By Joseph R. Polenzani
When most people hear the phrase “mobile home,” they immediately conjure up images of a smallstructurein a rustic setting, either standing alone or set up in a trailer park. Unless you live in the South or the Southwest, you probably don’t spend much time thinking about responding to fires in them. However, according to the year 2000 U.S. Census, almost eight percent of the housing units in the United States are mobile homes.1 In metropolitan areas (defined as those having a core population of 50,000 or more people), mobile homes account for just below six percent of the privately owned housing units. Communities of all sizes often share something else, too: staffing issues. Whether it’s a small volunteer organization, whose members are out of town during the workday; an understaffed suburban agency; or a larger city department enduring budget cuts and brownouts, fire departments must constantly find new ways to operate safely in less-than-ideal circumstances.
Ruralfire departments, whose bread and butter are mobile homes and modular houses, have known for years what the latest fire research is telling us: With smaller crews and limited resources, an offensive interior attack is not always the best and safest way to extinguish a structure fire. When faced with a working fire in a manufactured home, consideration should be given to employing a transitional attack or a combination fog attack.
If you are a current subscriber,login hereto access this content.
If you would like to become a subscriber, please visit ushere.
