Below Grade Fires

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Below Grade Fires

• OFC Training Officers Seminar
• November 30, 2004
• Don Knap, HES-FIRE

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• From a firefighting point of view, a
  cellar is the most dangerous area inside a
  building.
• More firefighters are killed and injured
  battling cellar fires than are killed and
  injured battling fires on any upper floor.
• Dangers Include
• Fire
• Explosions
• Collapse
• Drowning
• Toxic gases
• Electrocution

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Below Grade Fires

• - Commercial/Industrial
• - Residential
• - Clandestine

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Basement

• a full story below grade
• One-half or more of its height is above grade
  level
• When calculating the height of a building, the
  basement is counted as the first floor

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Cellar

• is a below grade area that has more than half of
  its height below grade.
• can be below grade on one side of a building and
  above grade at the sides and rear (up to 50)
• can be totally below grade

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Hazards

• Grow Operations
• Haz Mat
• Building Construction
• Building Design
• Age/Maintenance of Building
• Fuel Source
• Water Supply
• Electricity

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Grow Operations

• High voltage electrical ballasts
• High pressure grow lamps
• Unfused, no disconnect, hydro source
• Entanglement potential
• Set traps
• Limited entry/ventilation/egress due to security
• Mould

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HazMat

• Minimize the surprise factor through
  preplan/tacticals
• No garage, suspect basement workshop
• 1 lb. propane cylinder 2 sticks dynamite
• Consumer chemicals and aerosols

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Building Construction

• Lightweight truss
• Well involved fire
• - was 20 minutes to collapse
• - now 16-18 or less with superior insulation
• Interior finish
• Exposed ABS plastic conduit etc.
• Renovations

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Building Design

• Enclosed/open stairway
• Secured building
• Underground parking
• - propane/natural gas fueled
• - maintenance of sprinklers/exhaust fans
• - disorientation hazard for firefighters

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Age/Maintenance of Building

• Even without fire, some stairways are old, weak,
  and ready to fall apart under the weight of a
  firefighter and equipment
• Rapid extension upward
• Derelict/exposed to weather buildings

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Fuel Source

• Natural Gas plastic pipe can melt below ground
  level
• Rural Size up for propane tank or private gas
  well
• Oil basement storage tank of relative size to
  occupancy

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Water Supply

• Municipal system
• Rural tanker or drafting source

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Electricity

• Firefighter training concentrates mainly on the
  conduction of electricity through hose streams
• Need to consider
• - wet flooded floors
• - wet firefighters
• - breaching walls/ceilings with metal tools
• Emergency generators - commercial
• -
  residential

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• Utility control must be accomplished early in
  operations.
• Pre-plan to identify internal hazards

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Fog Streams

• Fog streams are useful tools when used correctly
  in the appropriate situation
• Flammable liquid and gas fires
• Protection of exposures
• Electrical Fires
• Foam Application
• Pick correct tool for the job

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Using Fog Streams

• Reduces reach
• Reduces penetration
• Reduces visibility around your stream
• Entrains air (oxygen) into your stream
• 30 degree fog nozzle moves well over 2000 cfm
• Increases likelihood of upsetting the thermal
  balance in the space and of producing steam burns

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Spray and Pray Method

• get inside, put it on fog, and whip it around
• Creating massive amounts of steam,
  overpressurizing the room
• Firefighters unable to move through that
  atmosphere further into the fire building
• It was way too hot to get inside
• Building dies a slow death

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Solid-bore/Straight Streams

• Airflow volumes introduced into the fire area by
  solid-bore and straight streams from combination
  nozzles are very similar
• Moves relatively little air,600-700 cfm, into the
  fire area
• Will not disturb the thermal balance of the room
• Large volume of water going directly onto the
  fuel in the form of large drops

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Fog Nozzles as Protection

• The need for the fog pattern for protection often
  based on airflow patterns, air-movement volumes,
  and velocities experienced without realistic heat
  or confinements of an interior fire condition
• Using a fog pattern in an unvented interior fire
  will not protect the firefighters but will
  greatly increase danger

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Training

• That more live fire training exercises in the
  form of realistic scenarios be provided for all
  suppression personnel as often as possible

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Ventilation

• Dangerous temperatures (2000 F) at the high
  levels of the room will remain until complete
  ventilation takes place
• Solid-bore/straight stream nozzles will not
  overpressurize the room and cause a rapid air
  movement toward the nozzleman
• Air injected can easily be moved through a 3X4
  foot vent-size opening

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Ventilation

• Assignments on the fireground have become more
  demanding. ICS has identified specific jobs with
  limited numbers of firefighters on scene.
• Ventilation often not given sufficient priority
  and done in a timely manner especially when fog
  streams used

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Ventilation

• Is the interior crew safer if we assign
• - RIT and no ventilation?
• - Accountability and no ventilation?
• - Safety Officer and no ventilation?
• - A ventilation crew to support the attack
  before adding additional handlines?
• Need priorities and essentials to make
• fireground safe.

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IFSTA Essentials IV

• The application of hose streams must be
  performed with prudent care because of the
  difficulty of ventilating generated steam
• If ventilation holes cannot be made large enough
  for effective ventilation..then it is important
  to keep the nozzle on straight stream

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Fire Attack

• Indirectly through floor
• Specialized cellar nozzles
• Flooding the floor
• Descend hot smoky stairs and get below the heat
  barrier
• Must be fully coordinated with ventilation
  activities to prevent vertical and horizontal
  fire spread may need creative ventilation
  techniques

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Training - Fire Below

• Identify weakened floor joists
• Terrazo (finished cement) and cement board/tile
• - increased dead load
• - contains heat and smoke water evaporates
  quickly or turns to steam
• - no sagging, spring or spongy feel to
  indicate collapse

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Size Up

• Get the big picture
• Avoid tunnel vision
• Must do 360
• Available resources
• Type of construction
• Time considerations
• Etc.
• Continually evaluate the risk versus gain

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When inside

• Expect the UNexpected
• Pay attention to surroundings, stop and listen
  (fire/structure/PASS)
• Try to anticipate what may go wrongbefore it
  does
• Risk/benefit
• Check communications often (simplex/relay)

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Ignoring Changing Fire Conditions

• Sudden flash of fire out of a room doorway
  rollover
• Failure to assess the heat buildup in the smoke
  filled room
• Warning signs of backdraft conditions in smaller
  confined spaces
• Listening to radio reports of operations above
  them fire extension, ventilation

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Safety

• First line of defense is training (ff. survival)
• Assign a Safety Officer ASAP
• RIT team/crew requested when a working fire
  confirmed
• Treat every power line, cable TV, phone line as
  live
• Too many firefighters inside not doing specific
  tasks
• Air management accountability

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Storage

• Boxes, cartons, furniture
• Large quantities of combustible merchandise
• Frequently stacked as high as possible to
  underside of floor above
• Narrow isles through stored material to access
  utility supply and shutoffs

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Firefighting Challenges

• Blocks hose streams need 3 ft. or more
• Collapse due to water soaking
• Conceals exact point of fire
• Flashover/backdraft possibilities
• Large amounts of water may need to be discharged
• Activities of crews above

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Safety

• Our life expectancy inside a structure is
  limited to the air we carry on our backs (A.
  Brunacini)
• RITThe time it takes to rescue a firefighter is
  longer than the time allotment for which we carry
  on our backs
• Low air alarms time in/out (residential/commerci
  al)
• Use PASS devices
• Emergency evacuation tones

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RIT
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RIT

• Rapid Intervention isnt rapid
• RIT should be in place and equipped before
  conditions become unsafe
• RIT should be observing building and fireground
  operations
• Deploy a search team (TICs)
• Send in rescue team
• Set up lighting to guide

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RIT

• Unreasonable to expect a single company/crew to
  locate, package for removal, provide air, to
  extricate from any entrapment, and actually
  remove a firefighter from the structure
• May be operating under rapidly deteriorating
  conditions
• Train under realistic conditions
• - UP stairs.UP ladders

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Where We Go From Here

• Operating procedures up to date
• Training efforts need to be focused on preventing
  us from ever needing to use rapid intervention
• Training should include getting ourselves out of
  trouble (ff survival)
• Does your rapid intervention concept work?
• That more live fire training exercises in the
  form of realistic scenarios be provided for all
  suppression personnel as often as possible

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• The first attack hoseline is the single most
  important firefighting action at a fire
• after accurate size-up
• The first hoseline stretched at a fire saves
  lives, including saving lives of firefighters

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• As the frequency of fires decline in our
  communities and practical training on
  firefighting being carried out less often, is a
  gap growing between what we think we can do
  safely and effectively to fight fires.