I bring this up because many departments are straying away from interior firefighting.  I know that some do not have the staffing or experience to do it very often, but there are plenty that do.  This is a fire that happened at 14 T St NW yesterday in DC.  Several reports of heavy smoke and fire showing upon arrival.  Rear was almost fully involved.  However with an agressive interior attack using 1 1/2" hand lines, they were able to get a knock on the fire and extinguish it within under 10 minutes and save this persons house.  Here's a pic after the bulk of the fire on the first floor was knocked down.


My main point is just to show that aggressive firefighting is still something that should be practiced when possible.  Standing outside with a 2 1/2" would have probably meant the loss of this house and possibly others.(These are all row homes which means easy extension)  Thought this may get some people thinking and be an interesting discussion.


Story from fire with pics: http://www.dcfire.com/history.html?view=1&id=70519

http://www.dcfd.com

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but watch the house will be torn down that is why swiss has no lodd's because they sourrond and drown and protect exposures
for those of you watching from home, most of these rowhouses in DC date back to victorian days, and are very well built. A lot of owners have added wooden porches of varying quality to the back, and you can see what happens if they catch fire. The pics that capcity has put up are classic DCFD. Massive amount of fire in a well built building. Massive response, aggressive attack, building save that at first look you'd think is a total loss.
Uh, why wouldn't you go in?
About 20 minutes out here in town (small town). We cover 100 square miles most of the area does not have hydrants. Some places aid may be 45 or more minutes out. Not all of are area is under auto aid. One township we service will not sign a aid agreement. So other Departments refuse to come without are request for them. We know we have a water supply nightmare that why we have 2000 gallon engine, Another with CAFs and plan on another tanker in the future.
I will never tell someone there family member is not coming home over a house. Yes we have saved alot of homes even the old 1970 style house trailers that burn like gasoline. But with as much fire as shown with are water supply its not going to happen here. Also we don't have many homes this big or as close anyway.
Check out the apartment fire on my page I worked the second and third floors on that fire. But that was another town with alot of water.
How much water does your Engine carry? How many firemen can you expect on a worker? Do you lay 3" or 5" supply line?
We fight alot of fires in Indy using 3" supply line single and dual lays.with 1"3/4 attack lines.
Sure.Right through the front and push it right out the back.I saw someone stated before it's not lightweight so go for it.Looks impressive as hell on the C side but a good push from the A side and some truck work to check for extension should cut this baby right off.
2000 gallons, 5 to 7 firefighters and officers quick on scene, We carry 1200 feet of 5" 500 feet of 3".
Again if your asking in this place would we go in sure. If it was in are area and I am in command NO! if we got a quick knock down on the back, Then we would go in sure. I doubt many on here would attack this with just two 1 3/4 lines.
John,

The two-thousand gallons of water you have available will be more than adequate to make an interior attack on this structure.
Good to see someone pointing this out, I was going to.

1 engine with 2000, another with a CAFS so it has some water and hydrants that will supply a 3"? You have all kinds of water to knock this fire down. If done properly.

FWIW, this building is not fully involved. I would be hard pressed to term it well involved. I would say that very little if any of the structure is even involved, mostly the back deck.

And if you don't have enough water to go interior to knock this fire down, you better call the world, because you aren't going to have enough water to keep the rest of the block from burning down, either.
Capcity,

What is the first alarm response for DC?

Shawn
I think some people are missing the point of Capcity's question. The question is not what would your department do? It is would YOU go in? It seems he is suggesting the question with plenty of people and plenty of water. Would you go in, leading an engine company. leading a ladder company, pushing the nozzle, pulling ceiling or draging hose. The issue is with all the fire at the back would you direct water on the outside fire or go in and push the fire out. In rural settings you would not have a fire like this so the question is a case study not what your department would do.
So I guess thats not smoke coming though the bricks on the bottom to photos? The way fire is rolling up the C side it not going into the Loft and every story? No I would not say fully involved, But it is well involved.
From the looks of the smoke and work all ready started my guess is fire attack has been started for a little while anyway. I wonder if they were just pulling on scene did it look like this?
Again we don't have these kind of structures. Maybe if I have worked a few I would think differently.
A few weeks ago there was a photo of a combine fire and there was a comment about all the resouces needed. Then I stated we would just use are brush truck and a tanker for that fire. It is what we do all the time. We don't fight fire in row houses we just don't have them here. I should not have commented on this post.

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