Photos by Bob Pressler.
“BREAD AND BUTTER” OPERATIONS: BIG HOUSES
Shortly after World War II, the United States saw a tremendous housing boom, which has continued through the present. Much of this growth was in the suburbs. From a fire service standpoint, our biggest concern was providing protection to newly developed areas; the homes themselves did not present new problems in fire tactics. The homes most often were in the range of 1,300 to 1,700 square feet of space. Very often a new neighborhood containing hundreds of homes would have only a few floor layouts.
For many social reasons, private houses have grown in size. Today, 2,500 square feet is the average for a new house. Dwellings of between 5,000 and 10,000 square feet can be found in many localities. And 30,000square-foot monsters are out there. These houses present many problems to firefighting forces. Many have to do with the sheer size of the houses, but others have to do with access, construction, layout, and contents.
ACCESS
Getting to a private dwelling fire usually is not very difficult. Usually, we pull by the house and stretch a line across the front lawn to the door. In very large houses, the setting that the house is in is as important to both the owner and designer as the building itself. This often leads to problems for the fire department.
Areas containing developments of large homes are very deceiving. A simple-looking street of houses may have front law ns extending more than 100 feet. This can make your hose stretch more complicated. Because of its design within a lot, a house with two or three stories in the rear may appear from the front to be a onestory structure. Houses may be set thousands of feet off roads. In one case, a very large house was fortunate to have a hydrant directly in front of it. The problem was that the structure was more than 2,000 feet from the road. If a large-diameter supply line is laid down the driveway by the firstdue engine in such a case, it may become the only piece of apparatus that gets within 2,000 feet of the fire. I^trge gates and fences or walls surrounding these homes are not uncommon. You need to be sure that your apparatus w ill fit through these enclosures. An extreme case is that in which an opening is blasted out of solid rock. If your new ladder tower doesn’t make the swing, it will be impossible to knock down this “fence.”
Big houses do offer some advantages for fire department access. The best one is that these places often have circular front driveways that provide excellent areas to spot apparatus. The first-due engine can pull in and stop short of the house, providing the crew with a position close enough to stretch lines. If large-diameter supply lines are used, you still have the other end of the drive open for the first-due ladder to come in from the opposite side. A truck company can be spotted, affording it access to much of the front and possibly the one side of the structure. Regular, straight driveways of large houses often are wider and more substantial than the average driveway, providing room to spot apparatus. Save this space for a ladder—you can always stretch more line, but you will never get another inch out of your aerial device.
CONSTRUCTION
Platform-frame construction is the most common type we see in large houses, although almost any construction practice in use today can be employed in these buildings. Of great concern to firefighting forces is the use of lightweight wood trusses for roof assemblies. Parallel cord wood trusses also are used in floor/ceiling assemblies, creating above each ceiling a cockloft containing a substantial fireload. Wooden I-beams also are being used. They are made with two 2 x ts with plywood, or occasionally particle board, inserted into a notch to create the I-beam. Openings made in the plywood to simplify the running of pipes and conduits will facilitate the spread of fire. Although called I-beams, these assemblies are not necessarily cut into or laid on a bearing wall. Metal hangers have been used to hang these assemblies onto a beam or bearing wall.
Do not be lulled by the* occupancy and outward appearance of a structure. The adage “You can’t judge a book by its cover” is very apropos in the case of large houses. One such house observed during its construction had steel I-beam and girders as the structure’s framework. There is nothing wrong with this method of construction; it just isn’t what we expect to find in a private home. Harlier, I mentioned laminated beams. They are layers of wood sandwiched together and laminated to create a cost-effective beam to span a large area. Glass often is used extensively in these dwellings. Much of the glass used is double-pane, which can hold heat buildup without failing. This can create untenable conditions more quickly than normal. Extensive use of glass also can be a benefit. Glass removal may negate the need to open or go up on a high-pitched roof. Remember the truss!
LAYOUT
The layout or floor plan of houses today, especially large houses, is limited only by the imagination. One common theme seems to be that of openness. Often, rooms on the first floor have w’alls that end a foot or so from the ceiling, with corners finishing at the ceiling, creating columns at each corner. The open areas are used byhomeowners for display, for instance, as a plant box area. In heavy fire and smoke conditions, this setup may make it difficult to determine your situation. A hoseline crew could see fire in front of them at the ceiling level but would have difficulty hitting it through the small opening if it were in the next room. In addition, these openings w ill aid in the spread of fire and smoke through the structure.
The first floor will contain the usual-living room, dining room, kitchen. foyer, bath, and generally a family/ great room as well. An office or den and utility-type rooms also are common on the ground floor. The family/ great rooms often will have a second stairway to the upper floor; circular stairs are used quite a bit in this location.
The big difference in these structures is the size of the rooms, which makes it very difficult to predict a common floor plan for these houses. Anything you can imagine may be found on the ground floor—for example, an indoor swimming pool may be off the rear of the house or may be the centerpiece of the home. Servants’ quarters may be off the kitchen; remember that when you assign search priorities.
The second floor generally will contain bedrooms and bathrooms. A master bedroom may contain a master bath and large walk-in closets. A laundry room, an office, and a den may be found on the second floor. Balconies overlooking other rooms of the house often are present. Most often, they overlook the family/great room or the foyer. Walkways overlooking the foyer and joining second-floor rooms are quite common. These setups can be hazardous to units operating in the structure. A fall is possible since a balcony’s only protection may be a railing that is only four feet high. If crews move between rooms via a walkway, they may be directly over a rapidly developing fire area with no protection. Try to stay in the “interior” rooms and hallways of the second floor, if possible.
Exterior decks and balconies also are common; they can be very helpful in search and rescue operations. Remember, however, that they are not designed for use as fire escapes and can be susceptible to fire involvement and collapse.
CONTENTS
The contents of new large homes can run the gamut of today’s materials. Sw imming pools were mentioned, but don’t forget that Jacuzzis™ and whirlpools often are found in master baths and sometimes in game rooms. They may be recessed so that you suddenly may find yourself in waistdeep water during a fire operation.
A three-car garage is the norm in these homes Garages designed to hold six, eight, or more cars also have been built. A car fire in an eight-car garage can possibly involve 1 50 gallons of gasoline or more, in addition to the autos. All inherent hazardous materials that come with a garage fire in the ’90s will be multiplied.
FIRE OPERATIONS
Fire operations in large dwellings present unique problems to firefighting forces. The worst of these, of course, result from the sheer size of the building. Two things are important to remember w ith regard to large houses. The first is that when a real estate ad says a house is 4,500 squarefeet. the measurement generally does not count hallways, bathrooms, basements, or attics. Unfortunately for us, the fire will When we are dealing with homes in which the master suite (bedroom, bathroom, and closets) is larger than many 1930and 1940-era houses, we’d better count everything. The second consideration is that fire burns three dimensionally, not two dimensionally. Therefore, our 30,000square-foot house can contain 240.000 cubic feet of fire.
Strategic objectives for an incident commander in charge of a fire in a large dwelling generally do not deviate from those for any house fire. The problems present themselves more on a tactical level. The bottom line, as always, is that if the troops have difficulty with the tactical objectives. this will eventually dictate a change in strategy. For an incident commander to state what the incident priorities are, he must understand the difficulty the operating units will have in achieving their specific tactical goals.
The 1C must remember that the tactical difficulties presented by the big house will require extra on-scene resources—call for additional help early and often.
THE ENGINE COMPANY
Beware the preconnect! The use of 1 -Vi-inch preconnected hoselines of 150 to 200 feet is almost universal today. In some areas, two-inch hose or 1 ‘/2-inch hose is substituted. Many factors influence the use of preconnects at fires in large dwellings. Hose stretches to the front door can be quite long, often more than 100 feet. Interior layout may dictate an odd route to the seat of the fire, requiring quite a bit of line inside the house. If the fire is on the second floor, you may have difficulty reaching it with your preconnect. On an upper floor of a large house, you may be faced with 40 or 50 feet of hallway.
There are several solutions to this problem. You can keep a supply of dead line on the back of your apparatus, under the preconnected line. Generally, there is more room to do this in the rear hose bed than in the crosslay. Also at the rear hosebed a 150-foot preconnect could be connected to a bed of 2!/2-inch line fitted with a nozzle. This w ill enable you to stretch the large line to the front door and leave you the rest for the interior. This also gives you the flexibility to disconnect the small line if you find more fire than you anticipated.
The amount of fire generated in these homes can be great. Do not forget the 2’/2-inch attack line! If the fire has possession of a good portion of a 10,000-square-foot floor, a large line is needed. A 1 ‘/4-inch tip on a 2 1/2inch line produces at least 325 gpm at 50 psi; do not underestimate its firestopping power. If you need to combine two engine crews to operate this effectively, it wall be worth it. Attack team members with a 1 ¾-inch line pinned down with fire overwhelming them is not a good trade-off for maneuverability.
It may not be easy for engine crews to determine their routes in these houses. Stairways to upper floors may not always lead to all areas of that floor. The spiral staircase may lead to the fire, but it can be nearly impossible to get a line up one of them.
Operating lines in areas with limited access may hamper extinguishment. Characteristics such as the openings at the top of a wall may mislead you in an attack. In a fire on an upper floor, second and third handlines may be brought up the outside of the structure via a ladder or a drop bag. This will help keep the stairs cleaner. The drop bag with a light utility rope also can be used for hoisting other equipment to upper floors.
Many of these large homes are set back quite a distance from the street, making long supply line stretches or tanker operations necessary. Consider using aerial and other apparatus if supply line is laid up a long, narrow driveway.
THE TRUCK COMPANY
Officers and members assigned to truck duties at fires in large dwellings will be faced with tasks inherent to all fires in residential occupancies. However, the scope of these dwellings will make many of these tasks difficult.
Forcible entry’ often will be necessary. These homes are in the highvalue category, and with that comes a higher level of security. This usually is accomplished by sophisticated alarm systems, but formidable doors and locks are found as well. Entry often can be made through a window’, but when searching you do not want to limit your entrance to a w indow. Very’ often victims are on their way out of a structure when they are overcome. You want to enter a building along the same route by which the occupants most often enter and exit. Doorway access is also necessary to mounting an initial attack. A hydraulic forcible entry tool is a great advantage when you encounter solid, tough doors. If such a tool is available, make it standard procedure to bring it to the door on arrival. If none is available, the truck crew must use an axe and halligan tool to do the forcible entry job. Consider having one member of the forcible entry’ team carry a sledgehammer if you expect to encounter very strong doors or if your department uses mostly pickhead axes. It can be used to drive the halligan.
The layout and size of a large house will complicate search operations. In the case of most house fires, an incident commander orders a search that is carried out quickly by a single truck crew. In these homes you may be dealing with multiple victims. A party in the house may include 100 or more people. The homeowner may not be sure how many overnight guests he or she has. The incident commander needs to keep control of and contact with search teams both to ensure their safety and to cover as much of the house as quickly as possible. Search teams should comprise at least three personnel. When a search team enters one area of the house, onemember should stay at a safe point and monitor escape route conditions and be a beacon for the other team members.
The vent-enter-search (VHS) technique can be very effective in these dwellings. A multitude of balconies, porches, setbacks, anti roofs are often present and can be used as a platform from which to operate. They’ can provide safety areas for retreat or quickly removing victims to clean air. Even with this approach, a threeor four-member team is a good idea. The rooms in these houses are quite large; at least two firefighters are needed to cover them quickly. The extra firefighter or two can do as before and probably can give relief when the team moves to a new area. The VHS technique also is helpful because it puts crews in more rooms of the house more quickly. The unconventional layout of the houses, especially of the first floor, can be very confusing and time-consuming to search teams.
When searching, crews may unintentionally find pools, Jacuzzis”, or balcony ledges over other rooms. This is another reason to assign more than two to a team. Also consider using drop bags attached to members’ protective gear. When entering, the member would tie the end of the rope to the front door; as he or she proceeds, the rope would play out of the hag. This is not a normal operation in a house fire, but then these are not normal houses.
These dwellings can be vented primarily through horizontal ventilation. The glass area often is so large that you can clear the house by taking out glass. In some rooms, the glass goes from floor to ceiling. In many rooms with cathedralor shed-type ceilings, the dead space or enclosed attic space is very small Glass removal will vent the whole area. Roof operations often can take advantage of the glass in skylights. Exercise caution with glass removal; the great size of the windows means there is more danger from falling glass than when normalsize windows are present. If an aerial device is available, it often will provide the safest and most efficient approach to venting windows. Venting some windows with a ground ladder may be difficult or impossible. For the firefighter to reach the top of the glass, the ladder would have to lean on the window.
Roof operations often will require the support of an aerial device, due to the height and odd roof lines of these structures. In the case of some large houses, you actually may need to open the roof in two separate areas because the roof line creates two separate attic spaces. If fire is present in both areas, opening one will not vent the other. As stated before, roof operations often are not needed due to design that incorporates extensive glass use.
Another factor to consider in roof assignments is the common use of the truss, which will affect the safety of your roof team. The truss also may help a quick burn-through of the roof, which may turn out to be an advantage to the fire forces. If no aerial device is available, the roof has a steep pitch, and roof operations are necessary’, seriously consider ruling out the use of power saws. The advantages of power saws are far outw eighed by the dangers they present to members both on the roof and on the ground. The axe always starts, anyway.
Use positive-pressure ventilation with great caution. The layouts of many of these houses may make it difficult to determine the location and extent of a fire. With positive pressure, you may not know’ where you are sending heat and smoke. For overhaul purposes or nuisance smoke, of course, it is extremely useful.
When truck crews begin overhaul, it is a good idea not only to bring in some extra tools but also to bring in some attic and short ladders. Long pike poles and short ladders may be helpful inside for overhaul of high, cathedral-type ceilings. Burned areas around balconies may be reached more safely from the ground floor interior than from the second floor area. A collapsible attic ladder or short portable ladder will be extremely helpful.
ISSUES
Efforts are being made by many fire departments across the country to deal with problems associated with very large private homes. The real key to success in dealing with these structures is to address problems before the houses are built. In many states, these buildings could not be built as they are if they weren’t private homes. The fire serv ice needs to look at these buildings not with regard to their occupancy but rather the size of the buildings and the methods and materials used to build them.
In many municipalities today, a new commercial building of at least 20,000 square feet must incorporate a sprinkler system. A building of that size must be compartmentalized. A stairway from one floor to another must be enclosed. Finally, in some municipalities, wood-frame structures of such a size could not be built at all. But in the case of private dwellings, unenclosed staircases, wide open spaces, and a lack of sprinkler protection usually are all perfectly legal. These are all issues that can be addressed by the fire service. In the meantime, be prepared
