With over 9 years as a fire officer for the city of Waco Fire Department, analyzing situations is essential to keeping your crew, the public, and yourself safe. Planning the daily activities or making the decision to work or not work a deceased person on a medical emergency, quick analysis of the situation is what drives a fire officers’ decisions. I have always based my decisions on how I would act if it were my family I was responding too. I act with the intent of do no harm, to ourselves or anyone else. Four years ago, the city had an arsonist that would burn vacant houses. Correctly sizing up the structure that was on fire and analyzing it as a vacant house, was very important during this period. Vacant houses pose many dangers, …show more content…
Prior to the structure fire occurring we would be dispatched to a trash can fire or dumpster fire. This information was conveyed to the fire marshal, who then set up patrols and in turn coordinated with the police department. Soon after this we would keep watch during our responses for anyone on the road when we would be dispatched to fires. Most of the fires occurred between midnight and three in the morning. Times you would not expect to see too many persons on the street. After several months and several suspects questioned, the fires stopped. Recognizing this pattern and relaying the information started the slow process of mitigating the problem, so far fires in the area have stopped. For my managing officer program capstone project, I am starting a quality assurance/quality Improvement program for the departments run reports. I noticed this issue of incorrectly coded incidents while reviewing incomplete run reports while backfilling the battalion chief position. Key incidents were not being coded properly, skewing beneficial data for the department. Losing data is costly in terms of accurately portraying department
The police are usually the first people on the scene other than the fire services, depending on how long it will take for the fire trucks to arrive. When they are on the scene to ensure nobody gets too close to the fire and interview any witnesses that could be there. The police officer that arrives may be an arson investigator depending on the local police
Ladder 1 and 5, Rescue 1, and Car 3 by 6:18pm. At this time Incident Commander number one request dispatch to strike a second alarm due to the size of the building and with the second alarm Engines 2, 16, aerial scope 2, and car 2 are all dispatched to the scene. At 6:20pm Incident Commander number one request building information from dispatch but no building plans were ever found creating confusion on how the interior of the building was designed. At 6:26pm Incident Commander one enters the building through a door from the first floor and goes up the stairway into the second floor where the fire originated as well as Engine 13 and Ladder 1 who report that elevator shafts were engulfed into fire. Incident commander number one reports there was possibly two homeless people still in the building and at 6:31pm Incident commander number two comes on scene in Car 2. Three crews from Engine 1, Ladder 1, and Rescue 1 were inside the building reporting the spread of fire and all work their way up the stairway to the roof to cleared a skylight and had it completely vented and started to descend down the stairs while each crew performed search-and-rescue sweeps of each floor for the homeless victims and fire extension checks. They also have 2 ½ inch hose line and 1 ¾ inch hose line on the second and third floor coming up the stairway for an offensive
One man saw the fire and tried to get someone to use the fire box to get the fire department to send a fire truck. Sadly he had no such luck in notifying them. Fire boxes were boxes located on the street corner for people to use to alert the closest fire department, because telephones were not commonly available at that time. The other man just insisted that a fire truck had probably already been called and was on its way. The fire was so destructive because there were many mistakes and dangerous
“They were trying to get under the foam, but to no avail," he said. "They were human torches." The fire quickly spread eastward along Avenue “Y” towards 5th Street. Viewing the unfolding horror before him, Commissioner Rizzo ordered two more alarms, five additional rescue squads, and the recall of all companies which had previously been released from the fire grounds throughout the day. On these orders the fire alarm room transmitted the seventh and eighth alarms. As the fire had been placed under control nearly eight hours earlier, firefighters in stations across the city knew that the unthinkable had occurred as these additional
The Howard Street Tunnel fire that occurred on 18 July, 2001 was a serious emergency incident that had the potential to become a catastrophic incident. On the day in question 10 cars out of a 60 car freight derailed causing a significant hazardous material spill, a subsequent fire, and a water main bursting due to the heat. Since the incident involved multiple levels of agency response all three levels of government were involved, spending around $12 million to clean up, and repair damage. Fortunately there were no fatalities, but a number of people were treated for numerous chemical related afflictions at area hospitals. The city of Baltimore was mostly prepared for the incident, and quickly initiated the incident command system (ICS) within minutes of arriving on the scene of the emergency. Despite being mostly prepared for the emergency there were several areas where responding agencies could improve on.
For years if not decades, firefighters have responded to a reported structure fire that turned out to be a fully involved single room. This fire scenario requires a core set of fire tactics and skills to control and extinguished the fire, but is it this simple? Perhaps twenty years it may have been, but new dangers are lurking in every scenario and may have detrimental outcomes for unsuspecting and unaware firefighters and victims. The National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) agency along with the Underwriters Laboratory (UL) have been conducting research to understand fire behavior and fire dynamics. This research is providing firefighters with new information about how and why
Within the United States there are five different types of construction. Firefighters need to know and understand each of them. Every construction type have fire resistant weaknesses, these weaknesses will result in fire spreading in the building. If firefighters understand how the fire will spread, then understand how to extinguish the fire faster and more importantly firefighters are better protected from injuries or worse. In America all buildings are associated with one of the types of construction, identified by Roman number. The building codes are, fire resistant (type I), combustible (type II), ordinary construction (type III), heavy-timber construction (type IV) and wood-frame construction (type V). It is important to remember that all buildings are not the same. Each different building construction type will burn much differently than the others do. In order to be able to size-up a building 's fire hazard, firefighters need to be able to understand a buildings contents and construction. Materials that are stored inside of the building and also materials used to construct the building will both fuel the fire. Also know that if a structure is vacant or if the contents in the building are not combustible, the main fire hazard is the building. The scale of the construction types are scaled according to the fire load of combustible material that was used for its construction. A fire resistant building is constructed with least amount of combustible materials, and a
Most of these fires are due to poor building conditions, and the deaths and injuries are attributed to the lack of escape possibilities and fire safety measures. The American Red Cross in the Greater New York Region has been taking measures to alleviate this problem. The chapter participates in the organization’s Home Fire Preparedness Campaign, in which volunteers go around neighborhoods and install smoke alarms and and distribute fire-safety information. The campaign is very active in Bronx
Inherently the fire service operates in high-risk environments to facilitate the role of preserving life safety and property conservation. How these incidents are managed and safeguarded by our administration
The case study for unit two describes a scenario in which fire crews are working inside of an abandoned structure. After fire on the main floor had been suppressed, crews began to pull ceiling in an attempt to reach fire that was located in the attic. While attempting to attack the attic fire, the building collapsed trapping several crew members. After the collapse of the building, no members called mayday. Some of the members working inside of the structure at the time of collapse did not make it out of the building.
Whereas law enforcement initially functions as individuals, fire dispatching normally involves one or more units of personnel. The types of fire calls are as unpredictable as law enforcement. There are many different types of fire calls, something as simple as smelling smoke, to a fully involved structure with occupants inside. It is the dispatchers responsibility to glean detains that will allow fire fighters to respond with the appropriate personnel and apparatus. When seconds count, it is critical that dispatchers obtain complete and accurate information. On occasion there is a nexus between firefighting and law enforcement such as an arson fire. Again it is critical that the dispatcher obtain complete and accurate information. It may be necessary to coordinate a law enforcement response simultaneously with a fire response. An example would be the arson fire of the Muslim mosque in Joplin in 2012. This was a total loss structure fire that was deliberately set. Ultimately information obtained by dispatchers and conveyed to line police officers resulted in a conviction of an arsonist and the ability of the mosque to get financial recovery and
Growing up I was taught to never play with fire as it was very dangerous, so I didn’t know what to expect, and I didn’t know how my actions as a firefighter would affect the population of John Day, so when I was told following the conclusion of guard school that we were going to a prescribed burn I was shocked. I still had the slimmest idea of how these prescribed burns worked, but I’d soon find out more following the car ride to the burn.
Thousands of fires occur on a yearly basis throughout the United States. Whether it is forest fires, house fires, or any other event that involves uncontrollable flames, the outcome will always be the same; high amounts of destruction and physical damage. When fire emergencies occur, responding to the incident may not be much of a complication as apposed to determining the source from where the fire started or what triggered its behavior, which is truly the challenge. In order to do so, a fire investigator has to be present at the scene of the fire after it has been eliminated. The investigator, after reviewing any possible marks or behavior trails, will conclude if the incident was indeed an accident or intentional, thus making it an act
In order to evaluate common fire hazards within a building and the risks presented by these, it is essential to have an understanding of where fires start, and what causes them in varying occupancy types. The best process to fulfil this aim is to review existing statistical data. Existing data is a vital tool in analysing areas or functions of a building which have the greatest risk to occupants. In particular, those functions or areas of a building having higher fatality rates historically in buildings of a similar type should be treated with special consideration (i.e. Class 2, Kitchen). It is important to be familiar with these statistics as they play a key role in predicting outcomes of future fires. Using this knowledge, fire safety engineers can identify patterns and high risk factors; and apply appropriate building fire safety systems in an attempt to reduce fire
The fire came into noticed when it was spread to the false ceiling under the tarpaulin. The management people announced that people should