By Erich J. Roden
Any Midwest firefighter will tell you that January brings tough fire duty because of inclement weather. Chicago (IL) Fire Department (CFD) personnel knew this all too well on January 22 when they were faced with the largest fire they had seen in years, according to a CFD spokesman. The temperature in Chicago was a miserable 10°F, with a rapidly dropping wind chill, when a 200- × 200-foot vacant, boarded-up warehouse fire became an inferno, making national headlines the next morning when its remnants became a palatial, frozen ruin. The fire eventually extended to a similar, adjacent commercial building but was quickly stopped by determined CFD companies.
Greater-alarm fires are inherently tough in any weather condition-and exponentially tougher when temperatures drop below freezing. The initial incident commander (IC) already has a lot on his plate as first-alarm companies begin operating at a fire everyone knows will escalate. As successive alarm companies arrive, the IC must take into consideration what the temperature is about to do to the entire operation and begin managing the problems everyone is sure to face.
If you are a current subscriber,login hereto access this content.
If you would like to become a subscriber, please visit ushere.
