In episode 22, check out UL FSRI Advisory Board Member, Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel as he discusses tactical considerations to avoid getting caught in the flow path exhaust while fighting a basement fire.
Basement fires can be difficult to control and extinguish once they have gotten beyond the incipient stage. Access and ventilation opportunities are usually limited, floor plans are often anything but standard, and fuel loads can be large including the structural members of a floor. Advancing down the interior stairs as a first tactic may work well during the incipient or growth stages of a fire, but when a fire has reached ventilation-limited conditions or has already flashed over, pushing down the interior stairs is may not result in a faster knockdown and control of the fire. While you are fighting your way down the stairs, everything may get worse for the occupants behind and above you and the building’s integrity is being compromised by the fire.
Learn More:
Visit the following project pages associate with this consideration:
Understanding and Fighting Basement Fires
Improving Safety by Understanding the Fire Performance of Engineered Floor Systems
This series of videos will bring you tactical considerations from firefighter research and will feature members of the UL FSRI team and Advisory Board.
A Tactical Consideration is an evidence based concept for the fire service to consider implementing into their department to enhance efficiency, effectiveness, and increase knowledge to accomplish their mission. With all of the measurements made during UL FSRI experiments as well as the vast experience of our project technical panels, several consistent themes have emerged that may be helpful to the fire service. Each of these themes is packaged as a tactical consideration with supporting text and visuals.
The application of tactical considerations depends upon many factors such as:
- building structure and geometry
- capabilities and resources available to the first responding fire department
- availability of mutual aid
There is no silver bullet tactic for structure fires and these considerations are meant to increase the knowledge of the fire service and to be incorporated into training and procedures, if deemed applicable.
Follow @UL_FSRI on social media and share the videos with your fire service friends using #TacticalTuesday.