Searching Above the Fire
Departments
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This can be one of the most difficult and dangerous operations at a structural fire. Success depends on training, size-up, and the educated imagination, aggressiveness, and courage of the searchers. Here are some tips that can increase your chances for safety and success.
Simultaneous entry enables the team to cover the occupancy quickly. If entry to all exposures directly above the fire is attempted from the outside by aerial device, portable ladder, or fire escape and, at the same time, another team heads for the same or other locations from the interior, we will cover the human life exposure as best as possible.
Simultaneous entry, well practiced, will also put alternate means of egress in place for the interior search team.
The exterior vent, entry, and search operation should have only one room at a time as an objective. Gaining entry and immediately shutting the door will provide added time under less punishing conditions.
The interior search team should assess the fire location from outside first, memorizing the locations of windows, fire escapes, and other building features before entering. Once inside, the team should observe the fire location, size, and intensity before attempting to go up the stairs.
Before going above the fire, the interior search team should try to isolate it in some manner. This can be done by using an extinguisher, closing a door, or positioning an operating handline between the fire and the stairs. Each of these will have a different impact on the firefighters’ judgment of how much time they have to perform the search.
Tell someone you’re going above the fire before you do so. This is your communications link to safety. If you’re one of the first firefighters inside the structure, it should be the outside members you tell. If firefighters have begun operating inside, they’re the ones to tell. Your notice to them demands their commitment to you. You get trapped or injured second, after them, or you better find out why!
As you ascend, take a look at how the inside team is doing. Is it going to get control of the fire? Or is that doubtful? This observation helps you know how much time you have above the fire. If the firefighting effort is doubtful, leave a trusted comrade on the fire floor to inform you constantly of how operations are going.
Use the strongest part of the stair assembly to make your ascent. Get against the wall and rapidly ascend the stairs to your objective. Your footsteps should be directly on the stair risers and as close to the wall as possible. Now’s the time to act; you’ve done your thinking during size-up.
Going up an open, interior stairway is like going up a chimney. The top three steps will be the most brutal of all. Going up them separates the brave from the bravest. Knowing this beforehand will be extremely helpful: Experienced firefighters know the relief that reaching the floor landing can offer. Sometimes a determined effort (a leap) will get you past those top three steps, which might otherwise turn you around.
In most multiple-dwelling occupancies, you have more than one apartment on a floor. After reaching the relative safety of the stair landing above the fire, force open the door to an apartment on the unexposed side of the fire building. Then force the door to the exposed apartment and begin your search immediately. The first apartment becomes your area of refuge should conditions worsen inside the occupancy directly over the fire. You now have two remote means of escape: by the second means of egress from the apartment above the fire and through the “safe” apartment.
The search on the floor above the fire has its own pattern. On the fire floor, you would locate the seat of the fire first to find the most exposed victims, make a size-up, and perform isolation tactics; then you would search back toward your entry point. By contrast, the floor-above search should be started immediately upon reaching the floor landing, moving in the direction of the second means of egress—a window, ladder, or fire escape.
If you get in trouble, shut the door and remember the rule “Always go down—never up.”
When your search is over—whether it’s aborted or successful—inform the officer in charge.
