WHEN THE FIRST ATTACK HOSELINE DOESN’T GO THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR

BY BILL GUSTIN

Although there are vast differences among fire departments throughout America, most engine companies fight fires in occupied private dwellings in basically the same way: advance a hoseline through the front door toward the seat of the fire. This is true even if the fire is directly inside the front door.


(1) Advancing the first attack handline through the front door is the shortest and most direct way to protect exit routes and sleeping areas.

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(2) Doorway gates and security bars may delay an advance through the front door and necessitate an attack from another location. (Photos by Eric Goodman.)

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Attacking a fire in a private dwelling through the front door ensures the shortest, fastest, and most direct path to the most critical areas of the house: the main paths or egress, such as hallways and stairways leading to sleeping areas. Fire in the front of a house will block these vital exit routes and must be controlled rapidly if occupants are to survive.

Some in the fire service adhere to the concept of attacking a house fire from the uninvolved side. In theory, this sounds great: Nozzle streams will push fire back toward where it is venting and away from the uninvolved side, thus protecting occupants in the unburned portion. Attacking from the uninvolved side, however, is impractical in real-world firefighting.

Imagine a fire in the living room of a single-family home. On your arrival, flames are issuing from the front door and windows. Now, consider the time, hose, and personnel it would take to stretch a line to the side of the house, over a fence, and to a back kitchen door. Also consider that most engine companies outside of the big cities operate with a crew of three and few have preconnect hoselines more than 200 feet in length. This doesn’t provide sufficient firefighters or hose to stretch to a rear door and have the firefighters work their way to the front of the house.


(3) Occupants trapped at windows by security bars may require the first attack hoseline to be advanced directly to a window for their protection. (Photo by Chris Mickal, 911 Pictures.)

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Fires burning in the front of a house are most rapidly and effectively suppressed by applying a straight or solid stream flowing 180 gallons per minute (gpm) from a 13/4-inch hoseline advanced through the front door. This achieves rapid control of fire threatening sleeping areas and exit paths and residents trapped in the rear of the house. A straight or solid stream moves much less air than a fog pattern and, thus, minimizes the effect of pushing fire into uninvolved areas.1

Some situations and conditions, however, call for the first attack hoseline to be stretched and operated at locations other than the front door. This article examines some of these cases and illustrates why it is so important to precede a hoseline stretch with a thorough size-up. Additionally, it stresses the importance of continuing size-up throughout an incident to assess the effectiveness of tactics and determine when they should be changed.


(4, 5) Heavy fire under this porch roof threatens its stability and may cause it to collapse, endangering firefighters advancing a hoseline through the front door. (Photos by Bob Pallestrant.)

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(5)

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OPERATING AT LOCATIONS OTHER THAN THE FRONT DOOR

To Protect Trapped Occupants

Occupants trapped at windows by iron security bars or heavy steel casement window frames can burn to death unless promptly applied water protects them. Similarly, occupants trapped above a fire cannot be rescued if flames from a lower window are licking at the rescue ladder.

Ideally, two hoselines should be stretched when occupants are in this predicament—one to protect the victims in the windows, the other advanced through the front door. In reality, however, it may be impossible for one engine company to advance and operate two lines before additional companies arrive. Occupants trapped at windows in the path of spreading fire is an obvious indication for a protective hoseline, but the occupants can be easily overlooked if no one views the sides and rear of the building.

To Protect a Critical Exposure

Flames impinging on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanks used for cooking and heating in many residences can place occupants, firefighters, and residents of nearby structures at great risk from the devastating effects of a boiling-liquid, expanding-vapor explosion (BLEVE)—a huge fireball, rocketing tank fragments, and a shower of flaming liquid. LPG tanks with progressively rising flames and increasing noise from their relief valves demand the immediate application of a cooling hose stream or an evacuation of the area.

Heavy Fire Under an Old Porch Roof

Fire consuming the columns supporting the porch roof in front of the old house in photos 4 and 5 threatens its stability and firefighters advancing a hoseline through the front door with collapse. Keep in mind that the wooden supports of a heavy, old porch roof more than likely have already been weakened by years of dry rot, water damage, and insects. To avoid collapse, firefighters can use the reach of a straight or solid stream to sweep the underside of the porch roof, knocking down the fire in the front of the house and then making entry though a side or rear door.


(6, 7) Intense fire in the rear of this house may be unreasonably risky for an attack through the front door without a second, backup hoseline and a clear indication of trapped victims. (Photos by Jack Swerdloff.)

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(7) Intense Fire in the Rear of a House, Distant from the Front Door

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This condition can occur in narrow townhouses and urban private residences, which are typically deeper than they are wide. Here again, size-up, which must consider the following factors, is critical to firefighter and occupant safety.

  • The resources available. This fire demands at least two hoselines if the fire is to be safely attacked through the front door (photos 6, 7). One, the attack hoseline may require as many as four firefighters to move it around corners and obstacles as they advance toward the rear. A second hoseline, to back up and protect the attack team, is essential to protect their path of escape and to extinguish any fire that remains behind them, but this second hoseline cannot protect the attack team from fire it can’t reach. Note the smoke pushing from under the roof. It is telling us that if fire isn’t in the attic at this moment, it will be very shortly. This is an old wood-frame house. Chances are that it will have more than one ceiling, probably plaster board below the original tongue-and-groove pine ceiling. This type of ceiling is extremely difficult to pull and requires an all-out effort by strong, determined firefighters, who, however, may not have arrived on the scene in the initial stages of the incident.
  • Occupant survivability and firefighter risk vs. benefit. What are the realistic chances of saving any occupants? Is there a clear indication that someone is trapped? At this fire, first-arriving firefighters had reliable information that an elderly female occupant was still inside. The first-arriving engine company advanced its hoseline through the front door and protected the front bedrooms while they were rapidly searched. Once the search was completed, the line was backed out and operated at the rear—the risk of an interior attack with inadequate resources was no longer justified.

Wind

A strong wind above 25 mph blowing toward the rear of a house can push fire toward firefighters advancing a hoseline though the front door and stall their attack (photo 8). Here’s where an ongoing size-up is essential in judging the effectiveness of the fire attack. If the crew of the first hoseline is “taking a beating” as it advances through the front door, maybe it’s time to change tactics: Withdraw the company in the front, and attack the fire from the rear, the windward side. Every incident commander must formulate a Plan B and know when to implement it. Don’t expect a crew of aggressive firefighters stalled in their advance by strong winds to admit failure, give up, and voluntarily withdraw their hoseline. A change in strategy or tactics requires strong direction and leadership.

Divided Residences

In many areas of the country, homes originally constructed to house one family have been divided and expanded into efficiencies and single-room occupancies. This is a common practice in my company’s response district, where immigrants subdivide their homes to accommodate relatives just arriving in this country and build two or more efficiencies on the rear of their houses. Divided residences require that engine company officers determine the exact location and path to the fire before stretching the line because the chances are great that they will not be able to reach the fire by advancing through the front door (photo 9).


(8) A strong wind blowing toward the rear of a residence can push fire toward firefighters advancing through the front door and stall their attack. (Photo by Eric Goodman.)

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(9) Fire in the rear of this house could not be reached from the front door because this doorway, leading to the rear, was covered with plywood when the house was divided into two occupancies. (Photo by Lazaro Acosta.)

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(10) “Pack-rat” housekeeping results in stacks and piles of storage that can block a hoseline’s advance from the front door. (Photo by Dave Wood.)

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“Pack-Rat” Housekeeping

Photo 10 shows a dwelling literally packed floor to ceiling, wall to wall, with old clothes, furniture, and stacks of newspapers dating back to the 1940s. Advancing a hoseline through the front door may be impossible because its inward swing can be obstructed by contents and the paths or “aisles” between stacks of storage that are usually too narrow to allow the advance of a hoseline by firefighters wearing protective clothing and SCBA.

Basement Fire with Lightweight Construction

Strictly in terms of strength, lightweight parallel chord floor trusses and wooden I-beams are engineered to be as strong as conventional floor joists of dimension lumber. Under fire conditions, however, these lightweight structural members are known to fail within a few minutes and can collapse a floor into a burning basement. Indications of heavy fire conditions in the basement may call for the first attack hoseline to bypass the front door, thus avoiding a weakened floor, and sweeping the burning floor trusses from a basement window or an outside basement entrance (photo 11).

Excessive Delay in Gaining Entry

As firefighters, we take pride in fighting fires from inside the buildings; this is where we earn our pay and save most lives and property. There are fires, however, at which streams must be directed from the outside. Clearly, a well-involved structure with no savable occupants indicates an exterior attack, but let’s consider a scenario that is not as clear: Your en-gine company is first to arrive at a one-story ranch-style house with flames blowing out of a front bedroom window. Every door and window is heavily fortified with iron security gates and bars, and your engine does not carry a rotary saw. What would you do? Should you delay putting water on the fire while you attempt a difficult and time-consuming forcible entry, or should you rapidly direct a stream into the bedroom window to darken down the fire and possibly risk pushing fire and steam farther into the structure?

To make this decision, you have to ask yourself, What’s worse? What would have the most adverse effect on occupants who might be trapped? Also, consider these facts: First, fire is a chemical reaction that rapidly grows in exponential proportions. Every minute an uncontrolled fire is producing more heat, causing more damage and filling more of the structure with toxic gases. Second, short, intermittent bursts of a straight or solid stream directed into a window have a minimal effect on pushing fire and smoke.


(11) Lightweight floor construction will not withstand more than a few minutes of fire exposure and cannot support a company advancing through the front door. A basement fire may have to be attacked from a window or an outside entrance. (Photo by Lazaro Acosta.)

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(12, 13) Directing a stream into a window is not usually an accepted practice, but it is better than allowing a fire to burn out of control when an interior attack is delayed. (Photo by Eric Goodman.)

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(13)

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I am certainly not suggesting an exterior attack through a window as standard procedure—only as a last resort when an interior attack through the front door is unduly delayed for whatever reason (photos 12, 13).

No two fires are the same. Experienced firefighters know this and do not fight every fire with the same tactics, strategy, or level of risk. Whether the first attack hoseline is advanced through the front door or stretched to another location must be determined by a size-up. Seasoned firefighters have also learned from experience that the initial tactics implemented in the first five minutes after they arrive at a fire can be entirely ineffective and dangerous 10 or 15 minutes later. A size-up, therefore, must be continuous to observe changing conditions that may indicate tactics should be changed.

Endnote

1. Knapp, J., C. Flatley, T. Pillsworth, “Nozzle Tests Prove Fireground Realities,” Parts 1,2,3. Fire Engineering, Feb. 2003, Sept. 2003, and Feb. 2004.

BILL GUSTIN, a 32-year veteran of the fire service, is a captain with Miami-Dade (FL) Fire Rescue and lead instructor in his department’s officer training program. He began his fire service career in the Chicago area and teaches fire training programs in Florida and other states. He is a marine firefighting instructor and has taught fire tactics to ship crews and firefighters in Caribbean countries. He also teaches forcible entry tactics to fire departments and SWAT teams of local and federal law enforcement agencies. Gustin is an editorial advisory board member of Fire Engineering.

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