Download Foundations of Fire Fighting Tactics and Strategies

Foundations of Fire Fighting
Tactics and Strategies
Chapter 5
Page101
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© 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Objectives
• Describe the process of developing the fire
fighting strategy and tactics involved in planning,
locating, confining, extinguishing, and
overhauling fires in buildings and other special
fire situations
• Discuss the methods used for the determination
of the proper fire operating mode: offensive,
transitional, defensive, or non-attack mode
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Objectives
• Define the term size-up and explain the steps
and factors involved in making a size-up
• Review the fire strategy and tactics used by
firefighters and apply the fire behavior
characteristics discussed in the text to the
situations reviewed
• Describe difficult fire situations encountered by
firefighters and the strategies and tactics they
should use to resolve these situations
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Introduction
• Learn about:
– Structure fires and fire behavior patterns most likely
to be encountered
– How to apply fire behavior tactics
• Overall mission for fire incidents has three major
components: finding the location of the fire,
confining the fire, and extinguishing the fire
• Size-up: method used to identify problem(s)
presented by the incident
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Development of Strategy and
Tactics
• Overall mission for firefighters responding to
fire:
– Locate the fire
– Confine the fire
– Extinguish the fire
• Decision-making model: overall strategy on
emergency incidents
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Development of Strategy and
Tactics (cont’d.)
Figure 5-2 The five steps in the decision-making model
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Attack Modes
• Offensive mode: make a direct attack on fire for
purposes of control and extinguishment
• Transitional mode: shifting from offensive to
defensive mode or from defensive to offensive
mode
• Defensive mode: conducted on exterior of
building to protect adjacent buildings from fire
spreading
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Attack Modes (cont’d.)
• Non-attack mode (passive approach): under
certain circumstances, a fire attack may be too
dangerous and incident command will choose to
let the fire burn out without an attack
– Cannot be made without careful consideration and by
making every effort to include the owner in the
decision making process
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Size-Up at the Incident Scene
• RECEO-VS
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Rescue
Exposures
Confinement
Extinguishment
Overhaul
Ventilation
Salvage
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Construction
• Includes building components, materials, and
extent of their fire-resistive abilities
• Five NFPA classifications
– Type I, II, III, IV, and V
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Type I or Fire-resistive
Construction
• Columns, beams,
floors, walls, and roof
made of materials
classified as noncombustible
Figure 5-4 Type I or
fire-resistive construction
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Type II or Non-combustible
Construction
• Non-combustible and
either protected or
unprotected
Figure 5-5(a) Type II or
noncombustible construction
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Type III or Exterior
Protected/Ordinary Construction
• Exterior walls made
of masonry
materials
• Interior walls and
materials permitted
to be partially or
wholly combustible
Figure 5-6 Type III or ordinary construction
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Type IV or Heavy Timber/Mill
Construction
• Exterior walls are
usually made of
masonry and
therefore are noncombustible
Figure 5-7 Type IV or heavy
timber/mill construction
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Type V or Wood Frame
Construction
• All major structural components can be made
of combustible materials
Figure 5-8 In Type V construction, all major structural components can be
made of combustible materials
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Occupancy or Use
• The building code that classifies buildings by
their use
• Loss of lives in building fires is always a concern
where large numbers of people gather
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Apparatus and Staffing
• Standard operating procedure (SOP): specific
information and instructions on how a task or
assignment is to be accomplished
• Need to know manpower resources
– Number, type of pumping, and ladder capability
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Need to Know Resources
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Life Hazard
• Primary search
– Aggressive primary search for victims during the first
few moments after arrival
• Personal alert safety system (PASS)
– Small, motion sensitive unit attached to and worn with
the SCBA by firefighters when entering an
Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health (IDLH)
environment
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Terrain
• Structure can be built on land with different
grade levels
• Careful pre-incident planning can help in
reducing the time required to deal with terrain
problems
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Water Supply
• Can water be delivered in sufficient gallons per
minute to suppress the number of BTUs being
given off by the fire?
• Learn location of water lines of other
jurisdictions or districts
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Auxiliary Appliances
• Fire sprinklers have record of over one hundred
years of being 90% to 98% effective in
controlling fires
• Three types of water sprinkler application
systems
– Wet pipe
– Dry pipe
– Deluge
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Street Conditions
• Narrow streets, traffic congestion, doubleparked cars, and construction work can severely
impact fire operations
• Close coordination with public works and traffic
departments can reduce such problems
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Narrow Streets
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Weather
• Extreme weather conditions can affect
operations
• Rehabilitation system:
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–
–
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Hydration
Nourishment
Rest and recovery
Medical evaluation
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Rehab Unit
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Exposures
• Using water by running it down side of exposed
building, coating it with water
• Water spray can protect against movement of
heated air currents and direct flame
impingement
• Use large water appliances to reduce or redirect
air currents and to cool threatened building
surfaces
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Area and Height
• Indicates maximum potential fire area
• Height of building raises issues of whether the
fire department has necessary ladder lengths to
reach upper building areas
• Height may provide exposure hazard to nearby
buildings
• Impacts use of master streams
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Location and Extent of Fire
• The lower the fire, the more serious the threat of
fire is to the building
• Fire below grade such as a basement fire, are
hotter, and generally more complex
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Time
• May determine life-threatening situation
• Time of day impacts time required for a fire
apparatus to arrive
– Morning and evening traffic peaks can double the
response time
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Special Concerns
• Personnel accountability report (PAR): reports
on location/condition of personnel
• Personnel accountability system (PAS):
determines entry/exit of personnel
• Rapid intervention team or crew (RIT/RIC):
assignment of group for rapid deployment of
reports on personnel in trouble/missing
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Building Construction Methods and
Occupancy Types
• Platform construction method: floors built
separately from outer walls and ceiling and floor
area serves as fire block to stop movement of
hot fire gases between floors
• Balloon frame method of construction: obsolete
construction method where wood studs run from
foundation to roof and floors are nailed to studs
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Balloon Framing
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Platform Construction
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Fire Behavior in Specific
Occupancies
• Different procedures need followed for various
types of buildings
• Important to understand essential differences of
building methods and building types when
evaluating how to approach a fire
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Single-Story Family Dwellings of
the Past
• 1940s – 1950s
– Plastered walls covering wood/wire mesh which was
painted/covered with heavy paper or cloth
– Bare wood, rugs, linoleum, wool carpets
– Bare wood to upholstered furniture with cotton, wool,
or leather
– Rooms poorly insulated with single-paned windows
– Fire load was low and the rooms were well ventilated
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Today’s Residential Properties
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•
•
•
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Better insulation and increase in fire load
More plastics
Interior fire fighting hotter
Decreased time to flashover
Has become much more dangerous in these
occupancies
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Multiple-family Dwellings
• Vary from city to city
Figure 5-16 Open attic
and truss construction
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Mercantile Fires
• Strip malls made as cheaply as possible
• Barely meet code requirements
• Fire originating in one store of a strip has good
chance of communicating to others
– Can extend into cockloft area and once there, will
move horizontally with little or no resistance
• Roof ventilation is important
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Strip Mall Fires
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Hotel Fires
• Not designed with fire safety in mind
• Older hotels built with open stairways and
rooms off of corridors with transoms
• HVAC units can circulate hot fire gases
throughout the building if unit is not protected
with fire dampers
• Not equipped with an eyebrow
– Designed to prevent or inhibit fire and smoke from
lapping into the upper floor(s) in a multistory building44
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Hotel Fires
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Industrial Occupancies
• Vary considerably due to manufacturing
processes
• Tenant factory/loft building
– Potential for a fast-spreading fire is high
• Newer manufacturing buildings constructed
using concrete tilt-up construction
– Provide open void spaces where fire gases can
accumulate
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New England Mill
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Churches
• Similar construction
• Large hanging ceilings or cocklofts lead to
church’s destruction
• If steeple present, collapse is likely
• Life safety record for church fires is good
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Schools
• Fire drills usually constructed
• Significant improvement in the use of fireresistant construction materials in new schools
• Some schools use modular classrooms
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Basement Fires
• Good location for storage of combustible items
• Can become fully developed and present a very
hot, smoky fire situation where visibility is limited
• Long hoses may be required
• Possibility of gas ignition
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Basement Fires
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Attic Fires
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•
•
•
Burn upward
Respond quickly to proper vertical ventilation
Should be attacked as fast as possible
As little water as possible should be used
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Attic Fires
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Flat Roofs
• Attic space is approximately three feet deep and
provides open space between underside of roof
and top side of ceiling
• Always work with wind at your back or side from
where the wind is blowing: windward side
– Keeps smoke and hot gases downwind
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Peaked Roofs
• Encourage the use of aerial ladders
• Roof ladder also used if aerial not possible
• Vent hole cut as close to the ridge as possible
without damaging the underlying rafters
– Should be made on leeward side
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Carport/Garage
• Carport: freestanding structure open on all sides
– Carport itself is not serious fire problem because it is
constructed using a minimum amount of combustible
materials
– Flammable liquid fires common
• Garage
– One-story: line inside house to prevent extension of
the fire into this area
– Two-story: direct attack on garage and line upstairs
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Summary
• Understand basic principles of fire fighting and
characteristics of fire behavior
• Three efforts:
– Locate the fire
– Confine the fire
– Extinguish the fire
• Determine type of attack necessary
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