Fire officer handbook of tactics 5th chapter 2. Firefighting Size-Up Procedures

• Size-up is evaluating problems and conditions affecting a fire's outcome.
• All firefighters perform size-up, regardless of experience.
• Size-up determines where firefighters operate, what they do, and when/how they do it; it can be life-saving.
• Size-up begins upon alarm receipt and continues until the emergency is controlled.
• Size-up is an information-gathering process, including preplanning activities.

Initial Size-up Example

• A dispatch message at 2:30 a.m. reporting a store fire across from 1510 Main Street indicates a likely working fire due to the time and vague location.
• Experienced firefighters should know their district to pinpoint target hazards and building types.
• Consistent address systems help determine which side of the street the building is on and its proximity to cross streets and hydrants.
• A store fire at 2:30 a.m. can pose a life hazard in mixed commercial-residential buildings, trapping sleeping occupants above.
• Building collapse is a serious hazard; brick/wood-joist or wood-frame buildings exposed to heavy fire for 20+ minutes may be too dangerous to enter.
• Unusual fire department assignments in the dispatch message may indicate specific circumstances, such as reported trapped persons.
• Holidays may affect volunteer department response due to member availability.
• Firefighters should start the size-up process while still getting dressed, considering alarm message details, preplan information, and knowledge of the response area.

COAL WAS WEALTH (Modified)

• A traditional 13-point acronym used for size-up which covers the majority of fireground considerations.
• C - Construction
• O - Occupancy
• A - Apparatus and personnel
• L - Life hazard
• W - Water supply
• A - Area
• S - Street conditions
• W - Weather
• E - Exposures
• A - Area and Height
• L - Location and extent of fire
• T - Time
• H - Hazmats
• The updated acronym replaces height with hazmats because area and height are closely related.

Life Hazard

• Life hazard is the deciding factor in determining tactics and procedures.
• Consists of threats to occupants, including flame exposure, heat, toxic gases, structural collapse, and projectiles.
• Not all fires pose a severe life hazard, depending on time of day, occupancy, location, and extent of fire.
• Human behavior affects life hazard; people will flee if aware and able, unless escape is threatened.
• High life hazard exists when people cannot flee due to physical/mental impairments, poor exits, or rapid fire spread.
• Firefighters can reduce life hazard through occupancy load restrictions, improved exits, fire doors/partitions, and sprinkler systems.
• Life hazard includes both civilians and firefighters; firefighters bring their own life hazard.
• A careful evaluation of civilian life hazard should be made before risking firefighters' lives.

Occupancy

• Firefighters need to know what is inside a building, not just how it is constructed.
• Occupancy affects life hazard, depending on the time of day.
• Schools vary in life hazard by time; hospitals and apartments have high life hazards around the clock; storage warehouses have uniformly low life hazards.
• Aggressive tactics are only justified in response to a high civilian life hazard.
• Firefighter deaths and injuries occur at a high rate in buildings with little to no civilian life hazard, such as vacant buildings.
• Officers should emphasize the dangers of occupancies with no civilian life hazard and instruct firefighters to be careful.
• Occupancy affects strategy; factories/warehouses have large, open areas potentially beyond handline control and may have truss construction.
• Retail areas may be smaller but have constricted spaces that make it more difficult to advance handlines.
• Occupancy can indicate hazardous materials; jewelers may use strong nitric acid.
• Computer-aided dispatching systems (CADS) are effective for recalling preplan information and hazard conditions.
• CADS entries should focus on hazards not readily visible from the exterior.
• CADS information must be kept up-to-date through annual inspections and field unit reports.
• CADS messages can be transmitted via dispatcher, video display terminal, teletype, or radio.

Time

• Time of day, occupancy, location, and extent of the fire combine to produce the life hazard.
• The time of day can affect response due to rush hour traffic and delayed alarms late at night.
• Time of year can affect personnel, especially in volunteer or paid-on-call departments.
• Incident commanders need to factor time variables into their strategy and plan for the worst.
• The time of year can affect the fire loading and life hazard in commercial occupancies due to increased stock, customers, and flammable decorations.
• Elapsed time since the fire began is a key element of size-up; estimating burn time and evaluating structural strength is essential.
• Elapsed burn time is a key indicator of the likelihood of structural collapse and will require close observation.
• The 20-minute rule applies to wood-frame (Class 5) or brick-and-wood-joist (Class 3) construction, where the fire is not under control.
• The 20 minutes starts when the fire has reached flashover and begun to attack the structural elements.
• Examine the building for fire venting through window and door openings to estimate burn time.
• Use a thermal imaging camera to detect rooms that have flashed over but not yet vented.
• Fire venting out windows on two floors indicates prolonged burning, accelerant use, or holes connecting floors.
• Look for signs of advanced fire, such as fire burning through a wooden wall, indicating imminent collapse.
• Be aware of a building's history, as previous fires compromise its strength.
• If the attack does not succeed in a timely fashion, the IC must evaluate why and has the responsibility to order them out.
• Use a system to keep track of time, such as the air-bottle method or a time mark system, in which the dispatcher keeps track of the elapsed time.
• The air-bottle or 20-minute rule is only valid in standard wood-frame or brick-and-wood-joist buildings.
• Lightweight construction buildings can collapse with as little as 5 minutes of fire exposure.
• A comprehensive preplan listing of buildings built using lightweight techniques is critical to firefighter survival.
• New York City, the IC is required to transmit periodic reports on the incident, beginning 5 minutes after his or her arrival. After an additional 10 minutes, another progress report is due, continuing every 10 minutes for the first hour of the incident.
• When deciding whether to commit troops to an interior attack in the first place or whether to pull them out of an ongoing effort, the primary mission of the fire service must come clearly to mind: to protect life and property. It is always life first, including firefighters’ lives.

Construction

• A critical size-up factor for CADS hazard display/preplan programs is building construction.
• Construction Implications
  • Degree of Compartmentation: Large, open spaces vs. compartmented slows fire spread
  • Contribution to Fire Load: Older wood buildings vs. newer metal buildings
  • Hidden Voids: Cocklofts, pipe chases, voids can be highways for fire travel
  • Resistance to Collapse: A building's ability to resist collapse when threatened by fire
• Materials and Connections:
  • Cohesive materials (poured concrete) vs. fire-susceptible connections (nails, screws)
  • Overload Point: Collapse is likely when a building crosses its overload point
• Building Classifications (NFPA 220)
  • Class 1 (Type I): Fire Resistive
    • Walls, partitions, columns, floors, and roofs are noncombustible and withstand fire.
    • Concrete and steel-frame buildings with fireproofing meet these requirements.
  • Class 2: Noncombustible
    • Walls, partitions, columns, floors, and roofs are noncombustible
    • Built with exposed metal floor/roof systems and metal or masonry walls
    • Contents fires can destroy the structural integrity of unprotected steel.
  • Class 3: Ordinary Construction
    • Masonry or noncombustible walls with 2-hour fire-resistance rating
    • Floors, roofs, and interior partitions are made of wood.
  • Class 4: Heavy Timber
    • Exterior walls are masonry or noncombustible with a 2-hour fire-resistance rating.
    • Interior columns, beams, and girders are heavy timber (minimum 8x8 for columns). -Floors and roofs are of heavy planks (3 in. thick minimum).
  • Class 5: Wood Frame
    • Walls, floors, and roofs are made wholly or partly of wood or combustible materials.

Area and Height

• Area and height indicate maximum potential fire area.
• Structures built on a grade may have entrances on two parallel streets, differing in the number of stories.
• Building height can indicate construction type and auxiliary appliances (standpipe/sprinkler systems).
• Building frontage is important for attack and horizontal ventilation.
• One building wrapped around another or widened to the rear can affect hoseline length and diameter.
• Early reports from the roof level and party walls can indicate irregular shapes/unexpected sizes.
• Interconnecting openings between buildings can create one large potential fire area.

Location and Extent of the Fire

• Location and extent of fire are determined upon arrival.
• The first reporting parties may point you in the right direction.
• The location influences tactics; options may be limited (e.g., high-rise fire).
• Lower fires in a building are more serious due to rapid vertical spread.
• Special Firefighting Problems
  • Top floors of Class 3 and 5 buildings with void spaces (attics/cocklofts)
  • Below-grade fires (cellars, subways, ships) lack horizontal ventilation
  • Fires beyond ladder reach (high-rises, windowless buildings)
    • Tactics similar to below-grade fires
• Determining the Extent of a Fire
  • Volumes of Smoke: Can indicate seriousness
• Evaluating the Smoke
  • Location: Remember normal smoke diffusion patterns
  • Color: Can indicate what is burning
  • Movement: Can indicate fire intensity
    • Heavy, rolling clouds indicate extremely hot smoke; wispy smoke indicates an incipient fire.

Exposures

• The protection of exposures is the firefighter's next priority following the life hazard
• Verify the extent that they are threatened when determining the location and extent of the fire
• Examine all six sides: front and rear, left and right, top and bottom
• Members must be able to communicate accurately the conditions that they encounter
• Identification systems should be in place
• Once you have identified a potential threat to the exposures, you must take some action to prevent extension. Often the best way to prevent extension is to put the original fire out.

Apparatus and Personnel

• Plan strategy and tactics based on available resources.
• How many engines are responding, and what can they accomplish?
• How many and what types of aerial devices are responding?
• Are the units staffed with full crews, ready to be assigned their tasks, or will they be shorthanded?
• What level of experience do the firefighters possess?

Water Supply

• Water supply must be thought of as a "system", meaning that there must be a source of water of sufficient volume to suppress the number of British thermal units (Btu) being given off by fire.
• In areas with uniformly good water supply and minimal fire hazards, the preplan may be as simple as just learning hydrant locations.
• In other areas, planning may involve performing flow tests or learning the location of large mains.
• Where residual flows aren't sufficient for the anticipated hazard, examine alternative supplies.

Water Flow Calculation

• The water flow depends on the fire load and the area involved.
• 10 gpm for each 100 sq ft of fire area is sufficient to control fires in areas of light fire loads of ordinary combustibles in unvented areas.
• Increase application rates by roughly 50% due to today's plastic-based society.
  • Residential Flows: 15 gpm/100 sq ft
  • Commercial Flows: 35 gpm/100 sq ft
  • Industrial/Heavily Loaded Storage Areas: 50-60 gpm/100 sq ft
• If the area has been vented, increase the water application rate.

Auxiliary Appliances

• The presence and serviceability of auxiliary fire protection systems deserve high priority in any size-up.
• Fire-arriving units must determine whether auxiliary appliances are present
• If a system is present, what is its operating status?
• An out-of-service auxiliary appliance is often justification for an extra alarm.

Weather Conditions

• Extreme weather conditions usually have an adverse effect on firefighting efforts.
• It is often necessary to request additional assistance at incidents that would be relatively routine during moderate weather.
• High temperatures and humidity fatigue firefighters rapidly.
• Warm weather also brings many more people out into the street, especially in urban areas.
• Below-freezing temperatures result in slower operations.
• High winds can also have a catastrophic effect on fire attack, whipping fire into furnace-like proportions.

Street Conditions

• Street conditions can severely hamper a fire attack.
• Double-parked cars can slow or prevent maneuvering and hamper apparatus placement.
• Construction trenches for water, sewer, or gas mains halfway down the block may divide the apparatus from the fire building.
• Deeper snow can bury hydrants and block streets altogether.

Hazmats

• By their very nature, they pose potential problems for firefighters, ranging from health hazards to accelerated fire extension.
• The presence of certain hazmats could mean little difference to firefighting units at, say, a flammable liquids fire.
• Information as to what specific hazards are present must be available to the IC if rational decisions are to be made.
• Firefighters should ask upon arrival "Is there anything bad stored in there that can hurt us?"