Whiteboard Drawing 2: roof ventilation

Whiteboard drawing detailing roof operations

The drawing above briefly summarizes the roof operations my crew has been training on over the last couple shifts.

By using two roof ladders, firefighters are able to safely cut a vent hole without needing to step off the ladder.

In the drawing, the first firefighter (top left) has finished their cuts and has started to open the roof. The second firefighter (bottom center) has just finished the bottom cut, and is handing the saw off to the lieutenant, then the two firefighters will work together to open the hole with hand tools.

Detail

Another important note is to never lean/pull or put your weight on a chimney, for obvious reasons.

Detail

Whiteboard Drawing

Through the floor firefighter rescue

I read a Fire Engineering article by Chris Piepenburg, then summarized it by illustration. The magic of a whiteboard drawing is that it is only temporary...... unless of course you take a picture of it.

Nicaragua July 2012

Rivas Bomberos in front of the WI engine.

This July I was fortunate enough to spend a little time with some firefighters (bomberos) in Nicaragua. Despite a language barrier, I felt at home with the firefighters of Rivas and Managua, finding that once we started to talk shop, I could communicate effectively with sound effects and emphatic gestures. 

Pumper from Canada

Most of Nicaragua’s fire equipment is inherited from other countries, especially the U.S. and Canada, so they’re working with nozzles and pumps I am familiar with. In fact, one of the trucks at the Rivas station was from Buffalo County WI, which just goes to show how small this world really is.

Fire Station in Rivas

While I was visiting the Station in Rivas I met Cesar Guevara, a Captain of the fire department in Managua, and in charge of Ambulance operations there. On top of that he was a doctor, and spoke English, relieving my friend Riley from her interpreter duties. Thanks again Riley. 

Captain Guevara had brought an ambulance from Managua to staff the medical station at the international master’s surfing competition, and stopped in the Rivas Fire Station to pay his respects. This was incredibly good luck for me, as I was invited to come shadow on the ambulance for the surfing competition.

Ah, the fantastic views offered at an international surfing competition.

 

While watching surfing and taking patients to the nearest clinic for stitches (nothing major) was cool, the best part of the competition was being able to talk to Captain Guevara.

I’ll briefly breakdown some of the firefighting numbers/facts he gave me.

Nicaragua is protected by a government fire department, within which there are professional and volunteer firefighters. This is a country wide system, meaning that there isn’t a Managua Fire Department, or a Granada Fire Department, instead they are all one organization. The exception to this is some volunteer departments, like Rivas, which do not operate under the Nicaraguan government fire organization. 

Although the fire service’s budget is small compared to Police, Immigration, or the Jail system (all four of these systems operate under one branch of government) only the firefighters are popular with the people. I guess some things are the same no matter where you go.      

Bomberos (firefighters) work for 48 hours, then have 48 hours off, work for 72 hours, get 72 hours off and then start back over again with the 48s. So they are at work half of the time.

Nicaragua has a population of roughly five million. During the day (when people are at work) the city of Managua swells to hold two million of those people. And they have seven fire stations. Which isn’t very many…. At all. 

In the end I didn't get to spend nearly as much time with the Bomberos as I would have liked, so hopefully I will return to Nicaragua before too many years go by. Maybe I'll learn Spanish too, who knows.  

Risk/Benefit (Nicaragua 2012)

Captain Guevara and yours truly.

 

Since talking to Captain Guevara, one comment he made has stuck with me. He said, because of the people’s financial situation, he and his firefighters, would take a greater risk while fire fighting then we would/should in the U.S. 

Emergency responders around the world use a system called risk/benefit to evaluate if they committing lives and resources appropriately for different situations.

It works like this: Risk nothing if nothing can be saved. For example, if flames are blowing out of ever window of a house, there is nothing left to be saved, so no action which puts firefighters in danger should be taken. On the flip side, if we know that someone is trapped in a building, we are willing to take great personal risks to help them. Usually the way this breaks down for the U.S. is, lives are worth serious risk to firefighters, whereas viable property is only worth a very small risk. You can buy a new refrigerator, you can even build a new house, but you can’t bring people back to life.

But what if you can’t buy a new refrigerator? Because it took you three years to save up for it, and now your income is barley enough to send your kids to school. What if you can’t build a new house? Because it’s the house your family has lived in for four generations. Unlike the U.S. insurance is pretty much unheard of, especially for the general population. When you lose something, it’s gone. As for a safety net for people that have a fire or a flood? It doesn’t exist.

Captain Guevara’s point was: While they use risk benefit, things have different weights on the Nicaraguan scale then they do in the U.S. He is willing to take serious risks save a closet or even to pull an appliance from a burning building, because those things are so hard to replace.

It raises a difficult question. If U.S. firefighters respond to a fire in the home of a poor family without insurance, should they use more risky/aggressive tactics then would for a family with a good income and insurance? 

Food for thought. 

Drawing

Drawing for my friend's son Silas who just turned six.

Credit to Allie Boyat for the tiger idea.

Intro to the Fire Brigades of Ireland

Dublin Fire Brigade fire helmet with face shield lowered

 This December I went to the Republic of Ireland to tour some of it’s fire brigades and learn about compartment firefighting. I ended up visiting four stations in Dublin, and five other cities’ fire brigades: Waterford, Limerick, Cork, Killarney and Galway.

Limerick Fire Station

Basically I would show up, ring the bell, introduce myself as an American Firefighter, and request a quick tour. This was a verbal Trojan horse to get me though the door, once inside I would proceed to pick their brains for everything they knew about compartment firefighting. Fortunately, I never met and Irish firefighter who wasn’t happy to share what they knew with me, so this strategy was very effective. I will get into the specifics of what I learned in future entries, but a brief summary of my experience in Ireland would be as follows.

The Fire Service in Republic of Ireland is very uniform, equipment, training operation and attitude were
consistent across the country. There are no volunteer firefighters in Ireland, but the majority of firefighters are paid-on-call. Meaning they do not staff the fire station, but when they attend training or respond for call, they are financially compensated.

All the firefighters I met were enthusiastic about their profession, and could fluently talk about their brigades' tactics and training. Compared to Americans, the Irish have very specific ways they try to accomplish different operations, and detailed protocols regarding safety and accountability. Though our counties equipment differs greatly, the most significant difference I noticed was attitude. I will write more on these subjects in later entries.

Crest of the Cork City Fire Brigade

This was a successful trip, thanks mostly to the Irish’s well known hospitality. I hope you will enjoy the rest of my entries.

Different Dragons

Why can't we apply European firefighting tactics in the U.S.? 

When I did ride-alongs with the Copenhagen Fire Brigade this past May (2011), I got my first taste of “Three-Dimensional” or “Compartment” firefighting. I was struck by the stark contrast between American and European fire tactics, high-pressure/low-flow vs. low-pressure/high-flow, for example. The question which arose for me was “why can’t we use European firefighting strategies in America?” because their strategies stuck me as more precise, scientific, and much easier to perform.  

I suspected that the differences in our tactics were rooted in our fires, and that our buildings were changing the fires. So far I was on the right track, but then I got off target. I keyed in on the different materials we construct our buildings out of, Denmark for example has very strict limits of what can be used in a structure and what cannot. In contrast, American builders can use just about any materials they want. However, as I learned, the material difference between our structures accounts for only a small part of the large difference in our fires.

This past December (2011) I traveled to Ireland and learned it’s not what our buildings are made of that make our fires different, it’s how our buildings are put together. The "built environment" changes both how the fire develops and potential options for engaging it.

A typical home in Ireland is divided into many small rooms separated by doors. It has no basement. Balloon frame construction (where exterior wall studs run from the foundation to the top floor creating hidden channels in which the fire can travel vertically through the structure) is not used. American homes are larger, typically have basements, and most significantly, open floor plans with large interconnected rooms.

Typical Irish Home

First floor plan of larger american home with open floor plan. Note the interconnected rooms. 

A fire can be classified as one of two types; these are ventilation-controlled and fuel-controlled. An example of each would be as follows: fuel-controlled, fire starts in a set of curtains, consumes them and goes out before catching anything else on fire. The curtain fire was fuel-controlled because it had plenty of O2 but it ran out of fuel, the curtains, and died. A ventilation-controlled fire develops in a room, and because of how furniture and materials are positioned in the room, the fire has all the fuel it needs and grows until it has exhausted all the O2. In Ireland most fires are ventilation controlled because they start in a small closed compartment (room) with a limited quantity of O2.

If a fire grows with enough fuel and O2 at its disposal, it will likely reach a state of development called "flashover". Flashover can be defined as the point in which all the combustible surfaces in a compartment are burning. It’s very difficult for a fire to reach flashover in a small closed compartment, for example a room in an Irish home, because of the limited amounts of O2. 

Irish Fire Brigades usually fight fires which haven’t flashed over, and remain confined to one room. Appropriately, their strategies, tactics and equipment are oriented towards engaging this type of fire.  In America, fire reach flashover frequently and when they do, quickly migrate throughout the structure.

Fire almost at flashover, note that some materials at the bottom of the compartment are not yet burning but have begun to off-gas (smoke)

So, that covers the differences between our fires, now let's talk about the tactics and strategies used to fight them. In the US, we use a larger diameter hose with a high gallonage stream, which gives us a lot of penetrating power and the ability to apply water from a greater distance. Aggressive fire attack is combined with ventilation, either vertical or horizontal. Vertical ventilation is when you cut holes in the roof of a burning structure, allowing smoke and hot fire gasses to escape. Horizontal ventilation is done by taking windows out. The goal of either type of ventilation is to release heat and fire gasses from the structure, making the inside more hospitable and improving visibility. America’s higher water flow is needed to deal with a more developed fire. Simply put, as the fire’s size and heat increases you will need more water to extinguish it. This strategy has two disadvantages. Water damage: more water flow equals less control, equals more water ending up not on the fire. Accelerated fire growth due to ventilation: while improving the environment inside the structure, ventilation also accelerates the speed of combustion and fire growth.

Vertical ventilation

In Ireland firefighters use a high pressure stream which has limited reach and flow. However, because the stream is at such a high pressure, the water is broken into small droplets which absorb heat quickly. Irish firefighters advance into the structure applying short pulses of water to cool the ceiling area and prevent the fire from extending above and behind them. Once they find the fire room they have a procedure for mitigating backdraft or re-ignition of the compartment by quickly opening the door a small way and applying short shots of water. No ventilation is performed until the fire is completely knocked down, because in an Irish home, the fire is typically ventilation controlled and they want to keep it that way. The smaller rooms limit the distance a stream of water has to reach. Additionally, fire gasses are confined to a smaller space, and water, once converted to steam, remains trapped in the compartment, occupying the space the fire wants to be in.

The Pros and Cons of American and Compartment Firefighting

American Fire Tactics

Pros: 

• Water streams have excellent reach and penetrating power, allowing water to be applied from a greater distance.
• By ventilating a burning structure, attack and search teams can work in environments which would otherwise be unbearable, even with turnouts and SCBA.

Cons: 

• Water damage is significant. 
• Larger hose is difficult to maneuver.
• A compartment or structure which needs ventilation will be pressurized with smoke and fire gasses. By releasing those gasses, you lower the pressure inside, drawing in fresh air. This is a mixed blessing, because while it may provide breathing air to victims, the influx of O2 rich air will accelerate combustion.   

Compartment Fire Tactics

Pros: 

• Small high-pressure lines are easy to handle and advance quickly. 
• Water can be applied with near-surgical precision, minimizing damage. 
• Small water droplets convert to steam quickly, absorbing a tremendous amount of heat. 

Cons:  

• In a larger compartment, steam doesn’t stay confined to the area to interrupt combustion.
• The reach of the low volume stream is limited, especially if it’s being used on a wider pattern, requiring firefighters to get much closer to the fire. 

In conclusion, the reason we do not use compartment firefighting tactics in America is because they're tailored to engaging ventilation controlled fires in small compartments. In America we often encounter fires which are relatively uncontrolled and are burning in multiple interconnected spaces. The low-flow/high-pressure hose is a surgical tool for fighting a specific type of fire, to take it into a lightweight American home with an open floor plan would be like charging into battle with scalpel. 

Although compartment firefighting as a whole may not be applicable to the American fire, there are still many lessons European and American firefighters can learn from each other. These tricks of the trade and solutions to common problems interest me, and I hope to learn more of them as I continue to travel. 

I would like to thank S/O John Chubb of the Dublin Fire Brigade, for taking the time to sit down and go over this with me. It meant a lot, and was absolutely the highlight of my time in Ireland.

New SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus)

The City of Dublin just “upgraded” their fire brigade’s air packs. The old packs were very basic, didn’t have any bells or whistles, and were generally reliable.

Yours truly trying on the new set

 The new SCBAs, or “sets” as the Irish firefighters call them, have an integrated radio system, where the mic and speaker are built into the face piece. The low-pressure regulator clips into the side of the face piece instead of the front, which was new for me. 

See? The regulator is on the side.

The firefighters felt that the new packs were lightweight and cheaply put together. There had already been some problems with low-pressure lines disconnecting from the pack while firefighters were inside structures. I noticed that the air lines were much thinner then the lines on my pack back home, and that I could easily crimp them off with my fingers. It doesn’t seem like it’s good to be able to pinch off your air supply so easily. 

Harness assembly of new pack, shiny.

Protective bottle cover

Firefighters sheath their air bottles in protective covers, which can indicate whether the bottler is full or “M.T.” empty. 

M.T. get it? Heh he he.... took me a while actually.

One really cool thing their packs can do is, be adapted to carry two air bottles instead of one. By screwing in the adapter shown below, you can connect two air bottles into what is basically a “T joint”, and BAM! Twice as much air. 

Not the best photo, I admit.

Doing More With Less

Compared to my department, the Dublin Fire Brigade is grossly understaffed. Both Dublin and Madison have 12 stations, and staff their own ambulances with firefighters. Dublin has 120 fire response personnel on per shift, and Madison has 78. Dublin has 12 ambulances and we 8. Madison has a population of roughly 230,000, and Dublin had a staggering population of roughly 1,200,000 people. The difference in our populations is not reflected in our department’s staffing. Dublin is doing more with less.

Now in some respects, the Dublin Fire Brigade is unable to keep up with their call volume. While I was visiting the main station in Dublin, I was told that all 12 ambulances were currently on calls, and that their dispatch center had 21 calls in queue, waiting for an ambulance to become available.

Ambulance in Dublin

 In spite of comparatively low staffing, Dublin does very well when it comes firefighting. A standard fire response is three engine companies. Engine companies in Ireland have crews of 5, and carry many types of equipment in addition to that needed for fire attack. The three engines are usually split into three crews, search, attack, and backup. All three teams have their own hose line. 

Engine company leaving main station for a call

When fighting a residential fire, the Dublin Fire Brigade usually has the fire knocked down within two minutes of the attack team entering the structure. This is because Dublin has been able to refine, and perfect the way they find and extinguish residential compartment fires. It helps that homes in Ireland are smaller and confine fire well, but the firefighter’s speed of extinguishment reflects quality training and discipline.

Accountability

Firefighters across the world agree, that maintaining accountability (knowing where everyone is) is an essential part of keeping firefighters safe on the fire-ground. Ireland uses some simple technology to accomplish this.

Accountability board on back door of engine.

Every firefighter’s air-pack comes with a tag, which states who’s it is, and how much air they start with. The tag is sheathed in the air-pack’s PASS (Personal Alert Safety System), and when the tag is removed it activates. The PASS monitors the firefighter’s movement so if they become trapped or stop moving, it emits an audible call for help.

PASS device with tag.

Before firefighters enters a building, they slide their tags into the slots on the left hand side of the accountability board. The firefighter running the board, usually the driver, can record entry time and other notes with a dry-erase maker. The dial in the up right corner of the board is a slide-ruler of sorts, used to calculate how long it will that a firefighter to use up their air. 

The beginning of a fire operation is a busy time for the engine driver, who, has to get the pump engaged and water flowing to attack teams. To lighten the driver’s load, the accountability board has rapid entry slots for the first attack teams tags. When a tag is placed into one of these slots, it automatically starts a timer, so once the driver the pump running and gets to the board, they know how long the attack team has been inside.

Tag in an rapid entry slot.

Ventilation/Roof Ladders

In Ireland, many structures have clay tile roofs, this creates a problem when you are trying position a roof ladder. Roof ladders hook over the peak of a roof and help distribute the weight of firefighters working on the roof.

American roof ladder with hooks folded in.

Ordinarily, a firefighter climbs a ground ladder to the edge of the roof, and slides the roof ladder up the roof until the hooks reach the peak. 

Placing roof ladder

But if you attempt to slide a ladder up a clay tile roof it will catch on every tile. So the Irish carry roof ladders with this little innovation.

Hook end of roof ladder sticking out from under storage container.

Hook folded down.

Wheels. The wheels help the ladder roll over the clay tiles.

As near as I can tell, vertical ventilation is not performed in Ireland, as they only ventilate after they have the fire knocked down. So I can’t imagine that their roof ladders get used much, but when they do, a clay tile roof won’t slow them down.

Stop Screwing Around

The fire brigades of Ireland use couplings, which function like a quick-connect on a pneumatic airline. Simply insert the male coupling into the female coupling until it clicks, and you’re done. Unlike threaded and sexless couplings, you do not have to line anything up or screw the couplings together.

Male coupling above, female coupling below.

To release the couplings, pull the two knobs on the female coupling outward and remove the male coupling. 

From this angle the internal latch can be seen, as well as the black rubber gasket which help keep the connection water tight.

I didn’t get to see these couplings in action, but the firefighters I spoke with said they didn’t have problems with them leaking or the release knobs getting caught on things. Lines that have these couplings are primarily used for supplying water to the pumper or defensive fire operations. I did not see them loaded as pre-connected lines.

 Pump panel of Irish fire engine, note the three-into-one intake.

Hydrants in Ireland are below ground, and the quick-connect coupling system is used to attach to them.

By pressing the side levers in, the female coupling can be released from the below ground connection.

The small diameter of their hydrants reflects how much water they use in regular fire operations. In contrast to American fire equipment, everything is oriented towards building a high water pressure, not producing a large volume.

Photos from Ireland

 It's hard to write an entry for all of these photos, so instead, here's the link to all of them. I hope you enjoy.

Ireland Album