Residential Structure Fire-You Make the Call

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Permalink Reply by Chris Fleming on July 31, 2008 at 10:06am

If I'm not mistaken, this scenario is taken from a LODD in Montgomery County. The first priority is life safety (one of the few "always" things in firefighting). If the occupants let you know everyone is out of the building, we don't have to be as aggresive with our operations. Once you put firefighters in a burning building you add to the life hazard profile of the incident. As I recall, at the actual incident the occupants were out of the building, but at a neighbors house and never notified the fire department. This incident gave signs of being an occupied structure and the firefighters acted in accordance with SOGs and began interior operations. The picture from the Charlie side shows a well involved fire in the attic space. Newer construction should be a red flag for the presence of truss construction of floors and roof assemblies. These "McMansions" have large open areas as well. There doesn't appear to be an exterior exposure problem. Seeing that we have a definite working fire, a water supply should be established very early in the incident by the first due engine if staffing allows, or at least by the second due engine. The distance of the "lay" is pretty long, so you may have to assign multiple companies to this task. This much fire in the attic space of an unoccupied house is a multiple alarm defensive attack. However, if it appears occupied and you can't confirm everyone is out, you have to initiate a search as best can safely be accomplished. After the search confirms the building is empty, you withdraw and establish collapse zones and surround and drown.

Permalink Reply by Christopher Naum, SFPE on July 31, 2008 at 1:18pm

Chris;
Thanks for the great insights, you're right-on related to the issues of a "vacant" structure and using appropriate strategy and tactics. This scenario is actually taken from an incident in New York State, however there are similar lessons to be learned from recent events in Loudoun County, VA (May 27, 2008) see; http://www.vafirenews.com/archives/2008/May/0526loudouncountyfire.htm and http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=72040&catid=188;
and Prince Williams County, Va. (April 16, 2007). See LODD Report attached. http://www.pwcgov.org/default.aspx?topic=040061002930004566

Attachments:

• WilsonLODDReport.pdf, 9.2 MB

Permalink Reply by Chris Fleming on July 31, 2008 at 3:36pm

I was mistaken! The incident I was thinking about was Technician I Kyle Wilson's LODD. I hadn't heard about Loudon County, and I wish all those firefighters a quick recovery. Looking at the two attachments, it does seem to be buildings of similar design and construction. Fires in attic space are not room and contents jobs, they are truely structural fires. The only thing burning in that space is the roof support system. This "new" single family construction has proven very dangerous time and time again and I think we need to look at adjusting tactics in these buildings. The size and fire load along with the lightweight construction make these fires more like lightweight commercial structures. Large open spaces, high ceilings, and heavy fuel load lead to more of a commercial building type of size up. You aren't going to be able to assess interior conditions easily in these buildings. One thing I did note in the Kyle Wilson report was the use of a 2 1/2" hose line. That was a good decision based on ammount of fire, and the type of building. The fire service may have to look at hose line size in these buildings.