scissor stairways

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mike Walker on January 2, 2009 at 11:05pm

Thanks for starting the discussion Martijn,

Some of the others in the group will be much more apt to answer your question then I but I am confident in telling you that if the civilians are already in the stairwell you either have to let them pass below the fire floor or they have to be directed out of the stairwell that is going to be used for Fire Attack.

I have no experience with scissor stairs, sorry I couldn't help more.

Permalink Reply by John Norman on January 18, 2009 at 8:02pm

Hello Martijn,
Scissor stairs or not, you must ensure there are no civilians in the attack stair before the door to the fire floor is opened. There are several ways to do this, the best is to have someone physically check. In NYC, we routinely have members proceeding to the floor above, and at serious fires, to the upper floors and roof. This is one of their assignments. With limited manpower, it may be begun by members of the attack team calling out up the stair before opening. If there are public address systems available, the lobby command can use it to direct occupants to the evacuation stair. Keep in mind that most occupants have no idea where the stairs are, and certainly no idea of it's designation. Avoid saying "Use stair B for evacuation." It is usually better to say something like "Use the stair on the side facing the river," or "the stairs facing 2nd Avenue" or some other easily identified reference point.
At the earliest possible moment, additional personnel should be assigned to begin physical examination of the attack stair. This may be done by ascending the evacuation stair and crossing over to the attack stair at each floor landing for a quick look. Once the stair is contaminated, most civilians will not enter, we are looking for people who are already descending when conditions suddenly changed and caught them before they could exit to a floor.

Permalink Reply by Martijn Boeijink on January 21, 2009 at 8:50am

Hello John,

Thank you for your reply.
I agree that it`s just normal thinking and use my head with this.

I will take it with me in an instruction for operational firecrews.

Permalink Reply by Charles Jennings on May 4, 2009 at 12:17pm

Martijn:

The short answer is that most department's don't do anything about this. Chicago recently implemented a policy to send personnel up the stairs before attack begins, but for your department, the approach can vary depending on whether stairwell doors are unlocked from the stair side, and whether you have public address capability (at a minimum) in the stairs). Of course, stairway designation and occupant education are also required. Most departments do not have the personnel on an initial basis to do what Chicago does.