A basic size-up drill can help firefighters become more familiar with building layouts
Every residential building constructed will have windows built into it for a few purposes: to bring natural light in, to give the occupants a view to look out to, to be used for natural ventilation and for personal escape from the building. Any room that will be occupied by a person will have a window—exceptions to this will be closets, storage, and sometimes garages.
When looking at the different rooms in the residential building that may be most often occupied by residents, the bedroom is one of those rooms. According to Firefighter Rescue Survey, the bedroom accounts for about 45% of the rescues made.
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When arriving for a structural fire, sometimes firefighters need to locate the bedroom windows quickly from the outside so that we can affect a rescue using tactics such as vent-enter-search. This tactic allows us to quickly gain access to the room where a viable victim will be, locate them, and then remove them out the same way the firefighters went in. Other times we may need to locate the bedroom windows to gain access for fire attack operations.
Regardless of the tactic or assignment given, knowing how to identify and locate the bedroom windows will benefit the crew. Bedroom windows can be easily located in a residential structure by looking at the size and possible location of them.
In a two-story home, the bedroom windows will be on the second floor with the master bedroom possibly being on the first floor in some newer models. In a single-story house, the bedroom windows will be opposite the bay window, which is the family room, or the garage, if one is present. When doing a walkaround the structure, bedroom windows will also be located in the back–this will make it easier to identify and pick out.
The size of the window is also going to help us identifying it. They will be large enough to allow a person to escape, with a diagonal measurement of about four feet. The bedroom window is designed to certain building code requirements and knowing what those requirements are will also help.
This simple skill will be beneficial to the occupants and can be practiced easily at anytime and anywhere.
Equipment needed: Access to a residential structure in a neighborhood.
Goal: To become familiar with being able to identify the bedroom windows when doing a size-up.
Drill:
- Pick a neighborhood that will contain different types of residential structures.
- Drive around the neighborhood and stop a house to do a quick size-up.
- Try and identify the bedroom windows from the front of the house.
- Try and identify the rest of the windows at the same time.
- If there is access to a development under construction, go there to conduct a walkaround to identify the bedroom windows in the rear.
- If a two-story building, discuss what length of ground ladder will be needed to ladder the window.
Key point: Bedroom windows are designed to be a certain size to allow for occupant escape. These windows will be consistent throughout the structure as well as other residential structures.
Mark van der Feyst has been in the fire service since 1999 and is a firefighter with the Fort Gratiot (MI) Fire Department. He is an international instructor teaching in Canada, the United States, and India, and at FDIC. He is also the lead author of Residential Fire Rescue (Fire Engineering Books & Video). He can be contacted at Mark@FireStarTraining.com.
