MORE “WHADDA YA MEAN BY THAT!!”
BY TOM BRENNAN
Hey, just what do you guys mean by OVM and VES?
Outside vent man (OVM) was the term given to the old tillerman when we lost tiller seats with the one-piece truck companies. The tillerman was the partner of the chauffeur for more than 100 years of manually raised, spring-assisted, and then hydraulic aerial ladders. As a matter of fact, today`s staffing levels could not even raise yesteryear`s wooden aerial devices.
Today (again, if you work for me), the firefighter assigned OVM has the many-fold job of answering for the most severe life exposure. That`s the one on the opposite side of the fire from the nozzle. He is to perform vent-enter-search (VES). He is to assess and remove if possible anyone in the “area” of the fire before the nozzle stream along with its entrained air pushes the flame and by-products through the space to the outer air of the vented window. Many times, that is an entry and search from an aerial, from a portable ladder, or (mostly in eastern cities) from the balcony of the fire escape serving the fire apartment. That person is first to get into the space within which the survivor has the least time to search the area and get out before water starts.
After that, he should provide any additional horizontal ventilation that may assist the interior search and extinguishment effort. So actually, the real name for the tactic performed by the OVM is ESV or Enter, Search, and then Vent.
Why do you say that immediate venting of peaked-roof private dwellings immediately on arrival is a waste of time?
Well, there are a lot of qualifying remarks that make this an accurate operation statement. If the building is two or fewer stories AND it is of platform construction and you don`t have unlimited staffing levels on arrival, then get to and account for the people you are sworn to protect! We lose 80 percent of the civilians lost in fire each year in private dwellings. The “big secret” of accounting for them is to try to reach them from inside the structure AND from an opening to every room in which a human can survive from the outside–OVM, or VES, or ESV, or whatever.
Besides, you don`t cut a roof unless the fire is under the roof, and the sheathing of a private dwelling is the flimsiest construction material in America. With a fire under it, it may be too dangerous. Another reason is that a ventilation hole is effective IF you make an opening from the outer air to the fire. It is almost impossible to push down the interior ceiling through the storage flooring in the attic that holds Christmas ornaments, cribs, rugs, and the rest of the “usable” and “still good” stuff up there. Take those portable ladders and the aggressive firefighters who “always” get to the roof of these types of fire buildings, and get to the bedroom windows, search immediately, and get back out. The primary vertical ventilation hole that may be needed can be cut by later-arriving personnel–the ninth and 10th firefighters assigned to truck functions.
Do you ever make exceptions to this philosophy?
Sure–at least two times! First is balloon construction. If that is the case, a hole must be cut in the roof–at the ridge pole of the highest gable, as early after arrival as possible. Completion of this hole is vital for fire control and channeling the rapidly spreading fire in the walls and floors so that it will not “stop” our search crew in its tracks.
The second exception is the presence of “new” skylights in the roof that you can see on arrival. A skylight in a private dwelling ensures that you will be able to create a hole from the outside air to the spaces below in which people live and breathe simply by having one of the first-arriving firefighters get there and break it! Then get down from the roof and help with the search effort.
The other night we arrived at a structural fire in a four-story building that had four people showing at four different locations on the front of the building. We had only three people on the truck!
And what about the rear? This is a tough call, but you are the only one who can make it! The answer is, Where is the fire? You have to outguess its location and where it is going AND the order of priority for removing the victims based on which one has the least time to survive. It is not always the one making the most noise. Oh, they will get your attention alright, but the one or two at the side or rear of the building may be the one(s) with the least time to live without you!
ALWAYS locate where you think the fire is, and then function. Today (in the paid sector), political forces have forced us to arrive and operate with too few people. While we wage small battles to begin to correct this dilemma and threat to civilian and firefighter life, we have to do something! The only silver bullet you have in the game is to refine the fire-location guess and set priorities for yourself and the “not-enough-firefighters” who do arrive. n
TOM BRENNAN has more than 35 years of fire service experience. His career spans more than 20 years with the City of New York (NY) Fire Department 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. You can e-mail him at tfb111@aol.com.
