Too Hot - The last!

Comment

Comment by Skip Coleman on July 4, 2010 at 4:20pm

Your second suggestion concerning the method of crawling is an excellent point. Thank's so much for the great advice for the "newbies".

Comment by Skip Coleman on June 11, 2010 at 11:43am

I'm not sure what a good floor sounds like! You can use your tool and "sound" the floor and be hitting right on top of a floor joist. It will sound great. Crawl 6 inches off the joist and you could hit a weak spot. Sounding a floor is 1 tool or option - but it's not foolproof. I hear and read account after account of guys sounding floors and still ending up in the basement.

Comment by Michael Bricault (ret) on June 11, 2010 at 1:25am

-How about using good, old fashioned, time tested, firefighting tactics like sounding the damn floor with a tool?!?!

Comment by Larry Creekmore on May 22, 2010 at 6:53pm

John, when i said I look for any heat or smoke form the crea spce that's is done in my 360*

Comment by John on May 14, 2010 at 1:27am

I think all this discussion is great, but I have not heard one person mention a 360 of the building. This, before anyone goes in, gives you an idea of the structure layout. Stairs leading to a basement, and lower windows in the foundation for a basement. We also have been dealing with daylight basements that have hidden accesses to large crawl spaces that serve as storage areas of huge fire fire loads. These can serve as so many visuals for smoke and obviously fire which can lead an IC to change his/her tactic on fighting a fire.( we don't always have to go into the front door people)

Skip thanks for coming out to Graham - Great class!

Comment by Larry Creekmore on May 13, 2010 at 5:00pm

I believe that just sounding the floor is not the best tool to gage any structural soundness of the floors integrity, think about how far you can reach. When you realize that it has been compromised it’s a bit late.

Fire below you is not good and I’m sure we all can agree on that, what I do is feel for heat, I also sound the floor as well as use the TIC. Floor integrity one of the things I consider in my size up, do I have smoke or heat coming from the crawl space vents ( I used my senses)?? My dept did have a fire where the vinyl siding melted from an exterior fire, and the now liquid siding flowed into the crawl space causing a fire that weaken the floor. So just because there isn’t fire now there maybe later into the fire. So keep your eyes open to any exterior fires on homes with this type of siding.

Comment by Kennyt on May 6, 2010 at 9:50am

For sure Jeff! I'm with you all the way. I'm just concerned that folks have let the "sound the floor thing" become the staple of performance that keeps us from falling into a burning basement. I don't disagree with the posts here, just chatting about a concern. Lots of time is spent training on window bail-outs, (Great training) while I see the biggest risk is of FF fall though. Thoughts only.

Comment by Skip Coleman on May 6, 2010 at 7:27am

I tend to agree with you Kenny. I am not an advocate of sounding anything. If you are going to sound, I agree with Brad in that you must keep sounding as you go.

Comment by Kennyt on May 5, 2010 at 10:39pm

All this chatter about sounding the floor drives me crazy. I don't think it's a reliable test. Either the floor is there, or it isn't. Firefighters don't drop through floors slowly. It's a sudden, unexpected fall. When sounding the floor, aren't we really sounding the "Flooring", and not the "Floor"? I think there's a difference. After training on Basement fires at FDIC, assessing the Basement for a fire before rushing in gets my vote!