Lessons from School
FEATURES
FIRE REPORT
Baton firefighters found that, even when you know the building, you may not recognize the extent of fire extension. False ceilings gave false security.
The halls that Baytown, Texas, firefighters advanced through in the early hours of April 29 were familiar ones: Most of the senior officers had walked them daily as students of Robert E. Lee High School, Baytown’s only high school for nearly four decades.
Now, with the fire venting itself through the roof even before they’d arrived, the firefighters had a few more lessons to learn from their old alma mater. Lesson No. 1 would be that false ceilings create false security.
Built in 1928, the building had undergone addition or renovation seven times since. One of the changes was the installation of air conditioning in the original building, placed beneath 12-foot-high ceilings in the hallways and enclosed by suspended ceilings that were 4 feet lower. Also hidden above the false ceilings were the original transoms over the classroom doors.
Although the original floors of oiled hardwood were still in place, they were covered over with carpet or vinyl. The floor, ceiling, and roof joists of the original building were wood, although some additions contained steel bar joists and 1 beams. Wood paneling gave a more modern finish to the wirelath-and-plaster hallways.
The building was neither sprinklered nor partitioned, and the only fire alarm system was the manual use of classroom bells. The fact that the fire walls of the original building were relatively intact would eventually help contain the fire in that section.
When the alarm came in at 3:18 a.m., two engines and a command vehicle responded; the 106-foot aerial ladder that would normally be part of this initial response was out of service for repair. Within a little more than 10 minutes, second and third alarms and a special call were issued, bringing two more engines and the department’s new, 55-foot water tower, which wasn’t yet officially in service. As the battle progressed, all off-duty firefighters were recalled and a reserve engine was brought in to give additional pumping capacity. This increased the water supply without depleting the number of engines available to protect the rest of the district.
The first crews on the scene forced entry on the school’s west side and went to the second floor. They encountered no smoke and little heat, but they heard a roar that seemed to be coming from all directions. Looking into the classrooms, the firefighters could see that at least two rooms in the building’s central core were fully involved.
Firefighters were able to work close to the seat of the fire because the roof burn-through made it well-ventilated—so much so that crews stretching two 2!/2-inch handlines through the west side stair and onto the second floor were nearly pulled up bv the enormous draft as the fire above them pulled in air from the open doors on the first floor.
As these lines were being stretched, fire officers tried to learn the limits of the fire spread. On the first floor, they found that the fire had burned through the flooring above and into the ceiling space of the administrative offices. Burnthrough in several places confirmee! a deep-seated fire that had had a considerable head start.
A tunnel through fire
As part of the size-up, firefighters tried to pull ceilings at several places, but air conditioning ducts prevented this. Had the efforts succeeded, the responders would have realized that the crews that seemed to be working with relative ease on the second floor were actually moving through what amounted to a tunnel through fire. Where the fire had burned through the floor, it had extended through the void space created—and hidden—by the false ceilings on the first floor. On the second floor, the hidden transoms had channeled the fire from the classrooms into the void space above the firefighters. The original ceiling of wire lath and plaster generally remained intact where it hadn’t been destroyed structurally for the air conditioning to be installed; the overhead fire actually burned at two separate levels: in the wooden joists above the plaster and in the false ceiling void below it.
The false security the suspended ceilings had provided disappeared suddenly when a section of the second-floor ceiling and air conditioning duct fell on the crew operating there. Injuries were minor, and the line was pulled back and repositioned.
But then the atmosphere began to change, too. The heat became intense and the smoke banked down, seeming to ooze from every crevice. Flashover was likely.
Shifting strategy
This combination of factors prompted the order to abandon the interior attack. The water tower had been set up in the event of such a strategy change, and it was placed in service as soon as confirmation came that all firefighters were out of the building. The lines that had been withdrawn from the interior attack were connected to portable deluge sets, and an all-out exterior blitz began.
Two 21/2-inch handlines were advanced to the roof of the cafeteria and west classroom wing to confine the fire to the original school building. The water tower concentrated its protective stream on the east wing area. By this time, most of the structure within the original fire walls had collapsed, and the roof over the old classroom section was burning off.
When the repositioned streams began to be effective, the crews advanced additional 22-inch handlines into each classroom wing and the rear atrium area to complete containment. At one point, fire was visible out a roof vent 50 feet down the west wing, but interior lines prevented the loss of this wing. Ceilings were pulled ahead of the advancing handlines, and the fire was beaten back to the collapsed core.
It was about 6a.m. when the fire was declared contained, although the core of the original building burned freely. Once commanders were confident that all extension beyond the central core was halted, exterior streams were again directed to the center of the building.
Crews remained on the scene around the clock for several days until the collapsed central core was cool enough for investigators to enter.
Second Floor of Robert E. Lee High School
Photos by Robert D. Leiper
Lessons Learned
Reinforced:
Members must monitor collapse and flashover indicators so they can get out of the area before either crisis happens.
Firefighting efforts should begin from positions beyond the fire’s limits for containment and then extinguishment.
Use of reserve (spare) pumping ability at the fire scene keeps the district’s water supply from being depleted.
Reexamined:
Proper size-up determines the lowest point of fire within a multistory building before crews commit to interior operations.
Firefighters must constantly identify a fire’s limits, especially when renovation has created void spaces. This should be done by pulling ceilings as handlines advance into the fire area.
The truth was that this building was lost before the firefighters arrived. If they’d failed to recognize the seriousness of the extension when the first ceiling fell, they might still have been inside when the central core collapsed.
Any crew performing an interior attack must know the limits of fire spread at all times. Firefighters must know the buildings in their district and the construction features inside them. And when faced with a fire, crews must remember that fire is dynamic and always seeking more fuel.
Never assume you have a routine or easy fire. Until you’ve found unburned structure on all six sides of the blaze, it’s not confined. Don’t let a clear hallway and false ceilings give you a false sense of security.
