Where firefighters come to talk training

Training for High-Rise Operations

Hopefully within the next few months, my department will start training on our new High-Rise SOP, the new equipment, and High-Rise Tactics. The problem I am running into is finding a suitable location. The best place to do the training, would seem to be in a high-rise building but as you know, there aren't many, if any, vacant high-rise buildings around. I was wondering how you all have overcome this hurdle? How have your departments practiced High-Rise Operations when your department's drilltower is woefully insifficient?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Anthony Avillo on August 17, 2008 at 1:48pm

We have used a parking garage
We didn't use the standpipe as it was dry and we did not want to set off alarms and get people in an uproar so what we did was use the engine discharge as the standpipe discharge and then used the stairs like the stairs in a high rise
We stretched from the street (floor below) to the "fire floor" above and had the guy in charge of the standpipe wheel charge the line from a gated wye placed on the engine discharge. We then flowed water harmlessly in the open garage
You can also do an FDC feed operation by having the supply engine feed the engine acting as the FDC
It is not the best, but it did satisfy the objective
Are there any academys that can lend a hand or mutual aid dept's that have a sufficient tower?
This was a good forum to try to figure this out
I'm sure someone will have something more creative
stay safe
aa

Permalink Reply by John O'Donoghue on August 17, 2008 at 3:54pm

Hi Mike;
I'd work with your Fire Prevention bureau to find an office building in the city. It would be easy to use either after hours, or on a weekend day, such as Sunday or a holiday. Usually there are not many occupants in the building during those hours to interfere with the session. These buildings often have tenants moving in and out, which requires painting and other modifications to satisfy the new occupant. The building also does not have to be a really tall building, and by using magic markers and pasted up floor numbers lends itself to adjusting to what you can get, you use. Good Luck. John O'D.

Permalink Reply by Ray on August 18, 2008 at 8:45am

Hi Mike
I also like the idea of parking garages if available. The reason is that you can probally operate the hoseline as well. I would see if a dry system was alarmed. If was not I would start on the second level as the floor below the fire. This way you can get an extra drill out of the day by having the engine operator feed the system by using the first floor outelt instead of the exterior FDC. You can also check with building mgt to see if a standpipe building can be used to just do hooking up and stretchng evolutions. You may be able to use the roof as a place to operate the hoseline also.

RSS

Welcome to
Fire Engineering Training Community

Sign Up
or Sign In

Or sign in with:

Policy Page

PLEASE NOTE

The login above DOES NOT provide access to Fire Engineering magazine archives. Please go here for our archives.

CONTRIBUTORS NOTE

Our contributors' posts are not vetted by the Fire Engineering technical board, and reflect the views and opinions of the individual authors. Anyone is welcome to participate.

For vetted content, please go to www.fireengineering.com/issues.

We are excited to have you participate in our discussions and interactive forums. Before you begin posting, please take a moment to read our community policy page.

Be Alert for Spam
We actively monitor the community for spam, however some does slip through. Please use common sense and caution when clicking links. If you suspect you've been hit by spam, e-mail peter.prochilo@clarionevents.com.