By Joe Pronesti, Chris Tobin, and Alexis Shady
Firefighting is not an exact science. The more local knowledge you have, the better you are, obviously. This month’s memo deals with a legacy building’s showroom bump out. When constructed, a legacy Main Street building was designed to be mercantile on the first floor and in order to attract customers (think about the holiday movie, “A Christmas Story” where the kids are looking at the toys in the showroom window).
These showroom windows may have an elevated stage that may be easy to breach and give direct access to the cellar/basement.
A below-ground fire in a Main Street building can be a difficult and dangerous fire to handle. Tthe more recon you can do prior to the fire, the better you are when the fire occurs. The next time you are in a Main Street building with a showroom bump out, go down into the basement and walk toward the front and look up. Many times you will see a change in the flooring, indicating the locations of the showroom bump outs. These bump outs were designed not to have people walking on them, but simply to elevate the area via a stage design to showcase their merchandise.
Breaching these may be easier than breaching the interior floors and may give easy access to the basement for water application/ventilation. As most of you know, get out and look at your Main Street buildings to recognize these features.
Download this training bulletin as a PDF (233 KB) you can share with your fellow firefighters.
JOSEPH PRONESTI is the chief of the Elyria (OH) Fire Department. He is a graduate of the Ohio Fire Chiefs’ Executive Officer program and a lead instructor at the Cuyahoga (OH) County Community College Fire Academy. He is a frequent contributor to fire service publications and sites, including Fire Engineering and FirefigherNation.com.
CHRISTOPHER TOBIN is a firefighter assigned to St. Louis (MO) Fire Department Rescue 2.
ALEXIS SHADY is a firefighter/paramedic with the University City (MO) Fire Department.
