BY TOM BRENNAN
Here are some more tactics that are “questioned” on the fireground. Most are simple operations that should be foremost in the gray matter under the helmet, put there by attention and discussion.
When do you begin to cut open a flat roof at a top-floor fire in a structure? Contrary to popular belief, it is not as soon as you get to the roof. First, the fire is involving the occupiable spaces on the top floor or the cockloft or attic space of the building. Open the immediate reliefs that don’t require so much time and are routine vertical ventilation arteries for firefighting truck work: skylights, bulkhead doors (structures at the top of a staircase that terminates at the roof), scuttle covers, shaft covers, and anything else that will remove the products of combustion filling up the spaces underneath. Then check the three sides of the structure the inside team did not see on arrival and entry.
Report on these conditions and inform your officer that you are beginning the roof cut. That should be enough time for the officer (located below) to change any standing orders for cutting the roof of a top-floor fire.
When do you stretch the preconnected hoseline at structure fires? I can hear many of you saying, “All the time.” But can you really say that? First, the words “all,” “every,” and “always” should indicate that it is a mistake to believe any statement that follows those words-at least in the fire service.
How far is it to the door of the fire building? Normally, it is 11/2 hose lengths from the apparatus by the time you are out of the way of the truck and the hoseline finds its own path to the door. Next, what floor is the fire on, and how will you get the hose there? If you stretch on the stairs, you need one length per floor. If you have a well hole in the staircase, you will need only one length for the building height. You then need a minimum of 11/2 lengths on the fire floor for advance into and around the occupancy on fire.
Now count the lengths! If the amount of hose you need is more than what is on the preconnect, get your line from somewhere else!
When do you stretch to the upper-floor locations in the same (primary) staircase? The answer to this is a reverse memory trick. Never stretch a third handline over the same staircase that others have used. The reason for this is that one of the other two lines will “get in trouble” because of you. If the first or second line is stopped in its advance to the fire target because it stretched short, that is a training problem; but, if the advance is halted because your hoseline is entangling the others, that is a discipline problem.
When do you start water on the line you stretched? “When you are ready at the nozzle” should be the answer. Here is where the pump operators earn some of the extra money (if you are that lucky). Lots of others not involved in the stretch will be giving advice on when to start water (that is a polite way of identifying the problem). Remain calm and steady at the radio, waiting for orders only from the officer in charge of the line you are supplying.
On the fire floor, don’t be so quick to yell for water. Check the layout of the hose and its location for easy movement. Loop it on the stairs you just came up; lay it in the hall of the fire floor before the door opens into the fire compartment; or, if fire conditions in the public space are not too severe, lay it up the stairs to the next floor. Then ask for water when you are ready for it!
When do you expect to or think to search the occupancy above the fire floor? Expect to do so immediately on arrival if you are the second-arriving search team. Of course, command may order otherwise, but searching the occupancy above the fire floor is usually assigned to the second interior search team.
Think to do it after you have found the fire AND have searched the space surrounding it AND have notified the officer in charge of the handline protecting the staircase AND have informed outside command of your intention and commitment.
When do you order a second alarm or mutual aid? There are guidebooks that go on forever as matrixes of probabilities-they read like a size-up of all the structures and possible fire locations of the entire city you serve. It has to be simpler than that. First, count the handlines you will need. Next, count the pumpers assigned to arrive at your location. If there are fewer pumpers than hoselines, transmit a second alarm! And that is only in departments where one pumper can supply and handle a single hoseline-another question of staffing!
TOM BRENNAN has more than 35 years of fire service experience. His career spans more than 20 years with the Fire Department of New York as well as four years as chief of the Waterbury (CT) Fire Department. He was the editor of Fire Engineering for eight years and currently is a technical editor. He is co-editor of The Fire Chief’s Handbook, Fifth Edition (Fire Engineering Books, 1995). He is the recipient of the 1998 Fire Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award. Brennan is featured in the video Brennan and Bruno Unplugged (Fire Engineering/FDIC, 1999).
