Developing fire service rapport and cooperation with the owner and general contractor
A fire unit’s initial visit to a high-rise building construction site should be preceded by a letter to the construction management team, requesting to meet with them and arrange for an on-site review. This will provide a general understanding of the scope and processes undertaken during the construction activities and how these relate to fire/life safety practices. This may entail an off-site meeting to establish, mutually acceptable guidelines for both parties. This discussion will also establish a rapport with those individuals responsible for the project and people who are accountable for the interests of the owner(s), corporation, or financial institution. That may be a general contractor/project manager who is responsible for coordinating the work and interaction of the subcontractors that fabricate all the elements that comprise the finished structure. If the project and stakeholders are complying with National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 241, Standard for Safeguarding Construction, Alteration, and Demolition Operations, or International Fire Code (IFC) Chapter 33, Fire Safety During Construction and Demolition, they should have hired or appointed a site fire safety manager (FSM). The FSM should develop working relationship with the fire department. This will pay dividends given the FSM’s efficiency and attentiveness to the details of what is required to support the fire/life safety needs of the workforce and emergency responders.
- What Firefighters Need to Know About High-Rise Building Systems
- High-Rise Building and Large Complex Systems: Heating Appliances
- Launching a KbyG Mentality on Gathering Building Intelligence
- Construction Concerns: Construction Site Response
The first meeting may be off-site or it could be held in a temporary on-site office trailer. The presence of temporary construction site trailers is common. They are used and occupied by managers of the general contractor, other contractors working for the construction organization, and labor management; they also may be used as locker rooms or for the storage of building materials. These trailers may be at curb side, within the site, within the structure, or placed above a sidewalk scaffold. They may be provided with temporary electric service for an office, its lighting, heating, and air conditioning. Unless they are situated within the structure, they may not be protected by a sprinkler system. In lieu of trailers, temporary structures (a.k.a. shanties) have been used in a similar way as trailers and are often located within the structure because of the limitations of space on the site (photo 1). A local authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) may require shanties within a structure be sprinkler protected above and within. Do not expect these shanties to be built strong enough to support the weight of a firefighter operating on its roof. These shanties may have minimal maintenance and have been subject to accidental fires because of improper use of heating equipment. A sizable construction site can have numerous trailers, with some of them interconnected. This creates large open spaces (photo 2) with considerable fuel loading of worktables, chairs, clothing racks, coffee and drink stations, and mounds of blueprints being reviewed. In areas where the climate can be cold, these trailers may have propane gas bottles on the exterior, which create an issue if they are exposed to fire. These trailers and their potential hazards should be noted on the site building information card (BIC) and in the all-hazard/fire safety plan.
Fire Safety/All-Hazard (Nonfire) Emergency Action Plan
The professionalism of the fire service is such that every aspect of firefighters’ response district, municipality, and town has been assessed for what would be considered “target hazards” with fire problems beyond what would be classified as routine. High-rise construction sites and their challenges can be considered well beyond routine. This assessment would also take into account any impediments and resources required to support fire/life safety operations.
All public roadways and private thoroughfares must be evaluated for issues that would require alternate plans of approach patterns and directions due to obstructions, dead ends, or long delays due to railroad crossings, draw bridges, etc. The installation of community infrastructure such as water mains commonly run-in line with these routes and the fire department should have a keen understanding of their location, size, and capacity of water supply. There may be situations where a secondary water supply source for large fire operations would require connecting to a separate or cross water main because the primary water main would be limited in its supply capacity or become unavailable due to an accident or sabotage.
Upon notification of a proposed construction project the local fire department should evaluate the impact of all thoroughfares leading to and surrounding the site, available water mains, their capacity and limitations. This site evaluations should be accomplished well before the first meeting with the construction project representatives (e.g., FSM, general contractor). This coordinated effort is the foundation and formulation of the all-hazard plan (AHP), with solutions to constraints and detailing who will do what, where and when.
Role of Site FSM/Building Intelligence Representative
This AHP should complement the fire safety plan prepared by the site FSM. It should be understood that the FSM will also function as the building intelligence representative (BiR). Further details of the AHP, a construction site building information card (BICard) and signage/posters with building intelligence will provide a sketch/drawing of the building footprint, the type of construction and size, expanse of the overall construction site, (area/acreage) what emergency access point(s) will be made available, how they will be secured (opened/closed), distance to the primary water supply, etc.
Temporary construction site information will change on a daily basis and this up-to-date knowledge is the first responders’ foundation for fire/emergency operations with current building intelligence. This data is not only pertinent in the preparation of the BICard but is essential to fire safety plans and the evacuation elements of these plans. Fire departments that have a computer software as a service (SaaS) application (1) have the ability to enter building site data during the various construction phases which can then be broadcasted/transmitted by the fire communications center to fire units responding to an alarm for a fire or an all-hazard (nonfire) emergency. It provides immediate instructions and vital information to reduce the time to effect rescue and assistance for emergency situations or fire extinguishment.
The local fire department should review the construction site challenge they may face for an emergency response. This review will disclose what resources are available to the first responders from the site FSM/BiR or general contractor and what other resources (staffing/equipment/expertise) the local fire department(s) will have available on the initial response. The construction site project team should accept the fact that the emergency response organizations that provide the services of security, medical emergency, fire and police response will become their partners. As participants, responders should also be accepted as stakeholders in the project with their equipment, members, level of skills, and commitment to fire/life safety.
Initially, this process does not require extensive excursions out and into the (field) site. Thereafter, each visit to the site can be organized and planned sequentially to inspect the progress and features of project that coincide not only with the elements of the structure but also those that comply with the passive and active features of fire protection and compliance with the fire safety/all-hazard (nonfire) emergency plan.
For more fireground information on understanding the vertical challenges of high-rise buildings, see Jerry Tracy and Jack J. Murphy at their FDIC classes.
You can be assured the services of your department will be required at construction sites and projects. This workshop will expound on the intelligence, resources, and rapports required from the construction industry and trades to maintain the life safety of their workers, existing building occupants in those buildings being renovated/altered, and the other emergency services and property preservation prerequisites. The services to be called on are far ranging, fall injuries being the most common. There may be the collapse of structures or scaffolding systems; calamities with heavy equipment, cranes, and excavations; and, of course, fire. All of these events may occur with the lack of or with fire protection system impairments. The disciplines required to enter and operate in these dangerous arenas will be clarified as well as the operational procedures that advocate size-up and operating efficiently and safely.
Command in Tall Buildings: A Holistic Perspective
Many fire departments responding to tall buildings are challenged with limited personnel resources to perform many duties and responsibilities that must be accomplished for minor fires, all-hazard emergencies, or any major incident. An incident commander’s (IC’s) holistic perspective in managing an event must consider the entire area or boundary of operations occurring in and around a high-rise or tall building complex. When assessing the scope of an event, the IC must take into account the life safety of anyone threatened by the event and where they are located in relation to the fire or life-threating emergency. This class will cover command organization, an incident process system, command support priorities, lobby unit operations, the fire command center; the value of a preincident building information to further support operations, and the new roles of a building intelligence rep. (BiR)/incident intelligence fire officer (IiO).
Reference
- Electronic Building Intelligence Solutions at www.ebisg.com for further information
JACK J. MURPHY, MA, is a fire marshal (ret.) and a former deputy chief of the Leonia (NJ) Fire Department and a former Bergen County deputy fire coordinator. He is chairman of the Fire/Life Safety Directors Association of Greater New York and an adjunct professor at John Jay College/Fire Science Institute (NYC). He is a member of the NFPA High-Rise Building Safety Advisory, 1620 Pre-Incident Planning, and Fire/Life Safety Director committees and a representative on the ICC Fire Code Action Committee. He is the author of many articles; a field handbook on the Rapid Incident Command System; co-author of Bridging the Gap: Fire Safety and Green Buildings; and author of the Pre-Incident Planning chapter of Fire Engineering’s Handbook for Firefighter I and II. In 1997, he was appointed an FDNY honorary battalion chief. He is a member of the Clarion Fire and Rescue Group Advisory Board and a presenter at FDIC International. He was the recipient of the 2012 Fire Engineering Tom Brennan Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the co-author of the upcoming book High-Rise Buildings–Understanding the Vertical Challenges (Fire Engineering, 2022).
JERRY TRACY served more than 30 years with the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), retiring as a battalion chief. He began as a firefighter in Engine 90 in the Bronx and Ladder 108 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. As a lieutenant, he was assigned to Ladder 4 in midtown Manhattan and captain of Tower Ladder 35 on the Upper West Side. He formed and became the first captain of Squad 18. He developed numerous training programs as well as refined firefighting policy and procedures for the FDNY. He was the catalyst to the research conducted by NIST, UL, and NYU Polytechnic Institute on smoke management and fire behavior in high-rise buildings, most specifically wind-driven fires. He was a keynote speaker at FDIC International 2017 and received the 2016 Fire Engineering Tom Brennan Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the co-author of the upcoming book High-Rise Buildings–Understanding the Vertical Challenges.
