March 6, 2017, started like any other shift. I arrived at Station 24 by 0645 hours, and there was a normal pass down for shift change by 0730 hours. The engine apparatus was still red and full of water, no equipment was broken or missing, and all of my crew had reported for duty. Morning-meeting seat assignments are fairly standard, department e-mails and memos, then outside to check our trucks. Station 24 has an engine and a rescue (ambulance) with six personnel assigned. Engine Driver/Operator Chris Thomas and Firefighter Robertta Manger are two of the best in the business, and I do not have to micromanage them on a hectic scene.
RELATED FIREFIGHTER TRAINING
USFA: Backdraft and Reading Smoke
Differentiating the “Fireground Phenomena”
Beingfit to fight fire是我们工作中最重要的方面之一，但是基础作品。与其他轮班一样，我们培训并完成了我们的身体健身训练，有时是在齿轮上，有时没有。我不记得那天我们如何进行体育锻炼，但我们确实完成了。我们讨论了晚餐，吃午餐，并打了电话。
The Call
在相邻响应区域的公寓结构射击中，音调掉落。我们像往常一样冲上卡车，扔进了掩体装备。我们将收音机设置为正确的战术渠道，并作为二等引擎做出响应。在途中，我听了第一次出境引擎的现场报告。没有来。该营负责人是第一位出境的单位。他建立了指挥并设定事件优先事项。通常，一流的发动机将是火灾攻击；二合一发动机，供水；和待救援，搜索。 As we rounded the corner, I expected to see the other engine pulling up, deploying hoses, and initiating the fire attack, but I did not. The A side was all ours; we were the first-arriving engine.
On Arrival
The complex had multiple two-story buildings, each with four apartments and four single-car garages. As we drove just past the front of the address to allow room for the ladder truck, I noted that the garage door was about 50-percent discolored and black from heat inside the garage. No smoke was pushing from the corners of the garage door or the apartment’s eaves. The chief informed me that all occupants were out and accounted for.
I continued with fire attack operations; the rescue prepared for primary search. Manger pulled the 1¾-inch crosslay with the smooth bore nozzle, which flows 185 gallons per minute (gpm).
公寓车道上有两辆汽车。凹陷前门的一侧是车库墙。一排树篱在另一边。这限制了我们准备火灾攻击的选择。
As my crew completed their tasks, I looked through the open front door but did not enter and scanned for smoke and fire. I saw no smoke coming from the interior door to the garage; from my vantage point, it appeared closed. Light white smoke was in the house, and I could easily see to the rear through the kitchen to the sliding glass doors; I could also see up the stairs to the second floor. I saw Manger around the corner, masked up, hose in hand, and preparing to make entry through the front door. I masked up, and as we were putting on our gloves ….
繁荣！角落里的我的眼睛我看到爆炸the inside door from the garage to the house blew off from the 2 × 4 wood studs. I turned. As I looked down, I saw fire around me down past my waist. Manger and I turned to safety by the cars, put on our gloves, went back to the hoseline, and began to extinguish the fire. I radioed that water was on the fire, I handed the hose to Manger, and we began to make entry.
我拉了天花板，指出头顶没有火。干墙上有一个洞，通往车库和曾经有门的门口。那时我意识到我的手很受伤。我问马杰她的手怎么样。她说她的手也受伤。大火受到控制。我广播着我们要出来的命令。
受伤
The entire incident, including fire attack following the explosion, lasted only seconds. Command was obviously worried and met us and Thomas at the foot of the driveway. Thomas said that was the loudest boom he had ever heard. I didn’t hear a thing, and Manger said she didn’t either. We took off our gloves and found we had second-degree burns to the dorsal side of our hands, mostly on the thumb and index finger and along the top of our knuckles. We were lucky (photos 1-2.)
(1)My hand.（作者提供的照片。）
(2)Manger’s hand.
I can’t tell my story and leave out an important detail. As we were being transported to the hospital by personnel from a nearby station, the lieutenant asked if I wanted or needed pain medication. At first, I said no. Manger quickly replied, “Me neither.” As I sat on the bench in the back of the rescue, my hands were throbbing. I asked the lieutenant for some pain meds as my hands were “on fire.” Manger then said that she could use some pain meds also.
我们到达医院；我离开了救援卡车。除非我不能走路，否则我永远不会担任担架。在医院，一名护士要求我评估痛苦。我回答说：“ A 6”。Manger说：“我的是5号。”这就是她是一名出色的消防员的原因之一：她永远不会被淘汰。
I was out on medical leave for three weeks; Manger was out for a couple of weeks. On returning, we were both on light duty for a few weeks to allow our hands to heal so we could put on fire gloves again and work.
调查
After a detailed investigation that included Stephen Kerber, director of the Underwriters Laboratories Firefighter Safety Research Institute, the incident was found to be a backdraft—a smoke explosion that occurs when additional air is introduced into an oxygen-depleted fire. The heated gases enter their flammable ranges and produce an explosion. In a188金宝搏是正规吗article, Christopher Flatley noted that “a backdraft is an ‘air-driven event’” and “the fact that most fires are air regulated and not fuel regulated makes the understanding of backdrafts so important.”1
在Kerber对此活动的视频分析中，他建议观众“分解它并查看Fire Triangle。热门在哪里？燃料在哪里？空气在哪里？通常，当您这样做时，您确实可以开始了解正在发生的事情。”2
“在结构的一侧，我们在到达时似乎在封闭的车库里有火。另一个关键因素实际上是在这个车库的内门周围。火灾从车库开始，被装在车库上。”2
The key factor was the garage door’s broken latch, discovered after the backdraft. In the garage, there was plenty of natural fuel, wood, and cardboard, which is significant regarding backdrafts since these fuels can maintain a smoldering fire. There were also plenty of synthetic products to allow a hot smoldering fire to continue.
“A major component here is the oxygen, as there were a few unique factors, looking at this incident specifically, that revolve around research that we’ve done in the past trying to examine what conditions does it take to create a backdraft. Normally it involves providing oxygen, taking it away, providing oxygen, taking it away, then ultimately you get those conditions right where the air and fuel are (sic) mixed properly to create that explosive event. We did have conditions here that allowed for that to occur.”2
破碎的锁了significant role in this fire. The fire in the garage essentially pushed the door closed as pressure built in the compartment and then, as it retracted and became oxygen limited, it allowed the door to open and allowed air into the compartment. The fire was breathing on its own, and this allowed for it to maintain its high temperature; the introduction of oxygen was the triggering event.2The wind, gusting up to 20 miles per hour that afternoon, played a part in the event. With the front door open, following the flow path, the wind could have pushed the interior door to the garage open, giving the fire the oxygen it was desperately seeking. “The bad timing here is that the crew is masking up, stretching a line, and ready to stretch into the structure. As that’s occurring, this event [the backdraft] occurs.”2
Kerber noted the following key points for firefighters: Understand the fire triangle, know that a ventilation-limited fire is one the size of which is limited by the amount of available oxygen, and understand the triggering events in which introducing air in that garage was critical.2
得到教训
This fire exhibited the signs of a backdraft, which I failed to recognize. I didn’t think that there would be a rush of air into the fire compartment until we were ready with the hoseline in place. I didn’t know that the latch of the interior door to the garage was broken. The wind at our backs opened that door and gave the fire the oxygen it needed to ignite the smoke explosion. It was 30 seconds from when I looked through the front door without a mask on to the time of the smoke explosion. Thank God, I had my mask on by then. We were lucky that we were not in front of the interior garage door when it exploded and was torn off the 2 × 4 studs. That’s why firefighters stay low before opening doors and, when possible, don’t get dressed right in front of the door. Since I didn’t close the front door, I didn’t control the flow path. No excuses—it is我的工作以确保我的消防员安全并确保每个人都回家。再也不会，因为没有任何其他转变。
参考
1. Flatley，C。（2005年3月1日）。“闪存和背景：底漆。”188金宝搏是正规吗. Retrieved from//www.sacthai.com/2005/03/01/272179/flashover-and-backdraft-a-primer-2/.
2. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue. (2017). “Backdraft.” [Video file]. Retrieved fromhttps://app.targetsolutions.com/tsapp/dashboard/pl_fb/index.cfm?fuseaction=c_pro_documents.showFile&doc=2335984.
塔克·辛德曼（Tucker Hindman）是棕榈滩县（佛罗里达州）消防救援队的船长和17年的资深人士，被分配给B Shift的Fire House 36。他拥有应急计划和管理公共管理学士学位。
