We seem to keep seeing videos of US firefighters ventilating before they have fire control and either having a near miss, getting injured or dying.
We seem to keep seeing videos of US firefighters ventilating before they have fire control and either having a near miss, getting injured or dying.
Do you have any examples?
I’m a US firefighter, our department doesn’t vent until the engine has water on the fire. And even then we pay careful attention to where we vent. Can’t speak for other departments.
May be a lack of training or inexperienced.
Here’s a few examples:
When you say water on the fire, does that mean that you have fire control (the fire under control) first, or just first attack?
I would agree that most of your examples show poor tactics and/or poor training.
However the first video appears to show proper vertical ventilation. There is a charged hose line into the front door, they are either putting water on the fire already or will imminently.
I’ll cite a UL study on the topic. This paragraph is from the summary, and it highlights the importance of coordinating ventilation with the attack team, but does show that it can greatly improve conditions for the interior team(s)
Here’s a link to the full study, it’s a long read but very interesting.
https://d1gi3fvbl0xj2a.cloudfront.net/2021-10/UL-FSRI-2010-DHS-Report_Comp_0.pdf
With that being said, my dept usually doesn’t ventilate residential roofs because the reward generally doesn’t outweigh the risk. And horizontal ventilation is almost as effective.
Thanks for the reference.
I think your snippet proves my point. Once the fire is out, then the urgency is gone. Rather than cause more damage, why not open the doors and windows and bring out the PPV? It also lessens the risk from introducing air if there’s hidden extension.
Well again, it doesn’t say “once the fire is out” It says “once water is applied”. The goal is to make the environment more tenable as quickly as possible. We’re not as concerned with damage to the property at this point. The main focus is still making things easier for the interior teams by removing heat, smoke, and heated gases. And potentially increase the odds for any survivors. Once we’ve made the environment safe for firefighters, searched for victims, and put the fire out, then we switch to preserving property.
We don’t want to open doors at this point. Rooms within a structure should be closed/isolated. We want heat/smoke/gases to be removed directly from the structure, not fed further into the structure. But yes, opening windows is a valid form of ventilation, we don’t always need to break things. Once the fire is out, interior doors and fans absolutely help.
Ventilation shouldn’t be random, it should be coordinated with the interior attack team(s) so that it occurs closest to where they are working. Yes, improper ventilation can feed a fire and alter its flow path, I don’t think anyone would argue that.