By Frank Montagne
North Hudson (NJ) Regional Fire and Rescue received a call at 2355 hours in December 2006 for a smoke condition on the 10th floor of a 50-story high rise. One minute later, we upgraded our response to a working fire. “Routine fire,” you would say, but the 10th floor is eight floors below street level. Should you take the elevators down or walk down eight flights of stairs? Normally, if a fire is on the eighth floor or lower, companies would walk up and stop one to two floors below the fire and begin operations.
The Galaxy Towers presented us with a difficult challenge. Standing on the cliffs of West New York/Guttenberg, New Jersey, the Galaxy complex overlooks the Hudson River from the George Washington to the Verrazano Bridge. Self-sufficient in design, the complex includes five buildings consisting of three 50-story towers, two 10-story annex buildings, parking decks, a shopping plaza, and a mini park. There are approximately 1,050 apartments. Parking garages serve all buildings and are below street level.
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The unique octagon-shaped architecture enables more residents of the three towers to enjoy the majestic views of the Hudson River and Manhattan. Building 4, nestled between Tower 3 and Tower 2, provides residents with a full view of the Empire State Building. Building 5 wraps between Tower 2 and Tower 1, with views of the Verrazano Bridge. Below the three Galaxy Towers is the Galaxy Mall. Consisting of restaurants, a movie theater, a pharmacy, a bank, a grocery store, a beauty salon, a dry cleaner, a dental office, a travel agency, and a day care center, the Galaxy is self-sufficient.
The Galaxy Towers are unique in design but a nightmare for firefighters. The street-level lobbies for all three towers are on the 18th floor. The lobbies consist of a concierge desk, elevators, two enclosed stairways, and a two-story open atrium. This leaves 10 stories below street level. The confusing part of a fire below grade in this structure is determining what building you are in. If you have a fire below grade in Tower 1, you must descend to the lower floors from Tower 2 and gain access to Tower 1 through Building 5.
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How can you determine where you are? During a nonemergency situation, you can distinguish it by the color of the carpetsthe carpet colors are different for each group of buildings that are connected. Scissor stairs and an indoor pool are additional concerns. Fire protection features are fire alarms and standpipe systems (at the time of construction, sprinkler systems were not required in the buildings).
All the structures, other than the mall, start at the foot of the Palisades on the Hudson shoreline and rise up to the height of the Cliffs, with the towers continuing 30 stories above. Because of this singular construction and layout, each of the tower floors has only two short sides off the elevator vestibule (on average, there are just eight to 10 apartments per floor), thus avoiding the long institution-like hallways in most large apartment buildings. Buildings 4 and 5 are below street level and connect all the towers; this is where the confusion and difficulty exist for firefighters. There are no individual elevators for Buildings 4 and 5; you must access them from the towers. During emergency situations, you must transverse several fire doors and long hallways to access Buildings 4 and 5.
RESPONSE
The first-alarm working fire consisted of five engines, two ladders, Rescue 1, Battalion 3, and Division 1. Squad 10 was first to arrive and established command in the lobby of Tower 3. Battalion 3 arrived and assumed command. Companies arriving were instructed to descend to the eighth floor from Tower 2 and transverse through Building 4 to Tower 3. This was the safest approach.
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Division 1 arrived at Tower 3 and did a face-to-face debriefing with Battalion 3. Battalion 3 was then assigned as operations officer. Companies prepared for an offense attack from the ninth floor and encountered moderate smoke conditions. They forced entry into the apartment, encountered high heat and smoke, and were forced back to the stairwell because of high winds, which blew through the apartment and drove very hot gases/smoke into the hallway. Exterior conditions included violently swirling black smoke and flames shooting 20 feet out from the windows.
Companies forced back to the stairwell maintained their position. Additional attack crews positioned themselves to attack with the wind from an adjacent parking garage. A standpipe hose valve (in a garage hose cabinet) was located 75 to 100 feet away from the fire apartment’s hallway entrance door, allowing firefighters to attack the fire from that location. This worked favorably as companies were able to advance the lines to control and extinguish the fire. Primary search of the apartment was positive: A young woman perished in the fire. The victim was identified as 32-year-old Wendy Burlingame. She was one of the surviving daughters of Charles Burlingame, a decorated aviator and the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
Third and fourth alarms were called to facilitate the personnel-intensive operation. We implemented the incident management system, with Staging, Resources, Rehab, and Search and Evacuation Post areas for the 30 floors above the fire.
The intensity of the fire was revealed during overhaul: The hallways were black and the concrete was spalled. The attack stairwell had large sections of concrete that also spalled on the floor above.
During the operations, residents made numerous phone calls to the police department and the concierge’s desk, creating an overwhelming situation at the command post. I instructed both parties to prioritize the calls and provide instructions for their safety. The Search and Evacuation Post established above the fire began the arduous task of ensuring all occupants above the fire were safe. We prioritized and addressed calls throughout the fire.
LESSONS LEARNED
- Preplanning is essential for high life hazard occupancies.
- A strong command and control presence is required to coordinate fire operations.
- Critical placement of chief officers is essential to ensure successful operations.
- Coordinate with building management, EMS, and the local police department to assist the incident commander with the potential for hundreds of calls from occupants on the upper floors.
- Establish a staging and rehab division to provide support for the fire operation.
- An equipment pool and stairwell support are necessary for additional SCBA bottles and equipment.
- Expedite the calling of extra alarms to reduce the reflex time in the operations.
- Automatic fire sprinkler systems are essential in all high-rises, particularly “complicated” residential ones such as this. New Jersey is considering legislation to require retrofitting of sprinklers in all existing hish-rise residential buildings.
FRANK MONTAGNE, a 25-year veteran of the fire service, is a deputy chief and Division 3 commander for North Hudson (NJ) Regional Fire and Rescue. He is a New Jersey certified fire official/inspector and a partner of Promotional Prep, which presents promotional and educational seminars.
