Penciling?

Anyone practice penciling? I don't see the point, but I'm stoopid, so I figured I would get other people's opinions. If you think it has a place, please be specific.

Until recently, I never heard of it, but apparently it is used alot in Europe, and it is a tactic where you briefly blast rollover on the ceilings with a STRAIGHT stream to disrupt the thermal layer just enough to keep the flames from attaching to the ceiling - and you do this on your way to the seat of the fire. *IF* I'm understanding it correctly. I saw a video of it, but can't find one on the Internet to share with you guys.

The commonly held opinion here seems to be that there is no point to penciling, and it's better to not waste time getting to the seat of the fire.

Note: blasting rollover with a fog pattern can get someone killed, so don't do it.

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jenny Holderby on November 13, 2008 at 12:58pm

What do you mean when ther balance came back 9 out of 10 times going to be killed? It is a cooling effect. You better have some ventilation going during the steam conversion but I don't understand what is going to kill you. If you don't know how to use a hose line you are going to get yourself in trouble anyway and probably shouldn't be in that situation. Yes it is a different effect than a fog nozzle to cool the atmosphere to allow for search & resuce usually.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dennis Brown on November 13, 2008 at 2:13pm

Lets see i think when i went to school in the 70s we called it thermal balance to prevent flash over

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by FETC on November 13, 2008 at 2:55pm

Penciling can provide you with a few educational characteristics when you are in the thick of it. A short blast of a straight stream as some call "penciling" will definately push back the rollover without upsetting the thermal balance. If you were to perform this above you, as a "Blind Pencil" if NO water rains down post pencil technique, this is a good indicator that the BTU threat is greater than the GPM's you are carrying to the fight.

We now teach pencil, pencil, fog during flashover recognition training in the flashover can ONLY when retreating from impending flashover conditions. The pencil part has great potential for pushback less chance of steaming you and your crew and when the pencil part has knocked back the rollover, the last FOG part provides you with some protection BUT this is only used during a last chance retreat technique.

In my earlier DUMBER years of my career, I used the pencil technique someone else described to hold back rollover and continue to push to the seat of the fire... I did this while pushing into a small dwelling with a child trapped in a specific room, YES a 9 year old was there, YES he was dead, the problem was in the thick dense smoke post pencil, the flames may ignite or reignite behind you as was my case, hence the DUMBER YEARS, because you can't see above or behind you. (this was before TIC's) Using pencil technique for this just sets you up for a disaster that you do not want to live through... trust me.

Let's just say MSA has a field case study first generation MMR airpack from my back that has no shoulder straps left, did you know there is stainless steel wire sewn into the straps to assure the straps won't fail when they are on FIRE? It was the last time I used the pencil technique to cheat and push to the seat of the fire, it worked but I almost died, the victim DIED and luckily it was only a short stay out of work...

As my friend Ben has stated before, we need to perform a better size-up, GPM's, Adequate Ventilation and apply the correct amount of Manpower to safely advance into a dwelling.... if you can't, then DON'T COMMIT TO A BORN LOSER.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by T.J. on November 14, 2008 at 7:45am

Your right and we do it anytime a rollover is present, but remember penciling onlys gain you a little bit of time, it's still going to flashover and with penciling your only doing it so you can get out!!!!!!!!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Eric on December 21, 2008 at 3:37pm

I know that any fire, whether it has been training or real, when it reaches the cieling to some degree, I have been taught to use a good, relatively quick burst from the straight stream to break up the thermal layer. I would have to agree with the practice.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ben on December 23, 2008 at 11:10am

All the science involved in that just made this nerd drool.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Capt.Alex Arnold on December 23, 2008 at 12:36pm

hmm, looks like it's all been said. We do it here in the rural BFE of Washington State. Penciling is part of the attack. Be safe and learn something new today.