ROOF SAFETY
RANDOM THOUGHTS ON
THE VALUE OF vertical ventilation—as soon as possible at most structure fires—is well-known. The hows, whys, whens, and whos are a matter of department policy based on experience, training, and preplanning. However, there are many injuries directly and indirectly related to roof operations. Where do they have their origins?
Roof safety should begin in quarters. Tactics and procedures should be well-drilled and planned for before the alarm sounds. Firefighters who are to perform this vital operation should know their assignment before arrival at the incident. Only then can valuable data be gained through size-up while responding. What kind of roofs are on the block? Are they connected? Are the buildings adjacent to the fire building the same size? Is the fire building standing alone?
Getting there: Getting to the roof of the fire building is more than half the battle. The ideal success and safety “protocol” for roof access should be (in order of priority): aerial device, portable ladder, adjoining building, and outside fire escape—NEVER the fire building.
Type of roof: On what type of roof are you operating? That fact is as important to you as it is to the operating forces below you. Does it have the classic hump design of the bowstring truss? Are there additional loads, signs, or air conditioners that the roof was never designed to hold up? What is your information from below? Are you on a lightweight-steelor wood-truss-supported roof covering? Where, then, is the fire? Remember, trusses fail after a few minutes of fire exposure!
How tall is the parapet? It may be as much as four or five feet above the roof surface. Do you need a small ladder to get down to it? Sure, it’s easy to jump down, but if you have to get off, how do you jump up?
How’s the visibility? Depending on weather and interior fire location, visibility on the roof can be just as bad as on the fire floor. On too many occasions, firefighters have walked off flat roofs into shafts and yards. Remember the golden rule: If you can’t see, CRAWL!
What are your objectives? First, provide relief to the interior of the building. Opening the available vertical arteries will reduce the horizontal mushrooming of heat and smoke and relieve the public stairs, both for the civilians exiting or awaiting rescue and for the rapid advance of the interior firefighting effort. Second, survey and report on the life and fire conditions on the sides of the fire building that the incident commander cannot see. Try to open the vertical arteries first. Should you observe human beings trapped around the perimeter of the building, you may become so involved that you never get to your primary lifesaving function.
Which to open first—scuttle or skylight? If you remember that skylights were originally installed over public halls and work places so that the occupants might see better, and that scuttle covers are usually in closets and chained and locked, the choice should be obvious.
Next—you got up there—how are you going to get off? Conditions on the roof can deteriorate and becomelife-threatening rapidly. Have a second way off or area of refuge all planned. Make sure a second ladder is placed in a remote location to the first. Work toward a fire wall of an adjoining building. NEVER let the fire condition get between you and your escape route!
How do you get to your objectives on the roof? Operations may require that you be in many different locations on the same roof. Get to them by the “right-angle rule.” Walk around the enclosure walls until you are perpendicular to your objective, then venture out carefully. NEVER go cross-country on a roof!
If you have to cross more than one _ roof to get to or off the fire building, where is the safest place? Open shafts and buildings longer than the one you’re stepping toward have claimed many firefighters by falls. Where are the building roofs the same? Where are there usually no hidden shafts? Correct—at the front! If you must cross from building to building, especially when visibility is questionable, do it at the front building wall. Your chances for success and safety are as close to 100 percent as they can be.
Another time, we’ll ramble about topfloor fires and cutting our vertical openings effectively and safely.
