The Logistics of Firefighting

it's January 9th 2022 and in New York City it's cold for the residents of this 120 unit housing complex with a history of tenant complaints that it's too cold near freezing temperatures outside means supplemental heating inside in the case of this unit apartment 3n spanning the building's second and third floor this means the prolonged use of a space heater but this heater is malfunctioning and it's sitting right next to a flammable mattress for its part the building's first line of defense works as rudimentary fire alarms warn residents of the building smoke unfortunately its impact is dampened by the systems history of false alarms so few hearing the Blair get an early jump on making their way to the fire escapes it's two Central staircases with the first 911 call from this apartment at 1054 reporting a wall of black smoke this is certainly no false alarm quickly following is another 911 call from this apartment then this one and this one and this one setting off a highly coordinated sequence that sees Bronx firefighters arriving on the scene in just 3 minutes the wheels of firefighting are in motion but quietly and difficult to detect at this very moment the scene is being set for disaster that the 911 calls come in quick succession from these specific units signals that the building's second line of fire defense has failed and that it has done so catastrophically high-rise buildings quite simply don't burn down like they used to in in fact high-rises only burn down on the rarest of occasions and even in some of the most tragic apartment building fires around the us families are able to move back into the buildings not long after sections of them were torched or flooded by smoke as for why well that ends with firefighters but it starts with how we build if anything's synonymous with New York City Housing it's these a legacy of early 1900s Progressive housing reform these external Fire Escape Routes are iconic serving as makeshift sleep spots on the hottest New York nights in the past and patios and flower beds in the present but the twin Park's Northwest building or any high-rise housing around the city is not equipped with such escapes built in 1972 4 years after external fire escapes were effectively banned this building isn't entirely defenseless against fire its systems are just more subtle the first of which is fireproof construction and now mandatory technique for high-rise buildings that has its roots in the very same document that brought about external fire Escapes in 19 01 if a tenement building stood five stories or higher the law outlined it needed to be constructed with incombustible materials like brick stone or iron well the exact details as to what constitutes fireproof and which buildings need to be fireproof have changed in the century since building within combustible materials remains any highrises main line of defense this is the very Bedrock of every building's fire protection system and each New York City Apartment is required to have one of these sheets at every entrance first providing notice to The Bu building's fireproof status then informing the tenant what to do in case of a fire on account of said status but fireproof as a term is perhaps hyperbolic fires occur in fireproof buildings the Bronx high-rise that began to burn on January 9th was considered fireproof problem is what's contained in an apartment clothing Furniture food most things really do in fact burn so building codes and material testing agencies rely on fire resistance how long a wall or a window or a seal can hold up to a fire without failing or turning a blaze itself to make a building adequately fire resistant in New York there's about 100 pages of code to adhere to running the gamut from materials and fixtures used in construction to the building's layout itself take the simple issue of a hole in the wall for an air duct perhaps or a pipe or maybe a light switch well if a wall is adequately inflamable it's only as good as its ability to suppress fire at its weakest points it's literal holes and gaps to ensure that fire doesn't spread through such gaps There Are Rules more specifically there's section 714 which states that if it's a through penetration the pipe or conduit passing through the wall must be fire resistant and seal must be protected with a material that meets the standards of both the underwriter Laboratories and the American Society for testing and materials' tests if it's just a membrane penetration according to code whatever is being placed in the wall must maintain the same level of fire resistance as the wall itself then there's the gaps to the outside world how much space along a wall can Windows take up well that depends on a few factors like how near is the neighboring building if it's beyond 30 ft There's No Limit if the next door building is nearer then it becomes a question of whether or not there are Sprinklers and fire drapes factories that make the difference of no windows allowed to no limit on windows and the code goes on and on but no matter how random or extremely specific each and every aspect of fire resistant building seems when it comes to multif family dwellings and high-rise Apartments the larger fire suppression model revolves around the idea of compartmentation the idea is simple cooking fires heating fires electrical fires minor single apartment fires are bound to happen but the disaster can be minimized if the fire isn't allowed to spread this almost always works it was with the failure of compartmentation that the Bronx fire turned from a single apartment accident to a tragic catastrophe the fire resistant walls help up so did the apartment's floor in the ceiling all able to hold the fire within the confines of 3n until firefighters could arrive but when the residents of 3en escaped their apartment the door designed to close and latch behind them instead swung open it's with doors that a high-rise is success or failure in a fire emergency often ultimately hinges on for building to survive with minimal damage Flames need to be suppressed for residents to survive smoke needs to be suppressed and in containing both doors are the easiest point of failure this is why New York's building code section on opening protectives spans some seven pages is why each and every fire door within a building is repl with information on the last time it was tested its fire rating and its manufacturer and it's why there are so many public pleased by the city of New York along with every other big city to check and recheck door mechanisms it's also why when 911 calls started hitting dispatch from these apartments so quickly after the fire started there was clearly a major problem at hand is it signal that the smoke and fire broke contained and were quickly spreading across the rest of the floor the general rule in fire resistant high-rise buildings is that unless a resident unit is on fire they're safer staying in their unit instead of rushing to a stairwell or elevator and trying to escape it's what's recommended on these sheets and it's what the former FDNY fire commissioner Daniel Nigro expressed in the Bronx Fire's wake but that becomes a far more dangerous proposition when compartmentation fails for the residents on this floor this meant anxiously waiting for firefighters to put out the fire before it broke through their own doors and for residents along these floors where smoke now poured through more malfunctioning doors it put people in the impossible spot of deciding to make a run for the exit or wait it out for mid-century high-rises fireproof construction fire resistant design and materials and compartmentation have kept apartment fires from becoming entire structure fires and saved countless lives but as residential buildings have reached higher and higher into the sky more protective measures have been implemented in modern highrises sand pipes run up and down the entire building to provide firefighters quick access to pressurized water rather than having to haul hoses up flight after flight of stairs newer buildings also use stair pressurization systems to push fresh air down stairwells to suppress smoke and most ubiquitous high-rises built within the last three decades count on sprinkler systems to stop fires before they even require compartmentation in the first place in most places these additional systems are not luged lues but now required in newer builds the problem is most highrises that are at highest risk were built before such Technologies existed or were required by code and thus simply go without counting on Old design tricks and fast verse responders not too far away but no matter how high the building how big the fire or where it's located once the first 911 call comes in a remarkably standardized system of response sets off this is a single family family home it's on fire but this shouldn't be too big of a deal because this is just about the most basic of fires and there's probably a fire station nearby 60,000 of them dot the US which is an incredible density that makes them more prevalent than the post office then McDonald's and then Walmart combined and yet each one of these is ever so slightly different uniquely calibrated to best service the area it's responsible for for example if that onire single family home was located here on the outskirts of the greater Denver area its nearest firefighters would be based at South Metro Fire Station 40 now compared to the rest of this Department's District station 40 is in a more sparely populated area that's perhaps why it's an engine company its largest apparatus is a fire engine as opposed to a fire truck a fire engine is designed to be the first of First Responders it's smaller more maneuverable and generally more plentiful in a fire district but it only has some water some foam some hoses and some ladders enough to start fighting a fire but rarely enough to finish 23 of South Metro's 29 stations house these fire engines meaning they're never far from the location of a fire and this helps them maintain their impressive eight or so minute response time average but the other six of the Department stations are truck companies they house fire trucks these larger apparatuses are typically staffed by more experienced firefighters and thanks to their larger size have the tools on hand for more advanced rescues or firefighting techniques and they also of course have these the ladders crucial tools for getting any more advantageous position to fight from above or to perform aerial rescues from Windows or balconies it'll take longer for the truck to arrive at this fire from station 18 but station 40's engine should be capable of slowing or stopping the fire spread until the truck is able to arrive although considering this Fire's location there's an additional unique risk that neither of these apparatuses is Well Suited to respond to it could start a brush fire in dry drought stricken Colorado Summers the brush that makes up much of the surrounding landscape is exceptionally flammable and could turn one lightning strike or unextinguished cigarette or single family home fire into a devastating disaster in fact in 2021 your miles to the north high winds unextinguished Embers and a sparking power line combined to set off a brush fire that destroyed over a thousand buildings and now ranks as the most destructive fire in the state's history so considering station 40's location along the periphery of the suburbs it's also the base of a brush engine this engine is equipped much like a traditional engine but built on a smaller wheelbase with high clearance and suspension that makes it capable of maneuvering off-road through the hills where brush fire might spread and since Hills rarely have hydrants station 40 also hosts a water tender capable of transporting thousands of gallons to wherever the need might be but if this fire were in a different location the responding station would of course be different a few hours West in debec Colorado for example there's only one station since the town is so small there's no need to spread apparatuses out to cut down on response time but there's still a need for a similar outfit of engines trucks brush engines and a water tender so they all just sit under one perhaps counterintuitively larger roof but back in the original location the process of response of course begins with a call once notified the dispatcher will declare this a one alarm fire now the exact composition of a response to a one or two or however many alarm fire varies from Department to department and it also varies whether this is a formal or informal designation but most often one alarm will call for three fire engines two ladder trucks and one battalion chief engine company 40 of course will be first on scene given that the captain of this truck is designated The Incident Commander and they'll remain in charge until command is transferred that means that subsequent arrivals to the fire are all coordinated by this initial Incident Commander and in the first moments they'll transmit a scene Siz of report over the radio to give dispatch and inbound companies an idea of what the situation is in this case it'd be something like engine 40 is on location of a small occupied two-story woodframe residential structure we've got working fire on the Bravo side from there the commander will go on to give instructions to incoming units likely telling them where to station themselves once they arrive as well as ask for additional resources depending on the need soon enough though considering this is a legitimate working fire a battalion chief will arrive they'll station their SUV or pickup at a position with a clear view of the structure then make clear to everyone over the radio that they're assuming command from the captain first on scene next up the chief needs to decide on basic strategy offensive or defensive offensive is most common when arriving at a fire before they've typically grown too large but it's riskier it entails firefighters physically entering a structure to both search for victims and perhaps fight the spread from inside where they're able to get in a more advantageous position and safe part of the building but with every minute a building Burns its structural Integrity diminishes and its potential of collapse grows a common cause of fire ground fatality while the responsibility of balancing these concerns ultimately falls on The Incident Commander many departments have safety officers who work directly under The Incident Commander to assure that risk is properly managed the core principle is that fire departments will take risks when it's worth it such as to save lives but they won't when it's not like when it structur is already Beyond saving therefore offensive strategy is only declared either when a fir Commander is reasonably confident that a building is far from collapse or when the potential for saving lives is considered high enough to Warrant the corresponding amount of risk and even then there are near endless safety protocols firefighters only enter a building in pair so that one can be accountable for the other and vice versa but while they're inside there must also be a pair for other firefighters acting as the rapid intervention crew they'll station just outside the structure suited up and ready to enter at any moment to rescue those inside if something goes arai firefighters are also instructed to only enter a burning structure with a Charged line that is a hose that is pressurized with water that's because in addition to being the key tool to stop or slow the fire spread it's also a crucial defensive tool if the fire spreads unexpectedly towards them and then if something goes really wrong the line also acts as a physical guide through the low visibility towards the exit like many policies though this is the one that firefighters will debate and sometimes apply based on their own interpretation much to the safety officer's disappointment some argue that it is better to use their own discretion on when to charge the line with water since it is much easier to move a line to where it's needed when it's dry than when it's full of heavy water they therefore argue that they can stop the spread of the fire quicker by getting close to where it's burning than charging the line with water but it's perhaps at their own Peril at a certain point though A fire is just too dangerous sometimes it's due to spread sometimes it's due to a lack of progress sometimes it's due to a lack of resources but it's down to The Incident Commander under the safety officer's advisement to decide when the structure is too far gone for the offensive strategy that shifts the cruise into defensive mode this is never the ideal scenario especially since according to official standard operating procedures defensive mode can be declared even when victims are still trapped in a building if the commander determines the chances of a successful rescue are not high enough to account for the corresponding risk to the firefighter's lives but the main focus at that point is to mitigate collateral damage Cruz will still fight the fire but only from the outside and only from a distance a less advantageous position considering the source is almost always inside the primary focus will be on preventing further spread so disproportionate resources will be placed on any exposures close to other combustible materials and since collapse is near inevitable at this point a collapse zone is calculated and cordoned off to prevent any casualties but this single family home fire is All Things Considered just about the simplest scenario there are a near endless assortment of variables that could increase complexity if the single family home was located here for example water supply would start to be a major concern since this is an area without fire hydrants meaning they can't just pump water directly in that's when the water tenders come into play at least four will initially respond and they'll drop their portable water tanks at the fire location as they set up a shuttle system where each tender goes to the nearest hydrant fills up returns and dumps into a portable tank then heads back to the hydrant and repeats if there are enough tankers shuttling this will provide the firefighters on scene a continuous water supply regardless of whether there's a tanker actually on site but complexity really increases when buildings get larger the more structure after all the more fuel for the fire as fires grow the response required doesn't just grow in Step it often grows exponentially if this fire was instead say at a large multi hundred unit apartment complex in downtown Denver it would of course see plenty of response from the Denver fire department but it might also see firefighters from the South Metro West Metro arvata and Adams County fire departments departments in close proximity often have formal Mutual Aid agreements with each other and then for larger incidents this sort of cross-jurisdictional response often happens on an ad hoc basis but considering the degree of coordination required for safe and effective fire response different departments with different systems and different leaders all responding to a single incident is an opportunity for chaos the 911 attacks in New York City were such an instance different police and fire departments performed redundant searches 911 calls with victim locations were not properly passed on to those inside and NYPD helicopter warnings of imminent Tower collapse were not passed on to the fire department meaning plenty more police officers were able to evacuate in time than firefighters largely in response to this the Department of Homeland Security developed the national Incident Management System which sets one common system used by every emergency response organization in the US to make them interoperable it sets up structures for unified inter agency command it assures common terminology it develops channels for communication it defines how a response scales it essentially is a big boring bureaucratic system that makes all the difference in a large incident since it means that no matter who responds from which agency they're all trained on a common system and speaking a Common Language so they can set up a coordinated response in an instant but the system overall is the same regardless of whether there's one engine on scene or 100 it's designed to scale from the get-go so while the first instant commander on scene might be the captain sitting in the passenger seat of their engine a large fire potentially requiring a multi-day response might see the fire stationed in a specialized mobile Incident Command Post while a small fire might see firefighters staying hydrated and fed with water and granola bars from their truck a large fire will demand the response of the Department's rehab unit whose entire job is to keep firefighters fed hydrated warm or cool while a small fire might require a Twitter post informing the public s of the source of the smoke a large fire would require the Department's public information officers to set up a designated press area schedule press conferences and coordinate interviews between the media and officers in charge that's to say the way you fight a large fire is the same way you fight a small fire just on a larger scale since the entire system is designed to scale but sometimes this system the integration between planning action and just building buildings to not burn breaks down and that's when a disaster can outscale a Department's response in the case of the Bronx fire in January of 2022 firefighters were on scene within 3 minutes and when the scale of the issue came to light they rightfully upgraded the to a five alarm fire with 200 firefighters on scene some fighting it from ladder trucks others from the interior While others still working to evacuate the building the fire was under control within the day in fact within the afternoon even and with Rescuers pushing their oxygen supply to the brink some 60 plus additional people were safely ushered out of the smoke filed building and yet because of little more than faulty doors 32 residents ended up in the hospital and 17 people died turning a spark from a space heater into the most deadly New York City fire in decades the world has figured out how to effectively stop fire as an existential threat yet tragic outlier cases like this where the system breaks down demonstrates just how crucial it is one of the most common questions I get is how we make these videos the full answer is not a quick one and to be honest there are plenty of tutorials that can teach you how to edit and animate and stuff but one of the trickiest bits is the writing how do you make a story simultaneously interesting engaging and accurate well a crucial tool I use to 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Channel: Wendover Productions

Views: 1,120,474

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Id: iJuGkwA7S1c

Length: 23min 32sec (1412 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 25 2024