The 81 fatalities occurred in 33 states, one U. Texas experienced the highest number of fatalities seven. This is a significant incident benchmark being met. Advancing a hoseline will cause conditions opposite the hose line and above to worsen as the heat, fire, and steam are pushed in the direction by the force of the stream. Conditions in areas behind, adjoining or above the operating hoseline must be monitored for sudden possible deterioration due to the effects of hoseline advancement on the fire.
All members must be alert to fireground communications concerning hoseline placement and the commencement of fire-fighting operations so that they may seek refuge if necessary. Communication during the fire attack may be difficult at times due to the noise created by the stream striking walls, ceilings and furnishings. However, the engine company officer must monitor the portable radio for critical information that may affect the engine company. The engine company officer can provide the Incident Commander with vital information that may affect how the fire operation is handled.
Messages such as those listed below should be transmitted to the Incident Commander, other units, or individual members on the scene:. At this incident the Incident Commander told Engine 5 that the fire apartment was located at the top of the stairs on the left on the 2nd Floor. He could not get the door to the apartment open.
The Incident Commander went to the 2nd floor landing and did not see or pass the victim. The Incident Commander called the lieutenant from Engine 5 and instructed him to get the hoseline to the 2nd floor and into the fire apartment. The lieutenant responded and brought the hoseline down to the 2nd floor and into the fire apartment.
Recommendation 4: Ensure all personnel are trained in the proper application of fire streams. Discussion: In order to extinguish a fire, an engine company officer should consider the following when preparing for the primary fire attack: total flow of water needed, length of the stretch of the hoseline, location and access of the fire, and available staffing.
Due to the smoke and confusion, the lieutenant tried to enter the wrong apartment and the door was locked. The lieutenant then took the charged hoseline to the 3rd floor to find Ladder 1 to have them force the apartment door.
The Incident Commander went to the 2nd floor landing, ordered the lieutenant back to the 2nd floor landing, and then the lieutenant entered the fire apartment. Smoke is a fuel source and has to be cooled to prevent the smoke from igniting which can transition to a rollover, flashover, or smoke explosion at any time.
The hot gas layer near the ceiling can be cooled by applying short pulses of water fog. The fog nozzle can be set on a 30 — 60 degree fog pattern directed upward toward the gas layer and quickly open and close the nozzle 1 — 2 seconds. When the water starts to come back, this indicates the gases have been cooled. If no water comes back, the process must continue.
Also, the fire stream must be applied by using a solid or straight stream or at most, a 30 degree fog pattern. The lieutenant had the nozzle adjustable fog nozzle , went to the 2nd floor, then the 3rd floor, then back to the 2nd floor, and into the fire apartment.
The lieutenant tried to knock down the fire by penciling 1 — 2 second increments and kept moving further into the apartment. The lieutenant could see fire in the bedroom in front of him when the living room and the bedroom flashed.
The lieutenant called for the officer of Ladder 1. The lieutenant from Ladder 1 went into the fire apartment and found the lieutenant from Engine 5. The fire fighter from Engine 3 was coming into the fire apartment, got the nozzle, and put water on both officers. When encountering a heavy amount of fire and heat in any scenario, fire fighters need to completely open the nozzle to obtain maximum fire flow and attempt to knock the fire down.
Recommendation 5: Fire departments should ensure that the Incident Commander establishes a stationary command post for effective incident management, which includes the use of a tactical worksheet, effective fireground communications, and a personnel accountability system. Discussion: When a chief officer e. Command officers generally establish and continue command and control functions inside their vehicles or at the rear of the vehicle, which has a command board.
The tactical worksheet is a critical resource because it helps the Incident Commander to strategically organize the incident scene and serves as a convenient workspace for tracking companies and apparatus. When a tactical level management unit is implemented division or group , a fire department should provide a dispatch channel, a command channel, and a tactical channel. A fire department should provide the necessary number of radio channels relating to incidents with multiple tactical channels and the complexity of these incidents.
NFPA , section 8. Another critical element that is essential to the success of the personnel accountability system is effective fireground or incident scene communications. This is separate from the role of the Incident Commander. The Incident Commander is responsible for the overall command and control of the incident. Due to the importance of responder safety, this function should be assigned to a Personnel Accountability Officer or Resource Status Officer.
There are many means of accounting for resources. Components can include tactical worksheets, command boards, apparatus riding lists, company responder boards, electronic bar-coding systems, and so forth. This process includes establishing proper radio communication, initiating the tactical worksheet, and starting the personnel accountability system. The next step of the Incident Commander would be to focus on the development of the strategy and the Incident Action Plan IAP which is then communicated to all companies and other personnel operating on the incident scene.
Most importantly the communications and personnel accountability process would be initiated from the beginning of the incident. Recommendation 6: Ensure critical benchmarks are communicated to the Incident Commander. Discussion: The size-up of interior conditions is just as important as exterior size-up. The Incident Commander monitors exterior conditions while the interior conditions are monitored and communicated to the Incident Commander as soon as possible from company officers.
Knowing the location and the size of the fire inside the building lays the foundation for all subsequent operations. Proper size-up and risk versus gain analysis requires that the Incident Commander gather a number of key pieces of information and be kept informed of the constantly changing conditions on the fireground. The Incident Commander must develop and utilize a system that captures pertinent incident information to allow continuous situational evaluation, effective decision making, and development of an incident management structure.
Decisions can be no better than the information on which they are based. The Incident Commander must use an evaluation system that considers and accounts for changing fireground conditions in order to stay ahead of the fire.
If this is not done, the Incident Action Plan will be out of sequence with the phase of the fire and the Incident Commander will be constantly surprised by changing conditions.
Interior size-up is just as important as exterior size-up. Since the Incident Commander is located at the command post outside , the interior conditions should be communicated by interior crews as soon as possible to the Incident Commander. Interior crews can aid the Incident Commander in this process by providing reports of the interior conditions as soon as they enter the fire building and by providing regular updates, especially when benchmarks are met e.
Retired Fire Chief Alan Brunacini states that critical fireground factors, including interior and exterior conditions, are among the many items that the Incident Commander must consider when evaluating tactical situations. These items provide a checklist of the major issues involved in size-up, decision making, initiating operations, and review and revision.
The Incident Commander deals with these critical factors through a systematic management process that creates a rapid, overall evaluation; sorts out the critical factors in priority order; and then seeks out more information about each factor.
The Incident Commander must train and prepare through practice to engage in conscious information management. Incident factors and their possible consequences offer the basis for a standard incident management approach. A standard information approach is the launching pad for effective incident decision making and successful operational performance.
The Incident Commander must develop the habit of using the critical factors in their order of importance as the basis for assigning the specific assignments that make up the Incident Action Plan. The Incident Commander must create a standard information system and use effective techniques to keep informed at the incident. The Incident Commander can never assume the action-oriented responder engaged in operational activities will stop what they are doing so they can feed the Incident Commander with a continuous supply of top-grade objective information.
Recommendation 7: A personnel accountability system should be used to account for all fire fighters and first responders assigned to any incident. Discussion: An important aspect of a personnel accountability system is the personnel accountability report PAR.
A PAR is an organized on-scene roll call in which each supervisor reports the status of their crew when requested by the Incident Commander. The control of the personnel accountability system should be assigned to an individual responsible for maintaining the location and status of all assigned resources resource status at an incident.
This is a separate role from the duties of the Incident Commander. The Incident Commander is responsible for overall command and control of the incident. Due to the importance of responder safety, this function would be assigned to a Personnel Accountability Officer or Resource Status Officer. These components can be used in conjunction with one another to facilitate the tracking of responders by both location and function.
The components of the personnel accountability system should be modular and expand with the size and complexity of the incident. As the incident escalates, additional staffing and resources may be needed, adding to the burden of tracking personnel. The tactical worksheet or incident command board should be established early with an assigned accountability officer or aide.
With an accountability system in place, the Incident Commander may readily identify the location and time of all fire fighters on the fireground. A properly initiated and enforced personnel accountability system that is consistently integrated into fireground command and control enhances fire fighter safety and survival by helping to ensure a more timely and successful identification.
This department had a standard operating procedure for accountability which details the use of the accountability tags by members. When a member is assigned to a company, the accountability tag is placed on a ring on the apparatus and maintained by the company officer. At this incident, the victim became separated from his lieutenant once they entered the structure. Engine 5 was ordered to stretch a hoseline into the building and to the 2nd floor fire apartment Apartment 3.
Once the lieutenant got to the 2nd floor, he realized there were two apartments. The lieutenant tried to open the door to the Apartment 4 apartment across the hall from the fire apartment , but the door was locked.
The victim was last seen by the Incident Commander pulling the hoseline up the stairwell to the 2nd floor. The lieutenant from Engine 5 went to the 3rd floor to find Ladder 1 and have them force the door. Once the lieutenant got back to the 2nd floor landing, there was no communications or contact with the victim.
The lieutenant went into the fire apartment and attempted to knock down the fire. The victim was located approximately 9 minutes later in the kitchen area of the fire apartment by the captain from Engine 7, who pulled the victim out of the building with the assistance of two other fire fighters. Recommendation 8: Ensure that a rapid intervention team crew RIC is established and available to immediately respond to a fire fighter rescue operation.
Discussion: At all fireground operations, at least one rapid intervention crews RIC should be designated and available to respond before interior attack operations begin. The rapid intervention crew should report to the officer in command and remain in a designated ready position until an intervention is required to rescue a fire fighter s. The rapid intervention crew should have all tools necessary to complete the task. The following is the minimum equipment that should be made available to a rapid intervention crew:.
A rapid intervention crew should pre-plan a rescue operation by finding out fire structure information. Make a size-up of the overall scene, considering the following:. When the rapid intervention crew enters to perform a search and rescue, they should have full cylinders on their SCBAs and be physically prepared.
When a rapid intervention crew is used in an emergency situation, an additional rapid intervention crew should be put into place in case an additional emergency situation arises.
During fire fighter rescue operations, the Incident Commander should consider implementing the following:. The Incident Commander must also be mentally prepared to take an even greater responsibility and not allow fellow fire fighters to enter a structure that will likely result in more deaths. Recommendation 9: Fire departments should use thermal imaging cameras TICs during the fire-fighting operations.
Discussion: Thermal imaging cameras TIC provide a technology with potential to enhance fire fighter safety and improve the ability to perform tasks such as size-up, search and rescue, fire attack, and ventilation.
TICs should be used in a timely manner, fire fighters should be properly trained in the use of a thermal imaging camera, and be aware of their limitations. This mission can be accomplished in many ways.
First and foremost, in near zero visibility conditions, primary searches may be completed quickly and with an added degree of safety. The use of thermal imaging technology may also be invaluable when a fire department is confronted with larger floor areas or unusual floor plans. At times the search may be for a member who has become separated from the company or crew. TICs may also provide a method for fire fighters to track and locate other fire fighters in very limited visibility conditions.
The TIC may provide invaluable assistance in locating a missing member of the company or crew. This process can enhance fire fighter accountability before an issue arises.
At a structure fire, the TIC may help identify the location of the fire or the extent of fire involvement prior to fire fighters being deployed into a structure. Knowing the location of the fire may help fire fighters determine the best approach to the fire.
The TIC may provide additional information for a crew s making the fire attack that they would not previously have due to poor visibility and building construction. Using this information, fire fighters may be able to locate the fire more quickly and may also ensure that the water application is effective. One of the most important aspects of the TIC is that when used properly and understood it may provide the potential to detect a fire that is isolated or hidden within parts of structure.
He was transported to a hospital where he later died. A year old Michigan firefighter died of a heart attack during search and rescue training and a year old Texas firefighter was killed while searching for possible occupants in a shopping center fire. Between and the U.
Out of that 14, or 2. Two of those involved a victim who was in a fire in his own house and a victim who came across a fire near his home. While the actual number of firefighters killed while searching burning structures is low in this six-year period, that does not translate into believing that the risk of death is to be considered low.
It does however steer us away from misinterpretation of vague or larger numbers and redirects toward how our firefighters are specifically dying. As we have seen cardiac events, especially during training, have killed nearly half of those related to search not involving a burning structure.
As much as we promote preplanning to be aware of a structure before it is on fire, we need to promote physical and medical wellness to be sure our firefighters are ready for work.
Consider the year where only one firefighter died of a heart attack while doing SCBA training. Despite his loss, we had a year where no firefighter died while doing a search for life inside a burning structure. Fear tells us it is dangerous, reality tells us it is possible, and our training and education tell us it can be successful.
Fire Engineering. Interview: U. Fire Administrator Lori Moore-Merrell. Private-Dwelling Fire Challenges. Baxter Springs KS Lt. North Carolina experienced six firefighter deaths and was the only other state with five or more firefighter fatalities.
Fire Administrator Ernest Mitchell said. We salute and congratulate our fire service family and pledge to continue working closely with the entire fire service community and its partners to maintain and even accelerate this downward trend in on-duty firefighter deaths.
Ten on-duty firefighters died in association with wildland fires, the lowest number of annual firefighter deaths associated with wildland fires since
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