are brick shithouses plus. It takes a wholelota fire, and a lot of burn time to take down the party walls on one of these babies. They burn real hot and real smokey.

Looks like whole first floor is rocking. There is definitely a common porch, this is the biggest threat to fire spreading . There doesn't appear to be "fire walls" per say. The party walls look like they go all the way up, there doesn't appear to be a common cockloft. If you look at 0:15 in you'll see a vacant burnt out shell in the next block up, you can compare to.

Fire is advancing into the 2nd floor rear from the kitchen and at 3:50 it shows extension into exposure D at the roof line. Definitely alot of work ahead for the companies.

As far as the man on the roof. He may be doing recon as to spread of the fire into the exposures. He may be also taking the skylight in the bathrooms. I did not see a saw. By the book, should he of had a pack on? Yes. Am I going to knock him for not wearing one, No. Big city truckies will know when it's time to wear a pack and when not to. So before everyone starts crying blah, blah, blah. Worry about yourself, first. If you feel you should wear a pack in any situation. Then wear a pack.
I work in a big city department and found that wearing a air pack makes the job of opening a roof twice as hard.
Finaly people that know what they are talking about thank you

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