Diminishing fire department budgets and cuts in manpower across the country are forcing today's fire companies to become leaner and meaner. In striving for efficiencies to maximize their impact on the fireground, companies often times look for shortcuts that are quick and easy, compared to more time consuming traditional methods or tactics. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but if the overall benefit of a shortcut is a compromised result, the shortcut may actually be less efficient than a more time consuming traditional tactic.
This is especially true when making decisions about tactical ventilation and how to apply it to the many different types of structures you might have in your first due area. Is it enough to take some windows? Maybe a gable or two? Can I hold off on the roof, or do I need to immediately commit initial truck crews there? Since the scope of building types is much too large to be covered in a particular article, the focus here will be on some of the typical types of peaked-roof private dwellings you may encounter.
Before committing any resources to vertical venting, you should have a firm grasp of exactly what you are hoping to achieve. To that end, revisiting the four effects a roof vent can have on a fire, while very basic, will help in understanding the potential interaction of ventilation vs. structure type.
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