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Row House Fire Scenario
Video below is of a Baltimore row house fire showing conditions prior to the arrival of the fire department and some of the first due truck and engine work.
How would your department operate at a similar row house fire? What would be the initial dispatch assignment and staffing?
What do you notice about the building and its condition?
What would your initial size-up report be?
As either the first due truck or engine company officer what would your initial actions be?
What would additional arriving companies be doing if this fire was in your area?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by captnjak on
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Initial assignment would be 3 engines, 2 trucks, 1 BC. Dispatcher will up this if numerous calls are received.
"10-75 for a fire on 2nd floor of a 2 story attached frame vacant private dwelling. Give me an extra engine and truck. Make the truck a Tower Ladder"
10-75 gives us 4 engines, 2 trucks, 1 rescue, 1 squad, 1 FAST (RIT) truck, 2 BC and 1 DC and EMS.
Engines are 4 FF, Trucks are 5 FF.
All engines take hydrants. Front of building for aerial and possible use of Tower Ladder if fire gets out of hand.
1st engine would stretch 1 3/4 line to fire building.
2nd engine would stretch a second 1 3/4 line. This would probably go to the occupied exposure on 2 or B side.
3rd engine would stretch a 1 3/4 backup line to fire building.
4th engine would stretch 1 3/4 line to vacant on 4 or D side.
Sequence/location of lines 2-4 could change based on reports from roof, rear and interior.
1st truck inside team to fire building for FE, search, locate/confine fire.
1st truck OV to rear. (Vent, search, HT report to IC)
1st truck roof FF to roof. (Survey, vent, HT report to IC)
1st truck chauffeur to turntable. Aerial to roof, then vent front windows.
2nd truck inside team to occupied exposure on 2 or B side for FE, search for extension, HT report to IC.
2nd truck OV to rear or roof to assist, depending on initial reports.
2nd roof firefighter to roof to assist.
2nd truck chauffeur to vacant exposure on 4 or D side. HT report to IC.
Rescue and squad (along with additional engine and truck) stand fast and go to work as ordered if necessary.
The reason "vacant" is used in initial report is not to indicate it won't be searched or entered, but to let responding units know they mayl be operating in a building that may have compromised structural integrity, holes in floors, missing stairs, etc. We do have some vacants we won't enter for firefighting.
Concerns at this fire are for structural integrity issues mentioned above, presence of squatters, the integrity of the front porch roof along the entire row and extension of fire into exposures via cockloft (attic) area. If there is a common or open cockloft extending down the entire row, this fire could extend to many buildings very rapidly. Top floor of exposures have to be checked quickly and extent of fire defined. Hose lines should get to the perimeter of fire in a cockloft to stop further extension and then extinguish fire working back toward original fire building.
It may sound like a lot for this fire but I'm going by initial size-up. If fire gets going laterally in cockloft of row houses it becomes a multiple alarm quickly. The idea is to be pro-active and get ahead of fire.
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Permalink Reply by Jim Conrad on
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For the staffing in my area i am glad we dont see many row houses.
CaptnJak, is it common to have a open cockloft in these types of homes? I have read about there being a fire wall between the houses, but wouldn't a shared attic negate the benefits of firewalls?
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As the first arriving firefighter, i would probably spend some time during sizeup studying the outside of the building. Boarded up windows would give me pause as well as the roof over the porches seem to be sagging. I would immediately call for mutual aid from the two towns on both sides of us. Both could possibly take thirty mins getting to us but the paid dept to the west has a truck which could be helpful. The initial response would be four to five firefighters and hopefully an officer.
I believe that we would get behind on this fire and not get back ahead of it due to manpower, and some of the more conservative officers would probably not let us go inside, but i am not sure how to fight this fire from the ground and not lose the whole block.
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Can't speak for Baltimore, but I am assuming these are frame construction with some brick work on front for appearance sake. May be wrong. In NYC it is very common for older attached frames to have a common cockloft.
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Speed is of the essence. If there is indeed a common cockloft involved with fire the only hope of saving them is lines and hooks to the top floor of all involved buildings. Sometimes necessary to skip a building in order to get ahead of fire and make a stop.
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Permalink Reply by Jesper Rossen on
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Under my command I would be crazy if a firefighter goes to the roof
- 1. whit out BA
- 2. whit out having a safety line (hose) whit him.
I gues my crewcammander now that :-)
I do not want to talk about the rest, becuse i dont now the USA- standard like captnjak is talking about.
Jesper R - Denmark
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Hoseline to the roof is not really an initial consideration. Members can operate, assuming roof is structurally sound, and then withdraw if necessary to roof of next house in the row (or the next or the next).
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Permalink Reply by 55 TRUCK on
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initial assignment would be 4 Engines, 2 Trucks, 1 Squad, 1 BC.
Engines have 4 FF, Trucks have 3 to 4 FF, Squad has 2 FF, BC has 2. Battalion Chief and a Lt. The Lt. is the Battalion aid/Xo. He goes in the fire. He acts has the Battalions, eyes,ears, etc.in the fire.
First due Engine lay in 3" supply line. Truck Co. to front. split, search/vent. Squad helps with search. 2nd Truck is vent. 1st due Engine is attack 1"3/4 line, 2nd Engine is back up, 3rd due Engine is exposures/extension, 4th Engine is RIT.
With the cockloft and potential for the fire to run it. The first arriving piece should tell dispatch to mark it a working fire and start a high rise responce. This is due to the large area the row houses cover.
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