Share your strategies, tactics and experience! Every Friday we’ll post a picture or video and want to get your take on the situation.
THE SCENARIO: You are on duty with your usual crew on your usual rig. You arrive at this working fire in Lowe’s. The fire is in the rear loading dock area and spreading into the store. The manager reports at least 2 employees still inside. They were last seen in the rear (close to but not in the area of the fire). YOU CREW IS ASSIGNED PRIMARY SEARCH FOR THE VICTIMS. Smoke conditions diminish as you go deeper into the building until they are almost zero visibility w/ low to moderate heat. You encounter the typical “big box” layout (as pictured).
- What are the known hazards?
- What are the unknown hazards?
- What resources would your FD assign to accomplish the necessary strategy or tactic?
- What tactics would you use to accomplish your assignment?
Also on SAFE Firefighter …
- Thinking Outside The Box May Kill You – March 6, 2012
- First Due Friday; Where Is The Fire? – March 23, 2012
- This Ain’t The Burn Building – March 27, 2012
- First Due Friday; 2-Alarm Commercial Job! (Video) – August 3, 2012
Known Hazards: Rack storage, metal deck roof construction, heat build up at the ceiling level
Unknown Hazards: extension of fire, where our victims are located
Resources: Search crews, fire attack crews, RIT teams, vent teams, TIC, search lines, building pre plan, store manager
Tactics: Get search teams moving towards rear loading dock, search crews should be using search lines, use pre fire plan to plan crew movement through structure, vent as soon as possible to lift smoke and heat, have big lines in place to get on fire, maintain communication between search, vent, fire attack, and command, keep RIT in the loop and ready to go.
Our “Big Box” SOG states that any interior search or entry of any type into a “Big Box” store will be no longer that 150 feet and all entries will either be via hose line or unit tag line (Search rope) however we would never intiate a search if the fire conditions were to great, or the building seemed like it was going to fail or become rapidly unstable.
Being goverend by that I would try to find the door or opening closest to the fire possibly and begin my search from there. Obviously the search will be slowed by conditions, and general layout of big box stores with aiels and mid aiel displays. Additionally the exposed roofing materials and bar joist assembly could make the building become unstable rapidly and the wide open floor plan also will contribute to rapid smoke and fire spread.
We would use large area search procedures with utilizing our personal search rope and trying to sweep the area and cover as much ground as possible.
We would hopefully deploy multiple search teams into the building to try and locate the lost workers. I am assuming command would strike the minimum of a third alarm.
One tactic that I have never deployed and I am not really a fan of in residential setting is the utilization of PPV. Essentially using as many fans as you have on scene to try and pressurize the building as much as possible and raise the smoke level in order to travle more rapidly in the occupancy. Never tried it but I think ti may have merit and offer a more safe and efficient search.
Our intial assignment to this occupany would be 3 engines 2 special service companies and a Battalion Chief…a working fire upgrade would bring another chief, EMS supervisor, Ambulance, an additional Engine, and Special Service. Each additional alarm would bring 2 Engines and 1 special service until special service companies are done then they just send engines. Staffing is 3 on each suppression peice 2 on the ambulances.
that we start with where we believe the would be. What we do when entreing a room is the lead would put one hand on the wall (usually left hand) and the rest of the team members would stay in physical contact with the lead while fanning out towards the center of the room. Then they would move as a team around the room, and the lead would continue to stay in contact with the wall at all times so they know exactly where they are. With the smoke it’s impossible to see anything, and the breathing apparatus and other noises make it difficult for us to hear each other. So it’s VERY important to maintain contact with each other and the wall to avoid getting disoriented and lost. To answer you additional questions. There is no set number of people that enter a house. Usually a search team is going in at the same time as the suppression team. If the search team is kind of big, they may split up to cover more area (maybe 2 teams of 3) but under NO circumstances does somebody go off by themselves.