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Chief On Scene; Working Residential with Trapped Civilians
You’re the Company Officer (or Acting Officer) on the first-due Engine Company. Chief's on scene with a working fire in a single story wood frame residential occupancy. Confirmed by neighbors that there is an elderly female confined to a wheelchair in the residence possibly with a second resident. Hydrant is near the house as you arrive.
The house was built within the past year. Discuss your immediate actions and why. What’s your assignments based upon a (very liberal) five person crew. ( you weren’t short staffed today). What are your safety concerns, what’s the level of risk to your personnel and where a you going to go first? Where is your crew going to go first? Assuming a second due Engine Company is still 5 minutes out, with the Truck Company being heard in the distance. If you assume the Command Officer’s role; What’s your Incident Action Plan (IAP)? What’s the risk/benefit profile? What are your concerns for the occupants? For the firefighters? (Are you sweating yet?) “Affirmative; Engine, your on scene, now lets get to work”
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by anne potter on
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5 man crew.. a line thru the front door... a hole cut in the roof between the garage and house.. search of the house by a two man crew scott packed... 5 inch in to hydrant to the engine for supply of water... with smoke coming from the eves of the house would indicate things are getting hot.. Get pt out odds are smoke intake by pt.. probally critical condition or death... then start being as agressive as possible to attempt to save what ever you can of the home....
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Anne,
Two questions regarding your "hole cut in the roof" statement...
1) Why would you put anyone on the roof of a lightweight construction fire like this, especially when the truss void is well involved and the fire has already autovented?
2) Even if there is a good reason to answer the "why", how would you safely operate to cut the hole where you specified it? The fire is on the upwind (Bravo) side of the structure, so any firefighters on the roof will have the fire and superheated "Black Fire" (very hot, black smoke that is heated to its ignition temperature and only lacks an ignition source to become solid flame) blowing directly onto them. Our turnout gear simply isn't designed to survive that type of heat exposure, even if the structure survives long enough to get two firefighters to the roof.
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Michael,
Why would you wait to attempt the rescue, even if you can hear the truck?
There's no reason that an engine company can't perform a search and rescue assignment.
Ditto for the truckies advancing additional hoselines.
We need to be flexible enough to do what's needed, not to just be locked into "I'm a truckie" or "I'm a nozzleman" mentality.
Just like a zone defense in basketball, we need the flexibility to be able to vary our assignments when the chief yells "Switch".
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Permalink Reply by Will2745 on
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seems to me everyone has missed the wind direcxtion,,,from what i see, the attic is probably fully involved. Even tho the wind isnt strong,it is blowing directly thru the house and the attic,,,2 man attack thru front door if possible to cut off flames, geared up with full ppe...since we are a vbolly dept , the officer would also assist on initial attack untill second truck arrives..
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Permalink Reply by Engineco913 on
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I'm coming in late to this post (just today lol) so I will make a go at this without reading any other responses. A quick view of the photo shows me that the bulk of the fire is located in the garage and the fire wall seperating the garage from the mainhome. Note the absense of smoke in the windows of the home to the right side of Side A yet there is thick black smoke blowing from the entire roofline? There is no melting siding in this area either. This indicates there is a lot of heat and burning material in the attic space and there is limited fire in the living quarters of the home. I think based on this that the conditions inside would be feasable for a search.
Judging by what I can see with the heavy fire load on the garage, I am going to assume this fire started as a SUV fire in the garage. (looks like a burnt out SUV in there) If this house had been built within the last year and the fact it's part of what appears as a sub-division, I am going to assume that it is lightweight construction with wood trusses. Any S&R in the garage area isn't feasable for it would be a dangerous recovery mission.
I would have the engine hit the hydrant as they were approaching the scene, laying a line to the front of the home and still leaving room for the truck company to have access for the ladderpipe. I would leave 1 firefighter to make the hydrant connections. As the engine comes to a rest at the beginning of the home I would have a crew of 3 begin stretching 2 lines to the front of the structure. I would have a crew of 2 advance through the front windows on the right of side A and make a RAPID primary search with a TIC to attempt to locate victims. I would assume as they are making entry the other engine guy would be coming to the front door to complete a second crew of 2. This crew would make entry through the same windows the other firefighters from their crew has made entry through.
As the truck company arrives if the victim hasn't been found yet, I wuld have them bring a Posative Pressure fan to the right side of the home and have them remove the windows. (assuming they are there) Starting the fan will drive the fire and smoke AWAY from the firefighters and out the already vented portion of the garage. This should gain the firefighters inside more time to make a better search. My truck company (since the house is already vented) would make entry and assist in the search/dragout of our occupant(s). Once the occupants are safely removed (regardless of condition, all crews would begin an offensive attach with special attention payed to the upper attic area (unobstructed free range for the fire) and the process of PPV would cease. The second due Engine company could obtain water and with a deck gun start dumping water into the garage area. Once a quick knockdown was achieved, the front door could be utilized for additional fire knockdown and ceiling pulls.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Bates on
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one thing no one has questioned is the liquid running down the drive, what is it?
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From the fact that it's not on fire, we can safely guess that it's not a flammable/combustible liquid.
I'm guessing that it's water from plumbing damaged by the fire...water heater feed, utility sink water supply, or something like that.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Fish #89 on
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If the truck company is right on my heels my job as the engine company is to put the water on the fire. im not just doing it from a "nozzleman's" perspective. I'm assuming that the truck and engine left the station at relatively the same time. My job as the LT on the engine is to suppress the fire, even knowing that there is an eldery woman trapped inside. My theory is that by the time my crew has established a water supply to the engine and the lines stretched that the truckies are already inside performing the search and rescue. At that point in time it would be wasted effort on my crew's part to try and make the grab. By going in the front door and pushing the fire back into the garage makes it a little safer for the truckies and gives them a little more time to find and make the grab.
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That gives the truckies more time, but it's questionable if it gives the victims more time. It doesn't matter if the engine and the truck left the station at the same time, or even if they're quartered in the same station. The bottom line is that the engine is on scene right now and the truck is not, and the engine has the manpower to hit the fire and start on the search and rescue assignment. If the truck is not on scene, then it can still be delayed by an accident, a train blocking a grade crossing, etc.
When you say "My job as the LT on the engine is to suppress the fire, even knowing that there is an eldery woman trapped inside.", I disagree. EVERY firefighter's job is RECEO-VS. The first step is Rescue/Life Safety for every firefighter. If the truck/rescue isn't there with the engine on a known entrapment, then rescue just became the engine's job. With a pump operator and four, you have the manpower to get started on both jobs.
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I have always been taught that the number one rule about firefighting is firefighter saftey, and that everyone else's saftey runs second to ours. So knowing that the truck wil be there momentarily by the sounds of it we will hit the door at practically the same time my number one goal is to make the scene as safe as i can for the rest of the firefighters involved on scene. As bad as this may seem, because every life is important, but in this situation firefighters lifes and safety are more paramount. With the truck grumbling up the drive with the engine, my take on things is to protect my fellow firefighters and make the scene safer for all involved.
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The solder has a low melting point and the solder joints break with very little fire exposure causing water to release.
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In my area, once you start using deck guns and master streams, all interior attacks must cease and the operation turns into a defensive "surround and drown."
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