WINDOWS

WINDOWS

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON…

TOM BRENNAN’S

WINDOWS OF A fire building are an integral part of our firefighting system. Initially, they give us a sizeup focus; ongoing, they provide alternate escape for civilians and firefighters alike, entry points for search teams, and, of course, primary and secondary ventilation for life safety and/or fire extinguishment.

Properly used by firefighters, they are invaluable to the successful firefighting effort. Improperly used, they can wreak havoc, cause injury and death, and destroy an aggressive interior attack.

To open or not? This is determined by the function you’re performing. Do you want it open (broken) to continue to search for life? Or is it to aid the extinguishment of fire effort? (These can be as different as night and day.)

In the latter case, the use of windows for horizontal ventilation must be controlled and coordinated based on location of the fire, the movement of the interior line(s), and the exposure problem. In the case of life and continuation of the primary search, windows should be taken anytime they can support the entry and continuation of a primary search effort. In short, the decision depends on whether you’re searching for life or fire!

If breaking out the window you’re at will keep you going—do it! It provides visibility, enhanced atmosphere for the people waiting for us to find them, reduces your apprehension (panic) factor, and, in private dwellings, represents your closest alternate exit.

Hit once—not 12 times. Once you decide to remove window glass, you should have the tool and technique that allows you to operate as safely as possible. You must be able to “take” most of the window with one or more (but not three) swings. This is the least expensive and most result-oriented piece of structure, it’s painful to see 12 little holes punched in 12 little panes of glass in postfire pictures. If you want to take the window—take it all!

Entry. If a window is your choice of entry, make a door out of it. An “ol’ salt” once told me, “If you enter from a fire escape, open the window, enter, and close it behind you. You won’t create any unnatural drafts. You won’t draw the fire toward you.” It didn’t take too many experiences for me to realize that this sage theorist probably had never entered to search from a window. Conditions may be tolerable when you enter, but are probably going to get worse. You’ll need all the space you can and then some to get yourself, your victim, and the rolling fire out of the same hole with some degree of safety, efficiency, and success.

Operating from fire escapes. Once you size up which of the two windows accesses the fire apartment, take the time to break the adjacent, off-fire escape window first. This will relieve and redirect fire conditions away from you. Then vent, enter, and search from the fire escape window. Remember, you are at the most dangerous place in the fire occupancy—the rear of the fire. Here is where the real rescues are made and the ones that must be made before the interior extinguishment attack is begun.

Security. The drug problem has made ALL of America security-conscious. Barred windows are becoming common in many communities. Prepare for this and be able to remove them before entry. Partial removal may allow the firefighter to enter during the early stages of fire, but can trap him during the helter-skelter stage when only moments exist between exit for survival and having a much-too-close look at your Maker.

Window gates are found in many urban municipalities. Legal or not, locking devices are on only one (the strongest) side of the gate. Don’t waste time! Attack the hinge and let the gate swing on the locking devices.

Venting from above. There are two serious (more serious) horizontal ventilation problems: the top-floor fire and the fire-protected, high-rise residence. Horizontal ventilation of the top-floor fire is an extensive and “neverending” task. In the second case, it is more important than vertical ventilation and . often the key to successful advance of the search and extinguishment teams.

Windows in both cases are usually out of the reach of the aerial device, either by location or by height. The needed venting must take place from above the fire., Tie a prying tool to a length of rope (in your pocket?) and lower it to the window to be vented from the occupancy above (high-rise) or from the roof (top-floor fire). Stand on the measured portion of rope, hoist up the tool, and throw it out horizontally. It will arc down and take a greater portion of the window and its framing out than will hanging yourself over with a pike pole. And it’s safer. If you must move to other windows, keep your measurement, and do it again, and again….

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