By Michael M. Dugan
The fire service is undergoing a change in thinking right now. We are hearing about flow paths, ventilation controls, and transitional attack. The fire service is in a period of change and tactical reevaluation. We are hearing about safety and ventilation-factors that impact our operations. The issue seems to be that sometimes we forget our core values. "To Protect Life and Property" is what we swore to do when we became firefighters and fire officers.
These photos from a fire in Brooklyn, New York, show a fire that is self-venting and showing out a window on the exposure 2 or B side of the dwelling. The building is a two-story semiattached private dwelling with one apartment per floor. A lot of these types of structures have been broken up and now have multiple living units on both floors and possibly the basement. Responding units have to do a complete size-up and look for doorbells and mailboxes that indicate additional dwelling units. Also, information from previous responses and inspections hopefully was added to the department's database and was transmitted to responding units. At this fire, personnel undertook a frontal attack based on size-up and situational awareness of the first-in officers. They observed the fire venting out the window and knew they had possible victims. The plan was to place a hoseline between the fire and the victims.
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