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Smoke Showing, People Trapped: Action Plan
Buffalo firefighters arrive to find smoke showing, people trapped...
Don Murtha video
Read more, "Buffalo Firefighters Battle Two-Alarm Fire"
In the related article, "Engine Company Size-up & IAP Development" FireRescue Magazine/FirefighterNation contributor Greg Jakubowski discusses the importance of the first arriving engine company in setting up for a successful attack,
"- engine companies are often the first-arriving units at a fire incident and therefore have the ability to set the tone for the entire incident by properly performing a size-up and initial fireground operations. As we all know, when a size-up is not done, or not done properly, it can at best result in errors on the fireground, or at worst, chaos."
What ways does your first-arriving engine set the stage for other companies?
Do you have guided size-up reports (building description, fire/smoke conditions, water supply instructions, etc) or does the first office "wing it"?
If the fire in the above video were in your area, what should the second-arriving company be expected to do?
With people trapped, is your first-arriving engine going for the rescue, the fire attack or both? How will your staffing influence your choice?
What is your chief officer expecting to hear, if this was your fire, as he is responding?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by 55 TRUCK on
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People will reply to threads on PPE, cell phone usage, cooking & other blah,blah, etc. Yet no responces to a actual
firefighting question. Intresting.
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Permalink Reply by Norm Tindell on
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Okay, 55 Truck. You're absolutely right. This takes more concentration, though...
Good size-up is critical.
The first arriving officer should set the tone by giving a clear, concise, thorough size-up as described above. Clear, calm communication helps everyone who is responding visualize what is going on at the scene. I would have stated, "Two and one half story wood frame single family residence, moderate smoke showing levels two and three, one victim visible on level two, attempting rescue. Second company bypass the hydrant, come in and make a quick attack. Strike a second alarm on this fire. Switching to Channel two."
So, with 2 in/2 out in mind, I would expect the second company to plan on attacking the fire while we make our rescue attempt. We would have the staffing most of the time (We're volunteer). We could expect at least three engine companies (and no truck companies) on a first alarm, and nowhere near what Buffalo initially mustered on this fire.
That's what the Chief would want to hear. He would assume command upon arrival and consider additional resource needs.
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Here is mine.
Control engine 3 on scene 2 1/2 story wood frame residence smoke showing. Control mark this a working fire. Engine 3 will be attack, we have laid in a 3" line, from the east. Engine 3 establishing Woodlawn command. ( If the person who called 911 had stated there were or may be people trapped, then control would put this in our intial dispatch.) Our SOP is that all structures are ocuppied until we the fire dept. has done a primary and secondary search.
In a case like this we would advance the line to the seat of the fire, one firefighter would stay on the pipe & fight the fire while the other two went to do a quik search.
On a fire in this type of residence we would get on the intial alarm. 3Engines, 2 Trucks, 1 Squad, 1 Battalion chief with Xo, 1 safty Car. Plus a ALS ambulance to standby and a EDO ( EMS district officer).
Each Engine has 4 firefighters each Truck has 3 to 4 firefighters, a squad has 2 firefighters. (Squads are normaly assighned to Truck work) Total of about 23 firefighters. On scene in 3 to 5 minutes give or take.
The Battalion has a driver who is his aid and a Lt. The aid goes into the fire and is the eyes and ears of the Battalion. The aid is an extension of the Battalion inside the fire.
I would also like to point out that in the area of the City I am assigned to about 80% of the old homes of this size have been cut up into low rent Sh#t hole appartments. It is a good bet you'll have multiple entrapments on a job like this.
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Permalink Reply by Bryan Boccelli on
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My first arriving compnay will give an initial size up. Example, 43-56 O/L 2.5 story wood frame dwelling, smoke showing division A, strike the all hands. Depending on the staffing we'll make the stretch for the knock with second piece in handling water supply. First in piece will have an officer that assumes command until a chief officer arrives.
Our size up consists of an initial size like I showed above. Once that is completed, while crews are making the stretch, command will complete a 360 size up giving a more defined size up on building size, construction and possible fire location.
The second arriving company would be expected to hit the hydrant and make the lay for water supply. The crew would also be responsible a second stretched line as well as laddering the roof and ventilation. Again, all this depends on our staffing considering we are a volunteer department.
Staffing will effect our response on a incident with entrapment. With a staffing of three we can make the fire attack as well as the rescue, however, it all depends on where the seat of the fire and the victim is.
A majority of the time, our Chief officer is first on location, however, he is expecting to hear a grab made, with a decent darkening of the fire. If we can't accomplish it, he wants to hear why, and hat we need to accomplish such a task.
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Permalink Reply by Curt Raue on
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I work for a paid department that staffs two engine with six people out of one house. When responding to structure fires, our first engine will pull up to the structure involved and the officer in charge, captain or leutenant depending on the day, will tell dispatch what he can see from the truck and establish command. The second engine will stage at the nearest hydrant and wait for command to call for a line.
The officer in charge will do a walk around to determine what action is needed and where the fire is located. If it is determined that there is actually a fire, the officer will call for a line, advise the second engine to lay a supply line from the hydrant, and tell dispatch to initiate call back(call in off duty personell). The rider on the first engine will pull the attack line and the driver on the first engine runs the pump. On the second engine, the rider gets the hydrant, the officer goes in as the second on the first attack line. When the rider from the second engine gets up to the scene, he and his driver pull the second line.
If the incident goes beyond what the initial response crew can handle, the call back personell will respond to the scene with additional equipment if needed and assisst where they are needed. If it becomes a large incident with multiple sectors, a chief officer will be called to operate as command. If the incident goes beyond what our deparmtent can handle(24 personell, three engines, a platform, and a telesquirt), volunteer departments from surrounding communities will be called.
The police department usually handles traffic control and the hospital sends an ambulance to standby.
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Curt, am I reading your post right? On a fire you all sit in the engine while the officer walks around the structure? It sounds to me like ya'll sit in the engine while the structure burns!? Please tell me that this isn't
the case.
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Really?
With our department, as with most departments across the country, everything is happening simultaniously. I guess I didn't reallize that I needed to specify that. The idea of poeple sitting on their hands while there are obvious signs of a structure on fire is crazy and almost insulting.
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