By Joe Pronesti, Chris Tobin, and Alexis Shady
As most in our profession understand, the residential fire is our “bread and butter” day in, day out. Firefighters handle these events with ease and little issue. Part of that is the ability for us to understand the upper floors. We pretty much are aware that in a residential dwelling we will find bedrooms and bathrooms, but what about on the upper floors of our Main Street buildings?
Upper floors of our Main Streets could have everything from a bowling alley to single-room occupancies, since these buildings have been around for several years, perhaps one hundred or more. Without prefire knowledge firefighters going up could be in for dangerous surprises.
- STRETCHING HOSELINES TO UPPER FLOORS OF RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS, Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
- Making the Top Floor: An Argument for the Dry Stretch
Obviously, the best way to know what’s above Main Street is as, mentioned above, getting inside these buildings. Some very common issues are listed in this month’s memo, including:
- Narrow, possibly set-back stairs from first floor going up;
- Straight-run stairs that, when in the case of multi-floor Main Street buildings, can cause a safety issue when crews go up, i.e. fire on lower floor and crews go to top third floor of a Main Street building;
- Apartment doors that may not have self-closing mechanisms;
- Very narrow hallways, in which your crews can get bunched up very quickly if you’re not careful;
- Doors and transom windows that are directly below skylights and roof access that can lead to easy extension to the cockloft (these can provide good ventilation, as well);
- Boarded up and heavily secured doors and windows, especially those near fire escapes.
These are just a few. Get out and get to know your Main Street.
Download this bulletin as a PDF HERE (369 KB) that can be printed out and shared with your 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.
