The other night we made a stucture fire at what we thought was a single story wood frame. Fire was visible from one window on the "D" side of the structure. Moderate smoke was showing around a door that was next to the window. Our Engine layed a line in from the closest hydrant and my rig (Ladder-7), was assigned to ventilation. Since I only had 3 people on the rig, including me, I assigned my driver and firefighter to vent the roof, while I took the PPV fan to the point of entry, which in this case, was the front door. When I sat the fan down on the porch I then went to open the front door since the fire-attack crew was almost ready to enter. When I opened the screen door I discovered one of those High-Security, Barred doors, blocking the actual front door. I checked the barred door and it was locked. Like Fort "Fricken" Knox it was locked! I knew I was in trouble at that point because I had only brought a Pick-head axe with me. I did this because I failed to size-up the structure and see the bars that were on the windows.

Anyway, I began attempting to pry the door witch had as good of results as you'd expect but to make matters worse, the actual front door opened while I was doing the Forcible Entry Flop on the porch which then allowed more air to the fire. I called for someone to bring me a K-12 saw since by now I was convinced I was dealing with the worlds strongest door and to my chigrin, everyone just looked at me. Why didn't they go get the saw? Was I not clear enough? Did I stutter? So I tried again, this time making sure to add the supleratives that all firefighters understand as "Hey I'm really serious, pretty, pretty please do what I'm asking!" But this had no effect on my stone faced comrades.

Why did they do that? Shouldn't they have ran to truck and fufilled my order? No, they just looked at me because they had assignments, all the assignments that were stalled because I couldn't get the door open, but anyway it would have been wrong for them to go and get the saw.

Thankfully, another firefighter, also equipped with a Pickhead axe, had come up to help me. We were able to get both axes behind the door and pry it open. The attack crew was able to enter the structure and begin their attack.

I then set out to check on my crew who, by now would have the roof opened up, right? Wrong. Turns out when they got up on the roof, the fire "took- off," and smoke totally enveloped the roof. Visibility was zero. Of course the chainsaw didn't work and if you've ever tried to cut a roof with an axe in zero visibility when the roof has a glaze of frost and is fairly steep, you know it is next to impossible. A few moments later Command called for us to get off the roof due to the failing conditions.

Let's take a moment to add up what's happened so far:

1. Entry was delayed because the numbskull who was supposed to get the door open brought the wrong tool.

2. Vertical ventilation was not achieved because of the rapidly worsening conditions of the fire and smoke.

You want to take a guess as to why I think the fire "took off?" I think it goes back to the numbskull (me) on the front porch. When I let the front door swing open it gave the beast the oxygen it needed. I was having a banner night.

When me and the fellas got off the roof I gave a PAR to Command and walked back to the front of the house. I looked into the entry point and saw one desperately lonely 1 3/4" handline going in. Where the hell was the back-up line? This thing was going from worse to Titanic! As I looked around I found the the back up line. It was in the hands of an able bodied crew... standing on the driveway of the neighbor! It would almost been funny if it weren't true.

Thankfully the boys on Fire-Attack were able to make there way in and stop the fire but they too had some odd things happen. Come to find out, the house had been added on to a couple of times. One of the changes made to the structure was to cover up the original hallway entrance into the bedroom areas (The fire was in a bedroom). This caused the crew to have to crawl all the way back to past the kitchen where they found a small hallway. Now remember, because of crappy ventilation their visibility was nil. When they made there way down the hallway they found only an out-swinging door, which typically indicates a bathroom. It in fact was a bathroom but on the other side of the bathroom was another door. The only door that gave access to the fire room. Good work by the Engine guys to get through the maze and figure out the riddle of this house.

The fire in bedroom darkened down rather quickly and they entered the room to check for extension. The Captain of the Engine crew noticed fire glowing up above them and he then advised the nozzleman to hit the fire up above them. As they moved to get the line a better shot at the "orange glow" they tripped over something. It was a small stairwell that led up to the attic that had ben converted into a play room for the children.

Just in case you missed it... There was a stairwell in the bedroom... that led up to the attic.

The attack crew made there way up the stairs and finished putting the fire out.

You may be wondering why I'd share this story since I was the one who made so many of the mistakes? I share it in the hopes that there may be some others out there who will learn from it and not make the same mistakes.

Speaking of mistakes:

1. Brought the wrong tool to force the door

2. Failed to properly size-up what types of tools would be needed

3. Lost control of the door which gave air to the fire, which

4. Caused the fire growth to occur at a much accelerated rate, which:

5. Hampered vertical ventilation, which:

6. further decreased visibility to the fire crew and increased the heat, that;

7. had a hell of time finding the fire because of the owner had blocked the normal means of access to the bed rooms, which;

8. limited the success of PPV, in fact PPV very well could have made matters worse, because;

9. The home owners had built an open stairwell to the attic area, which;

10. Gave the fire an open channel to further grow in a hard to find area

So what is the morale to my story? The actions of one firefigher can make a huge difference to the actions and safety to every other firefighter on the scene. Don't forget the basics, no matter how long you've been doing it

1. Do a good size up: Look for those farking bars, they kill firefighters.

2. Don't get hung up using the tool of habit: Though I like the Pick head for house fires in our area, it was clearly the wrong tool for this situation

3. Keep control of the doors: Until Fire-Attack can go in, starve the fire of oxygen unless you suspect backdraft, then vertical ventilation needs to be accomplished

4. PPV is a tool, don't let it be a tool of habit; if the smoke is still pushing out the point of entry when the fan is started, turn the darn thing off! If you don't, it will cause flashover.

5. If in command, be in command; unfortunately the chief of our fire had his hand held radio go dead on him just after arrival, which relagated him to his radio on the chief's car, which meant he couldn't see the back up line wasn't any where near where they should have been to do any good.

The Fire-Attack entered the house believing that ventilation would occur and they also believed that their back-up line would be located to help them if they needed it. Neither occured. We got lucky!

Anyway, I hope the next one I tell you about will be a great story of where me and the fella's saved the family, saved the house and did it all right.

If you want to comment, go ahead, just please be dignified, I know we screwed up, don't rub it in.

Be Safe