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Residential or Commercial Alarm?
Residnetial or commercial?
Even in this downturn in the economy, there are still very large homes being built. In many cases these homes are over 5,000 square feet of total living area.
This creates a significant problem for many fire departments, especially smaller, more rural ones, in regards to tactics.
We are fighting these fires with traditional methods and resources. In many cases it just isn’t enough. Add to the those issues that these are all built using light-weight construction, we have a recipe for disaster, as we have seen across our country.
Firefighters are falling through floors immediately after entering. Roofs are collapsing much earlier than before. Contents are causing fires to burn faster and reach untenable temperatures much earlier in the fire. The larger area requires the firefighters to search longer and further into a building than in the past.
We need to look at these structures a little differently when confronted with a working fire in them. Here are some considerations that should not be overlooked on these fires:
1. Your going to need more water, get it rolling fast.
2. A 360 is a must. You don’t know what you might have on the back side. 4 stories, victims hanging out windows, location of the fire, etc.
3. A larger line. It may be very prudent to pull a 2 1/2 as your first line of attack.
4. More manpower may be needed due to the multiple functions needed because of the size. You may treat this alarm like a commercial alarm.
5. Search lines. In these very large homes, it is not out of the question to use a search line.
These are the primary items that you can’t discount. You may need to think differently on these larger home fires to have a positive outcome. I have seen departments burn these houses down because they were using tactics for an 1100 square foot building on a 5500 square foot house.
With the open floor plans and the light weight building materials, fire develops very fast in these homes. Anticipate that and plan for it. Adjust and have back up plans. Never be afraid to regroup to get it right.
Feel free to add to the concerns, I encourage you to contribute. After all, that is what makes this so much fun.
Stay safe and stay low. Don’t forget to hydrate all day in this heat. Carry around some water and sip on it all day.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jason Hoevelmann on
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Your absolutely right, and in some places it's getting worse. Thanks for commenting.
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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
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In my area we have a lot of these behemoths and one issue to consider is access. Long, narrow-ish driveways limit approach, visibility (if the lot is wooded) and overall access to the house. In other words many of these are NOT streetside (the setback can be 100ft or more) and so most apparatus are going to end up on the street (save the driveway for the ladder, if it can make the turns).
Another serious consideration is grade, many of these homes sit on lots that present some interesting landscapping problems (and solutions). Terraced yards, multiple level decks, stone walls, large planters, drop offs etc (all present in my area) can slow down or prevent a 360, not to mention ground ladder access.
Given that these homes are new-ish, besides the lightweight construction, consider substantial ceiling/wall insulation (fiberglass or the newer spray expansion foam) and triple-glazed windows; many of these homes are built like giant thermos bottles and hold in the heat. Finally, you don't own a 1.5-10+ million dollar home without having an automatic full-house generator. And bulk, 1000 gallon oil storage (or propane) tanks can only add to the fun. (Oh and I've seen houses where the bedrooms (not just the master) were multiple room suites, which also further add to the fun).
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Good additions to the post. Your right, in our area most of these homes are on large lots and access is a real problem.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Mackie on
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Jason,
once again you bring up a great topic. the guys have made some very good points as well. I think people have just taken the fire dept. for granted to a point, and in other ways, have not even considered our involvement, pre-constuction, nor post construction for that matter. People have a false sense of security when it comes to the fire service. By that I mean, they go under the premise that, if they need us, they call us, and we save the day. In many cases we do just that, as best we can.
The introduction of these light weight building materials etc. have really shown that little is taken into consideration when it comes to protecting the property in case of fire.
What's the answer? well there are many things that can and should be done which might help, but the problem has become more complex and there are many other variables to consider.
Some basic things, like Jack mentioned, just getting the apparatus on scene can be a major hurdle, and cost valuable time to get set up. Of course without sufficient manpower, even more time is lost, as the fire burns.
Manditory residential sprinkler systems is one thing that should be very seriously considered. This would at least give the fire dept. a fighting chance.
While we all know pre-incident planning is common (or so we think) for commercial buildings, I think that is another thing the fire service needs to step up, especially when it comes to these newer larger homes.
Knowing that the floors are likely to fail before entry can even be made, is something firefighters have the absolute right to know.
Building neighboring homes so close together is another major problem, and I see more and more multi-house structure fires occuring, simply because they are like one big building when it comes to a fire.
How about manditory submission of the buildings' blue prints to the fire dept. for pre-planning purposes.
Again, it won't work every where, due to manpower and dept. types etc.
Maybe it's time the fire service took a more hard ass approach to the construction industry - in that since they have no regard for firefighters' lives when faced with fighting these monster fires, perhaps we say - unless we have a pre-plan, and know the ins and outs of these buildings, its a defensive operation only.We will save your neighbor, but we will NOT risk our lives without knowing what is beyond that door. Hard - but maybe necessary to save firefighters' lives. I agree that is not likely to happen, simply because we as a fire service are better than that. We WILL do whatever we can, knowing or not.
The bottom line here is, we need more depts. doing pre-incident planning, especially for residential structures.
There is no easy, quick or cheap fix to the problem. But doing nothing is really not much of an option either.
Stay safe out there.
Thanks Jason for bringing this subject up. At least someone might think about this stuff.
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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You are on target if it is a bigger city type department. I know in New Hampshire there are very few fire departments in the entire state that have a true residential and commercial alarm assignment...
Anyone else see this?
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Thanks Brian. You make some very valid and important points. Thanks for commenting and sharing what you know.
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Permalink Reply by Roy Walker on
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Another problem for consideration in some of these homes is the cathedral ceilings which increase the difficulty in reaching them and increases the distance you fall if you are above them and they fail .
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This is a little off topic, but the same ceilings you speak of make it very difficult for batteries to get changed in smoke detectors.
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Not to continue too far off topic, but here code requires all CO/smoke detectors to be hardwired and in most cases (especially the mega-houses) the back-up battery(ies) may be remotely located from the ceilings.
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That's good to know. I don't think our code requires the remote back-up. Our fire district doesn't enforce single-family homes codes, so I will have to check on that. Thanks,
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Permalink Reply by Michael Meadows on
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Very good points all the way around. Only thing I can add is walkways over the living room that you may not know about. We ran into one of these recently and had it collasped it could have caused major entrapment/entanglement issues. It was meant to look nice and I bet it was nice before the fire. It was a freestanding walkway that went up steps from the front door and the walkway went across the living room/dining room area into the upstairs bedrooms/bonus room areas. It was a good topic of discussion at the next training meeting. I look forward to keeping track of this thread like many others and learning.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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what a trip Jack, I never thought about stored oil in a home... one of the benefits of living where it's sunny most of the time I suppose...
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