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All forms of utilities must be disconnected or removed. The property owner should cover the related costs. Verify this before the day of training. In some cases, power back-fed from on-site generators or illegally hooked up to other properties was discovered after training began.
Electrical power may be underground or overhead. If the line is overhead, cut it at the pole well away from the building. If overhead power lines are too close, it may be possible to work with the utility company to reroute the power and shut off the line. You would then be able to protect it as any other exposure. If the service is underground, it may still have to be rendered safe somewhere away from the property. Regardless of the location of the feed, deal with it well in advance of the training day.
Shut off or remove incoming gas or propane. Even if the rural setting has a propane tank at a safe distance, ask that it be removed if it is not supplying other “on farm” requirements. Shutting the meter down for either fuel source won’t work: As the house burns down, it may damage or destroy the meter and cause an uncontrolled flame once the house is “in the ground.” Fuel and fuel tanks are another matter, as they can be found inside and out. Removal is necessary unless the tank can be emptied and rendered safe so that the potential of a boiling-liquid, expanding-vapor explosion (BLEVE) is eliminated. Remove all trace of oil in a basement if any was spilled in the process.
Remove or repair unsafe exterior building hazards such as dilapidated porches, roofs, carports, or structural components that may hinder entry and exit for drills or emergency egress. Identify, secure, or cordon off below-grade windows or stairwells, sumps or cisterns, well houses, air raid shelters, swimming pools, or other areas that present fall or other hazards for firefighters (photo 5).
Depending on the jurisdiction, environmental protection statutes may require the removal of exterior vinyl, steel or aluminum siding, and soffit and fascia. You may have to remove asbestos, fiberglass, or asphalt shingles as well. If you must do this, have a contingency in place to cover the entire roof with tarps or rolled plastic to maintain the integrity of the ceilings if inclement weather should occur between preparation days and the training.
Check the structural integrity of chimneys. Some departments have felt comfortable pushing loose bricks, if present, into the flue; others have maintained clear drop zones and pushed them off the roof. Ensure that the debris does not become an additional hazard, and check to see where the chimney goes. In many old rural midwest and northwest homes, some chimneys terminate on a platform secured to a stud wall and are plastered over five to six feet off the floor. The chimneys were used for pot belly or Franklin stoves. The chimney platforms may no longer support the chimney once fire training has damaged the building.
Check attic spaces for chimneys that are no longer in service. When installing modern heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, often chimneys were taken off at the roof line and roofed over. This may cause extension in the attic, a concern when attic extension is not a planned objective of the training. It may also pose a load or weight problem, depending on its condition, as areas of the building may become weakened during the burns.
Other exterior hazards needing attention include the landscaping, the landscape, and nature itself. Trees, bushes, and shrubs outside windows, doors, and porch roofs may pose a hazard or an impediment to rapid escape from a room or an area designated as a secondary means of egress. The items must be removed adequately so that holes with roots, rock, and debris do not create slip, trip, and fall hazards for responders. Cover or fill in with dirt or gravel, or barricade those areas so no one can enter them.
Additionally, the structure may have become a shelter for various types of wildlife. Some of the “lessons” I have learned include the need to develop a fire stream class on how far to “lead” a squirrel or a raccoon with its tail on fire with a 1¾-inch smooth bore nozzle in rapidly exiting a void in a porch roof. The animal ended up out of reach in a hay loft in a wooden barn that was not considered an exposure because of the wind direction and its distance from the acquired structure. Also, it was not one of the buildings the owner wanted to have demolished by fire or any other means. OOPS! Overgrowth around the barn contained poison ivy, which eventually was watered down to keep it from burning. Obviously, direct contact with the ivy during the preparation phase could have caused injury. Inhalation of the smoke from the burning poisonous plant could have produced tragic results.
One exterior workday for an FDIC class found us preparing on a very cold day. On the second day of preparation, the weather warmed up significantly, and an occasional yellow jacket or bee was noticed flying in and out of the soffit. After slowly and carefully removing the exterior siding, we found the bee hive in the wall. It covered an area spanning six full stud spaces and was seven feet tall at its highest.
A practice that has become habit for some is to create a resettable roof ventilation cap over holes cut in the roof. You can open a vent hole from the ground with rope, wire, or cable and lower the rope to reset when the smoke has lifted. The NFPA 1403 standard calls for a provision to be in place that would make it possible to vertically ventilate all roof spaces in the training environment to rapidly improve interior conditions should the need arise. The ventilation method may be as simple as a single adequately sized hole cut in the middle of a 2,000-square-foot ranch with a 4/12 pitch, or it could be multiple holes over each finished room in a walk-up attic not originally designed for multiple rooms (photo 6).
When working with acquired structures, it is important to understand the concept of nonintervention, the same strategic option used in fire and hazmat responses: “Buildings that cannot be made safe as required … shall not be used for interior live fire training evolutions.” Unless the objectives for training are the skills needed to perform a surround-and-drown scenario, you must walk away from some buildings offered for training. As one who has fallen through a floor and was stopped by my armpits from dropping into the room filled with fire below, I believe staying away from questionable structures is a great strategy.
Inside Work
“All hazardous environmental conditions shall be removed before live fire training evolutions are conducted in the structure.” (NFPA 1403, 5.2.5)
Starting from the ground up, you must address numerous items.
Basement or crawl space. If a basement or crawl space is accessible from the proposed training area, inspect and remove any hazards. This could include fuel tanks. Render safe water heaters or other vessels, such as pressure tanks, that could BLEVE. Remove paints, solvents, or other consumer packaged hazardous materials.
Since these properties are often left unattended for extended time periods, often without electricity, basements can fill with water. If the area has more than one way out, you might use it for training after you remove the water, cover sump holes, and drywall exposed floor joists. If the exposed floor joists are in the basement ceiling and you decide not to cover the ceiling with drywall, do not permit burning even if there is a secondary way out. Placing a burn barrel in the basement can be a bad practice. With the underside of the first floor exposed, there is the possibility of extension of fire through radiators, the HVAC vent, a clothing chute, a dumbwaiter, or a plumbing chase. Igniting the floor system is another. These conditions make it difficult to have a safe training session. Conversely, cover the floor surface above to prevent downward extension when building a fire set in a room with a floor vent or opening. The same openings would pose a hazard to those crawling over them in smoky conditions.
Often, unusable areas of basements and crawl spaces become collection spots for items that cannot be used in the live fire training. Typically, the items are personal effects the owners or occupants have determined to be of no value to them. If these areas are used for disposing of noncompliant materials, ensure that they are inaccessible during a training evolution. Keep in mind that you must have access to the basement during live fire evolutions to check for fire extension. You must ensure that all fire is extinguished before you start the next drill.
Floors. Cover any holes in the floor regardless of their size to mitigate fire travel from below or brands dropping from above. Since firefighters with associated PPE, hoselines, tools, and rescue dummies weigh a great deal, the floor should be sound. In abandoned houses, you may find broken windows, missing doors, and leaking roofs, which will compromise the support for floors and ceilings in a relatively short time, especially if the homes have engineered lumber for subfloors, roof decks, or stair treads. During energy-challenged days in the past, brick or concrete may have been set down to support aftermarket wood or pellet stoves on floors not designed for the additional weight. If the floor is spongy—even over a shallow crawl space—make sure it’s supported, and remove excessive weight.
Moving to the first floor, debate is possible regarding flooring material. Some trainers have trained with the carpet intact. They wet it down prior to ignition. Other trainers insist on removing the carpet, nails, and tack strips to minimize the potential of adding to the fuel load. Since the NFPA standard specifies, “The fuels that are utilized in live fire training evolutions shall only be wood products” (NFPA 1403, Section 4.12.1 “Fuel Materials”) and the carpet, even after being wet down, can rapidly become part of the fuel package, the most prudent option is to remove it. Consider removing linoleum tile as well; repeated exposure to fire can cause it to vaporize rapidly and end up as part of the fuel load.
Wall Covering. Previous remodeling projects, or even original construction, may find the wall covering, cheap highly combustible paneling, nailed directly to the wall studs. This condition is common in trailers, mobile homes, and some cheaply built or older manufactured homes. If removing the paneling because of its rapid flame spread rating would expose the open studs, cover the area with drywall, or render the room inaccessible on training day. Cover any areas where openings in the floor, ceiling, or wall exist. Patch over openings for outlets, switches, light fixtures, transoms, wall vents, and the like. When handled properly, the asbestos inspection necessitates breaching wall and ceiling and floor surfaces. If you can establish contact with the inspector beforehand, ask that samples be taken close to existing holes such as switches, outlets, or fixtures. This may reduce the time needed for patching.
In one instance, after preparing a house for two days of expected live burn training, the instructor in charge made a final visit to determine if any last-minute items needed attention to ensure a safe, efficient, and effective drill. Opening the front door, he found that salvagers had entered what was otherwise a house in “move in” condition and removed every piece of copper wire by punching a hole in the wall above the light switch or outlet, grabbing the wire above the box, cutting the wire, and pulling it like a lengthy rope saw, opening up every wall and ceiling in the house. The ceilings and walls had to be covered throughout the entire property before we could use it for training. The lesson learned was helpful from a security and an operational standpoint. In the future, we cut plywood to the exact window dimensions and screwed it to the window and door frames from the exterior. Since the property was used multiple days, all but the top two screws were removed during evolutions. The property was resecured at the end of the day to discourage salvage operators from entering.
Windows. Leaving the windows in place allows for the retention of smoke and heat and provides excellent ventilation and forcible entry training. To avoid being cut by glass or damaging PPE, some schools remove the window to the rough opening, patch the voids, and cover the outside with an easily accessed window cover. Other instructors leave the glass in, ventilate in the traditional fashion, and then seal off the room, eliminating the space for future evolutions. Experience has shown that you can use the same room multiple times, even after the windows have been broken, if you incorporate a judicious overhaul objective into the training evolution.
If you are planning to use the room more than once, you must have an alternative means of retaining the smoke. Attaching oriented strand board (OSB), drywall, metal sheeting, or plywood to the outside with two or three points of attachment at the top of the window will keep the heat and smoke in and allow quick removal by pushing from the inside or pulling from the outside. If the initial window ventilation opened up the space to the rough opening, cover or patch the void spaces around the windowsill, frame, and top before burning in the room again.
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