Dangers of Overhauling
Photo by Hugh Adams
STRATEGY & TACTICS
Overhauling demands the same respect as any other fireground operation… The dangers are just as real
“I WANT THAT TIN ceiling opened!” the captain says to his firefighters. Three grimy and soot-covered firefighters, inside what remains of a burned-out tavern, begin the difficult task of pulling down an ornamental tin ceiling to search for hidden fire smoldering in the ceiling space above.
With the Z-end of a metal multihook, a firefighter punches up the tin ceiling near a seam, creating a split between two sections. Then the hook is placed inside the small opening, catching the edge of the tin ceiling section. Pulling down hard on the metal hook with short, sharp motions, one end of the two-foot by four-foot section of tin ceiling falls down from the wood furring strips, opening up the ceiling. Smoke drifts down from the charred roof beams visible through the opening in the ceiling.
“I want the entire ceiling pulled down!” the officer shouts above the clamor of three hooks being punched up into the tin ceiling, above the cracking of splintered wood furring strips and the alarm bells of several selfcontained breathing apparatus, indicating that air is running out.
During the extinguishment stage of the fire, the glass front windows were not vented because of the quick knockdown of the fire by the hose team. As a result, the inside of the blackened and charred tavern is extremely hot during these overhaul operations. Water still drips from the ceiling decorations. Puddles on the floor make for slippery footing, and the temperature is over one hundred degrees.
The firefighters spread out to avoid injury while they pull the tin ceiling. Section by section, razor-sharp pieces of tin, long, pointed nails, ceiling dust, and broken pieces of wooden furring strips fly through the air inside the demolished tavern. The moreceiling area is pulled down, the more smoldering and char is discovered.
One of the firefighters working by himself near the front of the tavern pulls down a section of tin near an electrical ceiling fixture, and his metal hook becomes entangled in the broken electric cable. He stops pulling on the entangled hook as a sharp jolt of electric current shoots through his wet gloves and into his arms. He hangs onto the charged, metal tool, unable to release it from the wires, and feels the steady waves of electricity move from his hands, down his arms, through his chest, and down both legs to the wet floor. His feet are vibrating from the current.
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the backs of his captain and the two other firefighters. They cannot see him. Their attention is turned elsewhere —they have discovered fire in the ceiling. Fear strikes the firefighter as he realizes his situation. He is being slowly electrocuted.
In a panic, he tries to open his grip and drop the tool, but he cannot. The electric current keeps his wet, gloved fingers wrapped tightly around the metal tool He tries to shout for help, but he cannot His jaw is locked shut by the jolts of electricity flowing through his body.
He slowly starts to shake, in a steady motion, from his fingertips to his toes The jolts of electricity are starting to concentrate in his chest. His heart is pounding. The heartbeats are becoming stronger, trying to resist the vibration of the electric current that’s overtaking his body.
Is this it? Is this the way / am going to die? What a stupid way to go! the firefighter thinks to himself.
He begins to black out. His eyes roll up into his head. He momentarily loses consciousness. As his body crumbles to the floor, his hands are pulled away from the metal tool and he regains consciousness “Thank God!” the firefighter cries out as he falls to the wet floor, knocking over several chairs stacked on a table.
He slowly pulls himself up off the wet floor and staggers outside into the cool autumn afternoon sunlight. He stumbles over to the fire truck and falls down onto the back step. A pump operator runs over to him and asks. “What happened to you, are you all right?” The firefighter nods his head. “1 almost bought it. I almost was electrocuted.”
Question Otic: What is the purpose of overhauling?
A. To protect and safeguard evidence of arson.
B. To minimize property damage.
C. To prevent a rekindle of the fire after the department leaves the scene.
D. All of the above.
Question Two: Which one of the following is a true statement?
DANGERS OF OVERHAULING
A. With respect to danger, overhauling is threatening to firefighters.
B. W ith respect to health hazards, overhauling is threatening to firefighters.
C. During overhauling, firefighters are working in a controlled environment.
D. All of the above are true.
Answer to Question One: The correct answer is D. All are purposes of overhauling.
Answer to Question Two: The correct answer is D. Overhauling is a threat to firefighters from the standpoints of both danger and health hazards. However, the dangers during overhauling operations can be controlled.
One of the main reasons firefighters are killed and injured at fires is because they work in dangerous, uncontrolled environments—burning buildings. The air in the burning building is filled with poisonous gases and heat; there is no visibility or light — just thick black smoke —and the entire structure may explode or collapse at any moment.
No other worker in America has such a dangerous work environment. However, after a fire has been extinguished and before salvage and overhauling begin, the firefighter’s environment can be made safer and the work area can be controlled. Fresh air can be pumped into the hot, smoke-filled area by fans and ventilation systems; portable lights can be placed in the area to be overhauled; and a safety survey for signs of collapse can be undertaken before salvage and overhauling begin. Firefighter deaths and injuries during overhauling operations can be prevented.
PERCEPTION OF DANGER
Everything in life is relative—even the perception of danger. To a firefighter who has just risked his life advancing an attack hoseline into a blazing home, or who has just searched above a raging fire to rescue a trapped victim, the risks of overhauling seem very minor.
DANGERS OF OVERHAULING
After a fire, the firefighter’s perception of danger is terribly distorted. Where the firefighters see a smoldering, charred mattress, moments before they saw deadly flames and felt the radiated heat. Where the firefighters pull down sections of blackened asbestos and plaster ceiling, moments before the same red-hot ceiling was collapsing all around them. Where the firefighters see long, sharp nails and wood lath splinters fly past their eyes and faces, moments before they saw a dangerous suspended ceiling framework which could have collapsed on top of them and trapped them in a small space, where they could have slowly burned to death or been overcome by smoke inhalation.
Fresh firefighters kept in reserve won’t underestimate or have a distorted perception of overhauling dangers.
After a serious fire, firefighters are exposed to many physical discomforts. The firefighters may be soaking wet. have a headache, and be very tired from the exertion of firefighting. It may be below freezing or extremely hot. and these climate discomforts become more noticeable after the exertion of firefighting. There may be emotional discomforts as well. The firefighters may be frustrated or angry by events surrounding the fire or tactics—or worse, the firefighter working next to him may have been injured.
Discomforts caused by the aftereffects of firefighting can interfere with decision making and judgment during salvage and overhauling. Time becomes more important than safety to tired firefighters. Exhausted, they more readily trade off their own safety — working in an area in danger of collapse, for example, or not wearing protective clothing—for a quick return to the firehouse for dry clothes, a meal, and some rest. “Get it done and let’s get back to quarters” can often he heard during overhauling.
One of the most effective methods of reducing injuries during overhauling is to send exhausted firefighters who have extinguished the blaze back to quarters and call reserve firefighters to the scene. These fresh firefighters will not risk safety for time; they will not have to remove protective equipment because they are hot and sweaty; they will not underestimate or have a distorted perception of the dangers of overhauling.
SOME GENERAL PRECAUTIONS
After a fire has been extinguished and the arson investigation completed, all the firefighters regroup at the point of fire origin for overhauling duties. At some fires, too many firefighters start overhauling in one small, burned-out room and create a dangerous work environment. It’s true: three firefighters opening up walls, ceilings, and floors to look for smoldering, hidden fire will complete the job faster than one firefighter will. However, the chance of one of the three firefighters receiving an injury caused by uncoordinated work in a small area is great.
The officer must control and organize the overhauling operation: The hose stream should be temporarily withdrawn from the work area; proper tools should be brought to the area; overhauling should begin at the room of fire origin and work outward. Firefighters should be assigned specific areas to overhaul. In a typical residence building, one firefighter can easily overhaul one room. When two firefighters are working in close proximity to each other, the company officer should personally supervise and coordinate the work to prevent injuries. When there are more firefighters available than necessary to perform the overhauling work safely—without overcrowding—the officer can order that extra firefighters perform other tasks. The electric and gas utilities to the burned-out area can be shut off. Portable fans and lights can be placed in the area of overhauling, and unnecessary tools and ladders can be placed back on the fire truck.
When a blaze is extinguished, the first overhauling action taken (after safeguarding the furniture) is pulling sections of ceiling down over the fire area to check for hidden flames or smoldering wooden beams. During overhauling at a serious fire in which several firefighters are using pike poles to pull down sections of large ceilings, there are many dangerous, sharp objects falling around the firefighters’ faces which could cause blindness or a disfiguring facial scar. Firefighters pulling ceilings have been injured by pointed, rusted nails attached to plasterboard, sharp wood splinters front broken wood lath behind plaster ceilings, sharp edges of ornamented tin ceilings, light fixtures swinging down from ceilings, hanging bx cable, electric conduits, gas tubing, plaster dust, asbestos and fiberglass insulation. Even the pointed edges of other firefighters’ pike poles have struck and injured nearby firefighters. Most firefighters have helmets equipped with eye shields designed to be lowered during this dangerous overhauling stage of a fire. In some instances, foolish though it may be, the eye shields are not used.
Another cause of injury during ceiling pulling is the improper use of the pike pole. The firefighter must first check the forward position of the metal hook before he raises it into the smoky upper levels of a room to pull down a ceiling. Next, the firefighter must glance up at the charred ceiling while the officer’s light beam is pointed to pick the spot for hook penetration. Finally, the firefighter must look downward and drive the hook point up through the charred plaster ceiling, making several short, sharp, downward pulls. If the pike pole is pulled down too forcefully, the firefighters could lose control of the tool and accidentally strike another firefighter with it.
REMOVING SMOLDERING CHAIRS AND MATTRESSES
Charred stuffed chairs, couches, and mattresses often reignite and flame up after they have been extinguished with hose streams. The cotton padding exterior prevents water from penetrating the interior of the piece of furniture. The combustible wood frame, horse hair, sisal, or other stuffing used in the interior, together with the air space created by the inner springs, allows a hidden spark to smolder and reignite hours after the outer surface fire has been extinguished. There have been tragic instances in which a fire in a chair or mattress appeared to be extinguished during overhauling and was left in the house. After the firefighters returned to quarters, the stuffed piece of furniture reignited a second time, creating a second, larger fire and taking lives.
Because these stuffed furnishings have often reignited after being overhauled and after firefighters have left the scene, many fire departments have an overhauling policy of removing these cotton-padded stuffed chairs, couches, and mattresses to the street. They are cut open, pulled apart, soaked by a hose stream on the inside and outside and. if necessary, broken up. There is nothing as damaging to a fire department’s reputation as a rekindle of a fire after firefighters have left the scene.
The sudden reignition of a stuffed chair or mattress can injure a firefighter. There have been many instances in which a smoldering mattress being carried down a stairway to the street suddenly reignites, flames up. becomes stuck in a stairway or doorway, and a firefighter gets burned.
Any cushioned chair or mattress which is smoldering in a hot. damp, smoky apartment can suddenly burst into flame when carried down a stair or out a hallway where cool, fresh air flows around it. Before a smoldering mattress or cushioned chair is carried or dragged outside, it should be cut open and the interior soaked with water. If this cannot be done, a portable extinguisher or hose line should be ready to quench any reignition of the furniture as it is carried outside.
For these reasons, smoldering mattresses or stuffed chairs should never be taken down to the street in an elevator. There have been cases in which building superintendents have removed smoldering furnishings from upper floors of high-rise buildings via inside elevators. They were trapped in the elevator car by the reignited mattresses and burned to death before the flaming car reached the lobby.
DANGERS OF OVERHAULING
Another dangerous task carried out during overhauling is throwing a smoldering mattress or stuffed chair out of a window. Dropping rubble from a window down into the street or yard without communicating such intent to firefighters below could cause death or serious injury. The falling piece of furniture may strike a firefighter who is about to walk out of the fire building. Even fire rubble thrown out a rear or side window could injure a firefighter about to climb a fire escape or raise a ladder.
One evening, firefighters entered a multiple dwelling for a smoky fire on the fourth floor. The fire in the living room was quickly extinguished, the room vented, and a victim dragged out of the apartment. The smoldering chair was quickly carried over to a rear window, maneuvered out onto a rear fire escape, and tossed over the railing into the dark backyard. Down in the backyard, another firefighter from a second arriving ladder company was moving to lower the fireescape “drop ladder” and climb the rear fire escape. He was struck by the falling chair. He suffered brain damage and had a permanent loss of balance when walking.
If it is absolutely necessary to throw a piece of rubble out of an upper-floor window, the firefighter must first contact another firefighter at street level. Notify him of the intended action. Request that the area be cleared and that no one be allowed to pass beneath the area. Only after receiving the “all clear” from below should the smoldering rubble be thrown out of the window. Without contact with a firefighter at street level, no object should be thrown out of the window. Shouting “Watch out below!” is not sufficient.
CARBON MONOXIDE IN BELOW-GRADE AREAS
After a fire has been extinguished and before overhauling begins, firefighters are often sent to the cellar areas of the fire building to shut down affected utility services or what has become unnecessary fireprotection equipment supplies serving the burned-out store or apartment. Gas meters are shut off if the pipes are broken; electric meters are shut off where water has caused electrical wires to short circuit; sprinklers arc temporarily shut off in the cellar to change a fused sprinkler head. Firefighters sent to cellars to perform these duties without self-contained breathing equipment have died and caused the deaths of other firefighters coming to their rescue.
Consider the possibility: A firefighter who descends into the cellar witiiout a mask falls unconscious, overcome by accumulations of carbon monoxide from the fire that’s just being extinguished. After realizing that he’s missing, two or three of his buddies rush to the cellar—also without masks—and are quickly overcome.
Finally, a firefighter enters the cellar with self-contained breathing equipment strapped on and operating. An emergency call is radioed to the firefighters above and the unconscious firefighters are dragged up out of the cellar. Their bodies are examined.
DANGERS OF OVERHAULING
The degree of brain damage and the number of dead firefighters will depend upon the sequence that each maskless firefighter is dragged out —and the time it took for the first firefighter with his SCBA in place to enter the cellar.
Firefighters descending cellar stairs during overhauling must consider the possibility of carbon monoxide and smoke accumulation in the cellar at all times, but particularly when: a fire of long duration has just been extinguished: the fire location is a store on the first floor, directly above the cellar; and the cellar is completely below grade.
ELECTRICITY
Research into electrical dangers on the fireground is misdirected and misleading; it concentrates mainly on the conduction of electricity through hose streams. However, most firefighters who are electrocuted are not directing hose streams—they are holding a metal tool or a piece of metal equipment that comes in contact with live electrical equipment.
Firefighters earn ing metal tools and metal ladders near electrical equipment arc in danger of being electrocuted. When a metal tool or ladder accidentally contacts live electric power, the firefighter’s body completes an electric circuit. Current is relayed to ground through the firefighter’s body more readily when his clothes are wet and when he’s standing on a wet surface.
During overhauling, firefighter and floor are wet. The firefighter is using metal tools. Firefighters should treat all electric equipment as live and should avoid coming in contact with it during the overhaul. If sparks or shocks from electric equipment are received, the officer should be notified of the danger and the electric supply shut off. Before shutting off any electric supply, a firefighter should be equipped with nonconductive gloves, his eyeshields should be in place, and he should be standing on a dry, nonconductive surface.
Another electrical danger to firefighters during overhauling is arcing. Arcing is the condition by which a large electric spark jumps between two closely spaced conductive objects when electric current is interrupted. One of the conductive objects could be a firefighter. A spark could jump from an electrical supply panel into a firefighter when he is shutting off electrical supply and standing on a conductive wet floor.
Arcing often occurs when a switch is opened or fuses are pulled to interrupt or shut off electric power. The arcing of electricity could severely burn a firefighter.
FALLS
According to National Fire Protection Association statistics, falls are the second leading cause of firefighter deaths and injuries on the foreground. If you survive fighting a fire and begin to overhaul the burned-out structure, chances are great that you may still die or be injured from a fall outside or inside the fire-damaged structure.
The dangers of falls during overhauling operations are present both outside and inside the burned-out structure. Outside the structure, the major cause of a firefighter losing his balance and falling is ice. On a cold night, water from hose streams freezes. A firefighter who stretches a hoseline up a couple of dry front steps to attack a fire, or who climbs up on a peaked roof to cut a vent opening may have no difficulty with footing; but he may walk back down those same steps or take the same path down the sloping roof and slip and fall on water from the hose streams that’s turned to ice.
Inside a burned-out building, ice is usually not the problem. The problem is one of perception. All the walls are black from the soot, smoke, and char of the recently extinguished fire. Everything looks the same. Normal warning signs, visible before the fire, are now destroyed. Signs on windows warning of shaftways are burned or missing. Hinged elevator doors look the same as apartment doors. A black hole in a floor looks the same as a charred black rug. Window frames and doors which might keep a person who trips from falling out of the building are missing, burned away, or removed. Everything is dark, utilities have been shut off. and even the flames from the fire cannot be used to see a missing stair.
Here arc some examples of how firefighters have been injured by falls in and around smoke-filled buildings during overhauling:
- A firefighter stands on a box spring and mattress. The room suddenly bursts into flame, and he tries to take cover below the window sill. Movement of the box spring and mattress cause him to fall out the window.
- A firefighter about to throw a heavy, wet mattress out of a window gets a piece of the inner spring caught on his turnout coat clip and is pulled out of the window by the falling mattress.
- A fire company discovers flames traveling around a partition wall into an adjoining apartment. A firefighter is ordered to go to the adjacent apartment and examine above the ceiling for fire spread. The door from the dark, smoky, burned-out hallway next to the fire apartment is opened and entered. The firefighter falls into an elevator shaft.
- At night, a firefighter opens the door on a roof structure which appears to lead to an interior stairs. He enters; it is an elevator shaft. He falls 11 stories to his death.
- A firefighter opens a door on a roof structure of a vacant building which leads to the interior stairs. He steps inside and falls five stories. All the landings, treads, and raisers of the stairs to the roof have been removed by scavengers.
- A firefighter steps from an aerial ladder into a burned-out window. There is no floor—it is a shaftway. The “Danger— Hoistway” sign was burned off the window during the fire.
The firefighter’s best protection against suffering a fall on the fireground is a flashlight. A flashlight affixed on a turnout coat or helmet can free the firefighter’s hands to carry tools and reveal dangers. When a power saw is required, there should always be a backup guide warning the firefighter with the power saw of hazards.
The firefighter must understand the dangers of the “moth and the flame” syndrome: he becomes vulnerable to injury when he is concentrating on the flames and not the surrounding dangers. Along the same lines, a firefighter given an urgent assignment during overhauling often becomes victim of a danger that would easily have been seen and avoided under nonemergency conditions.
FLOOR COLLAPSE
When a serious fire involves several floors of a house and outside streams are required to extinguish the fire, firefighters must sometimes be sent inside to complete a search or secondary search for victims and to overhaul the gutted building.
The most dangerous floor collapse area inside such a burned-out structure is the bathroom. When a firefighter enters this room to search or overhaul, the floor joist may suddenly fail and cause the collapse of the entire bathroom floor. The firefighter, along with heavy cast-iron sinks, bathtubs, porcelain toilets, and heavy tile floors, will crash into the basement or the floor below.
There are several reasons why the bathroom floor is more susceptible to collapse than other floor areas.
- The bathroom fixtures create a heavy dead load. Cast-iron tubs and sinks and porcelain toilets can weigh up to one thousand pounds. This weight is concentrated in one small area.
- In some older buildings, the thick tile and sand-bed floor installation required the floor beams to be reduced in size.
- The moisture from sweating or leaking water pipes over the years can cause the wooden bathroom floor joists and floor beams to rot or weaken.
- The bathroom floor joists are more likely to be destroyed by fire because the bathroom often has the most poke-through holes and concealed avenues of fire spread. Fire burning upward from one floor to another will seek out the path of least resistance: the bathroom floor. As the flames spread up through bathroom poke-through holes, it weakens the floor joists.
During overhauling operations in a seriously damaged bathroom, firefighters should attempt to open up a fire-weakened ceiling or wall using the reach of a pike pole and standing outside the bathroom. Firefighters using a hose stream to wet down a burnedout bathroom should also stand outside the room and use the reach of the hose stream to extinguish any small pockets of fire.
GAS EXPLOSIONS
When a fire company extinguishes a smoky room and contents fire in a kitchen or basement, the hose stream may accidentally extinguish a gas fire from a melted or broken gas pipe, tube, or meter. The unburned gas leaking into the charred room may be suddenly reignited by a smoldering ember and explode violently.
The time between when a house fire is extinguished and before overhauling begins is a dangerous stage of a fire. Gas explosions often occur at this time. Gas meters melt, copper tubing softens and separates, and pipe joints come apart when ceilings collapse.
The presence of leaking household gas must be determined after a fire has been extinguished and before overhauling begins, both natural gas and bottled gas are required to be odorized so that they can be detected by a person at gas concentrations in air not exceeding one fifth of the lower limits of flammability. However, this odorization is not effective in smoke-filled rooms for firefighters wearing SCBA.
The most effective action a firefighter can take immediately after a fire has been extinguished is to prevent an explosion by venting the fire area. Next, any gas appliance should be checked for leaks before overhauling. Some fire officers carry putty or clay to quickly plug up broken or leaking gas pipes; a rag or soap can be used to temporarily plug up escaping flammable gas while other firefighters are simultaneously venting windows. ft is erroneous to assume that a flammable gas-air mixture needs to completely fill a room or building before an explosion can occur. Most combustion explosions inside buildings occur with less than 25% of the enclosure filled by the flammable gas-air mixture.
If an explosion of reignited gas does occur, the gas burning at the appliance should be allowed to burn until the flow of gas to the broken pipe is shut off. The room and contents fire should be extinguished and the exposures protected.
LACERATIONS AND CUTS
The danger of falling glass on the fireground is always present. Severe facial, hand, shoulder, and back lacerations occur when broken pieces of window glass fall on firefighters from upper stories of a burning building. The glass can cut right through protective turnout coats and gloves.
The most dangerous area of the fireground tor such injuries is the perimeter of the burning building. Firefighters most often are cut by falling glass when walking in or out of the building, when operating on a ladder placed at a window, or when operating on a fire escape.
After a fire has been extinguished and overhauling begins, a survey of the broken windows will reveal large, jagged pieces of broken glass laying on the outside window sill and hanging from or still remaining in the window frame. The upper portion of a store’s large, glass display window may still be in the frame after the lower portion has been broken out during venting. These large pieces of glass present a deadly guillotine hazard to anyone who walks through the broken window. They should be removed immediately, broken by a firefighter using a pike pole from a safe distance.
All windows of a burned-out building should be stripped of any remaining glass shards during overhauling—but not until warning has been given to firefighters below. Ixtrge pieces of broken glass laying on the outside window sills of upper floors should be removed carefully by a gloved hand. Jagged pieces of glass remaining in the window frame should be removed by a pike pole, axe, or hailigan tool. The glass piece should be tapped back inside the broken window, not outside.
Take precautions not to linger around the perimeter of a burned-out building; go inside or move far enough away from the front of the building so as not to be struck by falling glass.
Broken pieces of glass window on a concrete sidewalk, metal fire escape, or slate porch roof will create a slippery surface. Firefighters stepping out of a second floor window at night onto a porch roof covered with layers of broken glass may slip and fall off the roof. Portable ladders should never be raised on top of broken layers of glass on a concrete sidewalk.
HEAT EXHAUSTION AND OVERHAULING
While performing rescue and hoseline attack during the firefight, firefighters are exposed to three types of stress: physical stress from hose-stretching, forcible entry, and raising ladders; emotional stress from the fear of death or serious injury caused by flashover, explosions, and collapse; and heat stress caused by exposure to high temperatures of the flames, heated smoke and gases, ambient temperature, and the insulation effects of protective clothing.
Once a fire has been extinguished and the dangers are reduced, the physical and emotional stresses are no longer great; however, the heat stress continues and, for some firefighters, actually worsens during overhauling. After the tremendous effort expended during the fire and rescue operation, the firefighters regroup inside a hot, steamy, heated, burned-out structure to start strenuous overhauling, looking for fire extension, extinguishing spot fires, and removing burned rubble from the fire area.
It’s then that heat stress begins to affect firefighters. They may suffer heat cramps, heat stroke, or heat exhaustion caused by elevated body temperatures. Statistics reveal that firefighters most often suffer heat exhaustion. These are recorded as injuries caused by overexertion on the fireground — the fourth leading cause of firefighter injury.
Rookie firefighters are particularly susceptible to this injury. Trying to prove themselves as firefighters, they overexert themselves both during and after a fire. The symptoms of heat exhaustion catch up with them during the overhauling stage. Veteran firefighters should know how to pace themselves and save that extra bit of energy for the overhauling operation.
When a firefighter begins to experience heat exhaustion, he sweats more than normal, may feel a tingling in the arms or legs, turns an ashen or grey color, has difficulty breathing, feels nauseous, and possibly vomits. Any of these symptoms are signals to slow down. Notify your officer that you need a break. If possible, go back to the apparatus and get a drink of water to replenish your loss of water from perspiration and take off your helmet, protective hood, and turnout coat. Splash some water over your head and into your face, and sit down on the back step of the fire truck. Don’t try to fool yourself, your supervisor, or your department —take a break from firefighting. It’s better to take a short rest than to drop unconscious inside the burned-out fire structure.
Even if you are able to go through the motions of overhauling while feeling exhausted, you may cause an injury to a fellow firefighter. It’s a well-known fact that exhausted and overexerted firefighters make poor judgment decisions on the fireground. Many fireground injuries during the overhauling stage of firefighting are caused by firefighters, officers, and chiefs whose judgment is impaired by exhaustion.
Be aware of the condition of firefighters around you. If there are signs of heat exhaustion, slow down and inform your officer.
An officer and chief should be able to recognize different levels of exhaustion on the fireground and take action. Rotation of firefighters, short rest breaks, and calling fresh firefighters to the scene to take over overhauling can often reduce injuries and is good firefighting strategy.
Before overhauling operations begin there are several safety precautions a fire officer can order to reduce the dangers:
- Conduct a collapse danger survey and rope off all danger areas.
- Set up portable fans to remove toxic smoke and gas.
- Set up portable lights and power supply.
- Shut off utilities of gas and electricity.
- Determine fitness of firefighters and select those most able to perform overhauling. Rest and rotate others.
- Assign firefighters specific areas large enough to provide safe work areas.
- Supervise and coordinate overhauling in close quarters where two or more firefighters must work together.
- Require that SC IB A face pieces and eye shields be worn when pulling ceilings.
