Photos by author.
“BREAD AND BUTTER” OPERATIONS: STORE FIRES, PART 3—TRUCK COMPANY OPERATIONS
When encountering a serious fire in a store, ladder company personnel must be ready to efficiently and rapidly perform their assorted duties to control the fire. Although stores located in different types of structures require some variations in tactics, most truck company duties remain constant for all types of stores.
Fires in stores are very manpowerintensive. For this article, the ladder company is staffed by an officer and four or five firefighters. For the fourfirefighter company, the driver of the apparatus is one of the members of the outside team. For the five-firefighter company, the chauffeur remains with the apparatus unless ordered elsewhere by the officer.
Procedures for fighting fires in stores, especially taxpayers and strip malls, normally are as follows: force entry, ventilate, operate hoselines to darken down visible fire, and open up ceilings and walls to expose hidden fire in the cockloft and other voids.
There are some exceptions to this order—for example, a known life hazard, advanced fire conditions on arrival that require large-caliber streams to darken down the fire, serious exposure problems, and the possibility of a backdraft take priority.
When arriving at the scene of a fire in a store, the truck company officer should try to follow this order of events. In the “mom and pop”-type store, unless the store is in a highcrime area where security gates are in use, forcible entry should not be much of a problem, The older wooden doors usually have glass panels as well as older locking mechanisms and usually are easy to force using the halligan tool and flathead axe. If you encounter problems, break the glass in the door itself, clean it out completely, and gain entry through this opening.
The team that forces entry now becomes the inside team, whose primary goal once in the store is a search for life and the fire. In this type of occupancy, pay special attention to possible living quarters at the rear of the store. If conditions in the store do not prevent the inside team from entering, the team should begin searching immediately.
When the team locates the seat of the fire and the engine is preparing to move in, send one member of the inside team to the outside to perform any horizontal ventilation possible from the rear or sides. If fire conditions prevent the inside team from reaching the rear of the store, make an effort from the outside. In this case, one member of the inside team should stay with the engine while the officer and another member go to the rear or side and try to gain entry.
The member who remains with the engine should provide horizontal ventilation of the front windows to improve conditions so the engine company can advance. Do not vent these windows until the engine has a hoseline stretched, charged, and ready to advance. If you vent the windows prematurely, the fire may rapidly intensify due to the large quantities of fresh air introduced to the fire. This member then remains with the engine company and performs searches as the engine company advances into the store. This member also is available to force any interior doors or open any concealed spaces encountered to expose hidden fire and must stay with the engine so as not to be working alone and unsupervised.
If gaining entry from the rear, remember that by creating this opening for vent, entry, and search, the members will be working behind the fire. The fire will be drawn toward this opening, and when the engine operates the line onto the fire, steam and heat will be pushed toward this position. Because working behind the fire is dangerous, communication between engine company personnel and truck company personnel is essential.
While the inside team is forcing entry for the engine company and preparing to conduct searches, an outside team also must perform certain duties, including portable laddering of the building, ventilation and searches above the fire, and providing forcible entry for an engine (if required) that may need to gain entry to the floor above. Outside team members must be aware of any difficulties the inside team may be encountering in performing its tasks. Some of the outside team’s assigned duties may have to wait if the inside team has encountered heavy-duty security gates or is performing rescues and needs assistance.
For a five-firefighter company, the chauffeur can team up with the outside team and assist where needed, providing two three-member teams with which to attack the fire. When the second-due truck or more firefighters who can be assigned to perform truck work arrive on the scene, both positions may be augmented.
It is up to the IC to decide which position —in the store or on the floor above —requires the immediate help. For late-night fires, the life hazard in the upstairs apartments requires sending additional personnel above the fire to rapidly conduct a primary search.
For fires involving taxpayers and strip stores, the basic plan for a twoteam attack still holds true. When confronted with a single-story structure, the team that normally works above the fire becomes the roof team. If the fire building has two stories, fire conditions determine whether the above team provides immediate roof ventilation or operates on the second floor.
If help is a long way off, roof ventilation might take priority over other duties. Fire burning unchecked through the cockloft will consume the entire structure before reinforcements arrive. For all fires involving rows of stores, call for help often and early. A fire in the cockloft of one store in a taxpayer containing six stores requires numerous handlines— at least six, or one for each store—to extinguish the fire as efficiently as possible. Truck company personnel also are needed to operate on the roof opening ventilation holes and in each store to pull ceilings to expose the fire.
GATES AND LOCKS
It is not uncommon, especially in high-crime areas, to find security gates on store fronts. The addition of these gates and assorted locks seriously hinders fire department operations from the start. Do not wait for a fire to familiarize yourself with different locks and gates in use in your jurisdiction—they require prefire planning and drills.
Security gates pose a number of problems. The gates often delay discover)’ of fire and increase the possibility that a backdraft will occur as a result of the building’s having been sealed. Know the signs that indicate the possibility of a backdraft and take appropriate measures. Heavy brown or gray smoke pushing out of cracks or small openings under pressure and hot, blackened, and cracked glass in showroom windows indicate that conditions are right for a backdraft. If conditions for a backdraft are present, you must perform vertical ventilation before making entry at the lower level. If you force entry before performing vertical ventilation, there will be an outward rush of smoke and heat, followed immediately by an inrush of air and oxygen. This will cause the fire to rapidly (almost explosively) intensify back toward the source of the fresh air—the door. Opening the roof over the fire will cause the heat and gases to move up and out of the building and into the outside air, where they will mix and ignite. After venting the roof, you can begin forcible entry, and handlines may enter for attack purposes.
Many of today’s newer locks are too tough for conventional forcible entry methods. The traditional halligan tool and axe must be replaced by power saws and cutting torches. Although methods that require nothing but brute strength are available and will work, it is preferable to use power tools when confronted with a row of stores pushing heavy smoke and where every rolldown gate has three locks on it. You must be able to identify which locks you can force easily with just hand tools and which require power tools or cutting devices.
When operating at a serious fire in a row of stores and performing forcible entry, the member operating the saw or torch should continue opening locks until the boundaries of the fire are identified. When cutting and removing locks, remember that you still must remove the retaining pins from the gate rail, or you will not be able to raise the gate. When the fire prevents you from working on the different locks, cut a small hole in the gate itself so the engine can operate a line through the opening to darken down some of the fire.
If you cannot raise the gate after removing the locks or if the gate becomes jammed, cut it. Cut an inverted “V” starting at a point in the middle of the gate at the highest reach of the saw operator and continuing down toward the corners to provide a large enough hole through which the forces can operate. Once you cut the “V” and remove the slats inside, you can remove the rest of the slats by sliding them toward the opening to enlarge the hole. Slats in line with any locks will not be removable because of the pin that passes through the end channels and secures the gate. To remove these slats, you also must remove the locks and pins.
Other methods of cutting gates include making a vertical cut at the gate’s center and making two vertical cuts just in from the end rails. All of these methods require that the slats slide easily on themselves to provide an opening, whereas the first method makes an opening because the slats drop away.
Once you open the gates, you will find doors that lead into the establishment. Always try the door first before attempting forcible entry —some owners do not lock these interior doors because they feel the gates provide enough security. Older wooden store doors usually splinter under the blows of conventional forcible entry. If not, and forcible entry is not successful, remove the glass panel in the door to provide egress.
If the door is new and made of aluminum, it may be advantageous to attack the lock using the through-thelock method of forcible entry rather than to force the door. This involves removing the lock cylinder from the door by pry ing it with a “K” tool or similar lock puller or unscrewing it with the help of vise grips after removing the locking rim. Once you remove the cylinder, you need a “key” tool to reach into the lock, move the locking mechanism, and open the lock. This method of forcible entry is particularly valuable when conditions do not indicate a serious lire —such as an investigation of an odor of smoke —but you must make entry. Damage usually is restricted to the lock cylinder only, and repairs are easy to make.
If you use conventional means to force an aluminum door, the glass in the door may shatter. If the glass breaks and you are using this point for entrance and egress, remove the cross piece found midway down the opening. The entire doorway now will be unobstructed.
After making entry, the truck company must locate the fire and conduct a search for trapped occupants. When advancing, the truck company should check the floor to see if a tile or concrete floor surface is present. These floors will prevent operating forces from feeling the heat of a serious basement fire and also will lead to an early collapse.
Just because a store is locked from the outside does not mean that it is unoccupied. Some food stores lock employees in at night to restock shelves; some occupancies might even have people living in them.
While conducting searches, be aware of lofts, usually found toward the rear of the store. They might be used as office space, as sleeping quarters, or as posts from which to observe the selling floor when looking for shoplifters. The entrance to such a loft may be a vertical ladder made of two-by-fours nailed between studs instead of a staircase. Search thoroughly-
Only if conditions indicate a light fire condition should you execute a search without the protection of a charged handline waiting at the front entrance. As the truck advances into the store, the engine company can start to follow with a line, as long as members do not pass the truck company or the fire.
If you encounter high heat conditions but no visible fire, suspect a basement fire. Locating a basement fire usually is difficult. Many times the basement layout does not conform to the first-floor layout. Maze-like conditions due to stock and other storage, coupled with heavy smoke, high heat, and limited ventilation, make basement fires especially dangerous. When confronted with a basement fire in a row of stores, check adjacent cellars immediately. Fires located in stores may be an extension of a basement fire. Also, first-floor fires occasionally will burn through or drop down and cause a basement fire. Thus, always check basements.
When operating forces are having difficulty advancing into the basement, you can cut ventilation holes in the first floor of the store, either near the front showroom windows or under already vented skylights. Protect with a hoseline all openings you make.
Do not ventilate the front store windows until a charged handline is in position and ready to advance and the IC gives the orders. Premature venting of these windows allows large quantities of air and oxygen to enter the fire area and causes the fire to intensify. As most store fires originate in the rear of the store, the search for the fire should progress rapidly toward this area, which contains storage rooms, utilities services, office space, and the entrance to the basement.
Once you have determined the fire’s location, the line can be advanced for extinguishment. Now’ the truck company must open any concealed spaces to check for fire extension. This includes pulling ceilings to check for extension into the cockloft and opening partition walls to expose hidden fire. If you discover fire in the cockloft, open adjoining stores immediately and pull ceilings to get in front of the advancing fire. Roof operations become very important if the fire is to be stopped *
