ON FIRE | by MICHAEL N. CIAMPO
The word “aggressive” seems to pop up a lot in articles, e-mails, critiques, and conversations when we’re talking about an incident or fire. Sometimes in the fire reports, the term is used as an adjective in front of the words “fire attack,” “hoseline advancement,” and “search.” So, what’s the deal with it? Isn’t that part of our culture and our job? Don’t we go into dangerous places and attack an unknown phenomenon while attempting to save lives? Maybe we better look at being aggressive a little more and talk tactics.
- Aggressive and Practical Search: It’s Still About the Victim
- Being Aggressive Does Not Mean Being Reckless
- Commanding the Aggressive RIT from the Exterior
Fire Incident 1
An engine company staffed with three firefighters arrives on scene alone and encounters fire issuing from the first-floor side windows of a two-story private dwelling. They forget about wrapping a hydrant on the way in because they see people straddling the front windowsills. They’re using the “people before water” mindset with the visual clues they spot and knowing they have a 500-gallon booster tank of water.
The officer, with his forcible entry tool in hand, tells the firefighter to grab the portable ladder off the rig and go to work while he stretches the preconnected hoseline to the dwelling. The chauffeur stops the rig in an unusual position, puts the power on for the electric ladder rack’s motor, and puts it in pump mode.
As the electric ladder rack is creeping downward, the civilians are still screaming in panic and more than one is now noticed in the window. While the officer is flaking out the line, the chauffeur charges the deck gun, then hops up on the upper deck and opens the gate valve attached to the stream shaper. Water is now directed into the fire while the ladder is being transported to the front windows. Then the ladder is placed at the window and the firefighter climbs up to start assisting the residents down.
Once a knock is done on the fire, the gate valve is shut down and the chauffeur hops down to charge the handline as the officer has forced the door and is proceeding into the structure with the hoseline. Four people are removed via the portable ladder, as the second arriving company gets on scene.
Aggressive actions? Not really. The three-firefighter company has trained on this scenario and has operating tactics figured out before the fire even came in. Is it the way we’d like to operate on the fireground? Of course not, but when that’s what our staffing provides and the situation calls for, then we have to act to the best of our abilities. So, if you’ve never trained on such a situation or discussed this with your short-staffed crew, how will you be prepared to tackle it when you are faced with it?
Fire Incident 2
The engine company arrives and finds a two-story mixed-occupancy structure in the front, with a one-story commercial attached in the rear. Fire is encompassing the commercial occupancy on the first floor, a print shop. Fire is also engulfing the trash cans and cardboard recycling stored under the exterior wooden stairs to the second floor. It’s in the early morning hours, and there are reports of people trapped in the two apartments on the second floor. Luckily, the truck company has responded with you from the same firehouse and arrives just seconds later.
The engine stretches a handline and first has to knock down the exterior fire that has engulfed the side of the structure and the exterior wooden staircase to the second floor and extended into the attic via the melting vinyl soffit. The truck is splitting up its crew: One firefighter is assigned to force entry into the first floor for the engine to advance, while the other two members head upstairs to search the apartments.
As the fire on the stairs is knocked down, the firefighters begin to proceed up the stairs. Suddenly, a few of the burned stair treads collapse under their weight. Realizing the situation, they quickly grab a ladder and place it over the entire stairwell. Now, they’re able to circumvent the damaged stairs and make their way to the second floor to initiate search operations despite fire involving the attic above.
Prior to entering the apartment, they remind each other not to make a hole in the ceiling to feed the fire because there’s no hoseline operating with them. After completion of the primary searches in the small efficiency sized apartments, they retreat to the safety of the outside porch and await an engine company to advance to their location to attack the fire extension in the attic.
Overly aggressive? No. With reports of people trapped in the early morning hours, their search was aggressive and smart. They maintained their means of emergency egress by placing a portable ladder over the stairway. They also didn’t feed the fire with oxygen by opening the ceiling because they could see the fire was already above them and there wasn’t a hoseline in place. The two firefighters operated as a team and concentrated on a quick and deliberate primary search of the two one-bedroom efficiency-type apartments.
Searching without the protection of a hoseline is part of our jobs. Many times, the search is protected only by a firefighter with a pressurized water extinguisher. One tactic to protect ourselves is to close a fire room’s door and isolate it, then proceed by it to search the rest of the structure. This may be dangerous for the untrained, but for us it has to be a tactic we rely on and understand. Being aggressive and making a push while advancing a hoseline are also extremely important. We have to know and understand if the line is knocking down the fire, if it is doing nothing and conditions are getting worse, or if we’ll get the last room if we penetrate a few feet more and move the nozzle in all directions.
MICHAEL N. CIAMPO is a 38-year veteran of the fire service and a lieutenant in the Fire Department of New York. Previously, he served with the District of Columbia Fire Department. He has a bachelor’s degree in fire science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He is the lead instructor for the FDIC International Truck Essentials H.O.T. program. He wrote the Ladders and Ventilation chapters for Fire Engineering’s Handbook for Firefighter I and II (Fire Engineering, 2009) and the Bread and Butter Portable Ladders DVD and is featured in “Training Minutes” truck company videos.
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