THE REAR OF THE FIRE
RANDOM THOUGHTS
Those of you who advocate using positive-pressure ventilation immediately on the foreground for fire attack sometimes are disappointed in me. We get into discussions on priorities on the foreground. Though we always agree that life and its protection are of paramount importance, it is in the rooms behind the fire location and how untenable they will become for trapped occupants where we don’t see eye to eye. You must reach the trapped occupants and get them out before pushing the fire at them with a handline or with positive pressure.
What is a rescue? Those of you who read this column know that I separate a removal from a rescue. Taking people down ladders or escorting them out of a smoky hallway to awaiting EMS personnel or police officers is part of our job and certainly not a rescue—it’s a removal! But when because of training, experience, or just plain luck you locate someone who is unable to get out of the bowels of the fire building because he/she is trapped or unconscious—another matter—it’s a rescue!
Now what? Where are these people in need—the ones who are the real rescues? If they are between the front door and the location of fire, you have to wrestle with your conscience as to what classification they fall into. However, when they are on the floor or floors above the fire or in the rear of the fire, it truly is another matter.
Just what is the rear? It is my terminology—you call it what you want. It is that portion of the structure to which the nozzle will push the fire. It’s the back of the fire—not always the rear of the building. If the building is split by construction, common in larger multiple dwellings, the position is in the front of the structure for front apartment fire locations. In occupied dwellings, it is the location that traps people. It is the most difficult location to get to and be in the best possible location. Now what are your objectives?
Rescue life! This is the time. This is the area of occupied structures that often is overlooked or neglected entirely—until overhauling, that is. For this rescue effort to be successful, the firefighter must make an opening (vent), enter the structure, search as rapidly as possible, and get back out with or without a victim before water is started and the “pushed” fire makes the area untenable for him/her and maybe fatal to the unconscious victim in the room.
Communication. For this position, it begins in the station with policy and roll call. The position must be assigned—as a preliminary’ or secondary objective, depending on your staffing levels, the structure, the occupancy, and additional on-scene sizeup factors. The engine companies should expect the assigned person to be attempting to access this “hot spot.”
A great engine must be aware of two things: first, through communication. that this rear person is in a safe location before attacking the fire. This could mean that the firefighter assigned is in and back out or that he/ she has an area of refuge simply by closing a door. The second is that this position will establish needed horizontal ventilation for the advancing hoseline. I have seen nozzle teams wait those additional seconds when all others wrant to bail out from the heat — knowing, respecting, and depending on the fact that the firefighter at the rear will improve conditions dramatically.
General rules. Where is the rear? It varies. In one-story commercial structures, it is at the back of the building, and the main objective is horizontal ventilation. In private dwellings, it is the bedroom windows—whether the structure is one or two stories. In multiple dwellings, it depends on whether the structure has fire escapes. If there are fire escapes, personnel should come from below (the street or the apartment below the fire) to the balcony that serves the fire apartment. This is no easy task in major urban centers, whose massive apartment complexes may have four, five, or even six fire escape locations. If there are no fire escapes, it usually means that the apartments run front to rear, and the rear of the building is the area from which to vent, enter, and search.
Assigning someone to this position is guaranteed to improve life—either the life of the trapped victim, whose atmosphere is about to become unbearable as the nozzle opens, or at least the lives of the interior nozzle team, as additional horizontal ventilation makes a difficult push a “piece of cake.”
From my perspective, this is one of the most effective areas of operation-saving vertical roof ventilation—that can be performed on the fireground. It is also the most overlooked.
