By Robert Lorenz
As I watched the Fire Engineering/ MSA podcast on cardiovascular/carcinogenic exposure risks for firefighters (//www.sacthai.com/webcasts/2015/06/cardiovascular-and-carcinogenic-hazards-of-modern-firefighting.html), I felt compelled to share my story. Although I have had the unfortunate experience to be able to speak on this subject firsthand, I am fortunate in that I am still around to talk about it.
In June 2013, I was a member of the first-arriving company on a wind-driven fire in the overhead of a large three-story apartment complex. My crew’s assignment was to extend an attack line to the third floor, force entry, and locate and extinguish the fire. Once inside, we found the overhead to be heavily involved. I breached the ceiling, pulled a table over, climbed up, and began extinguishment. Because of the construction of the attic space, I had to pull myself up into the attic space. I momentarily displaced my face piece and helmet. Once they were in place again, I began knocking down the fire in all the areas I could access. I noted that the remainder of the fire was behind a wall I could not access from my perch. I dropped back into the kitchen. We moved cabinets so that I could climb up and open up the wall section and knock down the rest of the fire.
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