VENTING SINGLE-FAMILY DWELLINGS
VOLUNTEERS CORNER
When your first units arrive on the scene and you find you only have limited personnel to work with, how can you ensure that a task as vital to the outcome of a fire as ventilation is not overlooked or shortchanged? With a good understanding of why you want to ventilate and what you want to accomplish, you will be better able to assign your limited personnel to such a task.
Ventilation must be carried out whenever smoke conditions threaten operations or the well-being of occupants. When a light smoke condition allows you to move without a visibility problem, you can open windows instead of breaking them. On the other hand, if smoke is banking down with a buildup of heat, it is better to break the window to expedite smoke and heat removal. Heavy smoke and heat not only slow your advance but make the search and rescue team’s job that much harder.
Statistics show that most fatalities in residential fires are smoke-related. Proper ventilation practices performed in the earlier stages of fire increase the survival time of trapped occupants as well as aid in the search for them. Gtx>d ventilation practices also minimize the lateral spread of fire, especially in homes of balloon construction.
To make the proper assignments of personnel, include in the size-up such information as the type of home, location of fire within the structure, seriousness of the interior conditions, and reported location of any trapped occupants. For example, a well-advanced fire on the first floor of a twostory-plus-attic house seldom needs roof ventilation. To send two members to the roof with equipment to vent it would waste much-needed manpower. However, that same twoman team working from the outside with a 14-foot straight ladder or 24foot extension ladder can accomplish a great deal of ventilation on both the fire floor and the floor above.
FIRST-FLOOR FIRE
Ventilation of the fire floor should begin as soon as the handline is put in position and charged. One member equipped with a 6-foot or 8-foot hook can vent this first-floor area from the exterior. An experienced outside vent man places himself opposite from where the line is advancing and behind the fire. When he vents those windows it gives the engine company a place to push smoke and heat away from them. In departments that have no portable radios or not enough to go around, the outside vent man can place himself initially in a position where he can see the stretched line charged. He can then slowly count to 10 and begin venting those opposite windows.
After he vents the opposite windows, the vent man has an option: If the inside search team members on 3the fire floor are venting windows from the interior, he can begin work on the floor above, possibly teaming up with another man if one is available. Or, he can continue around the first floor and vent other windows-* that may be on the side or in the rear of the already advancing nozzle team. In any case, if the inside fire floofsearch team makes it a practice to, vent windows, it not only will improve interior conditions that much * faster but will free the outside man for
other duties on the floor above. This plan maximizes the efficiency of you manpower.
All members should make sure that a vented window is completely vent* ed —that curtains, Venetian blinds, shades, or any other obstructions to the window are removed. On tht? floor above, the search team also, should make it a practice to vent windows as they pass them. This not^: only will aid in their search operation but will afford them a possible second means of egress should conditions worsen.
Another shortcut for venting the floor above from the outside is to use the tip of a portable ladder to strike and break the upper panes of glass. While this is a much less efficient method, it will achieve some ventila-. tion when manpower levels are low. ⅛ If sufficient manpower is available from the beginning of the operation, members who intend to enter through windows to search can start ⅜ venting the floor above. They don’t -have to wait for water if the ladder is up and they’re ready to go in.
BASEMENT FIRE
How much manpower is required for venting in a basement fire varies, depending on whether the house is – balloon construction. If the officer in command suspects balloon construction, he should immediately send a member to open an exterior wall baseboard and punch a quick, small hole. If this inspection for balloon * construction proves negative, the venting operation will be that much simpler.
One member, equipped with a hook, can vent any basement windows present when the engine comSpany is ready to move in. That same member can begin venting the first floor from the outside as necessary; or, if a search team is working on the first floor and will vent windows, he can evaluate conditions on the second
* floor. If the second floor also needs venting, the one outside firefighter should consider teaming up with another available member and venting the second floor from the interior. This way firefighters not only can vent the second floor but also can begin the primary search.
Should inspection reveal that the house is balloon construction, the degree of seriousness will change the entire operation, and a much larger “commitment of manpower will be required. It will take a minimum of a two-man team to ladder and then vent the roof if fire is extending. If you must open the roof, do so as close as safely possible to the main ridge pole. *These buildings usually have more than one dormer construction. This “should not be the first ventilation point because it will only vent a small area and will have minimal effect on the main house.
In addition to having to vent the , roof in a rapidly extending fire, members are needed to vent all floors, since handlines will be stretched to upper floors as well as the basement. The officer in command should consider calling in extra companies or a second alarm early in the incident. If your department relies on mutual aid and you have a manpower problem to begin with, consider mutual aid as soon as you confirm balloon construction in a well-advanced basement fire. If you delay, by the time help arrives it’s usually too late to make a difference.
UPPER-FLOOR FIRE
A fire on the second floor seldom requires roof ventilation unless the fire has found some open pathway to the attic. In some cases a heavy enough volume of fire burns through an attic stairway door or access ceiling panel. It may even deteriorate and burn through the ceiling, although this is unlikely. The volume of fire emanating from the second-floor windows is a good indication to a welltrained officer in command.
If members see an air conditioner unit in the attic window’ or dormered attic roof, it is an indication that attic space has been converted to living space, and chances are a good secondfloor fire is already extending there. In this case or in the case of an attic fire, a roof team should go to the roof at once. They can always be stopped before opening it if necessary, but at least they are up and ready if making a hole is required. Since venting will not be needed below the fire, there are generally enough personnel to send some members to the roof.
Since private-dwelling fires comprise so many of our responses, we should become proficient at operating in these structures. When members perform ventilation with the same proficiency that they stretch the first handline, the result will be smoother and more efficient operations.
