Covers: Are things always what they seem?
C. Bruce Edwards
Principal Investigator
Quantitative Class A Foam Study
North Vancouver, BC, Canada
I use your fire cover photos to test my size-up and tactical skills before I read the description. From Fire Engineering`s December 1998 cover photo (Editor`s note: a fire in an occupied house in Buffalo, New York), it appears that there is little wind; the second-story fire doesn`t show, suggesting that the fire hasn`t gone up an interior stairwell (or that front bedroom doors are closed); and there is no hose to the rear. There appears to be only enough hose to advance up the steps and shoot into the front window. It looks like 212-inch hose, which is too heavy to move when charged, so the front door can`t be entered. I guessed that only the front rooms are involved.
Firefighters seem poised to blow fire through the house by attacking through the front window, with the hose aimed to blow fire up the stairs. If the interior doors are closed, firefighters could fry themselves with fire blown back out the window. The description confirmed my fears. I am interested in learning the outcome and hope that I`m wrong. Did they survive their attack?
This fire appears to be a classic candidate for a Lloyd Layman fog attack “with the highest practical nozzle pressure, from the rear,” since the fire would then be between the nozzle and the vent as required for his technique (Attacking and Extinguishing Interior Fires, 4th ed., National Fire Protection Association, 1960). I expect that attacking from the rear, even without Class A foam, would darken the compartment in seconds.
To minimize damage and danger, nozzle teams must be aware of where their streams will blow fire. The rule is that with plain water, nozzle crews must enter and drive the fire out. Exterior attack through a window (or roof vent with an aerial) blows fire back through the building. Forgetting this may account for those incidents where civilians observed that “the fire wasn`t bad until the fire hose was turned on and then the entire building was engulfed in fire.”
Attack from the rear may have provided a less hostile environment for search and rescue. Also, air blown into the rear by the stream would tend to provide effective positive-pressure ventilation.
Incidentally, compressed air foam appears to blow fires very little, so that exterior attack through a window can be effective. I intend to investigate this, given funding.
Bob Pressler, technical editor, responds: One problem with the use of still photos is that they truly freeze time. That frozen moment in time is then subject to an individual`s interpretation of that moment. This fire was in an occupied frame house. A strong wind was blowing directly toward the front of the building. There is no hoseline to the rear, but there is a hoseline in the driveway to prevent the fire showing out the rear/side door and windows from spreading to the exposure. The wind-driven fire was impinging on the exposed wood house at the time the lines were being stretched. The 212-inch handline, a popular choice for experienced engine companies who are regularly faced with heavy fire conditions in tightly packed inner-city wooden neighborhoods, is waiting for water out of the direct path of the radiant heat. There is enough surplus line to support the firefighters` advancing through the front door. From their attack point at the front door, the superior reach and penetration of the 212-inch handline actually put water throughout the first-floor apartment, knocking down all visible fire, even through to the rear.
As far as attacking from the rear is concerned, this would have put the engine crew in the direct path of the wind-driven fire. It also makes for longer stretches. Some of these inner-city “multiple dwellings” can run 75 to 85 feet deep. If preconnects are always the weapon of choice, there may not be enough line to reach back to the front of the building.
On the subject of search and rescue, the first-due truck company successfully removed a trapped civilian from the rear before water application. Proper assignment of engine and ladder company personnel ensures that all fireground tasks are covered. Having the engine do truck work, or vice versa, usually will lead to something not getting done.
With regard to attacking through a window or other exterior opening, it may work for fires in unoccupied buildings, but for structures where the life hazard is unknown, any attack that may jeopardize trapped civilians just isn`t right. If an attack using plain water puts the engine company in a position that its stream is between the fire and any trapped occupants or the fire and the interior stairs, I say that line is in the right position.
Oh U and the fire went out with no extension to the exposures, a victim was removed from the fire area, there were no serious firefighter injuries, and the building was left standing–not bad for “making a bad fire worse.”
