Every department can conduct company-level drills at little to no cost and with very little lesson planning time. You may be asking how this can be done. Coffee talk-my homegrown term for drills of this sort and a fitting term, I think.
Coffee talk is an off-the-cuff, or unplanned, company drill. Company members or senior members can present scenarios to the crew while sitting around the kitchen table any time during the shift. Members can discuss methods of operation when presented with different scenarios, often incorporating departmental standard operating procedures (SOPs) as well as company-specific functions.
The most beneficial type of scenario is one that incorporates a photo. Members can glance at a photo of an occupancy or other challenging response area feature and discuss strategies and tactics as they relate to those scenes. Often, officers can throw in “conditions” in conjunction with the photo to see how members would react at such a scene. Operators and officers could discuss how they would position apparatus and why; crew members could discuss which tools they would debark with and the tasks they would perform; all members could relate experiences from similar scenarios at those types of occupancies.
The real jewel of learning comes when members relate first-hand experience to other members of the company. The rookies, or members newest to the company, could receive the greatest benefit from such drills. First-hand knowledge of on-scene hazards, the locations of access panels to utilities, construction type, and the best access for apparatus are just a few of the jewels that can be relayed to company members.
THE SCENARIOS
Let’s review some occupancies/situations located in many districts across the country. These exact scenarios may be in your district and can be turned into coffee talk. My fire district is made up primarily of residential housing, followed by strip shopping and mid-rise office complexes. Two major state highways run through the district. We have no rail lines or heavy industry. However, we have one of the largest high schools in southern New Jersey and a significant wildland/urban interface that involves approximately 4,500 homes. Using some pictorials from my district, let’s discuss some situations you may encounter in your response area.
 Photos by author. |
Photo 1. Here is an underground standpipe system running into the courtyard between four two-story garden apartment buildings. The photo shows the double three-inch wye that supplies the courtyard standpipe (note the arrow in the background, which denotes one of the two outlets).
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Photo 2. One of the outlets is a dual 21⁄2-inch thread gated down to dual 11⁄2-inch threads. Regrettably, I was not aware that this standpipe existed in my first-due district for two years, until I was sent to the location for an EMS run. I had never been on any fire or EMS calls at this location before. On returning from the EMS run, I had many questions for my company officer and senior members of my crew: Did they know that the standpipe was there? Has the department or company ever used it? Is it reliable; does it get tested? What kind of fire flows can you achieve from it? Does the company have any policy for using it, or is it at the discretion of the officer? Are there any other standpipes like this in that apartment complex or in our first-due area? Fortunately, the senior members and officer of my crew were able to answer all of my questions. This is a unique situation, the only courtyard standpipe in our district. The standpipe is not tested, and it is not known if it can support 21⁄2-inch and 13⁄4-inch operations while being fed by one or two three-inch supply lines. Using the standpipe would be at the discretion of the officer; if used, the procedure would be to use the high-rise bag from the standpipe connection. Do you have any situations like this in your district?
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Photo 3. These two-story attached single-family homes are of wood-frame construction and separated by a firewall. The rear of these structures back to a heavily wooded area (wildland interface) and have limited rear access and limited rear open space. A manmade creek runs through the rear. How would your engine/truck company perform the needed functions with this limited access? What types of equipment or specialty setups do you carry on your apparatus that you could deploy in such situations? What other challenges are unique to this type of structure? Does your district have similar occupancies and challenges?
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Photo 4. You arrive to find a three-story, wood-frame, middle-of-the-row involved townhouse. You know from preplanning that rated firewalls separate each dwelling unit. On arrival, heavy fire is venting from the two windows on the third floor. You note prevailing winds and autoexposure concerns. From a walk-through with your company during the construction phase, you know that the stair configuration is of the return type and that your 200-foot preconnect barely makes it to the rear bedroom on the third floor. What method of attack would your company employ? What conditions do you have in the rear and in the exposures? Would you walk through the exposures or around to the rear? Perhaps your company will enter through the second-floor window by ground ladder and advance the handline up the stairwell to the third floor, or perhaps your company officer will instruct you to knock down the fire with your deck gun prior to entering with a handline. Does your district have a ladder truck capable of reaching the roof, especially with the long setback? Do you have enough ground ladders on your first-alarm assignment to ladder the building adequately? Survey your district to see if you have similar occupancies and challenges.
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Photo 5. Your district is dispatched for a single-family dwelling fire. Your company is first in and arrives to find a mansion-type, single-family dwelling with the windows darkened and smoke pushing from the eaves. The dwelling has a sizeable setback from the road. You don’t know if the driveway will support the weight of your apparatus. What is your company’s initial action plan? Will one hydrant be able to provide sufficient water flow for this sizeable structure? Will you use the driveway? Will you stretch 21⁄2– or three-inch hose with gated wyes and run a hose pack off this? Will the fire flows from a 13⁄4-inch hoseline support operations based on the conditions and type of structure? Where will you enter the residence? Which windows will you vent? By using the driveway, you could position your apparatus closer to decrease the length of hoselays and perhaps use your deck gun should the situation worsen. Because of the size of the house, it is reasonable to assume that if all of the windows are blackened and smoke has just begun to issue, the house is most likely fully charged with smoke and there is a good probability that a sizeable fire is burning. Would you vent windows? Remember that you will be introducing a lot of oxygen into this structure very quickly. The fire could rapidly advance and overcome your initial crews or, worse yet, cause a backdraft. Remember to consider things you may not have to think about at ordinary single-family dwelling fires, such as the amount of broken glass that will cover the ground. This same glass will be the glass you would advance your hoselines across, glass that could puncture your hoselines and leave your crews stranded.
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Photo 6. These townhouses are of wood-frame construction and have wood-shake siding. In the rear is a large lake. Do you have similar occupancies? What challenges are presented?
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Photo 7. A hydrant is in the courtyard between two garden-style apartments. (Did you ever notice it was there?) If this is your first-due hydrant, could using it be affected by conditions showing on arrival? Might you have to alter your plan of attack? Do you have similar challenges?
As a company officer, take the initiative. Snap some photos, and toss them out onto the coffee table. See what develops in conversation. Take the pearls of experience from the senior members, and make them a learning experience. But, never forget about the rookies. They may be new to your department, but they may not be new to the fire service. For rookies fresh out of your departmental academy, their learning experience may be completely different from that to which senior members were exposed 10, 15, or 20 years before. Regardless of whether a firefighter has 20 months or 20 years on the job, everyone can shed a different light on each situation. Take time, sit down, have a cup of coffee, and talk to each other-it just might make the difference between life and death. ■
■ CARL BITTENBENDER is a firefighter/EMT with Evesham (NJ) Fire-Rescue. A nine-year member of the fire service, he is an NFPA Fire Officer I, a NJ Fire Instructor II, and a certified CPR and EMT instructor. He has a bachelor of science degree in economics from the University of Delaware and a master of science degree in public safety from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
