BY BILL SULLIVAN
It was one of the reasons the fire service was started. Today, it’s the most neglected of the major functions firefighters perform. It’s salvage.
Take this quick test:
- When did you last perform an action related to salvage?
- When were you last trained in salvage?
- When was the last time you heard salvage techniques discussed in the fire station?
Most firefighters’ responses to these questions generally indicate that the modern fire service has forgotten some of its roots. And it’s not difficult to figure out why.
Salvage is not an exciting function. You don’t find photos of firefighters engaged in savage on magazine covers or on the front pages of newspapers. You don’t get awards for saving a roomful of furniture or a lifetime of memories. In most cases, however, you don’t find yourself practicing salvage simply because no one tells you to do it. Not doing salvage carries few or no consequences. This is in sharp contrast to what would happen if firefighters neglected to perform a primary search or didn’t attempt to keep flames from extending to an exposure.
The value of salvage is frequently offset by the belief that insurance reimburses owners for all of their losses. Insurance reimburses the insured for losses to the degree allowed by the terms of the policy, but not everyone can afford or has insurance. Moreover, even the best insurance cannot replace keepsakes such as photos and mementos gathered over generations.
How did salvage dissolve into a lost art form? As is the case with any skill you don’t practice on a regular basis, the less you use it, the less likely you are to use it. The training schedule has come to be dominated by new priorities linked to safety and training demands associated with emergency medicine, hazardous materials, and confined space rescue. These goals are worthy of the emphasis accorded to them. Today’s firefighter is a highly skilled individual proficient in tasks firefighters of the previous era did not have to perform. Nevertheless, these new demands should not prevent us from practicing the basic skills needed at every fire.
SALVAGE IS THE DOMAIN OF ALL ON THE FIREGROUND
Although salvage work on the surface might appear to be exclusively within the domain of truck company personnel, in practice everyone should be involved. John Norman, in his landmark text Fire Officer’s Handbook of Tactics, Second Edition (Fire Engineering, 1998), describes salvage as “a very broad topic that encompasses nearly every action taken on the fireground by both engine and ladder personnel, reducing the damage from all perils-fire, smoke, water damage, ex-tinguishment, and weather.”
A skilled nozzle operator knows when to turn off the knob. A skilled truckie knows when it’s unnecessary to open a wall. When it comes to salvage, if firefighters do not believe that salvage is important, they probably won’t do the simple things, the sum of which can make a significant difference when it’s time to take up.
Company officers can change these attitudes. By directing their crew members to take specific actions, they’re instilling work practices that will be reflected in the conservation of a fire victim’s most cherished possessions. And it’s not difficult to figure out what those possessions might be. Just ask yourself what you’d remove from your own home if you had to carry it out in one trip. The answer probably would include photo albums and framed pictures, mementos passed down from generation to generation, important papers, videotapes of family gatherings, and-more recently-computer disks of digitized photos.
In many cases, a fire department’s ability to prevent the destruction of a small company’s records may keep the firm in business, whereas failure to do so may cause the firm to suffer a loss from which it cannot recover.
We also have to guard against the “insurance will cover it” attitude. That’s a lazy firefighter’s excuse for not having to think. Our obligation to extinguish the fire isn’t a free pass to prove how much destruction we can do in the shortest time. Disciplined, well-trained firefighters use their wits as well as their brawn.
SALVAGE CRASH COURSE
Like all other firefighting activities, salvage is a thinking person’s game. Here are some of the basic rules for responsible salvage:
- Try before you pry. Maybe that door is open, but you’ll never know it unless you try it.
- Use water judiciously. It doesn’t have to come out the eaves before it’s enough. Beware, however, of falling victim to the myth of not opening up until you find the fire. If you’re making your way down a smoky, superheated hallway, your line should be hitting the ceiling ahead as you advance. That’s where the temperature can reach more than 1,0007F. Protecting yourself is the first rule of survival.
- Protect as you go. Don’t wait until overhaul to begin salvage. Identify important items, and look for ways to protect them with what is immediately available. You can cover photo albums, scrapbooks, and exposed file folders with bedding, heavy drapes, and shower curtains. Request that others bring in salvage covers.
- Use tactics that will protect high-tech equipment. If you encounter fires involving computers and other electronics, bear in mind that carbon dioxide and new water mist are the agents of choice. Dry chemicals can destroy a machine. Ventilation of these areas is also critical to prevent loss of information stored on hard drives and disks. Be mindful that computers are often provided with uninterruptible power supplies that provide electricity even when power is shut down.
- Use common sense. Don’t hesitate to pull a suspect ceiling or open a hot wall, but use your training and experience to guide you. You don’t have to dismantle a room because of a short circuit in an electrical outlet. You don’t have to wash away every last trace of fire. Fire investigators will also appreciate your caution.
- Don’t let water accumulate. There are two good reasons not to allow water to accumulate. Aside from the fact that the longer it remains, the more damage it causes, water is extremely heavy and can precipitate a floor collapse. Drain water accumulating above a ceiling to prevent a ceiling collapse. Spread a salvage cover before punching the hole (wouldn’t you want firefighters to do that if it were your home?). Use covers to channel water out of the building by windows or stairs. Drain large accumulations of standing water into the basement by removing the threshold between rooms and allowing it to drop through the framing.
- Take up carefully. After shutting down lines, take the nozzle to the window before draining it. Whenever possible, pull your couplings outside (or at least to a stairwell) before breaking them.
Effectively performing salvage is an art. It requires knowledge of building construction, skill in the use of tools, experience under stress, and the determination to do a more professional job. Restoring salvage to its rightful place on the incident commander’s list of objectives may necessitate issuing specific orders for accomplishing this. A successful salvage operation also depends on the common sense of all involved in the suppression effort.
