BY TOM BRENNAN
It is really interesting that the same discussions about the same basic fire department operations occur again and again for as long as the people who tell me tales of yore can remember. One such discussion is the search of fire buildings. As a matter of fact, it is returning to the fore again in courses and seminars around the country, still clothed in myth and inaccurate information.
Team search is the subject usually reserved for the end of the session on the mother subject, search. But our firefighters are getting lost inside buildings and running out of air, and worse events follow.
You cannot search a structural layout of space enclosures when the dimensions of the rooms are larger than any room in your home. Individual (buddy) search is not an option and, if the fire is of any consequence and you cannot see and conditions are threatening, you will get lost (and worse) unless you plan for your examination of the building with training and logistics reserved for just such an operation. With all that said, I can recall a number of extremely sad occasions that have claimed lives of brothers lost in fire buildings that were too large to simply “hold on to the wall.” When you couple that lack of understanding with the “too few for you” number of firefighters who arrive at today’s structure fires, you have reasons for our dilemma. You simply cannot “dribble” firefighters into the depths of a large commercial or industrial or public space that is on fire. Team search is a procedure that makes the tactic of search of fire buildings relatively safe-at least for us to methodically search the space and get back out.
“How many of you are equipped for and train to do a team search on demand on the fireground in your districts?” I ask this question at every seminar on truck work that I give. Very few of the attendees respond, and when pressed they say, “Well, let’s see what you are talking about.”
Basements of public buildings, dance halls, industrial complexes, large (wide and high) office buildings, hulls of ships in port, factories, large and small commercial occupancy spaces, and more are too large and complicated to search by yourself without a system. How many times can you count your right and left turns before confusion, doubt, and chaos set in?
Get a search rope! On the apparatus, you should have a 200-foot rope in a bag to carry into the structure as a guide for searching firefighters to create an orderly examination of the spaces and, more importantly, to make an orderly and safe exit from deep in that space. Remember, life-saving rope exposed becomes search rope, becomes utility rope, and becomes cut-up personal utility ropes. The idea is to tie a line from a “safe space” outside the occupancy you want to examine somewhere at knee height and stretch it as you enter the structure.
To begin the first leg of the search, tie the rope to an object and get the firefighters (two, three, or four) connected to the rope and off searching to the left and right in semicircles, much like underwater search patterns. You, as the person in charge, must ensure all have returned when they run out of their 25 feet of personal search rope and go on for another 15 or 20 feet and tie off again! The process is repeated until it is time to exit. Exit time for the first team is usually before anyone is convinced that the search is complete. The members of the first team simply leave the bag of rope and guide themselves to safety outside.
The next team (now real numbers have arrived at the scene) simply follows the first team’s trail to the bag of rope and moves 15 to 20 feet farther into the building and again ties off. This process is a more thorough, methodical, systematic, supervised, aggressive examination of the fire area.
Another enhancement to this team search concept is a large light at the entrance where you began your first tie-off of the search rope. No, it is not to see inside with-it is a beacon that will help you get to the door as visibility increases through ventilation or as you come close to it on a return trip.
There was an old adage that is pretty well received about members running out of air: “If there are three of you in the structure and one alarm indicates that the tank is near empty, how many leave the search?” All! Was the answer usually followed by, “But what if ellipse”? Now the rule here is not to be voided, manipulated, ignored, or varied: All come in and all go out! It is a little slower, but until we can get responsible levels of personnel to the fire scene early enough to dramatically improve conditions and keep them improving and make our workplace safer, it is a great way to get our limited personnel into these structures and to get them back!
If you are not able to mount a team search on your shift today, be sure to set it up for tomorrow!
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 was the recipient of the 1998 Fire Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award. Brennan is featured in the video Brennan and Bruno Unplugged (Fire Engineering/FDIC, 1999).
