Take Note...It's More Than Just An Oven

Last night, at work, my shift had the opportunity to visit our surrounding jurisdiction’s training facility.  We are fortunate to have an excellent, and seemingly seamless, working relationship with the surrounding jurisdiction.  This allows us to regularly train together which allows for more efficient and effective incident operations.  The topic of last night’s training was “Flashover”, which involved a one-hour lecture followed by practical evolutions in their flashover simulator.  Eight years ago, during recruit school for my previous employer, I had the opportunity to go to Montgomery County, MD’s flashover simulator.  Montgomery County conducted their training in a similar fashion as our surrounding jurisdiction, utilizing a lecture followed by practical evolutions.  Little did I know, the training I received at Montgomery County’s academy would prove it’s worth to me a few months later.  Though the fire was almost eight years ago, my experiences from this fire will stick with me throughout my career.  No, there’s no life altering or tragic stories associated with this fire.  However, there are real world lessons that can be used by any of us who engage in interior firefighting operations.

The fire occurred in the middle of a weekend day.  The weekend happened to be the same as a VDFP regional fire school in our area, which impacted staffing levels.  We were dispatched as the third-due Engine Company and the address was just around the corner from the first-due company’s quarters.  However, the first-due company was at the far end of their area procuring a meal and their arrival was delayed.  A member from that company was in quarters at the time of the alarm and responded in a support vehicle, arriving very quickly to confirm a working fire.  In the meantime, an additional Engine Company responded “driver only” and would be arriving before us as they were closer.  The trip up Route 1 seemed to take forever and it seemed even longer once the first-due Engine arrived with “heavy smoke showing”.  The “driver-only” Engine arrived a short time later and secured the water supply for the first-due Engine.

As we crested the hill prior to the first-due company’s firehouse, I could see gray smoke billowing over the tree line a short distance away.  Though we were dispatched as the third-due Engine, we arrived as the second fully staffed Engine Company.  I directed my driver to secure a secondary water supply and the remainder of my crew and I jogged up the street to the first-due Engine.  The two guys riding behind me were a little bit slower than me, so I pulled the back-up line to the front door and waited for them to make their way up to the house.  On my approach to the house, I observed an early 20^th century, 2-story house with a tin roof and smoke pushing from the entire second floor.  At the front door, I observed the first-due Engine’s line running up the stairs to the second floor.  As I was donning my face piece, 2 members of the first-due Engine came tumbling down the stairs and landed right in front of me.  I asked them what happened and they told me they were knocked off the second floor.  I asked them if anyone was still up there and they told me a newer firefighter was still upstairs by himself.  The two firefighters riding behind me had now made their way to the front porch and I told them to meet me on the second floor once they donned their face pieces, as I was going in to find the lone firefighter on the second floor.

I still had not seen any visible fire from the exterior, however the smoke was pushing with pretty good intensity from the entire second floor.  I followed the hoseline up the stairs to the second floor and quickly found the firefighter on the nozzle.  He was sitting at the top of the stairs and was unharmed, just looking for a little bit of direction.  I asked if he knew where the fire was and he told me no and that he hadn’t made it any further than our current position.  I quickly realized the second floor was filled with junk and our progress was going to be hindered due to the  “Collyer’s Mansion” conditions.  While I was getting my bearings on the second floor and formulating a game plan, things started getting pretty warm.  Visibility had been zero from the beginning but it was getting hotter and hotter.  Soon I was “eating the carpet” as some would say and we still hadn’t seen any fire but it was getting to the point where we needed to shit or get off the pot.  I told the nozzle firefighter to open the line at the ceiling and when he did, nothing came back down on us.  I had learned this little trick a few months before at the MCDFRS Flashover class.  When nothing came back down on us, I knew we were in a tight spot and if we didn’t start doing something to the fire, it was going to do something to us.  I told the nozzle firefighter to put the nozzle on straight stream and open it overhead and to keep it open.  It got a bit warmer for a moment, but shortly thereafter the heat wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been.  Since the second floor was so cluttered, I told the nozzle firefighter to wait for me in our current position and I would push in further to find the fire.  After working my way through the cluttered mess for a moment or two, I rounded a corner and saw the beautiful dark orange glow that we love to see.  I found a fully developed fire involving the back rooms on the second floor.  Visibility was still non-existent, aside from the fire rooms, and when I went to go back to get the nozzle firefighter, I became disoriented.  Fortunately, I was able to keep my wits and get my head together to work my way through the cluttered mess back to the nozzle firefighter.

The two firefighters who were riding my Engine had now joined us on the second floor and we started to push in towards the fire when the IC sounded the evacuation tones.  The IC had received a report from the rear that fire was showing from all of the rear windows and decided to pull the plug.  Unfortunately he didn’t realize how much better it was inside once the fire had decided to show itself.  Anyways, we backed out and I conferred with him to try to convince him to let us regroup and push in as we knew where the fire was and should be able to knock it out quickly.  He allowed us back in and we put the second floor out, but the attic was now involved and we were working to get to that when we were withdrawn again.  This time the master streams went in service and knocked the majority of the fire down.  Due to the construction of the house, we chased fire through voids for the next 2 hours.

I apologize for the lengthiness of the account, however I feel shortening it would have taken away from some of the necessary details.  I felt it necessary to tell this account as it is “real world” reaffirmation and utilization of skills I picked up from my trip to a flashover simulator.  The flashover simulator should be more than just an “oven” we sit in for a few moments to feel a little bit of heat.  There is a ton of useful and applicable knowledge that can be picked up from an informative flashover lecture and practical evolutions in the flashover simulator.  When I took my volunteer Firefighter 1 class as a high schooler, being able to provide a definition of flashover was about the extent of my knowledge on the topic.  I was not very well educated on the signs of flashover or the techniques to prevent flashover until I went to the flashover simulator during my career recruit school.  I truly believe application of the knowledge presented to me during my trip to the flashover simulator prevented a flashover from occurring during the fire I recounted above.  Obviously the rooms in the rear of the second floor reached flashover and became a fully developed fire.  I believe the area we were operating in was well on its’ way to doing the same.  As I’ve discussed in a previous post, coming up in the fire service I was taught not to open the line until I saw fire.  I firmly believe if I hadn’t received the information on how to prevent a flashover, I would have told the nozzle firefighter to hold off on opening the pipe until we saw fire.  With the conditions we encountered during this fire, it very well may have been too late if we waited until we saw the fire.  It was later learned through pictures of the incident that companies on the exterior were taking the front windows while we were on the second floor.  Hopefully with all of the information available and presented in recent years, you are able to figure out why this is a bad thing and may have contributed to the conditions we encountered.  Nobody had malicious intent while they were doing this, however it could have led to disastrous results.

In closing, I challenge you to take a stronger interest in fire behavior.  While I won’t argue that it’s not as fun as some of the other things we do, I will argue that it’s as important, if not more important, than anything else we do.  Try to find a way to get to a flashover simulator and take full advantage of the information presented.  Watch what the fire does and when it does it.  Observe what happens when the instructors introduce or remove air tracks.  Watch what the smoke does.  If you’re an instructor, take the time to explain to the students what is happening and why it is happening.  All of these observations will help you perform more efficiently and effectively on the fireground.  I’d like to extend a special thanks to the FCFRD folks involved with the flashover training.  You have a great program that's delivering solid information which is sure to have a positive impact on the fireground.