Strip Mall Fire Simulation

Strip Mall Fire Simulation

By Ted Nee

Simulations are a great tool for developing decision-making skills. They are especially effective training for “soft” skills. Soft skills are often referred to as the three Rs: Reading, Recognizing and Reacting. Reading is seeing the critical cues at an incident, things like building construction, fire dynamics,

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 and rescue profile. Recognizing is seeing a pattern based on the critical cues observed. Finally, reacting is choosing a course of action that is likely to affect the outcome of the incident based on your prior experience with similar events. Naturalistic decision-making researcher Gary Klein describes this process as recognition primed decision making or RPMD. In order to develop these “soft skills” it is necessary to gain experience in a wide variety of incident situations. Training with incident simulations is one way to accomplish this goal.

In this month’s strip mall fire simulation, you are the Engine 1 officer and will be first due at the incident. You are in quarters when the following dispatch comes in: “Engine 1, Engine 2, Engine-3, Ladder 1, and Battalion 1, respond to 8246 Menaul Blvd at the Wing Basket restaurant in the Hoffmantown shopping center.”

RELATED: Lessons Learned at FDIC Help Save Strip Mall | Humpday Hangout: Fires in Strip Malls, Part 1  Part 2 | What Would You Do? Strip Mall Fire

The Hoffmantown shopping center was constructed in the early 1950s of ordinary construction. The various occupancies have changed hands many times over the years and there have been numerous renovations, as well. There is no built-in fire protection system and no basement. When you arrive on scene, you are met by the Wing Basket restaurant manager, who informs you they had a grease fire in the kitchen that they tried to put out with portable extinguishers but is now out of control. He states that everyone is out of the restaurant.

Start the strip mall fire simulation video above. You will be prompted to pause the video and give a radio report at several key points.

The first radio transmission you will provide is a standard size-up report. This radio report should include the following elements:

• Arrival on scene
• Building area/size
• Building height (number of stories)
• Problem description
• Action being taken (assignments for the E-1 crew)
• Assume and name command
• Any resource needs

The size of this strip mall makes it impractical for you as the Engine 1 officer to conduct a 360° survey of this building.

You will be prompted to pause the video and make an assignment when additional units report on scene. Practice giving assignments using the Task, Location, Objective (TLO) format. An example assignment might be: “Ladder 1 pull a second handline from Engine 1, (Task) go to the first floor (Location), get an “all clear,” and check for fire extension.” (Objective)

When Battalion 1 arrives on scene, make a command transfer using your department’s standard command transfer process (if applicable).

Formulate Conditions, Actions, Needs (C.A.N.) reports for the assigned units based on the visible conditions and information provide when prompted to do so.

Finally, have Battalion 1 give an assignment to Engine 3 using the TLO format based on the C.A.N. reports from the assigned units.

The most effective way to use the simulation is to get feedback regarding your performance (have an experienced officer or colleague critique your radio reports) and run through the simulation again, incorporating the feedback.

Jake On 'The Box'

Jake On 'The Box'

Fireground Functions for Firefighters on Medical Duty

All photos by author except above photo by Tony Greco

For many firefighters, our first few years or more may be spent on the “box.” Sure, we may hop on the engine or ladder from time to time, but mostly we’re resigned to the EMS med unit, “the box.” And that’s fine: Helping people is helping people, and some of us even like running medical calls. However, as the hundreds of “emergency” calls for “stubbed toes” and “haven’t pooped in two weeks” pile up, some of us may begin to wonder why we became firefighters to begin with. We might begin to believe we are little more than ambulance drivers with air packs. Brothers and sisters, you are not alone in this way of thinking, but you are also mistaken. You have the training, you have the ability, and you have the tools.

Pumps and water do not a firefighter make. You are more likely to come across a fire or a motor vehicle accident (MVA) coming back from the hospital than as an engine parked in the bay. Your department didn’t just put extinguishers, self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), tools, and firefighters on your apparatus because they like to spend money. They put them there to do work. The examples below are functions you can perform right now while riding the “box.” No specialized or expensive gear is required, just tools and equipment you probably have laying around at your station right now, or that you could buy for less than $20 at your local hardware store.

Car fire in the engine compartment. Once you’ve parked your rig to block traffic and you’ve packed out, do a 360° scene survey to check for patients, leaks, and other hazards. Then, approach from a 45° angle, grab your halligan, and smash the pike end of it through the front corner of the hood. You’ll find that you’ve made a hole about the size of a nozzle of an ABC extinguisher or water can. If that tactic doesn’t work, put the pike end back in to the hole you created and pry up that corner of the hood to gain access to the engine compartment.

(1-2) Punch through the hood with a halligan and insert your water can nozzle for car fires.

Garage fire.This tactic will also work on a roll down garage door for a garage fire. Take a baseball swing with the pike of your halligan and insert the nozzle of your water can or ABC extinguisher.

(3-4) Punch through the garage door with the pike of your halligan and insert your water can nozzle for garage fires.

Through-the-lock forcible entry. A wedge, a striking tool, and a flathead screwdriver or a shove knife can get you into many residential homes for medical alarms or fire alarms without destroying someone's door and frame, sometimes even faster than conventional forcible entry. Check out Rise above Training's  Facebook page for excellent through-the-lock videos.

Gaining entry through a gate with an induction loop.This trick can work for fire or medical calls when you come across a gate with an induction loop (lines cut into the pavement that allow a gate to open as a vehicle approaches.) Chances are you have an old metal clipboard on your truck as a backup for when your tablet goes down. Slide the clipboard under the gate and over the induction loop, using a hook or another tool for extra reach. You will fool the sensor into thinking a vehicle is over it and cause it to open up.

(5-6)  Bypass the induction loop with a metal clipboard.

Hydrant line. If you work in a well hydrant-ed area, consider carrying a couple of sections of 1 ¾-inch hose with a smooth bore nozzle and a reducer to hook up; this will let you keep the fire in check until the engine arrives. Perhaps your department already has a utility/high-rise hose pack on your EMS units that can do the same thing.

If the fire is in the attic, punch a hole through the soffit, open up your line, and deflect the stream off the underside of the roof. Click here for a link to UL’s site on the effectiveness of this tactic.

(7-8) Connect a section of 1 3/4 with a smooth bore and a reducer to a hydrant to keep the fire in check.

RELATED: Metal Wedge for Forcible Entry | Hazmat Survival Tips: Part of the Solution | Size-Up: Why Can't Johnny Read the Building?

Hazardous materials. Although you won’t be donning a level A suit to mitigate an anhydrous ammonia leak, there are still several ways to handle a hazmat scene if you’re first on scene and on the box. At a minimum, your truck has an Emergency Response Guide book (ERG) that will allow you to identify the product (or at least the container) and determine the initial isolation distances. Relay this information to oncoming crews and determine what additional resources you’ll need. If the driver is available, he can be a wealth of information as to the contents and how to control the leak from the truck. If the leak is from the saddle tank of a tractor trailer, consider plugging it with a wooden wedge and pounding it in with a non-sparking tool to slow it down. If that isn’t an option, grab a shovel and dam and dike or divert the product with dirt. For small leaks in vehicle fuel tanks, rub a bar of soap on the puncture and it will seal the leak temporarily.

If I could recommend one piece of equipment that may not be on all trucks but should be, it would be a carbon monoxide (CO) monitor. Your crews may be going into homes for medical calls 6that present as headache, dizziness, shortness of breath--all symptoms of CO poisoning. When you arrive to a CO call, make sure your crew is packed out, evacuate the building, assess for medical need, ventilate the building by opening doors and windows, and determine the source of the CO. While a CO monitor is not necessary to perform these tasks, it is tremendously useful when it comes to determining a hidden source and if the scene is safe for the occupants to return.

Extrication. Anytime you’re working in traffic, wear all your gear and park your rig to block traffic. Do a 360° scene survey to check for patients, leaks, power lines, and other hazards. Start by shutting off the car, cutting seat belts, removing plastics, and looking for un-deployed airbags. If the door isn’t too badly mangled, don't be afraid to go back to basics and force it with your irons; if you can get to it, shear the metal surrounding the Nader pin. Another option is to crush the crease between the fender and door with a halligan to gain access to the hinges and use a ratchet (10-13mm) to take them off. Cut the check strap with bolt cutters and cut through the wiring harness with trauma shears, then pry the door off. If neither of these methods work, at the very least you’ve created an outstanding purchase point for the spreaders when they arrive.

If the patient is pinned beneath a car, use the jack from their vehicle to free them, cribbing as you go. It should go without saying that patient care is your Number One priority after scene safety.

(9-10) Extrication with a ratchet and a set of irons.

A dumpster fire threatening an exposure. In Fire Officer's Handbook of Tactics, Chief John Norman of tying off a burning dumpster that was threatening an exposure to Ladder 103’s tow eyes and pulling it away from the building when their engine wasn’t anywhere nearby. The same tactic could be applied to your truck. Tie off the dumpster to your apparatus with your rope bag and pull it away from the building. Once it’s in a safe location, check the exposure for extension. If that’s not an option and there’s a hydrant nearby, take that 50-100-foot section of 1 ¾-inch hose and a nozzle and drown the fire. Insert an inflated medical glove to stop up the drain on the bottom of the dumpster to keep your water from running off.

Read the building. Chances are if you’re one of the first on scene and not on a hoseline, you’ll be assigned to search. Get to know the building. Do a 360º, note the exits, the bathroom vents, the bedroom locations, tap on the windows to see if they're impact glass, etc. If you are first on scene of a fire, collect information from the neighbors or occupants, force the door, get low, stretch out, and look for The Four L’s (per Seattle Fire): Lives, layout of the room, lift of the smoke, and location of the fire. Relay all that information to command and incoming crews. Check out this article for much more on reading buildings.

(11) After forcing the door, get low and look for the 4 L's.

Take one percent. If your department is anything like mine, you are probably required to recertify every couple of years for any number of medical classes: CPR, ACLS, PHTLS, ITLS, PALS, and probably a few more that you’ve let expire. Keeping your medical skills in top form is part of your job, but so is being a firefighter. If your department doesn’t offer many fire classes, take ownership of your education, and go find them. I challenge you to take just one percent of your time and one percent of your money and put it back in to your career. Before the year is out you will have three-and-a-half days and plenty of money to take a class, buy a tool, or read a book.

This is YOUR Company. Eventually, the time will come when you’ll get off the box and you’ll be riding in the right seat of the engine. Take this opportunity to practice your arrival reports and being in command when you’re first in on multi-unit incidents. When you go to medical calls, start thinking about water supply, securing utilities, hose stretches, and exposures. Do company-level fire training using only tools and equipment you have on the EMS med unit. When you read a Fire Engineeringarticle, read it with an eye of “How can I use this on my truck?”

Not all these will work for you and your department. The intent is to get you back in the mindset that you are a firefighter. There are some fire department EMS units that don’t carry any firefighting tools beyond bunker gear and SCBA-- go through your chain of command and remind them what your truck is capable of and why it’s worth the investment to put at least a set of irons on your truck. If you’re the first on scene and there is work to be done, get to it. Don’t just stand there with your hands in your pockets waiting for the engine to show up. Any number of things could get between that engine and your scene, and you will be expected to do something. A halligan and ax always start, and you don’t need to know pump pressures to work a water can.

The Heads-Up Engineer: At the Station

The Heads-Up Engineer: At the Station

In this new Training Minutes video, Orlando (FL) District Chief Walt Lewis is joined by Paul O'Neill, who shares some tips and tricks on getting the apparatus ready to go to work.

Watch in the player below.

Fire Engineering Chief Bobby Halton Interviews IAFF President Harold Schaitberger

Fire Engineering Chief Bobby Halton Interviews IAFF President Harold Schaitberger

Cancer is killing firefighters. In the past decade, more firefighters have died from cancer than running into burning buildings, saving communities from hazardous waste spills, or protecting neighborhoods from active shooter situations.

The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) is holding a national Cancer Summit focused on the latest science linking cancer and firefighting. Live from the summit in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger speaks live Fire Engineering Editor in Chief Bobby Halton about the issue of cancer and the fire service. Watch the interview, which will take place Wednesday, January 31, 2018 at 4:30 p.m. Eastern, in the player above.

Dramatic Footage Shows Off-Duty Fireman Rescuing Victims From Burning Home in Connecticut

Dramatic Footage Shows Off-Duty Fireman Rescuing Victims From Burning Home in Connecticut

In a tense video caught on a police bodycam, good Samaritans are seen rescuing three people from a Connecticut house fire. 

Dramatic Footage Shows Off-Duty Fireman Rescuing Victims From Burning Home in Connecticut

The rescue video, filmed earlier this week, shows a retired fire chief, an off-duty firefighter and an off-duty Hartford police lieutenant using ladders to pluck residents from the window and roof of a Bloomfield home as smoke billowed out of the residence.

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Plainville firefighter James Lenois, who was off duty, jumped into action as soon as he arrived on the scene. 

“I’ve been a firefighter for 15 years and you know what that smoke smells like and I pulled up on the house and there’s fire coming out the front of the house and people are screaming, ‘There’s people inside,’” Lenois told WFSB.

Hartford Fire Chief Billy Smith and an off-duty Hartford police lieutenant happened to be in the area as well, reports said. The group banded together to rescue the victims in what they believe would have been a fatal fire.

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They pushed ladders up against the two-story home to save the residents.

“We grabbed the elderly lady from the second floor, ran around back to the back side of the house, grabbed the elderly gentleman out of the second floor,” Lenois told the station.

At least one other person was reportedly in the home at the time, but was able to get out on their own.

“It’s a good feeling to be able to help someone out and you never know when people need help, we were in the right place at the right time,” said Lenois.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, reports said.