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:  Watch the video of this heavily involved 2-story balloon frame house.  Note the wind and the exposures.  Give us your RECEO breakdown, initial actions and initial rig placement.  Have fun…

• What is your initial report?
• Rescue considerations?
• Exposures?
• Confinement issues?
• Extinguishment strategies and tactics?
• Overhaul, what areas will you focus initial searches for extension?
• Rig placement?

Make training, professionalism and pride part of your New Year’s resolution!  We’re in the process of building our 2012 calendar with intense, realistic hands-on training, interactive classroom events and good old-fashioned brotherhood.  A couple of events already scheduled include:

• Ventilation, Entry & Search Techniques –  Southeastern Fire School @ SC Fire Academy – March 10, 11
• SC State Firefighters/ Fire Chiefs Conference – Myrtle Beach, SC June 4-9

• S.A.F.E. Firefighter- Smart, Aggressive, Fundamental, Efficient (Interactive Lecture, 2 Hour) – 2 in January – Dates in the Works
• First Due Forcible Entry (Hands-On, 8 Hour) – Early February – Dates in the Works
• Ventilation, Entry & Search Techniques (Hands-On, 16 Hour) – Mid February – Dates in the Works
• First Due Forcible Entry (Hands-On, 8 Hour) – March- Dates TBD
• Fireground Rescue (Advanced RIC) (Hands-On, 16 Hour) – April – Date TBD

VSP is one of the hottest topics of conversation in the fire service today.  Captain Marsar’s research has taken the fire service by storm and has created an interesting “new” flavor of the month for those who feed on “firefighter safety through spectatorship”.  Maybe it was because of my animosity for the “let it burn” folks within our profession that I was initially against the concept of deciding if a building is searchable from the front yard and was unfairly biased.  However, the more I read about and discuss it the more I realize that I HAVE ALWAYS PERFORMED VSP!

• What conditions do I have, where are they and where are they going?
• What time is it and where are the people inside?
• Where and how can I get in to this building?
• How do I get out of this building?
• Do I have enough resources to do what I need to do now?
• What can I do now?
• Is this an offensive or defensive fire?

Is this a size-up or Victim Survivability Profiling (VSP)?

Our priorities of life safety, incident stabilization and property conservation (LIP) are one of the first things that you learn when you get into this job.  As our training continues, we learn about phases of fire, flashover and how to “read” smoke.  Then, hopefully, someone taught you about Lloyd Layman’s tactical considerations of RECEO VS (rescue, exposures, confinement, extinguishment, overhaul… vent and salvage… in that order).  What is supposed to happen is, you take all this knowledge, fight a few fires, learn from them, reapply as necessary then repeat.

As this process continues over years, you hone your skills, learn from your misreads, mistakes and close calls (or better yet someone else’s) and get better and smarter.  After time, you become the “senior man” or the officer in charge and get to use that knowledge and experience.  YOU decide mode of operation, where and how to position the first line and where/how to start a search.  NOW YOU GET TO DECIDE WHO LIVES AND WHO DIES.  If a civilian dies at one of “your” fires, DID YOU AND YOUR CREW (as an extension of you) DO EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER TO PROTECT THEIR LIFE in the manner you were taught your first week of fire training?

TENABLE versus VIABLE, THERE IS A DIFFERENCE.  Tenable may depend on smoke, heat, flame and interior layout of the occupancy or any combination.  Things are NOT always as they appear from the exterior.  Viability MAY be related to tenability, however occupant age, health and relative location to the fire all impact how long someone may be “viable”.  For that matter, our actions may directly impact tenability and how long someone may be viable.

How efficiently the first line gets stretched, advanced and water gets on the fire will have the greatest impact on tenability.  The time it takes us to get the smoke out of the building will also directly and greatly drive how long someone may be viable.  However, the only location on the fireground that is the most tenable AND protects viability is OUTSIDE.  Getting IN, searching tenable areas and pulling people OUT of the buildings is the only true way of holding up our end of the deal.

One of my favorite quotes from Chief John Salka is “You don’t know what you don’t know.”  We live and work in the unknown and OUR REALITY is making decision based on limited or unknown information.  Sometimes a situation leads us into some dangerous areas based on conditions, information and YOUR gut feeling.  These factors may lead you through or around “untenable” areas into those “voids” where panicked civilians seek refuge when faced with no exit and certain death.  They are not condemned to death; they are just waiting for us to come in a get them.  That’s where our training, experience, discipline and professionalism are put to the test.  It is not our job to decide who lives and who dies.  It is our job to do our job by getting water on the fire, letting the smoke and heat out and helping the helpless.

1. “Can They Be Saved? Utilizing Civilian Survivability Profiling to Enhance Size-Up and Reduce Firefighter Fatalities in the Fire Department, City of New York.”  , Stephen Marsar
2. “Survivability Profiling: Applying What We’ve Learned”, Stephen Marsar, Fire Engineering July 2011
3. “‘Survivability Profiling’ is Key to Ending Preventable LODDs”, Stephen Marsar, FireRescue Magazine November 2011
4. “Muliple Rescues in Fatal Lewisdale Fire”, from www.hvfd.com
5. “…Report Critical of Pasadena Fire Department’s Failure to Find Woman’s Body After Fire”, from Pasadena Star News Online
6. “Sometimes It’s Not So Simple”, from www.backstepfirefighter.com

Found this 2-part video of a serious fire in Detroit.  This fire originated in the obvious dwelling, then spread to the neighboring duplex.

Some background of this incident and some of the things people will notice:

• According to the description, this was the 9th arson fire in THIS NEIGHBORHOOD in ONE HOUR.
• The minimal use of SCBA.  According to the comments, these crews had run FOUR fires continuously and their was no more air available when this fire was dispatched.
• The Officer at the exposure performing “Das Boot” forcible entry.  Remember, bringing a tool (especially a Halligan or set of irons) can accomplish in one try what his boot took four.  This will hold true in MOST residential setting barring any security “surprises”.

Some of the interesting points about this operation:

Being able to teach firefighters from throughout the state gives me the opportunity to listen to, and have discussions with, people from departments of all sizes and demographics.  I try to draw from the positive information and purge the negative comments.  However, one of the most frustrating comments that I hear from firefighters while discussing strategy and tactics is “we can’t do that stuff like those big departments.” Usually, they are referring to things like truck work, rapid intervention and having seemingly endless resources.  However, these are usually excuses used to shield themselves from new ideas.  Strategy and tactics are based more on decision making  and skill proficiency than equipment and manpower.  The size of your department does NOT matter!

The first five minutes of any fire are the most critical. More so, the decisions and actions of the first arriving unit(s) determine the success of the operations.  If your first arriving unit is staffed with three firefighters (because that’s farfetched), their ability to assess the situation, determine what needs to be done and begin doing it will have a greater affect on the outcome than six units on scene with no direction.

If  your department has fewer resources, having the right attitude, leadership and management may establish a culture of superior firefighting that compensates for its lack of size with intelligent decisions and aggressive and properly executed tactics.  Some suburban and rural departments may be fairly strong with their First Alarm assignment but may have extended response times and/or rely on mutual aid beyond that.  In a case like this, even an advanced single family dwelling fire should be easily manageable, however it is vital for the initial units to be able to work together as well as be proficient as individual crews.  This could mean the difference between a solid First Alarm stop and a 2nd Alarm or greater catastrophe.

The late Tom Brennan said,“I don’t want to do anything (task) first. I want to do seven things all at once.” While this should be a the attitude of any firefighter, officer or Incident Commander, with limited resources you may have prioritize those tasks. For example, at a residence fire you have people trapped with fire showing from one window, since you know where the fire is but not the victims, you may choose to remove the problem by extinguishing the fire.  However, if you have people trapped with only smoke showing, since you don’t know where the fire is,  you may opt to prioritize a search and/or ventilation.  Ideally, you want to carry out fire attack, search and ventilation simultaneously. If  you are the first arriving unit with distant or no backup, you may be forced to make some difficult decisions.

When a fire happens, it is not the public’s concern how many firefighters show up.  All they know is that there is a fire with entrapment and they expect us to show up, save lives and put the fire out.  Period.  If we show up and perform proficiently and professionally, we can maintain a positive relationship with the public.  The public want results, not excuses.  When the bell rings, and its time to go to work, remember that size doesn’t matter.