January Roundtable: Smoke-Control Systems

 

So, what happens in these buildings in a fire? Do the truckies do what they are known best for: cut a few holes and break a few windows? Some pull in clean fresh air, “condition” it, and then push it throughout the building and force the old current air outside. In some instances, this can help or hurt firefighting efforts, depending on the location of the fire and the intakes and exhausts. Other systems keep the same air inside the building all the time. In theory, the same air stays in the building for the life of the building. It is circulated throughout and at certain points, captured, “conditioned,” and then circulated again (again, a very simplistic explanation).

 

If you are like most departments (with the exception of the major metro cities), you have a few of these in your community. Toledo has a few less than 100 throughout the response area. What has your department done to teach you about these systems?– JOHN “SKIP” COLEMAN retired as assistant chief from the Toledo (OH) Department of Fire and Rescue. He is a technical editor of Fire Engineering; a member of the FDIC Educational Advisory Board; and author of Incident Management for the Street-Smart Fire Officer (Fire Engineering, 1997), Managing Major Fires (Fire Engineering, 2000), and Incident Management for the Street-Smart Fire Officer, Second Edition (Fire Engineering, 2008).

 

 

 

Response: New York City is loaded with high-rises and large commercial buildings with sophisticated smoke-control and fire-extinguishing systems. The presence of these occupancies has allowed us to develop a good body of experience in working with these systems and at the same time has created a need for us to train on how they function. Our high-rise firefighting procedures in particular provide detailed methods for using a HVAC system to manage smoke conditions at a fire. All of our chief and company officers have studied the elements of these smoke-control systems.

 

That being said, it must be pointed out that the HVAC and smoke-control systems in high-rises and other large buildings can be very complex and vary greatly in design and function from building to building. Many of these buildings require that an engineer or a fire safety director to be on-site. These individuals have in-depth knowledge of their systems and provide invaluable assistance when they have to be operated.

 

Our personnel are well trained in the basics of modern smoke-control systems. However, the complex nature of these systems, along with their potential for creating severe hazards for firefighters if they are misused, mandate a heavy reliance on the expertise of engineers and other building personnel to safely and effectively operate them. An important aspect of any training is knowing the safe limits of what you can individually accomplish.

 

Cincinnati (OH) Fire Department 

Response: I do not feel that we are adequately trained in the use of smoke-control or alarm systems in today’s buildings. One reason is that we are not involved or consulted for the most part in building construction. To rectify this situation, we are going to have to be proactive. When we see new construction in our jurisdiction, we are going to have to do inspections, ask questions, and find out when these systems are going to be installed, and talk to the responsible parties about the operation of these systems. There is no other way to become familiar with the capabilities of these systems. If we wait for someone to approach us, we will be waiting a mighty long time. Our education is in our hands.

 

Response: We are not adequately trained in the smoke-control systems in newer buildings. We have some background in these systems, but all too often, the engineers design this new type of fire suppression system and then move on.

 

The engineers show the building owners, who show security, who, when an incident occurs, can’t remember, or this is their first day, and so on. Our fire marshal works to keep up with new suppression systems daily and makes sure the information is passed to the captains, etc.

 

This question shows how important it is to never stop learning. As officers and line firefighters, we must learn every day, not just right before evaluation time.

 

Gary Seidel, chief,

Hillsboro (OR) Fire Department

Response: Within Hillsboro we have found a wide variety of smoke-control systems and panels. We have also found that several of these systems are in place only for the protection of the building’s assets (smoke evacuation) and are not required as if they were for egress protection. Our fire prevention staff works diligently in identifying these systems, diagramming and labeling them during the construction process to assist personnel in their use. As it relates to smoke-control systems, our fire suppression crews understand the concept of ventilation for the protection of assets. When it comes to a known tactic that truly works for smoke removal, our fire suppression personnel usually opt for positive-pressure ventilation or positive-pressure attack. In addition, we also take control of HVAC systems to prevent the unwanted spread of smoke or hazardous materials throughout the building.

 

We can always use additional training on new fire protection systems, as well as better tactics in ventilating a building or removing smoke.  

 

Response: I do not, and I don’t feel that an average company officer would be either.  Additionally, from what I know of these systems, each will be vastly different, depending on the building and the manufacturer of the various components and the main panel. In buildings with such systems, the maintenance chief and the crew should be trained in the use of these systems and to be on hand to assist our crews in the beneficial use of these complex systems.

 

Port Orange (FL) Department of Fire & Rescue

Response: Our city does not have high-rise buildings with smoke-control systems in place. I have extensive training in smoke-control systems and feel comfortable in training our firefighters in their use if and when we begin construction of high-rise buildings in our Riverwalk Project. The best way of learning these systems, besides extensive plan review with the mechanical engineer, is the “hands-on approach”: Bring our crews continually to the construction site to see how smoke-control systems are integrated in these buildings. Once these control systems are integrated, balanced, and tested, and the mechanical engineer has a sealed letter in hand with the approval of the building official and the fire marshal, the final smoke testing is implemented on each floor, and our personnel are trained by the system’s operators

 

Response: Probably not.  New engineering and technology have made these systems very complex. Without some fairly detailed training, it could be very difficult for a firefighter to navigate through one of these systems. There are so many ways to isolate specific areas for smoke and alarm controls; a detailed diagram and schematic may be needed in larger buildings.  The company officer should know how the system was designed to work to understand how and when to manipulate it during an alarm.

 

Response: I do not feel my company or I have received enough proper training in the newest technology of suppression systems. We conduct fire inspections and preplans on-duty along with all the daily duties and training required. The other officers and I have received training in Fire Prevention Principles, a class in a Fire Officer certification program. After that, if you are not detailed to or do not have an interest in fire prevention, that little knowledge is lost through the years. When responding to fire alarm incidents, most companies can determine the location and, most of the time, the cause. What about the incidents you walk away uneasy about? I think nationwide we need to address the other half of the early detection systems, train the companies on what would cause these alarms, and how to immediately correct it, if policy dictates. Other questions include the following: When to place them on fire watch? Who is able to do that? When to take the alarm out of service?  Who gets notified? If you think back, most of us learned what we know from our officers and built on that. Hence the motto: “Garbage in, garbage out.”–and we all think we are doing a great job. Actually, we are providing a level of service that is barely getting by. I did not even touch on the reason the alarm system is there—our safety.  

Response: No way are we prepared for this. Although the systems all accomplish the same goal, depending on the age of the system(s) involved, they can operate differently, to say the least. In my experience, the best approach is to have the building supervisor handle this chore, after you have explained what you want to accomplish. Choose your words carefully.

 

National Fire Academy

Response: The United States Fire Administration’s National Fire Academy offers the six-day course “Fire Protection Systems for Emergency Operations,” that address this and other topics. The course provides operational personnel with an understanding of the fire protection features installed in buildings, how these systems work, and how their proper use will assist them in achieving strategic and tactical success. The course emphasizes the value of collecting this information during preincident planning and how to use this knowledge to function effectively using these systems in emergency conditions. Topics addressed in this course include developing model preincident plans; the importance of collecting and sharing information with other emergency responders; and understanding the fundamental operations, strengths, and limitations of built-in fire protection features including fire walls, automatic sprinklers, standpipes, fire pumps, fire detection and alarm systems, smoke management systems, and special-hazard and integrated fire protection features.

 

District of Columbia Fire Department

Response: The phrasing of the question shows how confusing the systems are and how little the systems are understood. The first sentence refers to “fire suppression systems.” Fire suppression systems make the fire smaller, and are typically sprinkler systems or clean agent systems. Smoke-control systems are typically designed to remove smoke and make more time available for egress. In general, each smoke-control system’s design and controls are unique to the building for which they are designed. Without pre-event planning and a knowledgeable building representative to help with the pre-event planning, the fire service has little hope in using a smoke-control system, or even preventing the smoke-control system from making the fire department’s job harder.

 

Oceanside (CA) Fire Department

Response: No, we have received no training on modern smoke-control systems.

 

Kent (UK) Fire & Rescue Service

Response: Although smoke-control system concepts have been with us for a long time, we are now seeing a wider range of fire engineered solutions, using pressure differentials in line with smoke shafts of which firefighters need to be very wary. The concepts of pressurization are well-founded and serve great purpose in protecting smoke-free routes for occupant egress and firefighting access within buildings.

 

However, firefighters need to understand the tactical implications associated with “depressurization” systems, where smoke is sometimes extracted by a smoke shaft from stair lobbies, hallways, and common corridors. These systems create excessive negative pressures within areas occupied by firefighters and may cause smoke, heat, and even flaming combustion to be drawn into the paths of advancing firefighters. It is essential that firefighters take control of such systems prior to opening and entering the fire zone and seriously consider deactivating the system controls prior to gaining entry at the fire floor. The potential for such negative airflows “pulling” an underventilated fire into the hallway and initiating some form of rapid fire development as fire-weakened windows fail inward, is clear to see. The computer modelling used to offer “proof of concept” is not yet advanced enough to effectively model remote ignitions of transporting fire gases as they move above and behind firefighter locations. Take control of the situation: For their own safety, firefighters may need to decide how, when, and where to vent whenever automatic smoke extract from low-ceiling hallways exists.

 

Response: We have several buildings in our city that have smoke-removal systems; the biggest and most elaborate is the new federal courthouse. Its atrium is four to five stories tall, and, as we have been told, several hundred thousand cubic feet of space that can be completely ventilated in two minutes. I do not feel that I have been trained, nor do I feel that I have helped to adequately train our personnel in smoke-removal systems. Even with a fully paid department of 160 members, I still hear of crews that do not fully understand how an alarm panel or annunciator panel operates and how to use it.

 

Andalusia (IL) Fire Protection District

Response: Although my fire department does not these systems within our jurisdiction, I design them for my day job. The knowledge of these systems varies greatly between departments, and there are a lot of misperceptions regarding their capabilities. Some fire inspection personnel are very active in new buildings; they take the opportunity to learn about the systems when the systems are being tested initially. Today’s national building codes promote that effort, and fire departments should use that to their advantage and require participation in system inspections. Some departments do not get involved at all. Who knows how they use the systems? You would be surprised at some of the large cities that are this way. 

 

In general, the building construction community has no formal training programs for fire departments to help them know how to use building systems. There are some classes on smoke-control systems for designers and inspectors at national conferences, but they are not accessible to the great majority of firefighters.

 

The fire departments that do the best job are those who seek training from the designers and installers. Building operators also have a good idea of what their systems are designed to do, but the best people to explain the system are the engineers who designed them and know their capabilities in great detail. Engineers are often willing to explain a system to the fire department, especially if it is at the end of the construction period when final tests are occurring.