GET THE ROOF
TRAINING NOTEBOOK
Roof operations are critical to the success of almost all structural firefighting operations. Besides a basic knowledge and understanding of firefighting, building construction, and the chemistry and physics of fire, firefighters assigned to the roof must possess intuition, foresight, courage, good judgment, and experience. Members of the roof team must be able to combine these and other personal qualities with an ability to make quick calculations, make decisions, and initiate a course of action. This is an ongoing responsibility throughout the firelight. Where roof operations are imperative to fire control, the roof team’s actions can have an extraordinary impact on the ultimate outcome of firefighting efforts.
The roof team’s responsibilities cover three broad but significant areas of operation: life, communication, and ventilation. These are not solitary endeavors. These operations intertwine and, when properly performed, mesh into a fabric of competence that is the hallmark of a professional firefighter
GETTING TO THE ROOF
The roof team’s first act on the fireground is to get to the roof quickly but safely. There are several ways to ascend the roof. Each will be used at different times for different situations. The stairway of an adjoining building, for example, is used at most attached multiple dwellings. Obviously, the height of the adjoining building in relation to the fire building has to be known. A dramatic difference in height would negate its use, as would the presence of a barbed or razor ribbon barrier. An aerial ladder or tower ladder bucket is a good second choice. Because of access problems in adjoining buildings, the aerial ladder is the best route to the roof for fires in attached frame buildings and garden apartments. A portable ladder is the preferred means at most one-storv structures. The bucket of a tower ladder is a good option for access to a flat roof or for situations in which a firefighter is secured to the bucket for peaked-roof operations. When the bucket is used on a oneor two-story building with a roof parapet, exercise care so that undue stress is not put on the wall by the bucket. The stress can cause the wall to fail.
Photo by Pete Danzo.
LIFE SAFETY
After the roof man arrives on the roof, his first consideration is always life safety—his and the occupants’. He quickly sizes up the roof for immediate hazards. For an experienced roof man, this will be almost a reflex act of noting, communicating, and either removing or avoiding the hazard.
The roof presents an environment fraught with danger. The roof assignment is both physically and mentally demanding. The hazards on the roof run the gamut from the clothesline or antenna to the more deadly —a fireweakened roof or a falling wall or chimney. Parapets absent at the rear or around shafts, skylights or scuttle openings covered with thin plywood, and the potential for a last-spreading roof fire cutting off escape—these arcmore than enough cause for a roof team to be unmistakenly vigilant.
After roof size-up, the roof team will plot alternate escape routes. This is absolutely vital to personal safety. Conditions on the roof often change without warning, cutting off the initial access point. The team must continually monitor the fire and its effect on alternate escape routes.
The roof of an adjoining building usually is the nearest and easiest escape path to use. Shafts between buildings must be accounted for when moving across buildings. Largearea buildings may have more than one stairway to the roof. A stairway may be in a wing that is separated by fire division from other wings. This type offers a relatively safe escape route. The dangers posed by improperly maintained or improperly used fire escapes must be considered when choosing this means of egress. For escape purposes, a portable ladder or aerial or tower ladder (whenever possible) should be raised to the roof any time roof operations are indicated.
When the roof man discovers trapped or distressed occupants at windows, balconies, fire escapes, or other places, he must decide if and how they are to be removed. If fire conditions prohibit an interior removal, a removal via fire escape, ladder, or lifesaving rope may be necessary. The important action at this time is for the roof man to communicate the facts of the situation to his officer. The officer may be in a position to determine whether an interior removal is viable.
A distinction should be made between a “distressed” occupant and a “trapped” occupant. A different approach is required for each. A distressed occupant usually is one who’s not in immediate danger. The distress is caused by the occupant’s belief that danger is close. Just how close is something the roof man will have to determine. There are a few options open to the firefighter when dealing with a distressed person. He should try to assure the person of his safety in a calm voice. If no other more urgent duties are required at that time, the firefighter may have to stay with the occupant until the danger has passed. As a last resort the occupant can be moved to a safer location.
A trapped occupant, on the other hand, must be removed. Before the firefighter selects the method of removal he must examine all the factors that will affect the removal. These can run the gamut from the mobility of the victim to the reach of the aerial ladder. He will choose the method that has the greatest chance for success while producing the least risk for him and the occupant. Generally, the preferred order of removal is the interior stair, the fire escape, a ladder, and, as a last resort, the lifesaving rope. It would be reckless—not heroic—to use a lifesaving rope when another method would achieve the same end. Obviously, the consequences of leaving ventilation undone and proceeding with a rescue or removal must be seriously weighed by the roof man. Allowing the products of combustion to mushroom down through a building, preventing occupant escape and firefighter advance, can produce much greater and complex problems for the incident commander.
COMMUNICATION
The roof team’s contribution to firefighter safety is manifest in not only its skill at identifying hazards but, equally important, in announcing them to other firefighters. More than a few firefighters fail to associate an obvious hazard seen with the need for all to know. The consequence of such omission is dangerous and sometimes fatal.
While roof team members are executing the physical aspect of their roof functions, they also are observing, evaluating, and communicating. The observations and deductions can be mentally grouped into six communications categories: life, fire, building, exposures, cockloft, and deviations. The last category usually will contain the factors that have the greatest impact on firefighter safety. Once the “data” are prioritized and categorized, the roof man must decide what to transmit and to whom via portable radio. Most messages will be sent to the company officer. Critical intelligence will be called directly to the incident commander for immediate action.
Life. As he moves about the roof, the firefighter continually must transmit information over the portable radio. Of course, information that affects life must be transmitted immediately. There should be no delay in sending the location of trapped people, whether they’re on fire escapes, setbacks, or ledges or at windows. The roof man must look to areas onto which trapped occupants may have jumped or fallen. Occupants sometimes become trapped in roof stairway bulkheads. The early discovery of any of these victims, coupled with quick and competent communication and first aid, often will tip the scale in favor of their survival. After receiving notice of this kind, the incident commander will dispatch units or members to assist the victims.
Fire. The location of the fire must be established before criticial information can be collected and transmitted. When the location of the fire is not obvious on arrival, the roof team, as w ell as other firefighters, must look for and find it. Often the roof team’s assignment puts it in position to observe the exact location. The fire is sometimes spotted while ascending to the roof. Once found, the firefighter cannot assume others know its location, but rather he must transmit the location immediately. The firefighter must be specific in his description of both the location and what he sees. He must state whether it is flame or smoke that he has seen and if the fire is extending or likely to extend, and to where.
If the roof team members are unable to determine the location of the fire on their trip to the roof they will find it once they examine the perimeter of the building from the roof. When it is found, they should check the area of most likely extension and look for fire spread. A light smoke at a window usually means either an incipient fire, food burning on a stove, or fire smoldering in a stuffed chair or mattress. At the other extreme, flame coming out a window “like a blowtorch” signals a fire in two or more rooms. In this instance, extension to the area above should be expected. When these situations are not visible to the incident commander, the roof team must inform him of them.
Building. There are many building features that affect efficient firefighting. A skilled roof man will recognize these and relay their presence to the incident commander. The building configuration is one such feature. What may appear from a street position to be a simple squareor rectangular-shaped building often turns out to be an “O,” “U,” or some other shape. These configurations can add considerably to the complexity of strategy development and must be known early on by the incident commander. When on a hill, a building may have more stories on one side than the other. This, too, is significant information for a chief formulating strategy. Other features that affect the orderly execution of strategy include locations and types of shafts, fire divisions, types of equipment on the roof, and so forth. The roofman must provide this information on a timely basis.
Exposures. The roof team usually can see more of the building or property exposed by the fire than can the IC standing in the street facing one side of what may be a many-sided building. Plainly, fire spread to an exposure must be looked for and reported to the IC immediately. An unexpected access point to the fire may be spotted in the rear or at the side of a structure. Places where additional hoselines can be placed, if needed, should be sought and reported promptly to the incident commander by the roof team.
Cockloft or attic space. Conditions in the cockloft of large-area buildings must be known by the IC. Generally, fire extension to a large-area cockloft can be the signal to transmit a greater alarm. Once known, the roof team must communicate conditions in a quick, concise report. The area of involvement, direction of fire travel, and depth of the cockloft are some of the items that must be included in the report. Remember that a shallow cockloft less than one foot deep does not present the same hazard of fire spread as a cockloft twice that depth or greater. Structural features—inverted, joist, lightweight wood truss, heavy timber, or steel truss—should be noted and transmitted to the IC. Often the report of a heavy fire in a truss roof is in itself the signal to abandon the roof and withdraw units from below. Notification to the IC also should be made when cockloft ventilation is completed or delayed. The progress of suppression efforts as seen from the roof must be continually monitored by the roof team and reported as well.
Deviations. A roof man rising to a roof position thinking he knows exactly what he will find puts himself at great peril. The correct attitude is to “expect the unexpected.” Deviations from the norm—or what is expected—can wreak havoc not only on firefighter safety but on the overall strategy as well. Those deviations that collide with usual strategy must be relayed promptly to the IC. Deviations can be associated with building or construction features—for example, a truss roof, where a joist roof was expected, the absence of fire divisions, the presence of a rain roof over a truss roof, and so on —or with roof operations—for instance, a delay in roof ventilation, the discovery of trapped occupants, and so on. Once apprised of a deviation, the IC can adjust his strategy accordingly.
The roof team has a responsibility to communicate. They are the firefighters who can fill in the blanks of the incident commander’s size-up. A discerning roof man will know which information is critical to size-up. Equally important, he will not dominate communications channels with unessential or redundant information.
VENTILATION
The principal task of a roof team is to vertically ventilate or “open up” the roof and by so doing relieve the upper areas of the building from the products of combustion. This prevents smoke and heat from mushrooming on upper floors, trapping occupants, and allows search and extinguishment functions to be carried out unimpeded by products of combustion. Furthermore, particularly at a cockloft fire there is a strong possibility of backdraft. A fire that has been burning for some time in an unventilated cockloft eventually will consume all of the available air; flaming combustion will cease. The cockloft, however, still will contain the combustible gases and the heat generated by the fire. The temperature of the heat will be above that which is required for the ignition of the gases. All that is needed to continue the fire is air. If the cockloft is opened or ventilated properly—from above— the heated gases will rise, unite with the outside air, and ignite harmlessly above the roof. On the other hand, if the cockloft is first opened from below by pulling ceilings, the gases will unite with air drawn from inside the building and, because of the confined nature of the cockloft, ignite explosively. The explosion —backdraft — can be of sufficient force to push down fire-weakened ceilings, exposing firefighters to burns and other injuries as well as furthering the spread of fire. The roof team must understand this phenomenon. They are in the best position to prevent its occurrence within the occupied building compartments themselves.
Roof ventilation proceeds from the relatively simple act of opening a stairway roof bulkhead door to cutting a hole in the roof with a saw. For most building fires, chocking a bulkhead door open, followed perhaps by removing the glass from a skylight over a stairway, will provide enough ventilation. A large fire on a top floor or in a cockloft will require more ventilation. The removal of a skylight above a room on fire is the easiest and quickest way to ventilate. The presence of a skylight is, however, the exception rather than the rule. Usually, the only ventilation openings available for a small fire in a room on the top floor are the windows. These should be adequate. Roof openings will not be needed. However, unless there are several windows in the fire area or the windows are large, windows generally will not provide enough ventilation when fire has control of two or three rooms. Roof ventilation is needed. Placing a hole in the roof directly over the fire, or as close to it as is practical, and pushing the ceiling down will allow the engine company to push the hoseline to the seat of the fire so they can extinguish it.
After it has been determined, either from fire duration, fire volume, roof examination holes, or opened skylight or scuttle returns, that fire has entered the cockloft, a ventilation hole must be put in the roof. The size of the opening is dependent on the amount of fire burning beneath. The larger the hole, the better the ventilation. When using a saw to cut an opening over a burning cockloft, no attempt should be made to lift or remove the cut roofing material until the full cutincluding segment cuts—has been made. Lifting the roofing material prematurely will allow heat to emanate from the partially opened cut, denying the roof team members the proximity needed to pull the remaining roof material. Failing to place a ventilation hole and instead allowing the fire to ventilate itself can work against fire suppression efforts. In many cases, roofing material around a self-ventilating roof opening will close off the cockloft to further ventilation. This will allow fire to burn and spread throughout the cockloft. In those instances where the IC has deemed it safe to operate above and below a cockloft fire, the only direction from which water is to be applied is from below. Water applied from above, besides stopping ventilation, will push heat and fire to uninvolved areas and worse, down on firefighters working below, creating a dangerous situation.
Roof ventilation takes advantage of the fact that heat rises and gases expand when heated. By providing a large enough hole on the roof through venting, we let these properties work for us.
For the most part, roof team members act independently of the ladder company team. They are responsible for initiating many of the actions that will be taken to control the fire. They must understand that each area of their operation—be it life, communication, or ventilation—can have a major impact on the entire operation.
The ladder company’s response to the report of a trapped occupant, the incident commander’s decision to evacuate because of the roof team’s report of cockloft conditions, and the engine company’s quick advance after heat and smoke are vented are the results of actions taken by a skilled and practiced roof team. Although the roof team operates independently, it is an indispensable part of the fireground operations. It is, in fact, the team on which all on the fireground count.
