On December 28, 2015, a 28-year-old male career firefighter died because of thermal injuries and smoke inhalation with severe pulmonary edema at a single-family residential structure fire. Firefighter Patrick Wolterman of the Hamilton (OH) Fire Department was advancing the initial handline into a fire with reported people trapped when he fell into the basement. The arson fire had burned a hole through the floor. In the Hamilton Fire Department’s investigative report after the fire, the committee made the following observation:
“All fire officers should be using the same size-up process and communications model on the fireground.”
-1310 Pater Avenue LODD Report, page 26
You can find the HFD report at 1310 Pater Avenue and the NIOSH report for this fire at NIOSH 2015-19.
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Above, Joe Pronesti interviews Hamilton (OH) Deputy Chief Jay Wirtz about the fire that claimed the life of Firefighter Patrick Wolterman in 2015.
This month’s skill/drill is to practice the size-up or brief initial report (BIR). If you have been with Mayday Mondays for awhile, you may remember this skill/drill using the Sunday Paper-Real Estate section. This time I want you to advance to the computer and use a mapping program like Google Maps and a drawing program like PowerPoint or Word to develop simple fire simulations. After you develop the fire picture, ask members to “size-up” the situation. Make sure to include different types of building construction and occupancies. Ensure the size-up report includes quadrants and appropriate exposure designations. Don’t forget to include a “practical” portion and get your crew outside to practice their size-ups in 3-D.
Here’s a quick tutorial on making a simulation:
- Open PowerPoint and start a new presentation.
- Go to Google Maps.
- Select an address in your area.
- Zoom to streetside view and get the shot you want.
- Press “Control” key and “Print Screen” key to copy picture.
- Go back to PowerPoint. Select “Paste” and the Google Map image should paste into slide.
- Using the “Shape” insert, draw fire and smoke with “Freeform” line.
- Fill fire with orange color and smoke with black/gray.
- Repeat for additional “simulations.”
- Print slides.
Time to practice!!
Just like donning your PPE, stretching a hoseline or a throwing a ladder, we must practice our size-up skills. The time you put into the practice will reap benefits when it really counts. Thanks for visiting for another firefighter survival skill/drill. Send in one of your simulations. We can post them for others to see/use. E-mail to mayday.Monday@dc.gov. See you next month/year.
Tony Carroll is a battalion chief with the District of Columbia Fire & EMS Department.
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