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Its only a "Garage Fire"...
You've arrived at a Single family residential, there appears to be a "pretty good" working fire located within the garage..but its extending due to a strong wind and the fire loading within the garage. As you can see from the aerial views, this house is located within a fairly dense and common subdivision. All the structures are wood frame, some have asphalt architectural shingles, others have wood shakes. There's a hydrant right in front on the Alpha side. ( Cops just moved their patrol car from the front of it).
So....How big of a problem do you have?
What can you expect in the way of safety concerns related to typical garage fires? ie fire loading, products, materials, exposures, hazards etc. In this incident what does your risk profiling tell you?
Strategy, tactics....take your pick; what are the issues and how are you going to address them?
Logistics...What'll happen if the fire communicates to the Delta exposure and takes command of that structure?
Let's hear about insights on command management, engine ops, truck ops and rescue ops...you make the call.
Lastly... What are the "BIG" picture issues confronting you, IF you can't control the fire to the house of origin and the fire rapidly extends to other exposures ( three or more adjacent structures..due to wind driven fire and your lack of getting ahead of the fire progress tactically) Again, look at the aerial images..what are the operational and safety considerations?
UPDATE: CHECK THE POSTINGS STARTING ON THREAD PAGE FIVE...THE FIRE HAS NOW EXTENDED..."hope you're calling in some additional alarms...."
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Trainer on
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Once again another dandy! I’m going to start with 5 engine companies, would need only 4 but theirs a tree or 2 that will come into play. Guessing the hydrants are close will need more then 1. First concern is further extension, house next door. Big water, but if attacked with a straight stream will scatter hot embers, getting ahead of myself. 1 eng, A side, fight fire, wind is helping with house of origin, 2nd eng will back them, that should give interior and exterior, plus cover at least the next house, aim the deck gun there. Eng 3 will cover C side, I’d like to see a portable deck gun here or a mini monitor to cover non-involved plus hand lines. Anybody got a water curtain? I want everyone using modified straight streams or semi fog as to not cause a cloud of sparks. Eng 4 will sweep the next few houses with deck gun or hand lines, tree may prevent good sweep, this is preventing eng 2 from doing this. Eng 5 will park at the end of the block to, hope it don’t get their, make a stand if need be. This one you will need a lot of eyes, maybe get the cops to watch.
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Permalink Reply by Salty Jake on
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First issue that we are faced with is the exposure on side D, we need to get water onto it in a hurry. First due Engine if equipped, hit exposure D with a deck gun, just wet it down to buy yourself sometime, no worries about water with a hydrant right in the street. Redirect your gun to the fire building and hopfully darken that down. Request a second alarm assignment. Crew can now stretch a line into the house, checking for extention. Hopfully by now the calvery has arrived, we have a Quint 75 ft. 2000 GPM pump that rolls on a first alarm (from another district with our town) along with a 110 ft areial, both of which are equipped with pre-piped water ways, fog nozzels. Set up the next due Ladder on side D of the exposure building, we are now in positon to deploy our master stream in a fog pattern to cover the entire exposure, and at the same time knock down any live embers that may be carried up with the thermals. With our second alarm; we get another Engine, Heavy Resuce with a minimum of three personnel for (RIT) and an ambulance. Second alarm engine would be assigned to comb the neighbor hood to check for spot fires that may have occured as a result of flying hot embers in the compact neighborhood.
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Permalink Reply by cleatus on
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In my opinion going areial or deploying a deck gun is alittle excessive. From the areial pictures and doing your 360 you will have noticed the garage is fully involved. Deploy 2 1"3/4 in the drive way. push that fire to the back yard so you dont get anymore of the house involved get a knock down on the fire. While they are knocking down the fire keep checking the exposure to the right making sure it doesnt catch and have a 3rd line make entry into the structure to check for extension into the rest of the house.
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Permalink Reply by JEFF OLESON on
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I would like to reply to this from a small volunteer department's aspect. Since we don't have aerials or quints, or mounted deck guns, we would have to do it the old fashioned way. My first in engine would pull a 2 1/2 and go for the quick knockdown and at the same time, try to get a little water on the structure on D side. My second in would set up a water curtain on D side. This house is average height and if the water curtain is placed right, it will keep the radiant heat off of the other structure. After they got the water curtain established, they would then pull a handline to assist with knockdown and to make entry. The other members arriving as well as other engines and departments responding to mutual aid would assist in the protection of the surrounding structures. I would also utilize police and anyone else available as additional eyes for potential problems.
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Permalink Reply by Bill Muehsam on
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The exposure on the "D" side of the structure poses the biggest problem. The garage is attached to the strucure, so that's problem #2. The close proximity of the structures on the "B" and "D" sides needs to be addressed quickly. The rear, "C" side, poses the least problems, at least from the onset. The winds aren't helping this scenario either!!! Our "standard" box is three engines, truck, and a Batt. Chief, so resources initially, isn't a problem. All engine companies carry at least 1000 ft of 5 inch, and several carry portable ground monitors, and all have deck guns, so water "shouldn't" be a problem.
Questions that need an immediate answer are these: What was/is being stored in the Garage (Fuel load)? Has the fire extended into the main structure (does it have a common attic)? Wind speed and direction (is this going to spread)? Building construction (helping or hurting me)? Available resources (distance/response time of additional companies)?
As for tactics, lead off with big water (2 1/2) and get it knocked down, exposers (especially the "D" side) need to be protected (ground monitor will work to start with). Get inside the house, conduct primary search, and check for extension into the main part of the house.
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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I'll change the details to match what we'd find. Similar, but there're differences. Here a housing development like that one pictured would be quite new, the houses would all be light-weight timber frame, truss roofing, with concrete or maybe terracotta tiles. Nothing under the tiles but the trusses. They would all have brick non loadbearing outer walls. As it's daytime, I'll go for the worst time (St Murphy strikes again) and say that it's a weekday.
A housefire call would have at least two Stations responding automatically. Initially three pumpers with probably crews of three. As soon as the smoke was sighted, the initial vehicle would most likely call for another pumper or two (aerial appliances are scarce here).
The garage would not have any viable rescues, so the first crew would probably be going into the house with a line to both check for people and search for extension of fire into the house. The second pumper would have arrived on the heels of the first, they would be getting a line set to both attack the fire in the garage and keep watch on the downwind house. The smoke coming from the roof of the house is light, so probably little real extension into the roof space yet, checking that would be the job of the third crew on-scene, they would be sending a crew up to the roof to shift tiles and check for extension - they would have a line passed up to them. Risk of fire spread to other houses? Not high, apart from the immediate neighbour - but would have to be watched.
Safety concerns? Until proven otherwise, a garage has all types of horrible substances inside. Fuel. Paint. Solvents. Old batteries. Spare tires. Boxes of anyone's guess.
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Interesting scenario - and very close to a call we had last summer. Extra hazard then? 35C (95F) and as humid as you could not want. Thunder storm arrived as well - like to be on a metal ladder or a roof in a thunderstorm? As we turned out a fire tower 30 kilometres away reported being able to see a thick column of black smoke. The garage was 50% involved on arrival. Pumpers one and two arrived at the same time - one crew into the house with a line, one attack crew to the garage. Third pumper put a crew on the roof of the hose to stop extension. A part-filled fuel can in the garage exploded as the crew attempted entry through the rear door. The main doors to the garage were closed, which contained the fire somewhat. Two Alpha Romeo's inside, fuel in jerrycans, paint, a surfboard, card boxes piled up to the ceiling filled with paper and books, etc. junk central. Fire was started by the battery charger attached to the recently restored Alpha 1750 GTV. Which was totalled. The fire was knocked down before it could extend into the attached house, some light smoke damage only.
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Permalink Reply by Jay Nicholson on
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Tactical considerations are, obviously, the densely-packed nature of the structures in the development (wow!), and the wind. Also throw in the fact that the garage is usually filled with anything too smelly or flammable to keep in the house, so you may have a runoff issue (of secondary importance, but certainly in the mix).
There are more than a few "zero clearance property lines" here now.Basically, if you stuck your head out your window, you'd be in your neighbors property.
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Ted, I would say your right about the garden hose, and I don’t think he was watering the yard. I’m not an advocate of PPV/A, but this looks to be an ideal place. As for the water curtain device, never seen one used, we have used the deck gun before, but the actual curtain, which I recall from some training I had 15 years ago, just kind of popped up. I’m not too worried about the nasties in the garage, unless I start to see a sheen on the runoff in the curb, at least initially this would be a life safety issue, hopefully he is not making biodiesel in there. I’m not an advocate of PPV/A, but this looks to be an ideal place.
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Permalink Reply by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on
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Coming through the unaffected side with an attic line. Pulling ceiling; checking for extension.
Big water to knock down garage fire and to protect exposures. It could easily jump to a house or three.
So, until that third line is set, take your 2-1/2, wet the crap out of the garage, then direct it as a water curtain to protect exposures.
You need a box alarm, but it looks like most can be done with a company of truckies.
TCSS.
Art
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Permalink Reply by Shareef Abdu Nur on
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From a Truck OIC's standpoint, if we are 1st Due, we are going to attack this with our aerial fog tip immediately, 360, and then stretch from our 2.5" smoothbore into the house, search, and open up for extension. We will have the 1st due Engine supply us and then take over our 2.5" attack, we would then continue to open up, we would assign the 2nd due engine to back up the 1st, and the 3rd due to set up exposure protection on each side if at all possible. The next due Truck will handle ventilation and additional exposure protection. We would strike a 2nd alarm and have them searching the area for embers, hot spots e, etc.. and by this time, a chief should be there, so we would pass command.
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Permalink Reply by Shawn on
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I like the plan here, and this situation does look like it is a larger city area, so you may get 4-5 engine companies, but what if this was a smaller city or town, that is only service by 2 engines, with additional only available by mutual aid... For my station, a county small town station (only having a single engine) bringing out 4-5 engine companies, we would be looking at 20 for the second to arrive and 30-45 before we saw a third and a fourth
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