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Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Belly-crawling in an attic fire

We had a holiday weekend for the 4th of July, and I was out in the back w/ my little sister with a telescope when a call came in for a "small fire started by fireworks that is now out." I opted not to go, but 2 minutes later they re-broadcasted a working fire at the same address.

When I got to the firehouse, my engine already left so I jumped in the car with my Lieutenant and drove to the scene - a 3 story condo with smoke pushing out of the eaves and roof. I yelled to my Lieutenant "get dressed, we're doing a search." We got our gear secured, and I grabbed the thermal camera and we walked up the stairs, pulling a dry hoseline in as we went. I noticed small shoes and a baby-gate, which alerted me there could be kids inside. The crew on the 3rd floor came over the radio and said they did a search of all rooms for occupants.




When we got to the third floor, a firefighter was just pulling down the attic door/stairs when we saw heavy smoke above us. I took the thermal camera and hoseline and yelled that we were gonna go up into the attic to make an attack, but as soon as I reached the top of the stairs my head hit something and I couldn't move forward. The smoke made visibility impossible, but looking around with the thermal camera I noticed a wall of furniture and suitcases blocking all sides of the stair entrance. Little by little I began throwing comforters, suitcases and boxes down to the guys below me, but it was futile. Before I came down the stairs, I opened a hoseline and sprayed in a few different directions to knock down any fire that might have been beyond the rooms contents.

I backed down the stairs and told the guys "there's a ton of shit up there, and the ceiling is only 24 inches high, if we make a push we're gonna have to get everything out of there first and crawl in."

I then walked into another room and began putting holes in the ceiling with another guy to check for fire. I went to 2 windows and took the screens out, just in case someone had to get in or out in a hurry they wouldn't have to contend with the obstacle.

Another one of our guys had his upper body in the attic this time, and was on the radio communicating with the roof team on where they should cut a hole in the roof to vent. The second hole they cut must have been directly over the fire, as the smoke cleared up almost immediately. As that guy came down the stairs I said to the chief "Chief, the only way we're gonna make headway here is if we get guys into that attic and make a direct attack."

I volunteered myself and another guy from our company, we masked up and got our hoseline and climbed the ladder.



I got to the top and had to slide into the attic on my belly. Down the center of the attic was a large vent for an air conditioning unit, which took up most of the space. I used the thermal camera to locate where the fire was, and when I slid in farther, the guy behind me began passing up the hoseline. As I shimmied a little further, I yelled back at him to "watch my ass, and make sure there's no fire to our left or behind us."



I finally found some flame between the insulation and roof to my right. I brought the hoseline up under my body and laid on it while i hosed down as much as I could get. I radioed to the Chief below and said "I found the fire, knocked it down and am looking for more extension." The chief later said he was laughing as he saw brown water come pouring out of the corners of the roof, knowing that we finally found the fire. A few dropped wires snagged the air-pack on my back for a few seconds but I was able to wiggle out of them. Also, I located a 3x3 foot cut made in the roof about 5 feet ahead of me in case my exit got cut off by fire.

As my air bottle began to get low, I told the guys behind and below me it was time to back out and get a fresh crew up there to pull some more insulation.

It was hot as hell outside and offered me no relief from the heat as I exited the building. I was kneeling down drinking water and stood up too fast and almost fell down, so I quickly took another knee just in case.

It was a great knock down, and the fire started most likely from bad electric wires because when I was up in the attic I noticed a bunch of severely burned wires next to a melted light fixture.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Eric,
What a nice blog you have here! I am wondering if you might be interested in answering a handful of questions for me regarding household fire prevention, common mistakes you see people make, and what to do in an emergency for an email and website I work for.

I could not find any contact information for you, could you please contact me for more details if you are interested? alicia@bestageever.com.

Thank you for your time.

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