By John F. “Skip” Coleman, Technical Editor
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| PHOTO OF THE DAY: As many as 60 residents were left homeless and nearly a dozen firefighters were injured when a fire tore through a row of attached multioccupancy buildings in Union City, New Jersey. Fire rapidly spread through voids in the walls and into the cockloft, consuming five three-story and one two-story attached buildings. Ice quickly formed, causing firefighters to slip and fall. Before it was over, eight alarms were sounded, bringing in fire companies from Jersey City, Hoboken, Bayonne, and Newark. (Photo by Ron Jeffers.) Submit your Photo of the Day to Peter Prochilo (peterp@pennwell.com). |
This month’s Roundtable on the Web concerns what has been a controversial tactic in the past that now has been modified to a much safer evolution: vent-enter-search (VES). VES was “invented” in a large East Coast department that realized that more than 80 percent of its single-family dwellings were two-story homes with a front porch. Of those, more than 80 percent of the front porches led to direct access to second-floor bedrooms. The tactic allowed for one firefighter (in this instance, the pumper driver after the pumps were set) to ladder the front porch roof with a roofing ladder and then, from the roof, break the bedroom window, enter the bedroom, and search it after first locating and closing the bedroom door to the hallway. All in all, it was a dangerous evolution that violated various standards.
Firefighters in Florida have taken this VES evolution and married it with the oriented search. This oriented VES uses the same fundamental evolution, with the addition of an oriented firefighter who remains on the porch roof or at the window of a one-story home to ensure the “buddy system” and, hence, increase the safety for the searcher. This is an evolution that I can certainly live with (my textbook on search describes and advocates this practice).
This month’s Roundtable question is, Does your department teach, train on, and perform VES; and, if so, is it performed with one or two firefighters? Respond to this question, and see other comments at www.fireengineering.com.
WEBCASTS
Join us for monthly Webcasts featuring Fire Engineering authors and FDIC speakers. The March 15 Webcast is “Ventilating Lightweight Roofs” by Los Angeles (CA) Fire Department Battalion Chief (Ret.) John Mittendorf. The April 26 Webcast is “Training Officer Boot Camp” by DesPlaines (IL) Fire Department Division Chief/Training and Safety Forest Reeder. Webcasts are free, but you must register at http://www.fireengineering.com/webcasts.html.
FIRE LIFE
Word is getting out. The number of visitors to www.firelife.com has tripled in recent months. See what the excitement is all about, and try out one of the fire station cooking recipes from Austin (TX) Engine 2’s Rip Esselstyn. If there is a Whole Foods supermarket in your area, you may have seen “Rip’s Big Bowl” on the breakfast buffet there. Rip shares this and other recipes on Fire Life. Pictured here is Rip’s recipe for “Roasted Bell Peppers, Baked Sweet Potatoes, and Galloping Greens with Cashew Sauce.”
FEATURED ARTICLES
Tim Hadlock, captain and career firefighter/EMT for the North River (FL) Fire District, writes in “The Obscured Danger that Emergency Responders Face”: “Emergency responders face new dangers every day of their career, but it is the obscured dangers of clandestine laboratories that have become the most dangerous to emergency responders; these labs can be found anywhere from the trunk of a car to a residential apartment.”
Melissa Riley, Ph.D. in leadership and education, canine coordinator for TN TF-2 USAR team, and 20-year fire service veteran, writes in “The Most Basic of Survival Lessons”: “The average stay of service is five to seven years. Just about the time common sense is able to override the ‘squirrel’ in all of us, burnout occurs and the seasoned members leave our field. Why is that? Because for hundreds of years, the first lesson we learned after a bad call, from the seasoned members around us, was to tough it out, keep it tucked somewhere deep inside where it cannot be seen, and suck it up.”
Ben Theard, captain/EMT-1 (retired), Kootenai County (ID) Fire & Rescue, writes in “The Power of No”: “The fire service has a long and rich history of saying ‘yes’ when the call for help comes. It is said that when something happens (usually bad) and no one knows exactly what to do, the fire service gets the call. Let’s take a look at the word ‘no’ in the fire service.”
COMMUNITY MEMBER OF THE MONTH
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Name: James Couch. Department: Steger Fire Department, Crete Twp. (IL) Fire Protection District. Title/rank: captain/paramedic (Steger), firefighter/paramedic (Crete). Years of public service: 22. Agency structure: Paid department. Top issue in your department: RIT training. |
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