warehouse - 3/16/13

[WS224]

I rarely have time to get any decent pictures, but I was able to get a few with my phone yesterday. We were 3rd due on E10.


Address - Mallory @ S. Third St. - multiple calls reporting a warehouse on fire.


Initial Dispatch - E20, E36, E10, E29, T9, T19, R2, BC3, BC1, DC1, & an EMS unit.


Extra equipment called - E14, E2, T5


Fire was in the office area of the warehouse on the 1st and 2nd floor. E20 arrived with fire coming through the roof. They laid an initial 1 3/4" attack line. E36 pulled 20's 2nd line and supplied 20's with 5", E10 supplied the Snorkel with 5" - never charged it, E29 backed the (2) lines up with a 2 1/2" line. Fire was knocked pretty quickly.


The fire just started getting into the contents of the warehouse......a couple more minutes, and talk about a fuel load!!!


E10





E10








R2 - you can see where the offices were behind them in the smoke.





E20

 

[picone239]

Is that amber on the end of the lightbar on Engine 20?


And does the warehouse store anything other than pallets?

 

[NYBLS]

Did your first arriving engine grab water on their way in? If no, why not?

 

[twodogs603]

Snorkel? Whats a snorkel? Talk about a dying breed. Havent seen one of those in use in years. Wish more depts used them.

 

[WS224]

Is that amber on the end of the lightbar on Engine 20?

It sure looks thaat way in the picture, but no, its red.

And does the warehouse store anything other than pallets?

Just pallets.

 

[WS224]

Did your first arriving engine grab water on their way in? If no, why not?

They did not, and very rarely do we ever. The easy answer is it is not our SOP, but I'll elaborate:


We currently have 57 stations. The vast majority of them are literally on top of each other which results in pretty good response times for all the companies on the run card, not just the first one or two. This fire had E20 there within 3-4 minutes of dispatch. E36 is 2nd due and E10 is 3rd due. We both arrived within seconds of each other and less than a minute behind E20.


All of our Engines carry 1066' of 5" - 1000' in a bed section and (2) 33' sections in a compartment, a bed section of 750' of 2 1/2" hose loaded as an attack line, split by a wye into another bed section of (2) 1 3/4" lines with the last 50' of each bundled together into a single shoulder load. Its similar to the detroit bundle, but ours is already hooked up.


For reference, this is the center bed of 2 1/2" split to the (2) 1 3/4" lines in the left bed. The 5" in the right bed would be above the picture.





From the tailboard:





This allows our 1st company to go immediately to the fire - stopping at the hydrant delays fire attack significantly over starting with tank water. That officer has the choice to initiate fire attack with tank water or lay OUT instead of laying in if wants his own permanent water suppy by dropping the shoulder load and sending the engine to the hydrant.


Even if the 1st starts with tank water, the 2nd does not lay in either - it goes to the 1st engine, drops a line, lays out to the hydrant, gets on the hydrant, and pumps the supply line back to the 1st. This allows for a level of redundancy in case there is a mechanical problem with either of them. So in this instance, E36 dropped a 5" into E20 and went down the street and pumped back to E20.


E10 - me, backed into the snorkel and dropped my 5" line and went to the next plug in the other direction and would have supplied them had we needed to go defensive.

 

[WS224]

Snorkel? Whats a snorkel? Talk about a dying breed. Havent seen one of those in use in years. Wish more depts used them.

We only have (3) left - two 55' that operate as manpower squads that run 2/3's of the City and (1) in reserve. The other 1/3 of the City is covered by a more traditional "tool box" style rescue truck.

 

[WS224]

Day 2 - tried to get it before they knocked the fire down.


3-18-13


House on Dixie near Alta.


E37, E10, E42, T24, R2, BC9, and EMS unit.

 

[fireman658]

Sweet action shots!!!!

 

[Doug]

They did not, and very rarely do we ever.

At the risk of diverting the attention away from your shots (which I liked, by the way), I do have one more question - do you lay out (drop a line) at the closest water supply, or does the next arriving reverse lay from the water supply to you?

 

[NYBLS]

Good explanation and interesting set up. I have no problem with people not grabbing water as long as they trust the second due and they are less than a few minutes away.

 

[WS224]

At the risk of diverting the attention away from your shots (which I liked, by the way), I do have one more question - do you lay out (drop a line) at the closest water supply, or does the next arriving reverse lay from the water supply to you?

Neither. Generally the first engine will start an attack with tank water. The 2nd engine goes to the 1st and drops their supply line and lays out to the next hydrant. There they will get on the hydrant through their front intake and send water through the pump back to the 1st. Normally an assisted plug stream is sufficient, but the pressure can be increased if needed.


And for the record, I like talking tactics. It's a good way to at least see why people do things the way they do and possibly give you an idea or option you had not previously considered. "Laying out" instead of "laying in" has always worked well for us.

 

[foxtrot5]

Great shots, and since this has partially become a thread about water supply SOPs/SOGs/HWDs I'll chime in.


My department uses SOGs only, and from the Chief "It's a guideline, you can alter it but you better have a damn good reason."


Generally speaking first due engine will catch a hydrant before proceeding into anything with dispatch information remotely sounding like it might be a fire. Exceptions are made when we are rolling 1st and 2nd due out the door at the same time or a brush fire with no danger to structures/property.


We also have a few large commercial structures that we will wait to lay in to until the tower passes the hydrant, otherwise she's blocked out from any useful positioning.