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The Area of Refuge and "Experience Makeup"
The area of refuge only applies to truckies forcing apartment doors, correct?
Refuge ref-uge (noun, verb) shelter or protection from danger, trouble, etc. a place of shelter, protection, or safety.
It is common in our culture and operations to expect engine companies to get as close as safely possible to the seat of the fire in order to make the most efficient attack possible (or most efficient as scientific research and field application have proven). The problem in this approach is that the experience of being tactically close is that the tell tale signs of this have led to "experience makeup." The "salty" look is equated with aggressiveness and runs counter towards "too safe".
Calling for water.
Hoseline begins to be filled.
The point here isn't that they should have abandoned their positioned and pulled the blitz line, writing off the structure. The point is, don't allow your need for "experience makeup" and a twisted sense of "aggressive firefighting" to damage a good fire attack. You don't know if that line will get charged, if a length will burst or if the fire conditions will quickly change (i.e. Riverdale, MD; San Francisco, CA; Prince William County, VA).
Had the nozzle team in this video not gotten the water they needed, the members would have had to raise themselves up, into the flames, in order the access the ladder. Yes, no problem so long as they wear all their PPE, I get that and have been there personally. But ask yourself this: in all the time you practice making the attack, do you give equal time to practicing how to recover when things go sour? It happens all the time and we have the abundance of reports highlighting how common basic skills were forgotten.
Simple solution: Back down the ladder, wait for water and when it comes, open the line, drive the stream into the ceiling area, move in and kill it. Still just as aggressive and utilizes an area of refuge. The makeup will still come, but in a more respectable way.
Bill Carey is the daily news and blog manager for Elsevier Public Safety (FireRescue Magazine/Firefighter Nation, JEMS and LawOfficer sites.) Bill also manages the FireEMSBlogs.com network and is a former volunteer lieutenant with the Hyattsville Volunteer Fire Department in Prince George's County, Maryland.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Shareef Abdu Nur on
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The area of refuge does not only apply to Truckies. The area of refuge applies for any members that are operating at a structure fire. It was officially given the name "area of refuge" many many many years ago by the FDNY due to their type of building construction and tactics. It has actually been around in the fire service since almost forever. Now, it is a common and easy step in the attack process that is often overlooked by Company Officers but has been proven time and time again to save lives..
It is the not the Chief's or Incident Commander's job to establish an area of refuge for operating members. It is the job of the Company Officer or senior member operating as a part of the teams on scene. An area of refuge can be a few rungs back down on the ladder to allow a room to flash after ventilating via a window. It can be another room separate from the fire room for interior crews to seek more tenable conditions during a "flame over" or other changing conditions. It can be an apartment across the hall or next door to the fire apartment where members can seek protection if and when conditions drastically change when forcing the door to the fire apartment. The key to "areas of refuge" is to be proactive and establish these areas prior to them actually being needed as well as communicating these locations to the rest of your team.
A very good video that clearly defines an area of refuge is the Dearborn FD roof collapse. In this video, the Officer and his crew used a fire wall on the roof as an area of refuge when the roof that they were operating on began to collapse.
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