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When and how to vent.
When should we vent modern vs older and commercial vs residential construction? Should we do it as soon as we arrive or should we wait until interior crews ask for it? This is a big debate in both my departments. I think that as soon as we have an attack crew ready to enter the building ventilation should take place. We have to be cautious with this though because the attack crew doesn’t need to be held up for ventilation. Also we don't need to have ventilation in place way before the attack crew is at the door ready to make entry. How do we vent, vertical vs. horizontal? Again this is a big debate in both my departments. In this matter I feel the best option is vertical ventilation. I know a lot of people will bring in the factors of manpower, time, and safety. I know and agree with all these factors, but all in all vertical vent is our best option. My reasoning behind this is the safety of the interior crews, first and foremost, and the issue of exposures. It is better to get those super heated gases up and away from all our crews and everyone operating on the fire ground. Then there is the factor of exposures. You are more like to compromise exposures with horizontal vent because the super heated gases are primarily at the same level as your exposure. I think all these factors apply to all types of construction.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Trevor Ashe on
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As far as your question of "when do we ventilate", every time we do something to the building...we ventilate. Ventilation starts the moment we open the front door...because forcible entry into a fire building is also the first act of ventilation.
Ventilation is not an afterthought. It is and should be the first tactical priority because anything that we do, even if it falls under a different priority, is ventilation. RECEO VS puts ventilation as a floating afterthought...something that needs to happen at any point of the incident. But...even if your first priority is rescuing a trapped victim, as soon as you open the door, or the window, you are ventilating...The UL study of horizontal ventilation tells us that we have about 120 seconds from the moment we ventilate (i.e. open the front door) to get water onto the fire before conditions will become untenible. 2 minutes...not a lot of time.
For these reasons, ventilation needs to become our first tactical priority. Because it is the first thing we do at ALL fires... -
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Permalink Reply by Christopher Huston on -
I concur with Trevor. Ventilation is an ongoing process. From start to finish venitlation, in some form is occurring. When we perform ventilation, we are trying to control this natural process so we reap the benefits. A factor is to not allow it to work against us. Venting anything takes discipline and must be done with the entire operation in mind.
Vent for life - taking a window to allow the heat and gases to escape so life can be preserved.
Vent for fire - much more coordinated with suppression and vertical is the best method if it is possible.
Vent high, vent for maximum effect but the conditions will warrant the method.
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