Too Hot

Comment

Comment by Skip Coleman on June 10, 2010 at 3:25pm

I hit the "Add comment" button too quickly. As far as exposing skin, I would rather receive a first degree burn on my wrist than second and third degree burns more of my body if caught in a flashover. No one has told me any way of continually monitoring the atmosphere I am in other than exposing a wrist and sticking it up over your head. If you do that three of four times while inside and suddenly on the fifth time, your notice it's a lot hotter than before - start backing out of that area. I don' t know of anything else.

Comment by Skip Coleman on June 10, 2010 at 3:19pm

Michael,
Thanks for commenting. You raise a lot of good points but we still hear of firefighters getting burned and caught in flashovers. You mentioned that when firefighters feel heat, they are already in danger. Your mantra centers around situational awareness. I couldn't agree more. Just tell us what we can physically do prior to "feeling heat" that is brought about by situational awareness that will prevent firefighters from feeling heat to begin with. You site ventilation efforts and I realize that's a key element but most nozzlemen or searchers do not - nor should they have - any control over ventilation efforts.
What elements of situational awareness provide you, in zero visibility, to monitor the heat build up in the area you are in?

Comment by Michael Bricault (ret) on June 10, 2010 at 2:00pm

-Skip, I have to respectfully and vociferously disagree with exposing any skin in an IDLH as a gauge to determine if the atmosphere is "too hot". Exposing skin, even deliberately, is the surest and most efficient way to insure a serious injury. This is a tactic old timers advocated and it was a poor tactic then. By the time the firefighter notices the heat change on exposed skin it is to late and injuries have been incurred. Anyone that believes differently has not operated in such a fashion.
-I too remember the days of the long coats and pull up boots and no hoods. This type of "turn out gear" necessitated the implementation of aggressive ventilation tactics... a dying art in the fire service today. This dying ventilation art can arguably be directly attributed to the use of modern fully encapsulating bunker gear. Firefighters no longer feel the heat and therefore no longer think about ventilation. Of course there are also limited manpower factors and the lack of practical skills, but these poor tactical choices are reenforced by really good insulating gear.
-Firstly, the interior environment must be controlled through aggressive ventilation. Chief Norman is correct in his mantra, "Vent and Ye shall Live".
-Next, today's firefighter must learn to read the environment and read the entire message... not just after they enter the structure but before they ever enter the occupancy. And every firefighter must be evaluating the picture... don't rely on the officer to do it for you. This is called Situational Awareness, a skill more firefighters must master. The human animal has five senses, use them all. Firefighters must stop operating on auto pilot, they must stop being reactive. "Be a thinking firefighter Not a reacting one".
-If you cannot see inside the environment.. correct it. Ventilation. It is far better to see than to have to rely on sense of touch alone or a thermal imaging camera. Moreover, firefighters should not be working in zero visibility environments. This is a clear indication that ventilation procedures have been ignored.
-In zero visibility the speed of the search is reduced to such an agonizingly slow pace that makes the search nothing more than an unnecessarily dangerous body recovery.
-Remember the potential victim?!?! They have no SCBA or TIC or bunker gear and they are dying. Venting the environment isn't just to create a tenable work environment for fire suppression forces, it is to buy time for the victim that is exposed until RESCUE (not suppression) is complete. Time spent on suppression is time the victim continues to be exposed. Remember, human tissue experiences permanent injury below 300 degrees. The average ceiling temperature in a modern room and contents fire can easily reach 1000 well before the Fire Dept arrives.
-Firefighting is like chess, one must not restrict thinking to the here and now but several moves ahead. Forecasting is essential for all members involved, don't just rely on the company officer.
-So, how do we tell if it's too hot? If you can feel pain through bunker gear than firefighters are already in danger. The time to pain factor on much of today's bunker gear is less than 3 seconds at 600 degrees. It is far better to maintain full Situational Awareness and continually read and reevaluate the environment and vent as needed.
-Will venting increase the fire? Potentially. But as Tom Brennen was fond of saying, it will also improve visibility, restore flagging courage and maybe even create some light buy which to see all the better.
-Listen to the radio traffic, what are others seeing, experiencing and reporting.
-Experiencing intermiten thermal impacts, i.e. heat, through bunker gear is normal during an interior operation but feeling pain from heat is a bad sign and usually a late one at that, of impending trouble or serious change in the environment. Noticing the changes in heat conditions while wearing bunker gear and an SCBA is possible but one must not be operating in the linebacker autopilot mode. Situational Awareness. Be a thinking firefighter and not a reacting one.
-Lastly, John Norm talks often about the forward progress. Are you moving forward? If you have stopped forward progress of the line or the search due to experiencing heat from the fire, through fully encapsulating gear, then you need either more water or more ventilation OR BOTH !!
-Stop the excited, panic, crisis management mentality and start evaluating and thinking about the overall scene from the perspective, "firefighters do not respond to emergencies... they solve problems". Take the panic and running around out of the call and handle it in a dispassionate, calm demeanor. It's a fire not a football game. Calm prepared professionals rescue victims and knock down fires safely.

Comment by Dave McBride on January 20, 2010 at 2:00pm

Good topic Skip, and a common one even here in Australia - but only amongst the "old hands" who remember going to fires before flash hoods, which we have had as standard for about a decade now.

The way we approach the problem is to use water. We always operate internally with a hoseline with us or covering us (in Australia, every fire truck is both an engine and ladder company, we do not divide our appliance crews into those who search and those who put out the fire. Everyone does both). Water is a good temperature indicator.

We use a fog nozle to put a very short pulse of fine water droplets around us, maybe up towards the ceiling, or into a room we're about to enter. If the droplets fall to the floor, we know that the temperature is under 100 degrees C. If they don't, it must be over 100 degrees as the water has boiled/evaporated off. Only if the droplets fall would you even consider peeling back the back of a glove to test temp. Same with a door/wall/etc - a fine spray of droplets onto a door can illustrate of its hot before you open it - if water steams off the door due to its heat, you'd be crazy to touch it with skin.

It's not perfect - as it obviously doesn't work quite so well in pitch dark when the only light is your torch. But we find it an unacceptable risk to use bare skin as our primary heat gauge. If it IS very hot when you peel back your glove, you get an instant burn injury and this can then take you offline which doesn't help any victims. It has taken us a long time to stop the guys using their bare hand to test doors for heat and to start using their hose stream instead. But it works, and the number of guys with scarred burnt ears is decreasing.

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