BY TOM BRENNAN
Every one of us wants to have some guidelines for our tactical operations that will limit the decision process on the fireground. What I mean is, What are some of the tactics that have guidelines that are not as flexible as most of our evolutions at the firefight?
When do you go to the roof of the fire building? On the fireground, even the easy stuff has some qualifying statements. On this one, it is, Are you planning an offensive strategy? If that is the case, and you are assigned vertical ventilation that day, the answer is, Always!
In the old days, my officers said in chorus fashion, “You go to the roof even if your mother is hanging out the window of the fire occupancy!” Well, I learned not to be that inflexible on the fireground. Giving an extra push to the portable ladder beam being raised, giving a tug to a stuck lug on hose being stretched by too few firefighters, taking the time to question someone on the immediate scene about the roof construction, or just taking the time to tell a trapped civilian to wait a little longer because help is coming are just a few of the delays that may be probable. However, “Get there as soon as possible” is a great rule that requires little brain power.
When do you need to perform search with a team? I am assuming that you are referring to a full-blown operation, in which case the “team” should be a minimum of three firefighting personnel. Five and six are better!
Team search is a methodical and controlled primary search of a fire building that must be used when areas that are subdivided within the enclosure walls are more than the dimensions of a private or multiple dwelling.
As soon as you are faced with searching a commercial, institutional, or industrial building; areas that offer large or complicated layouts, such as ships; and multiple dwelling common spaces, such as cellars and game or social areas, you need assistance to move through the space with a certainty of exiting when it is needed and maintaining a thorough, responsible, and effective examination for life, fire location, fire extension, and other information that impacts the firefight. These larger areas are not to be searched using tactics that are effective in dwellings-not if you want to be able to find your objectives, your reason for being in the building in the first place. The areas are too large. If you stay along the walls, you can go on for days without getting to your entry point. You will also miss a majority of the floor area on which people may be waiting for you. If you wander to the middle of the room and away from the walls, you are lost immediately and will stay lost until you get some help. If help comes in the form of panic, you are finished!
A bag of search rope in the hands of the control person will guide two to four firefighters into the caverns of that building in stages of 10 to 15 feet at a time. Individuals search off the rope on other personal ropes, and all move when all return. Exit, when necessary, is ensured by following the rope to the door.
You have been assigned vertical ventilation. When do you take the power cutting equipment with you? Some of you will say, “All the time!” Good civil service test answer, but not practical. You take the saw(s) when you plan to cut the roof, after you open it.
So, when is that? When the fire is located in the space under the roof. On a top-floor fire. In a building that is only one story. Simple.
If the fire is located on a floor other than the top floor, cutting the roof is a waste of time and personnel and causes unnecessary damage and multiplied loss. Besides, it is unprofessional!
You cut the roof to make an opening from the outside air to the fire in the compartment below. If the fire is not in the space under the roof (whatever you call it) or in the rooms directly below the ceiling that is exposed inside your opening, don’t cut!
And that means leave the saw. If you don’t need it, it is surely one tool that will slow you down as you try to get to the vertical ventilation platform (the roof) as soon as possible.
At fires below the top floor, get to the roof, open the priorities, and get off. Your truck officer needs you below. There is lots to do.
Are there any guidelines for choosing a defensive strategy early after arrival at the fire scene? Yup! There are lots, but the first and most universal for all structures is to count the handlines that are immediately necessary for initial entry at the first level of fire. Toss in a couple of truckies here and there for entry and ventilation. If you don’t have enough personnel on the scene or will never get it in your jurisdiction without mutual aid, go defensive early!
To refine it a little: If your handline is not going forward, you need to get another handline to back up momentarily or a larger line. You cannot hold a space with a small-diameter line. If the fire is backing you up, think “defensive” soon.
When do you raise a portable ladder? As soon as you think about it. That is one good answer. Another is, more than you do now. There are two things other than personnel that you never have enough of on the fireground. They are portable ladders and lighting. Think about it.
TOM BRENNAN has more than 35 years of fire service experience. His career spans more than 20 years with the Fire Department of New York as well as four years as chief of the Waterbury (CT) Fire Department. He was the editor of Fire Engineering for eight years and currently is a technical editor. He is co-editor of The Fire Chief’s Handbook, Fifth Edition (Fire Engineering Books, 1995). He is the recipient of the 1998 Fire Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award. Brennan is featured in the video Brennan and Bruno Unplugged (Fire Engineering/FDIC, 1999).
