THE OUTSIDE TEAM
BY BOB PRESSLER
With the on-duty strength of ladder companies varying from department to department, the tasks that are required to be performed at structural fires must be identified and handled based on available resources.
Basic truck company duties can be divided into two main categories: those performed by the inside team and those performed by the outside team.
Inside team duties consist of forcible entry into the involved building, a search for both potential victims and location of the fire, ventilation where possible, and checking for extension and overhauling.
Photo 1. For a four-member truck company, the easiest split is two and two. This pairs two firefighters together for each team. The first task that normally confronts the inside team is forcing the entrance door to the premises. In private-dwelling fires, forcible entry was usually not considered to be much of a problem. Now many families are double- and triple-locking their homes. New modern locks have longer “throws,” sometimes up to two inches, that are used on solid wood and even metal doors. This makes conventional forcible entry a problem. Even the presence of a window on the door, usually broken for the old reach-in-and-unlock-the-door trick, may not work, as most locks now need keys to operate the mechanism from both sides.
The inside team must arrive at the front of the house with at least a set of irons, a halligan and an axe, and preferably a six-foot hook. If department policy and conditions dictate, the pressurized water extinguisher may also be brought along. If the neighborhood is one where metal doors in metal frames with multiple locks are the norm, such as townhouses or garden apartments, then a hydraulic forcible entry tool should be carried in addition to hand tools.
An important point to remember when forcing any door is to retain control of the door. This is especially true of interior doors. The door to the room that is at the base of the interior stairs in a private dwelling must remain closed until water is ready to be applied. If not, the fire will rapidly spread up the unenclosed stairway to the upper level. Basement fires in both split level and bilevel houses usually have only a hollow core door that separates the basement area from the stairs that lead to the upper level. This door must remain closed and kept under observation since it rapidly burns through under the normal fire conditions associated with basement family room or storage area fires.
Prior to forcing the door, you can secure a short piece of rope or a hose strap to the door knob to control the door. If the door is found in an open position, it may be controlled with a six-foot hook.
Photo 2. Once the door to the house is forced, the location of the fire will determine what steps the inside team performs next. If the fire is right inside the front door, the truck will have to wait for the engine company to get water before advancing into the house via this entrance. While they wait for water, the officer, who should be part of the inside team, can take a quick look around the outside of the house to determine if there is another entrance to the building. Most houses have at least one other entrance from the outside, normally a rear or side door. If it is a regular size door, it most likely opens up into the kitchen or, in the case of the side door, opens to a small platform that leads to the basement and to the first floor. If the door is a sliding door, it may open either into a family dining room or a dining/kitchen area. Use caution when using these sliding doors for access. The large area of the open door permits a rush of fresh oxygen for the fire, which will cause the fire to intensify and head for this new source of air.
If the officer decides to try entry from another area of the house, he must be aware that when the engine company starts to advance on the fire, the products of combustion and heat will be driven toward the inside team`s position, possibly putting them in an untenable position. The officer must communicate with the engine company and either exit the home or find a place of refuge inside the structure before the engine moves in. A place of refuge may be as easily obtainable as closing a door between the fire area and the room you are in.
When the building layout or fire conditions dictate that the truck wait for the engine`s advance, the inside team must move in rapidly behind the engine. They should start searching immediately as they enter the structure. As they encounter rooms off to the side, one member of the inside team should break off from the handline and search the room and then return to the line. The other firefighter, when his partner returns, is now free to search the room on the opposite side of the hallway. By using the handline as a makeshift search rope, they can search rooms to both sides of a hallway faster than if both members search each individual room together.
Conduct your search with the engine and advance toward the main fire area. When the main body of fire has been extinguished, a thorough search of that area should be completed.
In a multilevel home, the inside team must extend their search toward the sleeping areas as soon as is feasible, especially for fires that have started on the lower levels of the house. Depending on the fire`s location on the first floor, the inside team may be able to rapidly ascend the interior stairs, even before the engine has water. If possible, the door to the fire area should be closed before going above. The nozzleman or engine officer should also be informed that the inside member or members of the team are going above the fire.
Although this is especially important at night, the sleeping areas cannot be overlooked during daylight hours. Infants taking afternoon naps or night shift workers catching up on much-needed sleep can be found occupying bedrooms during daylight hours.
As the search progresses, ventilation should be performed as needed. Proper ventilation increases visibility, lowers overall temperatures, and increases oxygen levels at the floor level, where many victims are found. Use care when venting windows if you encounter high heat conditions or if the room has been only darkened down and the engine has advanced to the next room.
Once a complete primary search of the entire house has been conducted, a secondary search should be conducted. Rooms that have been searched on the way in now should get a second, closer look, preferably with fresh personnel.
Photo 3. For fires located on the upper level of a multistory private dwelling, the inside team should rapidly advance to the front door and immediately start forcible entry. This will provide immediate access for the engine company as well as the inside team. Once inside, if no smoke is found on the lower level, the truck company should find and start to ascend the interior stairs. If any smoke is found on the first level, a rapid search of the first floor must be made to ensure that the fire did not originate on this lower level.
Your outside size-up, coupled with the location of the interior stairs, should give you a basic expected layout of the fire floor. With a suspected one-room fire in the front bedroom, due to the smoke showing at the front window, and a staircase that runs from front toward the back of the house, the rear rooms on the second floor may be easily accessible. As the two-firefighter team makes the second floor, at least one firefighter must turn toward the front fire room and try to ascertain which is the actual fire room and whether the door is open or closed. If the door is open or partially open, an attempt should be made to close it as far as possible. If your department`s SOP re-quires that either a pressurized water extinguisher or a pump can be carried as part of the tool assignment, this may be used to darken down any visible fire and protect the firefighter with the six-foot hook who is trying to close the door.
If the door is already closed, or once it has been closed, one firefighter should remain in the vicinity of the fire room and observe the door for any signs of failure. The other firefighter may now search the rooms away from the fire room. As the engine company comes up to the fire floor, the firefighter at the door can direct them to the fire, open the door when the handline is charged and the company is ready to advance, and join the first firefighter to complete the search of the other rooms on the second floor. When all other rooms have been searched, both firefighters can now search the fire room if the engine company has completed extinguishment.
If the fire is in the room right at the top of the stairs, is in more than one room, or has extended into the hallway, the inside team may have to wait for a handline before performing any searches on the second floor. In these cases, the searches are performed the same as for fires that are located at the front door of a house; you must follow the engine company and search the rooms as you come to them.
BOB PRESSLER, a 22-year veteran of the fire service, is a firefighter with Rescue Company No. 3 of the City of New York (NY) Fire Department. He created and produced the video Peaked-Roof Ventilation for the Fire Engineering video series “Bread and Butter” Operations. Pressler has an associate`s degree in fire protection engineering from Oklahoma State University, is a frequent instructor on a wide range of fire service topics, and is a member of a volunteer department.
