Brennan Q&A July 2004

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TOM BRENNAN has more than 35 years of fire service experience having responded to 33,000 fire alarms. His career spans more than 20 years with the Fire Department of New York as well as four years as chief of the Waterbury (Conn.) Fire Department. He has a bachelor of science degree, summa cum laude, John Jay College; Alumnus of the Year Award, John Jay College; chairman of the Connecticut Fire Chiefs Association and a charter member of the National Fire Protection Association, Fire Service Section. He has delivered courses and seminars throughout the United States and has instructed at the National Fire Academy. He was the editor of Fire Engineering Magazine for eight years, is currently a technical editor, and his column “Random Thoughts,” is a regular monthly feature. He is co-editor of The Fire Chief’s Handbook, Fifth Edition. He is the recipient of the 1998 Fire Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award.

JULY 2004

Question: Tom, I am a member of a department with a considerable number of high-rise buildings within its jurisdiction. Many of these buildings have modern HVAC systems whereby the stairwells and vestibules are pressurized in the fire mode. Some of the members in my department feel that this allows a change in normal firefighting tactics, where lines led from a standpipe originate from below the fire floor. They believe this smoke control feature allows firefighters to make their initial hoselead from the standpipe outlet in the vestibule located on the fire floor. What are your thoughts?

Answer: When speaking about heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVAC), we are usually talking about high-rise structures in all senses of the word. That means that standpipe operations are mandatory at least for those locations above the fourth or fifth floors (depending on your operation procedures.)

With the integration of a pressurization system for stair shafts, you are usually talking about high-rise office buildings wherein the stair pressurization system is initiated by more than two sites of alarm activation in the same area, indicating a large or growing heat source of spreading fire. You are also talking about up to 40,000 square feet of combustibles or more on each floor. In my vernacular, you are talking about two or more supermarkets on fire that are hanging more than 100 feet in the air that you have to fight with a handline (usually too small in diameter) through a 36 inch door!

The second weakness in the argument is caused by the integrity of the stair and the ability to maintain pressure. Because of the system assurance that escaping civilians are able to push open the exit door to the stair shaft, the maximum allowable pressure is restricted by law and installation AND is nullified by opening the fourth door on the same staircase. If the fire is of any consequence AND the alarm detectors are transmitting at a rate of more than one AND the sound system announces the fact of fire in the structure — after disorderly fire experiences for occupants in New York Plaza, First Interstate Bank, Meridian Plaza, Chicago and the Twin Towers — how many people will remain in place for orderly evacuation? I don’t think that the pressurization system will be in place for any dependable length of time.

Next, pressurization systems are to regulate smoke movement and not heat extension! As a protected firefighter, you are expected to operate in smoke to some degree of efficiency but not to remain in blow-torch-type heat buildup (the entrance door of high-rise occupancies at the stair tower). So heat is the problem for you and the only safe refuge is in a direction down the stair — not the stair lobby on the fire floor.

Next, firefighting in multiple-floor occupancies (at least interior firefighting) within structures is a case of starting at the floor below the fire and fighting your way up! In high-rise office structures you may have to begin at floors below the “floor below.”

Furthermore, on what floor do you get off the elevator? If it is on the floor indicated by the alarm system (or the hysterical building employee or the button that some junior firefighter presses in an overcrowded elevator), you need to change your act quickly. High-rise office buildings and related elevator systems make stopping and exiting at least two floors below the reported (or counted) fire floor necessary for entering the stair system. It makes sense to hook up below the fire floor and gain the time to properly lay out the 150 feet of proper-size hose you just brought with you from the outlet on that floor.

Next, if the fire is of any consequence on the floor, the nozzle team will probably experience severe distress upon opening the door to the floor. It is hard to cover a momentary retreat DOWN a few steps of stair through an entire engine company and a couple of truckees and over 150 feet of “flopped” hose that is on the landing from the outlet to the overheated door.

Stretching from the floor below is more orderly for exiting civilians and supervised hose layout. It is safer while the fire condition is being examined. It provides for a covered retreat all the time. It is less confusing if the sections of hose get carried in two different elevators. (Now why would that happen? (See note below.)

Another thought: everyone is ALWAYS going to the same starting place — the attack stair standpipe connection at the closest floor below the fire floor (cutting the wwoops! factor). There are no interim blocking factors to the stair enclosure (hose clumps). The rapid and aggressive stretch from stair door to fire location is more orderly when the hose is laid out from below and better if laid out from above and below (write me on that one).

Finally, why would you do something or allow a tactic to be “iffy”? High-rise office fires are tricky and confusing enough. As a matter of fact, success for us means screwing up less the next time. Why then would you want to put momentary disorder to something so basic as getting a handline in place that will win most all of the time?

NOTE: Three 50-foot lengths of hose are a minimum for standpipe operations. In many departments today, criminally low manning levels require (by SOP even) that two units “match” up to form an effective unit. If they don’t rendezvous in the lobby for the same elevator, there is a “fudge factor.” There are other ways this phenomena may occur, but that is for next time. (Return to text.)

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Write if you agree or don’t agree or on anything. Tbrennan@firenuggets.com

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