Inspection: Your Shadow District
DEPARTMENTS
TRAINING NOTEBOOK
You know all your first-due boxes, their locations and the surrounding locales. You probably even know the majority of your second-alarm boxes without even looking at the running cards. You could give me, from memory, the locations of the various commercial, industrial, mercantile, and residential areas in your district. You really have a handle on it. Or do you?
To truly know, understand, and operate efficiently and safely in any district requires continuous detective work. You must constantly be watchful and make in-depth investigations whenever something even appears to be going on. If you feel that being suspicious is not becoming to a fire service type, then just have an inquisitive mind. The questions you ask yourself or civilians can easily make the difference between life or death—your own, the civilians’, or that of the personnel assigned to you.
Each day you see many things in your district, and you must learn to translate these sights into the questions that will allow you to know what is really going on. By thinking along these lines, you can establish some strategic objectives to help you know what is in the shadows of your district:
- What changes, no matter how minor, do I see?
- Why are these changes occurring?
- How will they affect me?
As in all strategic situations, success will depend on the skillful use of tactics in order to achieve the objectives. Let’s take a look at some things that could indicate that shadows are forming or lengthening. Remember, death and/or injury can be masked by these shadows. While returning from a call, you notice a large amount of building material piled outside of a 2 1/2-story frame dwelling. The question that should immediately come into mind is “Is this for a conversion of a oneor two-family house into a multiple dwelling?”
Officers are often limited in what they can do when oneand two-family dwellings are involved. Try to develop a line of questioning that will get to the bottom of what is happening without causing lengthy, difficult problems. You may find that the material is to be used for a perfectly legal modernization of the building—or you might discover that the owner is going to use the building for foster children. I would rather have the owner angry at me for asking questions now rather than roll up at 3 a.m. and discover that there are 10 or 12 young children in the building and I have no idea where they are.
Driving to work one afternoon, you notice that Jim s Gas at a Price is now Joe’s Expert Collision and Repair. Jim had only sold gasoline and did tune-ups and oil changes, a far cry from a collision shop. An inspection will probably reveal compressed flammable gases, spray painting, lacquer, and thinner storage, among other things. Better to find out during an inspection than to have a drum of lacquer cook off while you’re operating there without even knowing it was present to pose a threat.
One morning while returning to quarters from a series of incidents, I noticed considerable activity and a large number of lights on the first floor of an “abandoned” four-story industrial building of ordinary construction. I thought that I had stumbled on a “chop shop” and had called for police assistance. When they arrived, we entered the building together. There were six cars being repaired on the first floor.
I’ve seen many buildings that could be described as a severe hazard, but this place was a real chamber of horrors: spray painting, welding, and sanding, among other things, were going on simultaneously. Needless to say, the electrical fixtures did not comply with National Fire Protection Association electrical codes and Class 1, Division 1 requirements; and the owner must have cornered the market in light-duty extension cords. The operation came to a screeching halt.
Although I was not involved in the subsequent investigation, I later found out that the operator had no idea that he was totally unsafe, let alone illegal. The act was cleaned up and I’m happy to say that the owner is not only still operating safely, but has a prosperous business. To this day, I wonder what would have happened if I had not investigated those lights. Would the owner and his workers (or me and my crew) have been injured, or worse, when the inevitable occurred?
If you have a number of abandoned, derelict buildings in your district, how long has it been since you took a walk to exposure 3, the rear of the building? You might be unpleasantly surprised to find that the rear of the building is not at all secured. Is it a “shooting gallery” for addicts? If so, it should be turned over to the police. Never mind who gets the collar or credit. If left there, the addicts will burn the place down accidently or maliciously.
I know of one case where a company officer found that a business had moved into a building and was storing thousands of bales of wastepaper and rags. The front of the building was never disturbed, but all the loading docks at the rear were in use. The building was determined to be grossly overloaded without a fire to weaken it. It takes little imagination to foresee what would happen to the companies if they had begun interior operations at a fire of severe proportions.
Fire in concealed spaces (voids) causes many firefighting operations to fail, and, in some cases, causes death or injury. A portion of an ordinary construction building is being re-roofed together with other modifications.
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Have some or all of the roof joists been replaced with wood truss or bar and joist beams? Have columns been removed or otherwise changed? During venting operations is not the time to find out that what you thought was a solid joist support of the roof is actually a wooden truss beam that is subject to rapid failure.
If all this sounds as if you should become paranoid, you’re misreading it. All I’m saying is that when you’re in the district, maintain the same alertness as when you’re operating at a fire— DON’T IGNORE SIGNS.
