We are the second half of the show and start around the 38 minute mark if you would like to fast forward.

Fire Engineering Radio Show Episode 215

Don’t judge a book by its cover…..sure it applies to books, but it commonly applies to many different topics regarding a person making a preconceived assessment of someone or somethings value and character before they know what is inside. Well buildings are no different, if we think we can call a primary search clear based on its outside walls and overall condition than we are asking for an unpredicted and devastating result.

Don’t Judge a Building By its Cover.

That doesn’t mean disregard a good size up and assessment of what the outside is telling you. A 3am occupied single family home with bedroom windows above the attached garage fire that are being exposed and immediately threatened obviously make a much more justifiable aggressive  search than a well involved family dollar store at 3am. Does it mean we don’t search it? I don’t think so, we may search it differently or at a different time period of the fire but we must ensure that if there is a small chance of making a successful rescue we take that opportunity.

One of the most common things you hear guys say when asked about their job in the fire service is the response “One of the greatest things about this job is you see new things everyday that you could never imagine”. Which I agree with….what a great job this is, it is not black and white, very few things can have always and never applied to them. What gets me, is in the same breath someone can be talking about different tactics and say we would never go in there, they are already dead, or (the very worst), hey their homeless and trespassing they shouldn’t have been in there anyways.

I raised my hand and said ” I would protect the citizens of my city”, not the middle to upper class, lower class if conditions dictate it and homeless and druggies are exempt. Our job is not to choose, we are part of the few professions out there that does not base our service on credit score, ability to pay or social status.

This was not intended to be a “to search or not search” argument article, and I am by no means advocating reckless, aggressively searching at all costs, no matter what the conditions type mentality . I just truly believe that when we take fighting fire and break it down into the simplest of goals, our mission becomes easy. Get water on the fire and look for people, if found, remove them. We have a lot on our plates and a lot to learn, it makes it easy to get distracted, but we have to keep our heads in the game and our priorities straight. Our neighborhoods deserve it.

What got me thinking about this? We were sent to a commercial building fire last night. It was a large twin T concrete building that was a 15000 sq ft warehouse building, and it had a good column of smoke showing that we could see before arriving. Upon arrival the smoke was coming primarily from the top of the building, from the outside the building was in good condition, still had an engineering firms sign on the front, no cars in the parking lot, glass was in place on the storefront doors, and was not boarded up. A walk around showed we had numerous overhead rolling doors intact, and a few man doors with heavy fortification but nothing out of character for the area. It did not appear to be abandoned, but just closed up for the night and probably still an active warehouse that operates during normal business hours. 

I describe the building in this way because I believe it would be easier for us to assume that squatters were in the building if it was run down, abandoned, broken glass, vandalized doors, trash all over, etc. Abandoned buildings, whether  they are commercial or residential go together with homeless. What could get us in trouble here is making an early assumption that it was just closed up for the night. It does not make a difference, it didn’t mean we were not going to search it, but it was one that would be easy to become complacent and assume that no one may be inside.

We make entry and have light smoke in the front office part of the building and than proceed into the warehouse where we have moderate smoke. Immediately after entering the warehouse a person is found, a squatter. We also find the fire, which had started as a camp fire in a grocery cart, but had been knocked over starting the rubbish and trash around it on fire. The fire is easily put out, and was not a big deal. We now find another person and a dog. At this point we begin the rest of our search and begin to find that this warehouse is a well kept squatter heaven. A full on homemade homeless shelter. We find separate shelters and sleeping quarters all over the building. Based on what we find, I would guess that 12 to 15 people are living in all different corners of this building, and at some point may have even had more. They were robbing power through extension cords from the neighbors, had TVs setup and living rooms built in the middle of the ware house. This mixed with the large amount of trash, scrap metal, appliances, tools, gas cans and every other thing you can imagine that they have collected from the local neighborhoods, this made for a fire potential that could kill numerous civilians quickly. This building was difficult to search in a timely manner with a moderate smoke condition, let alone a working fire. They even had rigged a rope system up to the fusible link skylights so they could open and close them, allowing them to keep their campfires burning in the building through out the winter.

It was not a big fire by any means but a great experience to have in the back of my mind. This is why we search. Just in my area alone I have seen people living in liquor stores, pet groomer shops, furniture stores, chinese restaurants, marijuana shops, and the list could go on. If you want some other good examples and reasons check out ” Backstep Firefighters This is why we search” Take a look at a few of these pictures, and remember Don’t search a building by its cover!

All registration information and ways to contact can be found in the flyer.

Tom has a large amount of photos from this fire, these are only a few of them. Please visit his site to see the whole fire.
Here is a link to Tom Camodys webpage

This will be held at South Metro Fires Training Center. February 1st, from 9 till 5. Register and information at the following links

Register here: The 2164 Foundation

Facebook Event Information here : Sparky Truax Family Fundraiser

Need a new years resolution. Here it is, prove to yourself and others how effective Thru-The-Lock is on storefront doors. It is hard to argue with this video. Time to quit ignoring that Rex or K-tool everyday as you check the trucks and start dedicating yourself to completely understanding it uses.

This seems to be one of those fires that could quickly have people worrying about everything but that first hose line, look how much fire is knocked down in a matter of a few seconds of the first line flowing.

“The Fire Goes As The First Line Goes”
A. Fredericks

More coverage found at Statter911