In a previous article, we mentioned that the legendary Frank L. Brannigan’s new doctrine when it came to building construction and prefire analysis. Gathering analytical building data helps firefighters formulate a plan of action before an incident. It gives an incident commander and firefighters inside information about the building and its contents.
A Firefighter Risk Reduction (FRR) safety message followed, urging members to identify risk and life safety measures by observing any potential response threats. Scrutinizing building photographs taken with a different set of eyes can help you formulate a battle plan with tactical options for existing buildings as well as new construction.
Where have we gone since Brannigan’s doctrine? In 2004, starting with a local code, the first Building Information Card (1) was enacted in the United States for high-rise office buildings. This “New Eyes” impetus came from the Fire Safety Director’s Association, who are on-duty in these occupancies. A mutual collaboration with the Fire Department of New York enabled the department to provide fire companies with decision-based knowledge rather than guess-based information. Soon thereafter, the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s NISTIR 7314, Building Tactical Information System for Public Safety Officials Intelligent Building Response (2), sought to more and better information to first responders to make a building incident response safer and more efficient.
Having said this, over the past 20 years, national codes and standards along with fire service practices have laid a broad foundation to reduce potential risk factors by increasing fireground situational awareness with:
- National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1620, Standard for Pre-Incident Planning that is inclusive of all buildings. (3)
- NFPA has consolidated 1620 with other related standards: NFPA 1660, Standard for Emergency, Continuity, and Crisis Management: Preparedness, Response, and Recovery.
- International fire and building codes enacted a requirement for a BIC to be readily available for all first responders. (4)
- NIMS: Principles and Practices, Chapter 8, “Intelligence and Investigation,” features incident-related information and intelligence, including preincident response for a target community. (5)
- The Insurance Services Office (ISO) has incorporated into the Fire Suppression Rating Schedule language that building familiarization for preplanning would be a component of the fire department assessment under Section 508 Training. (6)
- The NFPA High-Rise Building Safety Advisory Committee, as part of Guidelines to Developing Emergency Action Plans for All-Hazard Emergencies, stated, at a minimum, a building owner should maintain at the fire command center a preincident building information card (three sets, laminated and/or in an electronic format) to assist all first responders. (7)
- Per the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, “Hazards to Firefighters,” Chapter 7 in Fire Service Features of Buildings and Fire Protection Systems, emergency responders must determine the appropriate tactical considerations. Fire codes list information is to be provided on a building information card. (8)
As of today, these FRR code/standard enactments and fire service practices have been either partially or completely ignored, inveighed against, or fallen on deaf ears. Military units like the Navy SEALs do an “encounter risk analysis” before going onto the battlefield; they know the target, the enemy strengths and weaknesses. Nevertheless, when it comes to our enemy, the building, firefighters say “let’s go” into unknown battlespaces with little or no intelligence.
Adopting a “Know before you Go” mentality should motivate firefighters to gather building intelligence, providing the necessary tools for all firefighter ranks to survive and succeed on the fireground and create a legacy database for future generations.
You’ve been tagged! Now, do the job by enforcing the fire code to help reduce risk to firefighters and occupants.
REFERENCES
- City of New York, “Local Laws of the City of New York for the Year 2004: Law 26,” June 7, 2004, https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/buildings/local_laws/locallaw26of04.pdf.
- David G. Holmberg, William D. Davis, Stephen J. Treado, and Kent A. Reed, Building Tactical Information System for Public Safety Officials Intelligent Building Response (iBR), NISTIR 7314 (Gaithersburg, MD: NIST, USDOC, 2006), https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/IR/nistir7314.pdf.
- NFPA 1620, Standard for Pre-Incident Planning (Quincy, MA: NFPA, 2019), https://www.nfpa.org/codes-and-standards/all-codes-and-standards/list-of-codes-and-standards/detail?code=1620.
- International Code Council, 2012 International Building Code (Country Club Hills, IL: ICC, 2011), https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IBC2012; and International Code Council, 2012 International Fire Code (Country Club Hills, IL: ICC, 2011), https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IFC2012.
- Donald W. Walsh, Hank T. Christen, Jr., Christian E. Callsen, Geoffrey T. Miller, Paul M. Maniscalco, Graydon C. Lord, and Neil J. Dolan, National Incident Management Systems: Principles and Practice, 2nd ed. (Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning, 2012).
- ISO, “Training: Building Familiarization for Pre-Incident Planning Program,” section 580 in Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (ISO, 2013).
- NFPA, Guidelines to Developing Emergency Action Plans for All-Hazard Emergencies, January 2014 (Quincy, MA: NFPA, 2013), https://ajithaa2.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/emergencyactionplanhighrise.pdf.
- OSHA, “Hazards to Firefighters,” chapter 7 in Fire Service Features of Buildings and Fire Protection Systems (Washington, DC: OSHA, 2015), https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/OSHA3256.pdf
To learn more about FRR / KbyG reach out at: FMJack1948@gmail.com
Book: High-Rise Buildings: Understanding the Vertical Challenges
JACK J. MURPHY, MA, is a retired fire marshal and a former deputy chief of the Leonia (NJ) Fire Department. He is the past chairman of the Fire/Life Safety Directors Association of Greater New York. He is a principal member on the NFPA High-Rise Building Safety Advisory and the 1660 Emergency, Continuity, and Crisis Management: Preparedness, Response, and Recovery committees and a representative on the ICC Fire Code Action Committee, and a representative on the NFFF Vision 20/20 Strategy-5 Codes and Standards Group. He is a co-author of High-Rise Buildings: Understanding the Vertical Challenges. He is a member of the Clarion Fire and Rescue Group Advisory Board and a presenter at FDIC International. He was the recipient of the 2012 Fire Engineering Tom Brennan Lifetime Achievement Award.
