“BREAD AND BUTTER” OPERATIONS:
THE 2 1/2-STORY HOUSE FIRE
PART 3TRUCK COMPANY OPERATIONS, FIRST-FLOOR FIRE
Fires in 21/2-story frame houses require rapid work by ladder company personnel. Even if your department does not have an aerial device, truck work still must get done.
The prime consideration of any ladder operation must be life safety— locating and removing endangered occupants. Some victims may be visible on arrival, trapped above the fire and located at a window. Others may be trapped and not visible from the exterior. Remember that the most endangered occupants may not be the most visible.
Search and rescue operations must be conducted at every operation.
You’ve just been appointed lieutenant of the truck company in your volunteer fire department. You start thinking how you will put your training to use. You review the SOPs that the captain has written for the company. Just a few hours later, in the early-morning hour’s, you’re in the front seat of the ladder truck, following the pumper through deserted streets on the way to a reported lx>use fire.
As with all foreground operations, size-up for ladder company personnel begins with receipt of the alarm. Time of day, location of the alarm, and what is actually reported will help you to formulate your strategies en route to the incident. As you arrive on the foreground, other operational factors will come into play. For size-up of fire in a 2’/2-story frame house, remember that these houses are constructed of readily combustible material (wood) and are filled with combustible furnishings and decorations. Fire and smoke will spread rapidly throughout the structure due to poor or limited firestopping in the walls and the open and unenclosed stairway leading to the second floor. Outside ladder operations around these houses may be limited by hilly terrain, overhead wires, fences, and trees and shrubs.
The engine reports in from the scene: Fire in a 2½-story frame with smoke showing. You arrive 45 seconds later to see the engine crew stretching a lVeinch preconnect to the front door. You see a dull red glow through the front windows on the first floor. Looks like afire in the living room, you think. Lots of smoke pushing from the second floor already. Those trees are going to block any use of the aerial ladder. Any laddering will have to he done with portable ladders. Couple of cars in the driveway; nobody out front.
(Photos by author.)
“Let’s get moving,”you say. “Conditions don t look too good.”
Though the main thrust of truck company operations is search and rescue, some other functions may have to be performed prior to undertaking the searches. Although not usually a problem in houses, forcibleentry might be required. Hand tools should be carried routinely by all truck company members at every alarm. These tools should include sixfoot pike poles (hooks), axes, and hall igan-style tools. All members should have approved SCBAs, PASS devices, and flashlights. If possible, equip all members, particularly those who will work remote from the officer, with portable radios. Precious time will be wasted if someone has to return to the apparatus to obtain a tool. Automobiles parked in the driveway of a burning home at night, with no occupants greeting you in the street, not only indicates the possibility of trapped people but also that forcible entry might be required. Most people lock themselves in at night, and dead bolts (many keyoperated from inside as well as outside) may delay occupant escape. Modern family work and activity schedules make locked homes a strong daytime possibility as well.
Truck company operations differ according to the location of the fire in the house. If you open the front door and are met by fire, do not wait with your entire truck crew until the interior attack team gets water and moves in. Split your company: Leave a member with the attack team to assist and search as the attack team moves in while the rest of the company proceeds to look for an alternate means of entry’ to the house to search rooms behind the fire. While the rear or side door is the obvious choice, windows should not be overlooked as a means of entering the house.
If search team entry is made to the rear of the first floor into a room or rooms that are not involved in fire, be aware that the advancing engine company soon will push heat and smoke toward these back rooms. Too-deep penetration by these searching firefighters—either from lack of training, lack of experience, or both —may put them in untenable positions when the engine crew starts the advance. Be prepared to exit rapidly, either by the way you came in or a secondary means.
Regardless of how entry is made, search of the first floor must be completed before the second floor is searched. After completion of the first-floor search, members must rapidly advance to the second floor to search the bedrooms, even during daylight hours. Sleeping occupants (night workers, babies taking naps, etc.) may be found upstairs.
COORDINATED VENTING
Ventilation is an integral part of search and rescue. Proper ventilation increases visibility and lessens heat conditions to help us extinguish the fire and complete our searches. It also introduces fresh air into the house, which increases an unconscious victim’s chances of survival.
Horizontal ventilation in house fire situations must be delayed until the engine company has water and is advancing on the fire. Premature venting will intensify the fire and will cause it to spread into unburned areas of the structure.
Venting should be coordinated with the engine’s attack. One member with a six-foot hook should be able to ventilate all windows on the first floor of a house while the rest of the truck company members perform their other duties. By venting in front of the attack team’s stream as it advances into the fire area, the heat and smoke are pushed to the exterior of the house.
Members searching behind the engine also should vent any windows they encounter, as this will help in their search —but only after the engine company has opened up with a fire stream. The only time horizontal venting is allowable prior to a charged and flowing attack hoseline is for a known life hazard. In this instance, ventilation is carried out with the knowledge that fire and smoke will be drawn to this opening, but by creating this opening you wall have access to remove a trapped victim.
After venting the first floor, the outside firefighter may switch his sixfoot hook for a 10or 12-foot hook and proceed to vent the second floor windows if conditions indicate a need for additional venting to assist the search for victims or fire extension on the floor above.
FIRE AT THE REAR
For fires on the first floor but not in the front/living room (normally, the dining room and kitchen), advancement of the search and rescue team with the engine company is acceptable. Again, splitting the truck crew is recommended: Team One remains with the engine to complete a search of the first floor while Team Two immediately advances the interior stairs to commence the search on the floor above the fire. Teams that advance to the second floor must realize that heat and smoke from the fire below will make this a hazardous position. A second handline should be stretched as soon as possible to back up the first line and to protect these members. And as with first-floor/ front-room fires, outside ventilation should be performed by one member of the ladder crew in front of the engine company’s advance.
If limited staffing does not allow the luxury of two separate search crews, then the search team performs a firstfloor search before ascending to the second floor as quickly as possible. In this case, don’t hesitate to use members of the engine company to assist with the search on the first floor as soon as the fire is knocked down. Regardless of how’ you split your company, always assign someone for horizontal ventilation. This member not only provides ventilation but also checks the perimeter of the house— behind bushes and shrubs—for victims who may have jumped before the arrival of the fire department.
THE VES TECHNIQUE
The vent-enter-search (VES) technique is a search operation above the fire that’s usually initiated before the engine company has water or has water but has not completely extinguished the fire. It is performed from portable ladders. The ladders can be positioned either at windows or at porch roofs. Placing the ladder at an available porch roof usually will give firefighters access to more than one window.
This VES method puts the firefighter in an extremely perilous position: Being above the main body of fire without water on the fire or a charged line for the second floor is very punishing and dangerous. Twoand-a-half-storv frame houses burn very rapidly; extension from below is only a matter of time. This tactic should only be attempted by experienced firefighters.
If a firefighter does attempt this method of entry, he should try to close the door to that particular room as soon as he enters the room. This will let the smoke from that room exhaust through the window but w ill lessen the chance of heat and smoke from the open hallway being drawn toward the open window. With the average size of the bedrooms in 2 Vistory houses, the firefighter never should be more than 10 feet from the window and ladder. As a safety measure, another firefighter should be positioned at the top of the ladder to serve as a guide for the interior firefighter—to help him get back to the ladder—and to help in removing any victims. If conditions prevent firefighter entry into the room, the firefighter should reach in the window and sweep the floor for possible victims. Victims who are overcome by smoke trying to escape usually are found in line with house exits.
THICK COMPANY OPERATIONS
Splitting your four-member crew, you start your operation. “Tommy, grab the irons and come with me. Jim. get a booh and take those side windows as soon as the engine starts tenter. Then tcorh toward the rear. ”
The members of your other two-man team are both experienced fire-fighters. They inform you that they are going to take a 24-foot portable ladder to the rear and perform VFS over the fire. The door is forced, the line is charged, and the attack team moves in through the front door, with you close on their heels. Through the noise of the water striking the ceiling, you hear the windows being broken. As the smoke lessens, you rapidly complete a primary search of the first floor. Satisfied that no one is trapped, you swiftly move to the staircase and ascend to the second floor. The smoke again gets heavy, and there is still cjuite a bit of heat. As you crawl toward the bedrooms, you find a victim in the hallway. With the aid of your partner, you remove the occupant down the stairs and out to the front lawn. The team of firefighters that entered the house from the portable ladder in the rear also found and removed a victim. Although seriously injured, both victims will survive. Teamwork and aggressive searches saved these lives.
