HOW TO “COPE” ON THE FIREGROUND
BY GERARD J. NAYLIS
One of the first things a person learns when entering the fire service is that you need to “know your buildings.” Yet we continue to see firefighters killed and injured year after year. Have you ever asked yourself why this is so, given the safety movement of the past several years? Certainly, staffing has something to do with these dreadful statistics. But, alarmingly, we learn that many of the deaths and injuries are attributed to the fact that the firefighter(s) did not know something, usually about the building or its contents.
COPE is an acronym for Construction, Occupancy, Protection, and Exposure. A firefighter`s knowledge of these critical factors may mean the difference between many years of useful, productive, and enjoyable life and a serious, disabling injury–or maybe even death.
CONSTRUCTION
We have become used to hearing typical answers to our questions when we inquire about these four critical factors–construction is usually thought about in the generic sense, for example. We become satisfied knowing the construction type (per the building code). What we do not do on a regular basis is go beyond these well-known classifications to ascertain more detail about each building.
Let`s look at a hypothetical case. You are told a building is considered noncombustible. What image enters your mind? Do you envision some type of steel deck with an open bar web joist on steel beams? Or concrete on some type of steel framing? What are the walls made of? Are they block or perhaps of some type of sandwich panel? Do you know what type of insulation material is used for the roof and walls or if any type of sprayed-on fireproofing or insulation material is present? Perhaps your initial image is beginning to blur because simply knowing the construction classification is not enough; numerous other factors pertaining to construction can yield varying firefighting results.
OCCUPANCY
Next, we move to occupancy. Again, we rely on the uniform classifications found in the building codes. We tend to think that every building in each of the use groups is essentially the same. Otherwise, the code givers would have split these buildings into more occupancy or use groups. The unfortunate reality is that there is a world of difference between occupancies in any particular use group. The Building Officials and Code Administrators (BOCA), for example, classifies fire stations and storefront retail operations as “B” or business uses. Office buildings also share that use group classification. Ask yourself, Is there any difference among these three occupancies?
While the foregoing example provides clear differences, let`s examine something that is more subtle. Consider for a moment a warehouse in a light industrial park. For the sake of this example, we will say that the warehouse is considered to be an “S” or storage use. What is being stored and how it is being stored will have tremendous ramifications should a fire occur. Some would say that there is really no difference and no need to worry because in all probability the building is sprinklered. After all, the sprinklers will control the fire until the fire department comes to put the fire out. The question is, Are you prepared to bet your life on it? That`s exactly what you will be doing the minute you respond to a warehouse fire, or any fire for that matter.
Instead of being content knowing that the warehouse is a storage occupancy, probe to determine what type(s) of commodities are stored in the building. Don`t be satisfied with just being told what the product is. Ask what type of packaging encloses the product. Motor oil (a class III B liquid) used to come in metal cans or cardboard containers with metal ends and charcoal lighter fluid (a class II liquid) in metal cans. Both of these products now come in plastic bottles–great news for the consumer but a nightmare for firefighters in a warehouse fire.
How is the storage arranged: solid pile, palletized, racks (single row, double row, multirow, pick racks), or bin box? Is the storage encapsulated or not encapsulated? What is the clearance between the storage, the ceiling, and the fire protection? All of these items will have an impact on the growth and spread of the fire. Don`t you think you should know these things? All of these factors affect how a fire will burn in a storage occupancy–some with ab-solutely terrifying results. If you do not know them before you respond, who are you going to ask at two o`clock in the morning?
PROTECTION
Protection refers to built-in systems designed to aid the occupants and firefighters during a fire. It includes detection and alarm systems intended to detect fires and notify building occupants of the fire and perhaps transmit an alarm to the fire department. Protection also includes systems that attack, control, and extinguish fires such as automatic sprinklers, fixed pipe extinguishing systems (such as those found in commercial cooking operations), halon, and other gaseous suppression systems.
Also considered part of the protection system are components that limit fire and smoke spread, including fire doors, fire dampers, venting systems (exhaust systems in high-rise buildings, for example), curbing, diking (to limit liquid spread), and automatic fuel safety shutoff valves.
If these built-in features have been altered, impaired, or rendered useless, the fire department will need to change its tactics when fighting the fire. For example, if a building is equipped with a sprinkler system that was shut down for maintenance or repairs and the sprinkler control valve is left shut, and the fire department does not know it, responding firefighters will think they are fighting a fire in a sprinklered building. In fact, the sprinklers will not be functioning. One of the first-in engine companies will supply the fire department connection to reinforce the sprinkler system believed to be controlling the fire. In reality, they will be pumping up against a closed valve, and the fire will continue to grow in intensity and in all probability will destroy the building.
From the fire department`s point of view, though, the single largest protection component is the water supply available to fight a fire. As we all know, without an adequate supply of water to fight the fire, the fire department stands little chance of controlling, let alone extinguishing, the fire. Surprisingly, only a few firefighters have a thorough knowledge of the water supply in their jurisdictions. The basic assumption is that if there are enough hydrants, we will have enough water to fight the fire. Rural communities that rely on tankers and shuttles have a better idea of the water supply limitations with which they are faced and how those limitations can adversely affect their ability to fight the fire.
The amount of water needed to extinguish a fire depends on the amount of fuel available to burn, the heat release rate of that fuel, and the configuration of the fuel. A fire department needs to know in advance how much water will be needed to control a fire in a particular building and where it is going to get that water.
EXPOSURES
The last consideration involves exposures, both internal and external. Does the building have an unusual or unique type of storage or operation? Would its presence contribute significantly to the development and spread of the fire? Perhaps there are external exposures to consider. Does the lumberyard now also fill propane cylinders? Have you thought about how you are going to deal with this propane tank if there is a fire in the lumberyard? Or perhaps the buildings in your community are situated very close together. Without adequate space separation, these buildings now expose each other, and you need to allocate precious resources to deal with the exposure.
Perhaps the exposure is widespread. The presence of heavy brush or forests in rural settings creates an extreme exposure to any building located there. The impact of urban/wildlife interface takes on an entirely new meaning when a raging brush fire threatens an entire community. Yet another exposure to consider is weather and the compounding effect it can have on your fireground operation.
Having more than a basic or cursory knowledge of a building and its contents is a matter of survival for the firefighter. Without this information, the firefight is reduced to a guessing game in which there are many questions and few answers. Conversely, when armed with detailed construction, occupancy, protection, and exposure information about the fire building, the firefighter will be well positioned to COPE on the fireground.
GERARD J. NAYLIS has been a volunteer in the Bergenfield (NJ) Fire Department for 25 years and previously had been a career firefighter in the Atlantic City (NJ) Fire Department for 10 years. He is a member of the Arson Conference Planning Committee at Rutgers University in New Jersey, the Bergen County Juvenile Fire Prevention Program Advisory Board, and the training advisory board of the Bergen County (NJ) Fire Academy, where he is an instructor in the continuing education program for fire sub-code inspectors.
