The recent double-LODD in West Virginia has mobile home fires on all of our minds. Although it’s too soon for us to know what happened at that specific fire, or to draw any judgments about the tactics employed, it does provide an opportunity to review mobile home firefighting tactics. While our hearts go out to the families of Johnnie Hammons and Timothy Nicholas, our minds should turn to how we can prevent this tragedy from happening again.

I asked Chief Greg Jakubowski of the Lingohocken Fire Department, a “Fire Attack” columnist for FireRescue magazine, to provide a few pointers on mobile home fires. Here’s what he said:

"Think Easy-Bake Oven on a bigger scale. The construction common to mobile home keeps the heat inside. The kitchen and living space is at one end, the bedrooms at the other—with limited means of egress and little or no fire partitions in the small units to contain the fire in one section.

"To be successful at mobile home fires, you will need to keep the fire at one end or the other. Entering with the nozzle at the end of the mobile home where the fire is will simply push the fire through the home. At the same time the nozzle crew enters, take out the windows at the other end to ventilate. This will allow the nozzle crew to push the heat out.

"A quick fire knockdown is about your only hope of successfully rescuing any victims that might remain in the unit upon your arrival. Mobile home roofs are not generally designed to support the weight of a person, and it’s likely not worth the time or effort to try vertical ventilation.

"In many cases, cooking and heating for the home is provided by propane, so a large propane tank will be alongside or nearby the unit. Protect the tank from fire impingement. Cooking and heating can also be provided by electricity or natural gas. Take the time to check for these hookups on arrival—or better yet, ahead of time by touring mobile homes in your coverage area."

Following are some pictures from a 2006 mobile home fire Greg's department responded to:

Shannon Pieper is managing editor of FireRescue magazine.

Greg Jakubowski is a fire protection engineer and certified safety professional with 28 years of fire-service experience. He is a Pennsylvania State Fire Instructor and serves as the chief of the Lingohocken Fire Company in Bucks County, Pa. Greg is also a principal in Fire Planning Associates, a company dedicated to helping fire departments, municipalities and businesses with pre-emergency training.