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1st On Scene - Slope Driven Wildfire - How Would You Handle This?
Imagine if you will that you are a new company officer, first day on the job and you get a report of a small fire going uphill to a houses located on top of a hillside. Prior to your arrival in the first due engine, a handcrew just so happened to be in the area and was able to anchor at the area of origin and start a flank attack.
What are your tactics? objectives? concerns?
Happy Halloween!
SB Mike : )
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Engineco913 on
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I will try to make a large scaled operation short and sweet. I would have the ground crew keep on the offensive flank attack. I would send both lead engine companies to the top of the hill to protect the homes and establish a water supply. Due to the fires relatively small size I wouldn't hesitate to throw a ton of water with the deck guns to attempt a rapid knockdown while the ground crews on the flank stand by for the knockdown to occur. (to maintain safety) After a bulk of the fire has been knocked down, any arriving personnel would be directed to a right and left flank with hose lines and hand tools. When they meet at the top of the hill, the operation is over and mop-up begins.
IF the homes have caught fire, it's a whole differant ball game. I am going to ASSuME that if one home catches fire, there is going to be a rapid chain reaction due to the distance between the buildings.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Engine Strike Team to protect the houses upslope, BADLOW for water drop lateral to the slope, just upslope of the fire if the BADLOW is quickly available. More hand crews to mop up, extra command officer for safety, and check the weather and hope it's going to rain in the next 10 minutes.
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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Mike? You have a warped and twisted mind! That photo looks so much like an area that my old Brigade was near it's not funny. The last call I attended with that Brigade was in that spot, I was injured and out of firefighting for 11 months. Oh, and the water supply (hydrants) in that area was only 350 kPa - 51 psi...
Bearing in mind that here the chance of a handcrew being on scene is somewhere the other side of remote, I'll say that they can be left doing their job... Asset protection is what we're about, so the first truck in would be looking at trying to protect those houses. If this was in my own Brigade area, I would set up our water curtain immediately between the head and the housesr; while one member was doing this others would be running out a couple of attack lines either side of the head - they would not be in front of the fire. We normally use 38mm as attack lines, if we had the numbers there quickly enough I'd be using 64mm. I like 913's idea of using his deck guns - but our pumper doesn't have a roof monitor :( A second pumper up the top would allaow us to use more lines. Depending on road access to below the fire, a truck could go there. On a Code Red or Total Fire Ban day there might be a chance to get air support in, but only if the fire started further away from tha houses than it is!
A difficulty for us is that a fire like this would be called out as a Grass & Scrub fire - which normally would have most Brigades responding wildfire attack vehicles that have nowhere near the water delivery capability of our Pumpers. Local knowledge would have the primary Brigade sending the best vehicle for the job, but they would have to advise dispatch to respond pumpers if that is what was needed.
I'm situated next door to one of the worst urban interface areas in the State. You've given me food for thought for this coming season...
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Permalink Reply by Jay Nicholson on
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In this neck of the woods, those houses at the top of the hill will be 2-story, probably zero clearance property line. You'd have to shoot over the houses to use deck guns.
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If this is a high-wildland response day, I already have a 1st alarm structural strike team for the top and a full brush response down low. Probably a chopper also. Looks like good defensible space on the left. I'm not as concerned YET about those houses.
Since 1984, this has pretty much been the tactic. Throw a lot fast. beats loosing 80+ homes in the middle of the city.
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Permalink Reply by Jenny Holderby on
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Sheezzeee, I've been here before :( . Hopefully that isn't sage brush or honeysuckle on that hill. I'm hoping this is a good day & I have all the manpower I need which will also depend on the time of day. If it happens to be one of those days where the whole county is burning, I won't have a lot aid to call for because they will be out working on their own fires.
Check your wind speed & try to assertain how FAST the fire is moving. Check to see if you actually already have fire around the homes, a seperate fire started from a spark from the oringinal fire. You are not wasting time, you can do this pretty much in a few seconds upon arrival. If you have jumpfire(s) top side hit those first. If not, one crew stays @ the top of the hill with a pumper to protect the homes which may include spraying down the area immediately around them and a down the hill between the fire & the homes. WET vegetation doesn't burn very well. (A water curtain is a good idea if you have enough water to maintain it but if the wind is very high it can carry sparks above the curtain.) At the same time a crew with rakes, shovels "wildland equipment" cut a fire brake or fire stop down the hill between the fire & the homes useing hand lines or a deluge gun from a second engine to put water on the fire. (I like the water gun idea best.) The other crew may be working on the fire from the other side but your main goal is to protect those structures period.
If your resources are limited, protect the homes by putting your engine between the fire & the structures, closer to the structures. One line toward the houses, another on the other side to keep the fire back & protect your equipment and call for Mutual Aid to bring water & wild land equipment and manpower to work on the fire.
Where I live, in certian areas you may as well protect the structures & control the fire letting it consume the underbrush or you will be back again & again until there is nothing left to burn particularly in fall after a couple of good frosts or early spring before it starts to green up.
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Even on really bad days we don't have Strike Teams sitting waiting. We're pretty well all volunteer for Strike Teams, they will have been organised, but would have to get to Station and then to the Staging before being of use. Our normal response on those days is for a three Station minimum response for all calls. Smoke sighted will have more vehicles and maybe Strike Teams mobilised.
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If the fire were here, the trees would probably be eucalypts, most of which have bad spotting potential. The way that fire is going I'd be concerned about that factor if the wind picked up.
Mike said that the fire is slope driven, not wind, so at least we have that in our favour! And that makes the water curtain feasible - mind you it's for radiant heat protection anyway, embers tend to go a little higher here. Do you really think from the look of that fire and the gradient of the slope that there'd be time to put a hand crew in to create a barrier? I think if someone told me to get between the head and the houses with a rakehoe I'd be suggesting that he/she did it instead. I think that's a water job. The grass high on the slope looks just like what we have in summer - dry and dead. It'll burn quickly.
Our resources are always somewhat limited - until we've got a few Strike Teams mobilised - but I don't think I'd have the trucks between the houses and the fire. I'd prefer to have them out the front on the street near the hydrants that should be there! We have fences all around houses here for the most part, so access to that area could be difficult anyway.
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Hey Mike, is this one getting the response that you hoped for? It's showing the difference in urban interface firefighting between our two countries! Though maybe there's a bit of difference in methods on the different sides of the USA as well?
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Permalink Reply by Mark Montgomery on
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Your assuming there is a ready water supply available and that access to the road where the houses are doesn't require a 10-15 minute trip around country roads.
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Tactics would have to be an aggressive frontal attack with the ground crew anchoring the right flank coupled with an immediate call for evacuation of the potentially impacted homes and a greater alarm being called to bring in the required resources.
To do this successfully you have to know your patch, where the access is, what other resources you have available, and what is the plan for this area? You also need either a reliable water supply or tanker readily available.
Looking at the photo I would estimate that you only have a matter of minutes before the fire crests the face and impacts on the housing, this doesn't leave a lot of time for calling in air support, especially here where even in a high fire danger period you would wait at least 45 minutes to get one in the air.
The objective, quite clearly is the protection of life, then property.
Concerns would be establishing communication with the ground crew and maintaining communications with your own crew and your dispatchers, setting up lookouts, defining escape routes and safety zones. I would also be very concerned about any potential change in the weather.
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"an immediate call for evacuation of the potentially impacted homes" - I was wondering if anyone would mention this Mark! I didn't, because here in Victoria, nobody can be forced to evacuate for a fire. With this fire as close as it is we couldn't even suggest evacuation.
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