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Roof Ops and Residential Garage Fires - How do you do it?
On January 1, 2010, Modesto Fire Department responded to a residential structure fire that was started in the garage from the residents using a candle to provide light while filling a gasoline generator. The resulting fire engulfed the garage and prompted the decision to have the truck company perform vertical ventilation OPS on the roof in concert with engine companies dealing with extinguishing the fire.
RIC Team In Place Two truck company firefighters fell through the roof while performing ventilation operations. The good news here is that a RIC team was set up and in place. When the mayday was issued, the two firefighters were immediately located, removed and turned over to EMS on the scene. This was a text book operation for bread and butter residential structure fires with contingencies in place, should something go wrong.
Fuel Loading: We all know about fuel loading right? Lot's of fuel in the garage (e.g. cardboard boxes, books, newspapers, car, lawn mower, edger, gas cans, hazmat, you know, common stuff...) means that you will have a lot of heat generated, which of course lends itself toward accelerating the intensity of the fire and the eventual structural failure and collapse of the roof.
Truss Construction and Gusset Plates: Couple this with the common use of gusset plates that are used for Truss Construction where you have a piece of metal with pointed spikes punches through the metal connecting pieces of wood to create a truss.
This is great for companies mass producing homes today but not great for us considering that there is not much purchase for the gusset plate to attach itself to the wood. Remember when we actually used nails to build homes? This is a big enough issue that even the CDC has issued a warning for firefighters. Please take the time to review this.
NIOSH Publication No. 2005-132:
Preventing Injuries and Deaths of F...
What prompted me to create this post was the following quotes from the Modesto Bee newspaper:
““There was a catastrophic failure on the roof and the two firefighters fell through,” Patino said. “Upon collapse, the mayday was reported. The intervention crew was pressed into service and within a couple of minutes, they had both firefighters out.”
Patino said the intensity of the heat caused the roof to collapse significantly sooner than usual, adding that he was told by crew member that he had never seen a roof fail in that short amount of time.”
The CDC / NIOSH report specifically warns and lists three scenarios that can occur in which fire fighters suffer fatalities and injuries while operating at fires involving truss roof and floor systems:
1. While fire fighters are operating above a burning roof or floor truss , they may fall into a fire as the sheathing or the truss system collapses below them.
2. While fire fighters are operating below the roof or floor inside a building with burning truss floor or roof structures , the trusses may collapse onto them.
3. While fire fighters are operating outside a building with burning trusses , the floor or roof trusses may collapse and cause a secondary wall collapse.
Fire Engineering wrote an exceptional article on the subject that gets into much more of the process of why things collapse and the times associated depending upon how things are constructed and the specific materials. This chart gives a good general idea as to how long you have before structural collapse can occur...
Key Question: My question for the more experienced engine company and truck folks out there is how do you approach residential structure fires where the garage is fully involved?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Station10Capt106 on
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You can find the UL video's here:
http://www.ul.com/global/eng/pages/offerings/industries/buildingmat...
John
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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
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Russell, here is the link to UL - http://content.learnshare.com/courses/73/187716/player.html
on left hand side, click on module 3 fire tests
click on methodology
click on test summary table - the videos are here as well as data from those tests.
Also see this link - http://www.ul.com/global/eng/pages/offerings/industries/buildingmat... great little course of fire behavior.
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Permalink Reply by Russell Yount on
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Thanks, John and Jack/dt!
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Trench cuts really aren't a good option on lightweight, engineered SFDs.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Cole on
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It's been said already, I'm just in agreement. NO reason, NONE to be on that roof...period.
I've seen video of jobs in which there seemed to be two complete truck companies on the roof opening so many holes there was little roof left to walk.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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Gracias a ti hermano!
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Permalink Reply by Paul Dudan on
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First, thanks for all the info in the previous posts. Although fairly green in the fire service much of what I learned in my FF1 class flashes to mind. Its already been mentioned but Risk vs. Gain and how long the fire may have been burning.
Fire Starts, homeowner may attempt to extinguish and call 911--5 min
911 takes call and dispatches fire, ems, etc. --2 min
Volunteer response to station --5 min
Engine, Truck, RIT responds from house to scene --5 min
At first glance the times in the table seem reasuring for fire operations but considering all of this other info the BEST scenario would only give us 5 - 10 min to safely work over a truss.
My thoughts and prayers with The Modesto FD
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Chief Sharp, Isn't this better than helmet and fire engine colors? LOL Nothing like going back to the basics. What is a shame here though is my realization that many of the volunteer departments just don't have a lot of hazmat training at their fingertips. The results can and have proven to be deadly. Hence my posts, aimed at trying to give something back... and hopefully preventing someone from making the wrong decision(s).
CBz
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Permalink Reply by Rick Westerman on
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On Christmas Eve, two engines and a truck company responded to a garage fire, myself included on an engine. Spotted a header as we left the station, on arrival a single family residence with a well involved garage, a vehicle, and a ton of ordinary combustible fuel loading. Construction was lightweight truss with concrete tile roof, exterior is stucco.Initial company on scene, a ladder tender with a 300 gallon tank and 150 feet of 13/4" ,automatic nozzle at 150 gpm. Ladder gave on scene report, assumed command and began operating from the exterior,16 foot wide garage door removal, and began knocking down the main body of the fire.First engine (my crew) secured a water source, advanced an 1 3/4" attack line through the front door, checked the space above for signs of active fire, proceeded down the hallway towards the garage. Second engine directly behind us began search and rescue on the opposite end of the house while we conducted search and rescue on the involved end of the house.Cold smoke was near floor level and was gray in color, as I turned through the laundry room door, fire was already breaching the fire rated door leading into the garage. Extinguished some contents in the laundry room, booted the severely effected laundry room door, it just fell apart, (no upcoming movie rolls for that action) with the exterior line working the contents, I went to work on the attic through a burned away scuttle cover. Fire was mushrooming out of the scuttle, opened my line for 5 seconds into the attic. The steam conversion pushed out of the scuttle hole and was successful in knocking down most of the active fire in that space. Command asked for an interior report, gave an all clear on the structure, and fire knock down, accounted for all firefighters operating on the fire ground.Soon after there was a partial roof collapse,no mayday was called, sounded emergency traffic and removed people from that area. So, to answer your question now... we recently trained on this new tactic for garage fires, first knock down from the ext. with a hand line or deck gun, while search crews advance an attack line while searching. If an all clear is obtained, go to the fire and coordinate your attack with the ext. crews. We have a strict no ventilation from vertical locations policy when lightweight trusses are well involved for an undetermined time with the presence of concrete roofing tiles. And of course there are variations to this policy, to many to explain here, but for this scenario this was the strategy employed.
Thanks for the opportunity to share,
Fraternally,
Rick Westerman
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What an awesome post Rick. You did an outstanding job documenting the play by play roles and actions of folks on scene from your perspective.
My purpose for this post and future ones focuses on providing real time discussions to facilitate training for departments that don't have a budget, nor the number of calls to enable developing good tools for doing the job safely.
Having experts such as yourself take time to document these types of actions will ensure that everyone goes home the next morning. Thanks so much for sharing this information. I know others will agree with me that this is the type of post that will ensure success toward helping firefighters with making the right tactical decision.
TCSS, CBz
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Permalink Reply by Capt.Alex Arnold on
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Brazo Zulu Rick! This is a WTF (Well Trained Firefighter)!!
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