Take Time To Make Time

By Brian Smith

In the last article entitled, “Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks,” I recounted my attendance at an FDIC class on engine company operations and how I was taught a few time-honored techniques that helped me to be better able to perform on the fireground and teach nozzle skills. Although the main topic of the class centered on trying to recapture an adequate understanding and usage of nozzles for extinguishing fires, there were many other concepts presented. In this article I would like to focus on the deployment of your weapon (the hose and nozzle) from the engine to the entry point of the structure or the hazard area.

How important is a proper deployment? The history of warfare will always show that an army that takes time to properly deploy their forces, which includes not only their fighting force but their logistics and reserve forces, will always prevail. The deployment must be well thought out and occur without confusion. The battle of Gettysburg is a classic example where a rapid deployment of Union forces in a section of high ground with an adequate supply of ammunition, personnel reserves, and other resources withstood the onslaught of a very determined Confederate force. The initial claiming of that high ground by a small unit of Union cavalry who fought a smart delaying action to buy time for the Union army to reinforce in force was a pivotal action that set up the ultimate Union victory on day three of the battle. If the Union cavalry had failed to stop the initial push by the Confederates in that initial day of battle, the deployment of Union forces would have been haphazard and the Confederates could possibly have found a weakness to exploit and break through the Union lines. Gettysburg is but one example of how a proper initial deployment can create the foundation for the successful conclusion of any battle.

This article will present several tips to both show the importance of a sound deployment of handlines and how that deployment can be accomplished. The theme of this article is “Taking Time to Make Time,” and that is the first tip to be presented.

Tip #1: Take Time To Make Time

How many fire scenes have you been on that are not controlled chaos but simply chaos? How well did the fire battle go when chaos reigned? When I was the training officer and I was given recruit classes to train, I began to think about the concept of success on the fireground. I came up with three ways that we tended to rate success: first, the fire went out; second, no one got hurt; and third, the citizen who called for our help was satisfied. Most fires are rated as a success by this definition, but how many fires have you been on that met the following parameters but you walked away with the feeling that the firefight did not go well. I will bet that most of the time that this feeling occurs; the crews involved were not taking time to make time. You know the scene; the young firefighter grabs the nozzle and literally “takes off” towards the fire. The hose is coming off the bed like fishing line coming off a reel that has a great white shark on the end of it. Couplings are getting snagged on car tires, shrubs, the homeless guy sleeping in the bushes, and other obstacles. When the hose comes to a shrieking stop from the car tire, the firefighter is jerked back like a calf being roped in a rodeo. The officer is trying to get the attack set up, but everybody is so intent on getting inside the structure that no one is helping the engine crew to get the line deployed in an orderly manner with enough working line to reach all of the areas within the structure. Of course there is always some “Einstein” who is yelling to hurry up and get water on the fire (as if this isn’t everyone’s goal) and this continues to make a chaotic situation more chaotic. The incident commander is asking for updates while crew members are still trying to dislodge the hose from that damn car tire, or fence post, or whatever else got in the way of our hectic hose deployment. Always, these situations work themselves out and the fire is extinguished, we slap high fives, and go back to the kitchen table at the station to tell our latest war story. Why is it that we allow ourselves to get so excited over a basic fire, something that we should not be surprised to see? We should always be happy that we have firefighters who want to work hard and move quickly to solve the problem that we have been called to take care of. But it is vital that we train our crews to slow down a little bit, take a pause for the cause, and move with purpose and intent instead of out of control reckless abandon towards the fire. This is not aggressive firefighting and deployment nor controlled chaos, but it is simply chaos.

You should instill in your crews the need to be more purposeful and controlled when they deploy towards the problem. The officer needs to get enough information about the situation (size-up) to deploy the initial attack line to the best entry for the current problem. The firefighters need to slow down a little, be disciplined, and deploy the line in the right place and with enough forward looking thought to ensure that obstacles do not slow down the advancement of the line to the fire area nor cause kinks to develop when the hose is charged. Every crew will have a different job at each fire scene, but all need to understand that the quick and accurate deployment of the first line will ensure that the fire will be confined and extinguished more rapidly. In Photo 1 the crew is going about their business in a controlled manner.

PHOTO 1

No one is out of control, they each have a part of the solution to accomplish, and no one is in competition to deploy the line first, they understand that teamwork will accomplish more and in a faster timeframe than running blindly with the hose. Some are deploying line out of the transverse bed, some are making supply line connections, and the officer is ready to give the direction to the drop point, the place where the working line and nozzle need to be placed to make entry into the hazard area. The firefighter deploying the attack line is ensuring that the right amount of hose is being pulled. Everybody is staying out of each other’s way so that all of the necessary actions can happen without bumping into each other. They are smooth and fast. They will not come up short on the stretch, they will have a smooth advance without delay to fix kinks or pull hose from around obstacles, and they will put the fire out quicker than the crew that is quick off the mark but having to correct all of the finer points of deployment because they did it without thinking first and taking time to make time. Look at the crew below in Photo 2 that is deploying a long attack line or a long supply for an attack line. Any crew that just grabs the end of the hose and runs toward the problem without utilizing teamwork for such a long deployment will meet disaster and eventually they will be passed up by a more forward looking and controlled crew.

PHOTO 2

It takes experience, patience, and discipline to avoid our natural tendency to want to run and move too quickly toward the problem. Taking time to make time will always put you ahead of the game and allow us to add less chaos to an already chaotic situation.

Tip #2: Avoid Spaghetti

When I get a chance to travel to Denver to attend a Fire Nuggets seminar, we usually end up at an Italian restaurant called Patsy’s. I really enjoy pasta, but spaghetti on the fireground is a sign of a hectic and chaotic operation. What is spaghetti regarding a hoseline? It is the knotting up of a hoseline as illustrated in Photo 3.

PHOTO 3

Do you think that the handline team is going to have a hard or easy time advancing on a fire? Laying down hose in this manner shows that a crew is not paying proper attention to the big picture, that is, they are in such a hurry to get to the fire they are forgetting that a haphazard deployment will ultimately slow them down due to the need in this case for someone to untangle the mess. When the engineer charges this, the pressure in the lines will not come close to forcing this line to untangle. Our firefighting forefathers took a long time to come up with hose beds and orderly hose loads as seen in Photo 4.

PHOTO 4

The style or the type of load doesn’t matter as much as the fact this upfront preparation assists firefighters in being able to quickly and efficiently deploy both the right size and the right amount of hose to take care of the problem. Why would you want to go ahead and destroy all of that hard work loading hose right by deploying it like a plate of spaghetti? Taking time to make time will allow the firefighter to lay down the hose to the spot that their officer wants to start the attack from, with enough working hose to make all of the necessary area inside or around the fire area. Furthermore, the hose should be deployed in a way that when it is charged it does not need to be unraveled first before the nozzle has water and the advancement on the fire can begin.

Tip #3: Good Housekeeping

No, there is no seal of approval for having good housekeeping on the fireground, but you will have an appreciative nod from the nozzle crew if you chase kinks and sort out their hose so that they can extinguish the fire. Good housekeeping is different from avoiding spaghetti in that it takes place after a hose deployment that doesn’t go well. Let’s face it, we all get a case of the “oh baby, a fire” syndrome after a bit of a fire drought, and we tend to rush our deployment. Where avoiding spaghetti is a proactive action, good housekeeping is a reactive action. Both are necessary on the fireground. Good housekeeping will generally take the form of chasing kinks and removing them from the hoseline or flaking the hoseline in a proper manner for the nozzle crew, as in Photo 5.

PHOTO 5

The proper flaking of a handline outside of the entry point can make or break the rapid advance on a fire. One thing that I have noticed through the years is the lack of recognition by onscene crews to help the attack crew by setting up their hose for success. Many times crews seem to be so set on their objective and mission that they will walk over the top of kinks or hose that is caught by the coupling on some sort of obstacle. They do not seem to understand that the success of their objective, like a search of the building, is directly tied to that first line being put into place to confine and extinguish the fire. Take a moment to set some hose straight: flake it, undo the kink, or relieve the hose from an obstruction.  The brief time that this takes away from your search (or whatever your assignment is) will always reap dividends down the road by helping that first line advance. Another safety issue involving good housekeeping is trying to keep handlines separated, especially inside of a structure. This thought is a little ahead of the main subject of this article (deploying a hoseline from the apparatus to the structure) but it is an ideal time to bring it up. Trying to follow a hoseline out of a structure in zero visibility is a difficult skill at best. Imagine this skill when multiple lines have been entangled as they were deployed over the top of the first line. Photo 6 shows a firefighter who now has a decision to make. Hopefully, their hand does not come off the right line, the one that will take them to safety.

PHOTO 6

Again, take time to try and keep these lines separate. If a crew has to make a hasty exit they will thank you for giving them a superhighway out rather than a freeway cloverleaf.

Tip #4: Hectic Here, Hectic There

What happens at your fire station when a fire call comes in? Doesn’t everybody get excited? That is a good reaction; we are getting called to show that we know what to do when a fire is consuming a structure. But how often does that excitement make us become a group of firefighters falling all over ourselves trying to accomplish our mission instead of being a finely tuned machine going to work, first time every time?  As Andy Fredericks use to say, “The garbage man expects garbage when he pulls into a driveway, why aren’t we expecting a fire.” Sometimes (many times) we act as if we have never been at a fire before.  All of our drill time and preparation seem to go out the window causing a concept I call “Hectic here, Hectic there”.

It can start when the alarm comes in; everybody is in such a rush to be first in. This is not a bad thought and goal to reach but not if you turn onto the street where the structure fire is located trailing a portion of the air hose that use to be hooked up to an air port in the station or a part of an electrical cord that keeps your battery from giving up the ghost back at the station. Those cords and hoses are supposed to stay in the station, not follow you to the scene of the fire. There is no where to hook them up onscene. Following with our pattern, we start to deploy our hose, then realize that we need our pack on to fight the fire. We remember we might need forcible entry tools, but we are moving a thousand miles an hour right now and we can’t remember where those tools are supposed to be. About that time, the company officer is thinking that this sure is a quiet firescene, usually there is a lot of radio chatter going on. Ooops, you probably got so far ahead of yourself that you forgot to turn your radio on. You finally realize that its time to slow down and get back in control of this ever expanding soup sandwich. Too bad you didn’t start doing that back at the station when the call came in.

By now, the crew is following everybody else’s example and they are trying to get caught up which leads to a poor hose deployment, not the right hose, not enough of the right hose, and not enough of the right hose in the right place to start the advance. One thing leads to another, “Hectic here, Hectic there.” We have all been in this example. Let’s always work to get this operation back to a well thought out and orderly deployment. As a company officer, ensure that your crew gets out of the station in a reasonable manner but without hyperventilating because you’re going to a fire. Discuss with your firefighters the information that is coming in and what you are potentially going to do once you arrive on scene. Once on scene, take charge and direct. In preparation for these moments teach your firefighters to look and think before they deploy the handline or supply line. How much are you going to need and what size hose do you need? Where do I think that the Captain is going to have me deploy this hose so that we can start our advance. Crew members should be taught to have a pretty good concept of what their officer is going to ask for. This is called commander’s intent.

Everybody needs to “pause for the cause” and take a deep breath before going to work. Then act like you own the place and show why your crew can be depended on to accomplish the mission. There are many drills that you can do to help your crews learn this simple lesson, but one of my favorites is to lay out 150 feet of charged 2½-inch hose. Flake it near the pumper (or if it is hooked up to a hydrant near the hydrant) so that it can be deployed 150 feet in a given direction. Tell the firefighter (or a nozzle team of two firefighters) that they need to deploy the charged hose down to a pre-placed cone, move the nozzle 90 degrees to one side or the other, and put the handline into service. Any firefighter worth their salt will pick up on this direction as a challenge and when you say go, they are going to take off. Guaranteed, about 100 feet into this exercise the weight of the water in the 2½-inch and the friction of the hose on the roadway is going to give you the type of struggle illustrated in Photo 7.

PHOTO 7

Except for the “King Kong” types on your department, things are going to slow down for the last 50’. The vast majority of firefighters will gut through this, but they are in a place of severe respiratory work at this time. This is a classic example of “Hectic here, Hectic there.” Smarter firefighters, generally older firefighters, have learned that brute strength will only take you so far. They will listen to the directions, think it through, and perform as the crew in Photo 8.

PHOTO 8

Charged hose was initially deployed forward so that the entire weight of water and the friction of the hose being pulled on the ground is lessened. This crew was slower out of the blocks than the first crew, but by the end of the evolution, the nozzles were opened about the same time and the second crew could accomplish a considerably more work than the first crew, especially with a 2 ½” handline. Catch the drift, it’s alright to be excited about a fire, they are exciting calls. Don’t let your excitement run amok or you will be duplicating work and looking as if this was the very first fire that you’ve ever been on.

Tip #5: Lay 1, Buy 3

Under the “Hectic Here, Hectic There” section above, we discussed briefly the concept that good firefighters are always thinking ahead of the fire, anticipating what the next order or direction is going to be or should be. “LAY 1 AND BUY 3” is a concept that I first heard from the late Chief Tommy Brennan. During his classes, he would always get into a section where he would give examples of fires in different occupancies. He would use a flip chart and draw out the scenario. He would ask for the necessary tactics to make the structure behave and he would represent the various tactical crews and the number of people that should (emphasize the word SHOULD) be used to adequately staff each tactic. What I always noticed was that any handline that was deployed where the operating crew could be threatened, would always “buy” two more handlines. One was a back-up line to protect the initial crew and their egress, and the other was the “Oh s...t” handline in case things went totally sideways. Most people would probably call this a RIT line now. So the concept here is twofold. First, crews need to anticipate future needs and be ready to deploy extra lines. Secondly, these lines need to be deployed in a manner that they will not be in each other’s way. Photo 9 illustrates an orderly deployment of multiple lines, kept out of each other’s way, with crews ready to put them into service.

PHOTO 9

Tip #6: Entry Procedure

We finally have come to the last tip for successful deployment and it is an excellent stopping point for the transition that will occur between deployment and advancement of the handline. That transition usually takes place at the entry point. This is also a good time to discuss the issue of what aggressive firefighting is and what it isn’t. Aggressive does not necessarily mean the fastest crew to the seat of the fire. It does not mean the crew that is never going to allow the fire to beat them. And it certainly does not mean the crew that is so focused on their goal that they forget how to get to that goal. This type of “aggressive” firefighter goes barreling into a situation that they have not sized up nor have they given any thought to what is happening or what could happen. They just want to prove what a “bad ass” they are.

We will discuss how to close on the enemy in the next article. It is sufficient to say that a truly aggressive firefighting crew is one that takes the proper amount of time to size up where the fire seems to be in the structure, develops a quick plan to get there, sizes up the current situation, and sets themselves up for success by having their hose deployed correctly. A truly aggressive crew thinks, plans, and trains to make solid decisions and then moves with purpose towards completing their objective. The beauty of developing an entry procedure is that it helps your crew to slow down enough that they can see what they are getting into and can then make decisions based on the current situation, not on their hormonal activity. The entry procedure is not a rigid set of rules, but a kind of checklist to train your crews to think and consider the necessary tasks to be safe and aggressive when the decision is made to perform an interior attack.

The first order of business is to train your firefighters to perform their own internal size-up of the situation. Things like the location of the fire, the stage of the fire, the smoke condition, access and egress, building construction, potential or real hazards, what the fire is doing to the building, and the overall objective of the incident commander are all to be considered. Deploying hose from the apparatus of the right size, amount, and to the right place is what we have been discussing throughout this article and is imperative to the success of the firefight.

Next, setting yourself up for success by flaking the hose in a manner that will assist the advance into the fire area is vital. The drop point is a term for where the officer wants the handline to be initially staged. This can be an intermediate entry point, say into a multiple story or multiple apartment complex where the hose will continue to be stretched dry until the entry point into the hazard zone is reached. The drop point could also be the point at which the firefight begins. Wherever that final entry point is it is imperative to call for water and ensure that your weapon is not only loaded but also in working order. This is done by bleeding the air out of the line and ensuring that the pattern of your nozzle is set at what the nozzle operator wants to use. This is not an issue with a smooth bore nozzle which has only one setting, solid. Assuring that your entire complement of PPE is in place and functioning is a redundant thing to always state. If the door needs to be forced, make sure that you have the proper tools to accomplish this or that another crew has been assigned to perform this tactic. A firefighter can and should always try before they pry and take a quick look into the entry door before the team is completely ready to enter. It can provide invaluable information about the situation.

Prior to this moment of truth, before the entry into the hazard zone, a huddle should have been performed. The officer must let the crew or nozzle team know what he or she wants them to do. This is where the direction of travel is noted or other information about the basic plan. It might be that the nozzle crew is going to hold the fire back for a rapid search by a truck company before all crews are withdrawn to a defensive posture. Too many times, crews have blasted in without a plan. Even if the plan is simple; i.e. find, confine, and extinguish the fire, it pays to ensure that your crew knows that the plan is that simple. Company officers, never assume that your plan is known. Always say a few words.

The next step is to open the entry door. The door is not flung open and the crew does not go flying in. This is what a SWAT team needs to do, not a firefighting crew. Any firefighting crew that goes in without controlling the door and checking the initial conditions just inside the structure may be in for a rude surprise. What does it mean to control the door? Open the door carefully, keep control of it so that if an explosive fire situation comes roaring out at you, you can shut the door to rethink your entry point. This can be a matter of life and death if other firefighting crews are working above the entry door in floors above the fire. Many crews have been killed in this manner when an entry door has not been controlled to prevent a rapid extension of the fire.

 Another part to controlling the door is to chock it open to prevent it from closing on the attack team and not only blocking their exit, but also potentially kinking-off their handline, robbing them of water. The last thing to do before entry is to let this smoke condition breathe. Give the fire 10 seconds or so to see if it is going to come out and say hello. Check the smoke condition. Is there a good thermal level that you can see under? When looking under the smoke, can you see the location of the fire or a victim just inside the door? Can this view help you to understand the layout of the structure? Photo 10 illustrates an entry crew ready for action. The nozzle operator is ready to fight fire immediately and protect any crews around the entry door. The second firefighter is chocking the door and looking under the smoke for any valuable information. Also note that neither of these two firefighters is located in the most dangerous position which is in the doorway. Why, because the door can be the vent point for the entire combustion process. We teach our firefighters to be inside or out, never lingering in the vent.

PHOTO 10

When all of this has been accomplished, it is time to go to work. See Photo 11. They are low and ready to advance on the fire.

PHOTO 11

I am not advocating a long round table discussion at the front door. We work in a very time dependent environment. However, it always pays to take time to make time.

I hope that this discussion has been helpful. A proper deployment will set your crews up for success on the fireground. My next article, to be entitled “Closing With The Enemy,” will continue from inside the entry door and will provide more tips to advance a charged handline in a fire environment. I cannot reiterate enough the concept that we, as the firefighting professionals, need to look like we know what we are doing. In this day and age the amount of recording devices will surely put your fires on the front page of any video screen. What do you want that to look like? Remember, flowing water is fun. Flowing lots of water is “funner.”

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