Door Entry Procedure ....



1 There was no obvious fire in the building as firefighters arrived on-scene but there was a strong smell of burning and some smoke was seen issuing from a chimney in the six-story building. As Firefighters opened the door leading onto the stairway, heavy smoke suddenly turned to flame. The intense fire that followed killed several firefighters caught above in the stair-shaft



2 Firefighter X, along with three other… Continue

'UK firefighters have never been at greater risk when fighting structure fires than they are today! ...Firefighter life losses in the UK are currently at their highest rate for over 30 years! Our firefighters have never been so at risk as they are now but the situation is going to get much worse, with massive depletion of resources being proposed.



Statistically, prior to 2004, the UK Fire Service incurred traumatic operational fatalities at a fairly consistent average of about… Continue

'To many firefighters, ‘air management’ still means waiting for the low-air vibration alert or alarm to sound, signaling it’s time to leave the building. This occurs when three-fourths of the air supply has been consumed. Many consider that such a procedure is acceptable during a routine room-and-contents fire in a small building. However, take a look at how many firefighters have ‘run out of air’ in residential fires and lost their lives! In larger structures, or where there are large numbers… Continue

"It seemed like a routine house fire in the early evening .... the fire began in the first floor living room and burned slowly at first but with enough intensity to burn through the ceiling into the second floor. When we arrived on scene there was heavy dark smoke issuing from the chimney and all windows in the front were heavily darkened from smoke. There were just five of us on one engine.



We managed to get in quick and pull an unconscious woman out from the first floor before… Continue

I was in Johannesburg lecturing at a conference when a firefighter came up to me. “Paul, all the text books on fire-fighting tactics seem to take it for granted that there is going to be adequate resources and staffing on-scene at every structure fire. Furthermore, just about all of the standard operating procedures I have seen are written for staffing of five and above. In our little town we will get three firefighters responding to a structure fire on a single engine and they will be there… Continue

Madrid High-rise Fire 2005



Fire came heading directly at Milara’s crew as the fire gases above their heads ignited. He took the nozzle himself and applied a series of nozzle pulsations into the flaming gases. This had no effect on the fire so he resorted to a series of long bursts of water-fog, trying to reach the entire volume of flaming combustion gases that filled the overhead. There were desperate attempts to halt the fire at this point in an effort to stop flaming gases from… Continue

03:08am As we climbed the 50ft wooden escape ladder the fire flashed over from a window below us. Flames came belching out onto the ladder, which had just transported us to the third floor level. My hands felt slightly ‘crisp’ but we had arrived safely. I watched out the window as the ladder was suddenly removed and wheeled away for urgent use elsewhere. The ladder itself was still on fire!



03:11am There we all were, the five of us huddled together on the filthy floor of a derelict… Continue

There was a fire in 2007 on a European fire-ground that represented a typical ‘routine’ approach faced by firefighters all over the world. The fire involved a small single-story abandoned warehouse but there were surrounding buildings that posed some moderate exposure risks from a developing fire. The initial response consisted of just five firefighters on a single engine, with limited backup for the next twelve minutes on-scene.



As this book will show, a lot can happen in twelve… Continue