Take a minute to watch the video below before continuing with the article. Pay attention to what is going on, and what effects the actions of the firefighters has on the fire conditions.

Our purpose here is not to pick apart the performance of those involved in the incident. Unless we were at that scene we have no business commenting on the actions in the video. What we can do is use this footage as a valuable lesson for ourselves.

At first glance this appears to be a single story residential structure. Light smoke is showing from the front side with no visible flames. At this point there are no indications of a well advanced fire. As the video progresses we quickly realize why performing a 360 degree size up is critical. From the back side it is apparent that this house has a walkout basement. Not only that, but the house is actually quite expansive. At this point it is also apparent that there is a fully developed fire burning in the basement. Now we have a much better idea as to what is going on inside of the house.
What else can we tell from the back side? Keep in mind at least one door on the front side has been opened. Using what we know about flow paths we can predict that much of the heat and smoke from the basement fire is charging up to the first floor towards the open garage door. We know this because fire, heat, and smoke will always follow the path of least resistance. The heavy smoke coming from openings on the first floor backs up our predictions. Another important factor is wind direction. It appears that the wind is blowing from the back of the house to the front. This means the wind is helping to reinforce the already established flow path. Basically the wind is “supercharging” the fire.

At this point a firefighter begins to horizontally ventilate the large windows on the first floor. From the video description we know that there is a search team inside the house searching for a reported victim. The firefighter venting the windows is probably hoping to aid the interior teams by releasing heat and smoke from the first floor. A few moments after the windows are broken it quickly becomes evident that his plan did not work very well. What went wrong?

Remember that this fire has established a flow path from the fire in the basement, up to the first floor, and out the open garage door. This flow path is flooding the first floor with smoke and heat. A quick study of fire behavior tells us that smoke is fuel. The first floor had plenty of heat, but the environment was too “rich” to support flaming combustion. All that was missing was oxygen. When the firefighter broke the windows he provided that fuel rich atmosphere with all of the oxygen it needed. This resulted in a significant flashover event which put interior crews in a very bad situation.

We need to remember that ventilation operations need to be coordinated with fire attack. This is important because the attack team is able to use their hose lines to cool the environment. Cooling the environment means the addition of oxygen into the environment through proper ventilation will not intensify the fire. At the same time the addition of ventilation allows smoke and heat to exit the structure while bringing relief to the interior crews. Remember, coordination between fire attack and ventilation crews is paramount.

The best way to ensure these operations complement each other is through practice. We need to be quick and efficient on the fireground so that we are in position when we are needed. If fire attack is held up because the ventilation crew is still digging for tools the fire will continue to worsen. The same holds true for a ventilation team waiting for fire attack to untangle the knots in their hose line. We need to be smooth and efficient. Stay smart, and stay combat ready!

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