LIFE - FIRE - LAYOUT
CAPTURING THE INITIAL INTERIOR SIZE-UP
2:37AM.
The door handle makes an audible “click”, and then your boot makes a hollow scrape across diamond plate. You’ve just left the jump-seat of the first due truck, your eyes immediately catch bedroom windows to the left, front door closed, two cars in the driveway, empty yard, single story Ranch with heavy smoke and fire showing from the C side. You hustle the irons to the door, and by the time your mind registers right hand/ wood jamb/wood door, you’re already in full swing. The pike bites deep and the jamb splits. A quick inward pull of the Bar produces an open door...
Many of us in the fire service all the way from the Chiefs to the newest of Fire Fighters have had the necessity of an initial 360 degree size up repeated to us so many times that it’s almost become a cultish mantra. Don’t get me wrong I’m not trying to down play its importance, actually I believe that a “hot lap” should be performed however and whenever possible. But like in many cases today in the fire service we have to remind ourselves, “what about the interior?”
Do we place a priority on getting a quick interior size-up? Do we put a time stamp on a fire fighter making it to the front door and getting eyes on the inside? Many of us may, in which case you might find the rest of this article to be a simple review. As we all should know there is nothing new in the fire service, so I’ll chalk the rest of this piece up to perhaps a dusting off of ideas so caked in ‘minimum standards’ we hardly remember the luster they once had.
...you instinctively drop to a knee and try and catch the edge of the door with your adz but you come up short and the door swings out of your reach...
At this instance on a knee with the front door open we should be an open book, the interior conditions scribbling invaluable notes on our minds. If our minds are open because we’ve trained our skills to be second nature, we can collect the most informative and potentially lifesaving information on the scene.
If we’re proficient with a presence of mind we’ll know Life, Fire, and Layout.
Life. When we’ve either forced the primary door on the fire or we’ve found it already open we need to check for life behind the door and then we need to do a bodies length sweep all around it. Now, common sense and experience should tell us under what conditions we will be able to perform this with or without a mask. Read the smoke conditions and act appropriately. Civilian fatality statistics found in the Characteristics of Home Fire Victims 2007-2011, Marty Ahrens, October 2014, (which are statistics compiled by the U.S. Fire Administrations reporting system NFIRS and the NFPA’s Annual Survey of Fire Departments in the U.S.) tell us that 36% of the time in civilian fatalities and 25% of the time in civilian injuries they are “trying to escape”.
That coupled with the on average total between 2007-2011 of 80 civilian fatalities and 1,850 civilian injuries per year due to re-entering the structure, we will surely falter trying to produce any viable excuse not to anticipate victims behind or in proximity of residential doors. We have to check for life by getting low (yes, often on our bellies) utilizing the good visibility we have no matter how small and scan with our light or tic for victims.
I’ll always remember a story told to me by a retired FDNY firefighter who once laid on his belly at the front door with a box light and with 4 inches of good visibility saw a hand “floating” above the floor. He quickly crawled over to it which resulted in locating and removing three kids off the couch.
The quality of our flashlights cannot be overstated, we need a good helmet light and we need a good box light. Buy your own if the light your department provides for you sucks and then work to convince them to purchase better ones. Take the time to clean them, especially the buildup of gunk and smoke staining on the lens.
We also need to remember that most basic of search tactics and call out “fire department!!”, and listen for a response because we never know when we might get an answer. Many of us will not hesitate to do this in front of a group of giggling kindergarteners but put us on the fire- ground and suddenly we cater to the scorn of a scoffing colleague and keep quiet. This is our initial search operation in an area with a strong likelihood of finding a victim. Look for Life and you just might find it.
Fire. Once we’ve done our initial search for life, we have to look, listen, and feel for the fire. Trying to determine the location of the fire is a must on any incident. These initial steps can aid our fire attack, search, and ventilation actions.
First, we look for the fire, can we see the all-too familiar orange glow. Perhaps we can identify the Direction, Volume, and Color of the smoke. Is the smoke pulling to the fire or being pushed back over our heads?
Next, we listen for the crackling of the fire. This can be difficult for many of us as some of us have experienced Auditory Exclusion on the fire ground but we must take a second to make a second, stop breathing, and listen for the crackling or popping of the fire.
Finally, can we feel the heat of the fire coming from one direction stronger than the others? Our ability to look, listen,
and feel for the fire could assist not only ourselves if we are on the nozzle or doing a search but also our fellow fire fighters in their operational tasks. Where is the fire and how can we attack it? Look, listen, and feel for the fire and you just might have an answer to that question.
Layout. Next to fire behavior, building layouts may be one of the most important aspects of the fire service for us to continually try to master. Knowing the field of battle before the fight is imperative to a successful operation.
Take advantage of all the calls we run from medicals to auto-alarms to practice size- ups and building layouts. Walking from the rig to the door try to identify in your mind the layout of the structure and then check yourself once you’re inside. Don’t forget to quiz the crew once the call is finished and you’re back in the rig.
We all should be studied up on identifying different building layouts from the exterior, but it can’t stop there. We have to couple our exterior size-up of predictable layouts, windows, and prior experience with our interior size-up of the layout.
If we are the first person through the door and we can identify where the stairs are to the floors above prior to entry it may be extremely valuable information if conditions rapidly change. If we fail to pay attention or identify the stairs early on, now we may have to search for them after masking up to make entry for fire attack or search.
This of course is spending precious time that the victims don’t have for us to locate and remove them, every 60 second delay between cardiac arrest and CPR is a 10% less likely chance of survival, (American Heart Association).
Identifying where the hallway is that leads to the bedrooms is also valuable in determining the best starting point for our primary search. Because experience that is backed by statistics from Characteristics of Home Fire Victims tells us that 50% of civilian fatalities and 33.2% of civilian injuries are located in the bedrooms. Our people rely on us to quickly identify and protect paths of egress, the floor above, and bedrooms. We need to try and sway the cards in our favor by anticipating and confirming building layouts early and often.
Do not hoard this information; it may be passed along face to face between you and the nozzle man, your Captain, or a quick location of the fire or victim over the radio. Use it to increase your odds of finding a viable victim, locate and attack the fire, and protect our incident priorities for search and fire attack.
Life, Fire, Layout.
Know it, practice it, and perform it. It makes a difference for THEM.
...the doors swing stops abruptly, you try to push it open but a broad weight behind it pushes back at you...
We know the rest of the story.
All stAtistics pulled from the chArActeristics of home fire Victims, mArty Ahrens, october 2014. Which is compiled from the u.s. fire AdministrAtion’s (nfirs) reporting system Along With the nfpA’s AnnuAl surVey of u.s. fire depArtments.
file:///c:/users/Volunteer/doWnloAds/ oshomeVictims%20(1).pdf
As Well As cpr stAts from the AmericAn heArt AssociAtion