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Pre-planning:Touring buildings under construction.
Does anyone tour buildings that are under construction? It's as simple as stopping by during the last phase of construction. This allows you to see the floor plan and get an idea of the layout of the interior. This works for commercial buildings as well as residential buildings and single family houses. This also allows the opportunity to see just what type of construction materials are being used. As tenents move into the buildings, you can follow up with your pre-plan and note special hazards, etc.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Christopher J. Naum, SFPE on
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Brian;
You're right on the mark. Its imperative that company officers as well as firefighters get out into the street and poke around all your buildings within your district or other greater alarm or mutual aid response areas and see how your buildings are being constructed, the workmanship AND the built-in deficiencies. Layouts, avenues for projected fire travel, roof and floor system and assembly construction will all help in determining appropriate incident actions plans should you respond to the structure in the future.
These are great opportunities for all your personnel, especially those with limited experience to understand how the buildings are constructed and why certain strategies and tactics must be employeed. Take a camera and grab as many photos as you can, visit the site as the construction progresses, each stage is different and has great insights. Use the photos and develop some informational training drills. It will all pay out in great returns. I promoted doing construction site walk thurs all the way back in the mid 1980's. Its even more important today, with engineered systems and LWCS. The safety of our personnel requires an intimate understanding on building construction, systems, materials, fire behavior and command risk assessment. Remember the building shouldn't be our enemy...the new mantra should be; "Building Knowledge = Firefighter Safety".
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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It's as simple as stopping by during the last phase of construction. This allows you to see the floor plan and get an idea of the layout of the interior.
I'd take this a step further- pop in regularly during the construction phase. The ever evolving nature of the work means that the risks are always changing. (To clarify, my company specialises in training industrial ERT's and have provided training and Safety Officers across many industries including refineries, construction, water, roads, pharmaceutical, etc- ALL have very different considerations!!!)
We can be called at any time during construciton (in fact, propably more likely than post construction) due to the work being done, etc. And it's obviously not just fire we need to be concerned about.
We need to consider EMS, confined space rescue, rescue from heights, building collapse, gas leaks, trench rescue, impalements, crush entrapments, HAZMAT, etc, etc- the list is endless. (How many departments could stand up and say with hands on their hearts that they can handle these or have mutual aid agreements in palce RIGHT NOW for all of these???)
I was actually contracted by a multi-national construction company a few months back to run the senior management of a particular project through a table-top DiscEx based on a tilt slab construction collapse. Very interesting to see what they thought the challenges were versus the emergency services as well as what the differing expectations were of each other.
Many in construction think it's a case of raise the alarm and the cavalry will come and save the day, however I'd argue that many emergency services are not ready for the challenge of working in "industry" and especially construction sites. There's a whole new level of process, procedures, equipment, hazards, risks, etc to work with in these environments.
Also consider the pace of the construction project- with many different factors, the speed at which things can change is incredible and almost mind boggling. Money DOES talk, especially when time based bonuses are on offer to senior managers- unfortunately this can be to the detriment of employee and contractor safety....
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This is an aerial shot of one of the construction sites I've worked on.
Check out the time lapse images at this link (and the dates underneath the photos) and seehow fast things can change- it brings a whole new perspective on pre-planning as every day the site and project is evolving. I first went on this site while it was still a bare paddock, now it's nearing completion....
http://www.gippslandwaterfactory.com.au/Default.aspx?tabid=73
Food for thought....
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Do you think there is a value to pre-fire planning?
8 Alarm Fire outside of Philly, PA
http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/article.jsp?id=60582&s...
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Permalink Reply by Don Zimmerman on
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Hanford Fire does and it required to do sometimes, depending on the building. We have large construction projects going on and tour them quarterly, in time it will be a monthly detail.
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