LINK TO NATIONAL FIRE RADIO PODCAST WITH JEREMY DONCH 5-16-24

Changing Geography

Let’s talk about another type of changing geography, specifically the groundscraper.  These are being built everywhere. They are sticking them in every possible place in the urban areas but if you live anywhere near a railroad station in New Jersey, there is a good chance that there are some ground scrapers going up near you.  I like to call them human storage bins.  There are many issues that we will have to contend with when operating in these buildings.  I will cover some things, but I will also ask questions that you need to have answered before you can confidently respond to fires in these buildings because it is not a matter of if; it is a matter of when.  These buildings can be quite expansive.  Now put about 5 or 6 of them together and the configuration concern grows exponentially.  There have been many cases of these buildings burning right to the ground while under construction in New Jersey.  There was also the conflagration in Edgewater that due to the time of day it started, it did not cost hundreds of lives. If that had happened in the middle of the night, I shudder to think how many people would have been killed.

Response Times

This issue will apply mostly to uber-urban areas.  Streets where a few private dwellings are being bought up by developers are now seeing larger multiple dwellings being built that have parking beneath the building. What was once one or two parking spots is now parking for dozens of cars. Multiply this by the many buildings that are going up and you can see how the traffic problem which will affect response times has been created.

            Here are some questions that need to be answered – not by me, but by you and your department:

• First and foremost, are the voids sprinklered?
• Is there any way to contact all of the residents from a central communications point?
• What areas will be most difficult to make rescues from?
• Where are the areas of access?  How many ways into and out of the complex / building do we have?
• Are there cul-de-sacs where we cannot effectively position apparatus?
• Where are the stairwells and how many are there?  These will be the only place in the building living areas that won’t burn – get the residents there as quickly as possible.
• Can we use an aerial device and if not, where do we need to bring ground ladders for rescue?
• How long will the stretch be to reach the most remote areas?  Don’t count on your pre-connect.  What hose layout will best serve us here?
• Are all of the apartments one floor only or are there apartments with open stairwells inside?
• Where can we lock out the elevators? They are not needed nor should they be used for fire service operations in these buildings. 
• Are there any gated areas and/or forcible entry concerns?
• Where are areas of refuge?  Are there monitored communication stations there?
• Is there enough water for the heat release rate as seen in the second picture?  What was on the property before this human storage bin was built?  Has the water supply been updated?
• Do you have enough people to fight this fire?  These incidents will not only tax your resources but the resources of your mutual aid as well.
• Where are the standpipe and sprinkler connections?  How close are they to the hydrant?
• Do we have any defendable spaces or is the attic and floor voids completely open across the entire structure.  Captain Bill Gustin called this construction “horizontal balloon frame”.  Fire can spread laterally a long way.
• Do we have the ability to reach all areas of the structure from the standpipe connection?  Is hoisting an alternative for hose stretching?
• Do all areas around the building support the weight of apparatus?
• Are all areas accessible?
• Do our radios work in all areas of the building?
• Is there parking underneath the building or are there stores, or both?  Both will come with their own unique issues.  Can you say lithium ion?  Can you say suspended loads in the store?  See picture #3.  That suspended HVAC unit is about 400 pounds or more.  It will really hurt if it hits you because you didn’t know about it.
• What other diabolical surprises can they get away with?  Take a look at picture #4.  That is a human storage bin being built above an old bank. Welcome to Hudson County.

I know… a lot of questions. I usually do a lot of telling but here I am doing a lot of asking.  That is what you should be doing.  This is your responsibility. Once the building is there you cannot play the “we didn’t know” card.  Do your homework.

STRATEGIC SIZE-UP

Strategic Size up is a continual assessment of all the exponential potential present in a fire or emergency. As a fireground diagnostic tool, size up is used to deconstruct, reconstruct, intervene, outwit, and tame the exponential factor. Continuous size up must be the foundation and rationale driving all on duty, in service and ready decision making, on, off, before, during, and after fireground operations. Size up is influenced by your education, your training, your experience, a solid study of lessons learned from previous incidents, and information communicated from around the fire ground. These influences allow you to foresee, predict, and act upon all exponential potential by making the best use of available staffing and resources. Size-up is an all-senses activity

Building Construction – Why we need to know it all

When I teach building construction which is, by the way, probably my favorite fire service subject, I always cover all classifications from fire resistive to wood frame.  In this business, if you do not know your building construction, especially as an Officer, shame on you.  If you don’t know how the building was put together and how it is likely to behave under the insult of fire, you are playing Russian roulette with your people, which is unacceptable.  Knowing how the building was put together will determine the paths of least resistance for fire and gas spread (the likely flow paths).  This helps determine your protection strategies as well as your attack and ventilation strategies.  It will also give you an idea of where people are most likely to be found, what barriers are in place to protect them, and whether the construction is a benefit or a liability to their survival.  In addition, overhaul will be more effective because you will know where to look for hidden fire.  Most importantly, if you know how the building was put together, you can better predict how a building will fall apart (I know – I have read Dunn… you can never predict a collapse), but you can look for tendencies based on building construction

     From time to time, I will get told by students that it is a waste of time to cover construction not inherent to their area.  For example, firefighters who do not have high rises in their area do not think they need to know about fire resistive construction and its characteristics.  Likewise, those with no “downtown” area of ordinary construction feel that we needn’t cover those structures.  I see this as a case of nearsightedness comparable with tunnel vision.  I ask them, “Do you think that if the neighboring departments who have this type construction get a fire in a high rise or a fire in a row of taxpayers, will they be able to fight it by themselves?”  In this day and age of mutual and automatic aid, that answer is a resounding no.  You will be there.  The fact is that in the twenty-first century fire service, you never know where you will be dispatched to fight a fire and in what type of structure.  Therefore, it is incumbent on all firefighters in all departments to be aware of and students of building construction in not only the types of buildings they have in their jurisdiction, but in the buildings in the neighboring towns and mutual aid groups.

     A solid information sharing program between mutual aid departments and further building familiarization across jurisdictional boundaries makes a lot of sense in the world of automatic and mutual aid.  We did a lot of this before regionalization to North Hudson including common SOP’s because we did a lot of automatic aid and we knew we would see each other, sometimes multiple times during a tour of duty. This type program is a very simple program and can be done electronically, at first.  Each department involved in the program picks one building in the jurisdiction per month or every other month, takes some pictures and completes a form that was developed by the mutual aid building familiarization committee (yes you should have one of these) and shares that information with each other electronically.  A further step would be to have a mutual aid cadre of companies visit the building to get a real-life look at what the pictures are describing. This is extremely simple and can pay great dividends in both target hazards and weird buildings (we all have them).  How many times have not only home team firefighters, but mutual aid firefighters get themselves in trouble in buildings they should probably know about more than they do.  This is especially critical for those mutual aid companies that come in as the rapid intervention team.  Many departments rely on mutual aid for their RIT.  RIT needs to know everything.

     If anyone thinks this is a good idea, then get out and get this off the ground. Don’t wait for “them” to set it up.  Don’t give the excuse that “they” don’t want to do this. You are “them” and you are “they”.  It is your department and your fire service… and your duty. 

Work together and stay strong.

THE SLIDE BELOW IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF YOUR JOB!