“BREAD AND BUTTER”OPERATIONS:
THE 2 1/2-STORY HOUSE FIRE
PART 2-ENGINE COMPANY OPERATIONS
It’s one o’clock in the morning as your engine company turns out of qunters to respond to a reported house fire. From a distance, a large orange glow brightens the night sky. As you reach the location, fire is blowing out all the front windows on the first floor of an apparently occupied frame house.
Engine company officers often have to make decisions based on their observations before a chief officer arrives. Before companies are committed to an interior attack in an effort to save a burning building, the officer in command (the incident commander) must weigh the dangers involved against the expected results—riskbenefit analysis. If the choice is an interior attack, certain factors come into play: Where should the first line be stretched? What size handline is needed? Where is the fire located? Is anyone still in the house? Answers to these and other questions will help you plan your strategies for a successful firefight.
Before you arrive on the fireground, certain aspects of your engine company operations already must be established. Engine company apparatus should be set up with the hose loads appropriate for your district.
Preconnects allow you to stretch handlines quickly and put water on the fire without having to disconnect or connect any part of the line. Problems arise when the preconnect is too short or too long for a particular situation. Usually too much line is not a problem, as the excess hose can be pulled back toward the pumper and left in the street. Remember to keep the line to the side of the street and out of the way of approaching apparatus. Trucks parking on hoselines will cause a serious delay in starting water.
Photo by Robert Athanas.
Preconnects that fall short of their objective can cause a variety of problems. More hose must be located and either inserted in the line or brought to the front of the line and connected there. This requires more manpower and the disconnecting and reconnecting of lengths of hose, the nozzle, or both. Inserting additional line nearer the pumper usually is preferable, since the additional line does not have to be transported to a distant location and since working nearer the apparatus usually provides you with some light at night and a second set of hands (the pump operator’s) to make the necessary connections. Short stretching a handline sometimes causes wellmeaning members to start an equally short second line because they misinterpret the reason for the first line not reaching its objective.
Set your engines up to cover as many options as possible. If your area has many old Victorian houses that are set back off the street, preconnects of the “standard” 200-foot length may not be sufficient. If the district consists of mostly one-story ranches set on small lots, then the 200-foot length might result in hose being piled in knots on the front lawn.
In an area of 2 ‘/2-storv frame houses, 200-foot preconnects will have enough hose to reach all points in the house as long as the house is not set back too far and you can position the pumper in front of the house without blocking the ladder company. This is not a hard-and-fast rule but only a gauge to help you determine hose requirements. If houses are set farther back, then use 250-foot preconnects.
Modern apparatus provides the luxury of multiple preconnects. Having preconnects of 150, 200, and 250 feet is fine as long as you can determine which line is which when it’s time to stretch.
Choose the type of nozzle you will carry on your first line beforehand — not on the front porch of a burning house. Whether you use a fog nozzle or a smooth-bore nozzle is a matter of personal choice: there are pros and cons for both. Some departments run with both kinds, and the nozzleman stretches the preconnect with the nozzle he prefers. In this situation, apprise the incident commander as to which line is being used, as it might change tactical operations, such as different ventilation techniques for fog and smooth-bore streams.
HANDLINE SIZE AND SELECTION
The fire is showing out of seven or eight windows. It looks like it might he extending upstairs. What size handline should be stretched and where should we stretch it?
l ire conditions determine the size of the line to be stretched. In a private-house fire that has possession of not more than two rooms or one room and a hallway, one l ‘/>or ¾inch handline properly stretched into position and aggressively operated is sufficient to control the fire. (I personally have nothing against two-inch hose used as an attack handline, but too many departments use only the two-inch handline for 1 ½up to 2′ .-inch operations. The ability to grab different size lines is important so that when 1 ½ is needed, you don’t have overkill and that when you need the punch of the 2’/2-inch handline, preferably with a smooth-bore nozzle, you are not overwhelmed because you have only a two-inch line.)
A backup line should be stretched at all fires for emergencies such as a burst line and for tactical reasons as well. For first-floor fires, the backup line should be stretched to the second floor to stop vertical extension. Control of the stairshaft is vital to prevent fire spread through that open channel and to provide a means of egress for occupants who may be trapped above.
Fires on the second floor of these houses still require that two lines be stretched, because fire still may extend to the floor above, which is now the attic area. For fires on the second floor or in the attic, handlines still are advanced through the front door, up the stairs, and onto the fire. If a second or third line is having trouble fitting on these sometimes tight staircases, do not overlook the front windows as a second avenue for stretching these lines, either over ground ladders or via the frequently found front porch.
(Photo by John Hayes.)
For free-burning fires that have control of more than two rooms and are extending unchecked, seriously consider delivering larger quantities of water. Whether you use two handlines (one 1½- or l-1/4-inch) or one larger handline (2/2-inch), you must contain the fire to where it is at the time of your arrival. I know it is possible to use one 1 /2-inch handline to put out a whole floor of fire. This is something the incident commander must decide, based on his knowledge of the personnel and their capabilities and sizc-up. The worst thing to do in the fire service is to play catch-up. If your one 1 ‘/2-inch handline doesn’t put out the fire quickly enough, of course, the fire will extend to unburned portions of the house. All fires go out eventually. Some we put out; others run out of things to burn. The idea is to stop the fire where it is at the time you arrive on the scene.
For fires involving more than one floor of a house, use either a 2’/2-inch handline or a master stream. Again, you want to stop the fire where it is on your arrival. By using a 2‘/2-inch handline to darken down the fire, you stop its spread. This line can be used from the exterior of the house, but it must be shut down as soon as the visible fire is darkened down, and smaller handlines then must be advanced into the house to complete extinguishment. The same rules apply to master stream use. Too many departments put master streams to work and leave them flowing after the visible fire is extinguished. All this does is introduce large quantities of fresh air to unseen fire farther into the structure. As soon as visible fire is knocked or darkened down, shut down outside streams. Do not flow water on smoke on the original fire area. Now is the time to get on with your interior attack. Some of this might seem like overkill, but I’ve witnessed too many incidents in which houses suffered extensive damage because of insufficient water application and/or inexperienced firefighters.
A LINE BETWEEN LIFE AND FIRE
Whenever possible, stretch the first line between any known life hazard and the fire. More lives are saved by the proper placement of hoselines than by any other means. For fires on the upper floor of a 2’/2-story house, the route to the fire is relatively simple: The line goes in the door nearest the stairs, goes up the stairs, and puts out the fire. For a fire on the first floor, there are two schools of thought. Some maintain that you should attack the fire only from the unburned portion of the structure, that if on arrival you find fire burning in the front room of the house, you should stretch a line down the side of the house, in the back door, through the rest of the first floor and attack the fire.
I disagree with this school of thought. It is easier to enter the structure through the front door and attack the seat of the fire than to stretch around the outside of the house and grope your way through the rest of the first floor under dense smoke and high-heat conditions. You also have to hope that you have enough line in your preconnect to reach back to the front of the house and that you don’t have to continue to the second floor, because there just won’t be enough hose and the fire most likely will have had enough time to extend up the front stairs.
In general, an interior attack should be made through the door that provides the best access to the fire area— usually the front door. An exception to the front-door rule is a kitchen fire in a house with a side door that gives us access to the kitchen and basement. If this fire has not flashed over and extended to the dining area, then a side-door attack is acceptable. If the fire already is extending into other areas of the first floor, attacking from the side stairs reduces the chances of checking fire spread to the rest of the first floor and up the stairs to the second floor.
In all these cases, you must ensure that enough water w ill be delivered to the seat of the fire.
ATTICS AND BASEMENTS
Fires that originate or extend to the attic area can cause additional problems. Some of these houses have only a drop ladder or scuttle for attic access. Advancing a line up through these openings is a punishing task. If no openings are readily found, the truck company should make openings, starting in the hallway ceiling, for stream access. If flooring is found after making a hole in the secondfloor ceiling, there must be an opening somewhere on the second floor that leads to the attic. Enlarge these openings until you can darken down the fire and you are able to get an attic or folding ladder into position for final advancement and extinguishment.
(Photo by author.)
Basement fires usually are the most difficult fires you will get in a 2½story house. Access to these lower levels will be by a stainvay usually found in the kitchen (most have the door at the “half landing” that leads to the driveway) or a rear entrance that leads directly into the basement. If there is no rear entrance, you will have to try to advance down these interior stairs. If possible, start at the driveway level with the first line, but have a second line immediately stretched to cover the kitchen on the floor above. For a heavy body of fire, the line at driveway level will be able to sweep the ceiling level of the basement by having the truck company poke through the flimsy wall that separates the landing from the basement. (The wall may not even be there; it may be wide open. You will be able to tell by watching the fire’s path.) After knocking down the fire, advance the line down the stairs for final extinguishment. The fire load in a basement usually is heavy because of storage, workshops, or family rooms. These fires are very punishing due to a lack of ventilation openings. Also, bew are of flammable liquids that might be stored in the basement, especially if there is no garage or shed on the property (lawn mower storage). If the basement is not finished, a good body of fire will start to extend rapidly upward as it burns through unprotected flooring and also travels up the outside walls. A line must be covering the first floor.
Your department’s success in extinguishing fires in private houses depends on training, knowledge, SOPs, and aggressive firefighting. Knowing the layouts of houses before entering them helps the IC plan strategies and companies perform their assigned tasks.
