TRUCK COMPANY OPERATIONS

Understand the factors that affect whether you will enter a building to conduct a search—and what type of search you’ll conduct once you’re in
By Michael M. Dugan

Searching a fire building can be an extremely difficult and time-consuming task for any truck company. One of our options to help us in this endeavor—a search rope—is the focus of this article. But before I address this, we have to determine whether entering the structure is even feasible.

Enter the Fire Building?
The decision to allow a team to enter an immediately dangerous to life or health (IDLH) environment depends on the mission and the situation we’re facing at that particular fire. If we have a member trapped, lost or in need of help in the building, then the threshold for entry might differ from that for a vacant factory. Simply put, if the conditions are not compatible with entry, then the team should be held until the situation allows for it.

Define the Type of Search
At most departments, standard operating guidelines (SOGs) for search line deployment and use are ambiguous at best. But it’s important that SOGs acknowledge the differences involved with various types of searches. For example, the first things every firefighter and officer searching off a rope should know are the type of search being performed and what kind of building they’re entering. Is the search for fire or life? Is the building a house fire or a commercial fire? Additionally, is a handline in place? The answers to these questions will affect how the search line is used.

For example, during a search for fire in a commercial structure, the handline should be no more than 50 feet behind the searching firefighters to protect them. Why? Because conditions in a large commercial structure can change very quickly, and we’ll need fast water to protect the search team.

In a single-family home, we don’t usually need a search line—there’s a front door, a rear entrance and one set of stairs. In a multiple-family dwelling with numerous apartments on each floor and remote exits, we should use a search line to maintain contact with the exit stairway and our means of egress. Some buildings have T-shaped hallways, and it would be easy to get turned around; thus, we might use the search rope just to locate the fire apartment.

Further, the search team must keep in mind the hose team’s ability to protect them with water. If the search team is entering an area beyond the reach of the hoseline due to walls or the layout of the building, then they should have the hose team bring the hoseline to a location where they can better protect the search team. Once we have water on the fire and a team searching off a rope, the fire conditions still need to be monitored, but the search can proceed more safely.

Let’s now address the different types of searches involving rope. To many departments, a rope-assisted search is the same as using a search rope. But these two types of searches are completely different and must be treated as such.

Using a Search Rope
Using a search rope is something we do in a large, open area where walls and points of reference are difficult to find or not present at all. The search rope is used with a search team and, most times, tag lines or search lines are deployed off of the main search rope.

This type of search requires at least three members searching off the line. The positions should be a team leader or team officer who is in control of the main search rope, as well as two other firefighters who will follow a pattern off the main line to conduct a search. The pattern can be a fan pattern or a sweep-type pattern. Either way, the firefighters must be taught the proper technique for searching off the line.

Members are directed to sweep off a search rope under the direct supervision of an officer or search team leader. The leader will control the main search line and allow members to tag off the line and do a search pattern in an established direction, searching a large area. Searching firefighters will repeat the pattern and return to the line where the officer or leader is waiting.

These searches are difficult at best and require effective team leadership, discipline and rope maintenance. Rope maintenance means that the team leader has and maintains control of the main search line, and individual searchers are in control of their taglines. This takes a lot of training and practice to do well. Some commercially available search kits have retractable search lines, which can help with rope maintenance.

You’ll also need a way to secure the search line so it can be left in place for the unit relieving you on the search. The rope can be tied off to a substantial object or secured at the last point; this will depend on your department’s specific SOGs.

The bottom line: Searching a large area is a very difficult and complex assignment that requires teamwork and sufficient staffing to complete.

Rope-Assisted Searches
A rope-assisted search is a search where a team is entering a fire building to do a primary or secondary search under arduous conditions because of a known life hazard. This type of search is used in a building that does not require a wide-open-area search or a patterned search. Instead, this type of search uses the rope to secure and control an exit point from the fire area. Building types include office buildings, apartment houses with long hallways or stores with aisles that have stock and merchandise in place.

The search team leader will control the search line and allow team members to search off the line without a tagline. The officer can direct members into areas to be searched, and they can return to the line to continue the search in another area. The team members can do individual searches or a team search of the room, but the officer or leader doesn’t bring the line into the room, which makes rope maintenance easier and the search quicker. In addition, team members must know that they cannot go outside the area the officer sent them into without approval.

The rope in a rope-assisted search is used to maintain contact and orientation with the exit. This type of search is done to speed up the search and allow team members to search off of the line with the officer or leader maintaining the rope and making an ongoing assessment of the current conditions. Rope-assisted search members do not have to worry about their tagline—only a primary search of the area they’ve been assigned to search. As with any search, effective communications with the team leader and other team members are essential.

Standardized Ropes
It’s important that your department SOGs specify that all search ropes be uniform. All search lines should be the same length and the same type so that members can recognize them as search ropes in a fire building. Any marking, knots, rings or other devices placed on the ropes should be standardized as well. If a member of one company encounters a rope in the fire building, they should know that the rope will have the same marking as the rope they trained on in their company. This uniformity is important to ensure the safety of the firefighters operating within a fire building.

Part of the search rope standardization process is a marking system. All ropes should be tagged on the outside with the unit number or designation. This will allow firefighters and officers outside the fire building to see which unit stretched a search line. A marking system also allows the firefighters and search leaders inside the fire area to determine how far into the building they are and which direction leads out. A marking system can be accomplished using knots, rings or other markings placed at certain intervals.

Final Thoughts
Operations using a search line are risky. Therefore, we must make them as safe as possible by having appropriate SOGs. The different types of searches require different mindsets, but with either method, training is the key to being able to conduct a good search using a rope. So, when was your last search line drill?

Michael M. Dugan is a 33-year veteran of the fire service and a 23-year veteran of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), currently serving as captain of Ladder Company 123 in Brooklyn. As a firefighter in Ladder Company 43, Dugan received the James Gordon Bennett medal in 1992 and the Harry M. Archer Medal in 1993, the FDNY’s highest award for bravery. He was an instructor at the inception of the FDNY’s Annual Education Day and has developed programs currently taught to all FDNY members during the annual event. Dugan is a member of the IAFC Safety, Health & Survival Section. He serves as a HOT instructor at Firehouse Expo and FDIC, and is a regular contributor to fire service magazines. He also lectures at various events around the country on topics dealing with truck company operations, building construction, scene size-up and today’s fire service. Contact Captain Dugan at duganfire@aol.com or visit his Web site, www.NYfiretraining.com.

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