Fire/EMS Safety, Health and Survival Week: Day Two. “Building Knowledge = Firefighter Safety”, Know Your District and its Risk
Protect Yourself: Your Safety, Health and Survival Are Your Responsibility

There are Four (4) Key Focus areas in this year’s Fire/EMS Safety, Health and Survival Week, which include Safety, Health, Survival and Chiefs. Within the focus area of Survival and the elements of Structural Size-Up and Situational Awareness, a specific key functional component is;
•Keep apprised of different types of building materials and construction used in your community.
•The operative question today is this: “What do you “really” know about the buildings in your district?”

As you drive about your response district today, coming back from an alarm, heading to the firehouse tonight or running errands around your community, take a good look around. Ask your self a simple question; “How well do you know the buildings, structures and occupancies in your response jurisdiction?”

•Be honest, do you really understand how those “older residential” structures were built and understand how fire travels and impacts your fireground operations?
•Are your aware of the newest features of engineered structural support systems being constructed within that new set of homes going up in your second-due area?
•Are you aware, that vacant office building is being converted into a light manufacturing and assembly business?
•How about those unoccupied store fronts and businesses that have recently closed up due to the tough economic times.... any special hazards or operational concerns to your company should you get a dispatch to respond?
•Have the senior members of your station or department shared their stories of operations and incidents at various buildings around your district or community?
•Did you listen to them, or were you quick to dismiss those “old war stories”. There’s a wealth of “pre-planning’ nuggets hidden in those stories. Take the time to listen, remember or postulate.

Take a good look around….think about any given building, the one across the street that you’re looking at while you waited for the traffic light to change; Think about a fire in that same building.

•Do you really understand how it will truly perform under combat structural fire conditions?
•What’s the building’s collapse profile?
•How much operational time will you have?
•What dynamic risk assessment factors will you have to deal with?
•How safe is it for you to engage in interior operations upon your arrival?
•How can this building, its occupancy and structural system hurt, my team, my company, my firefighters, my department, me?

Sometimes things aren’t as obvious as them seem. You may have responded and operated at numerous incidents at a wide variety of buildings in your response area, or very few; some routine, others maybe more demanding…the question remains, “What do you really know about your buildings?” Your life may one day depend on what you actually do know or recollect. Take a good look around.

Pre-Incident planning is formulative to any effective fire service organization. A good staring point is to look at the NFPA 1620 Recommended Practice for Pre-Incident Planning document. ( NFPA Codes and Standards, HERE)

The purpose of the NFPA 1620 Recommended Practice for Pre-Incident Planning document is to aid in the development of a pre-incident plan to help responding personnel effectively manage emergencies with available resources and should not be confused with fire inspections, which monitor code compliance. The Pre-Incident Plan document is developed by gathering general and detailed data used by responding emergency service personnel to determine the necessary resources and actions necessary to mitigate anticipated emergencies at a specific facility, structure or occupancy.

The Pre-Incident Plan document can contain a variety of useful information related to the construction features and systems, building materials and components, occupancy, layout and floor plan, access/egress, built-in protective, detection and suppression systems, special hazards, fire loading, fire suppression flow needs, pre-determined resource needs, exposure factors, etc.

The Pre-Incident Plan document can be as simple or detailed as occupancy and/or operational factors dictate. The import issue here is that you HAVE Pre-Incident Plan documents available for at the very least targeted or high hazard occupancies and buildings, and that they have been updated at some periodic frequency. There’s nothing worst that arriving at a particular box alarm, pulling open the pre-fire “binder” and finding the occupancy was last planned twenty years ago at best.

The 2007 Deutsche Bank Building fire in lower Manhattan, New York City that resulted in the LODD of FDNY Fr. Joseph Graffagnino and Fr. Robert Beddia, stressed the need for timely and accurate pre-incident plans, when a seven alarm fire progressed through the 40 story high-rise building that was in the process of being deconstructed.

An informative Training PDF download is attached that provides Operational Safety Considerations at Demolition and Deconstruction sites. The full power-point version is available for direct download HERE.

Think about your Buildings and Occupancies and correlate your incident operations using an effect acronym called BECOME SAFE.

Our world has evolved and changed. There are a variety of technological and sociological demands that create a continuing element of change in the built environment and our infrastructure. With these changes and demands come the requirements to assess these vulnerabilities, hazards, threats and dangers with effective and dynamic risk management and competent command and control. These changes influence the way we do business in the street, the interface-up close and personal with the buildings in your community and equate to the risks and hazards you and your personnel will be confronted with and the level of safety afforded them during incident operations. Dynamic Risk and Command Management and the integration of BECOME SAFE concepts, ingredients for safer operations.

•Building
•Evaluation
•Construction/occupancy
•Operational hazards
•Manage time and elements
•Engagement
•Situational awareness
•Assessment and risk analysis
•Fire behavior and effects
•Evaluate and execute

With the advancements in technology, software and programs, there is a vast extent of options and financial levels available to all organizations to develop publish and revise pre-incident planning documents. The key safety message here is that Pre-Fire Plans and Incident Plans can provide a significant margin of support to you during incident operations and can increase firefighter safety, reduce operational risk and aid in the risk management and command management of a give incident.
Regardless of your agency and respond district size, complexity of simplicity, Pre-Incident Plans are a necessary part of modern firefighting and all-hazards operations. An informative planning flow chart is available within the NFPA 1620 document, Figure 4.2.3. ( Order the NFPA 1620 document through the NFPA HERE)

•Attached is a copy of the Tempe, AZ Fire Department Pre-Incident Planning SOP
•The Phoenix, AZ Fire Department Pre-Incident Planning SOP is available HERE
•An informative Pre-Fire Planning article by Battalion Chief Michael Lee is available HERE

Spend time touring through construction sites as you monitor the progress of a building or occupancy going up. Look at the manner in which structural support systems are fabricated and assembled. Observe the types of materials that are being used and how they are assembled to form rooms and compartments within the structure. Take a good look at the manner in which floor and roof systems are constructed, these will become mission critical informational items that can be used to determine your operational profile and formulate your incident action plans. Keep abreast of changes, renovations and alternations to buildings and structures, especially as commercial and business occupancies change owners. These are special areas of concerns on wide latitude of safety and operational considerations. With the continued challenges in these economic times, pay very close attention to the state of your vacant and unoccupied structures. A change in strategic and tactical deployment considerations MUST be instituted; it shouldn’t be business as usual in these structures.

•Keep apprised of different types of building materials and construction used in your community.
•Document those conditions and aspects and train your personnel to understand the occupancies within your community.
•Understand the Structural AnatomyTM of your buildings and occupancies.
•The operative response to the opening question this time next year will be this: “What do you “really” know about the buildings in your district?” …The answer will hopefully be…”A lot!”
•Here’s my New Safety Formula; Bk = f2S, Building Knowledge = Firefighter Safety