Flat Roof Ventilation

We all know that vertical ventilation is a key part in our goal for fire suppression, and an experienced roof firefighter and his training will determine the outcome of a safe and routine fire. I have said to myself before, “Why did I bother to cut up that tar-enclosed scuttle, when a skylight was 10 feet away?” Natural ventilation sources are quickest and fastest way to relieve heat and smoke on the upper floors of the fire. In fireproof & non-fireproof multiple dwellings, opening the roof bulkhead door (picture of a tenement bulkhead to the left) is your first choice for vertical ventilation. But let’s say you don’t have the tools, manpower, or experience in forcing an outward bulkhead door. Can we overlook the glass above the bulkhead found in the photos below? In photo #1, a bulkhead with a slanted overhead skylight may be, if not better a quicker way to help the crew below. If radio equipped, always let the Incident Commander or the inside teams know that initial roof ventilation has been performed or if access to the roof is delayed.

photo #1
Stepping Onto The Roof

It’s smoky, 3 a.m., and you are just about to step off the tip of an Aerial ladder onto a roof where the building is now on fire! Is the tip of the Aerial butting against a parapet wall, or no parapet at all (see photo #2)? You probably have practiced the dismounting of any ladder, whether it be portable or truck mounted, onto a roof during drill, but what about with tools (more than one), an SCBA, and gear fully bunkered up? The first thing to determine when getting to the roof and even before roof ventilation is: 1) Is this roof safe to walk on? and 2) If something goes wrong and the route I took to get up to the roof is gone (truck operator moved bucket, portables fell, or cut off by fire), what is my second way to get to safety? Possible secondary means of egress could be easily an adjoining building of safe roof heights, a rear fire escape (found in the photos 1 & 2), another ladder device, or last resort some type of personal rope system. Figure out early where you are going to tie-off before you have to tie-off. Don’t find yourself walking off the roof into a shaft if visibility is a concern and especially if there is no parapet walls. Probing with a tool in front of you, and walking on your hands and knees should enable you to navigate safely on a roof.

Roof Hazards
Additional roof hazards will be discussed in future posts, but I wanted to share with you some of these photos taken in Chinatown, NYC, where the buildings are over 100 years old and have been modified and altered beyond belief. Just the presence of cell phone sites on roofs create tripping, electrical, and health hazards (microwaves), and addition the hole you wanted to cut for a top floor fire, may not be easy anymore because of these high voltage electrical cables running on the roof’s ground surface. Anyway, if rear fire escapes are present, notifying the inside teams is important for their escape if something were to go wrong. Heavy machinery or dead loaded objects such as billboards and AC Units should be relayed to the Incident Commander. Poor wiring could introduce tripping hazards as well.

photo #2
Roof Size Up & Practice Questions
It’s a good habit to recognize these obstacles before anything is done on a roof, so pre-planning in your areas is important in the safety for yourself and your fellow firefighters. Anytime I look at a roof from another building below I size-up and label in my head what the pictures in this post display.

Discussing visual roof hazards right in front of you and asking the “new guy” where he would “open up” on a roof, could definitely help train and make someone new to what “we do” operate safely and get the job done.

Questions to ask “The New Guy”:
1) How would you get to this roof?
2) How else would you get to this roof?
3) If you can’t get to the roof, what are you going to say on the radio?
4) How else will you get off this roof?
5) What will you say on the radio when you get the bulkhead door?
6) What will you do after you get the bulkhead door open?
7) What will you say on the radio when their is fire extension (floor & exposure numbering)?
8) If you had to use your rope to bail off this roof where would you tie off, and where else?
9) If the fire was on the top floor, where are you going to cut a hole?
10) Is there anything dangerous on this roof that you think the Chief would like to know?
11) If you think everything was done on this roof, where are you going to drop down?
12) If you need help with something what are you going to tell the next guy up on this roof to do?

I am not a fan when the Youtube users put their fire videos to music. It makes the video harder to use for training. However, I am happy that we have this new source of seemingly infinite video at our hands. In today’s “internet world” new fires and videos are popping up everyday to discuss on sites such as this one.

Your best bet is to turn the volume down and “zone-in” on the tasks and tactics at hand. This video has been around the internet circuit, but I’ve never seen anyone discuss it. I have written some thoughts down below, and I invite you to do the same by adding your own comments.

**Comments/posts that solely attack the video and/or department will not be tolerated or posted.**
**Keep your posts constructive with an intent to teach or learn**

Discussion:

This video is probably the most useful for showing the importance of pushing down ceilings after cutting the hole. Simply getting to the roof and cutting a hole does nothing to assist the interior crews if the fire has not entered the attic/cockloft area. It is clearly seen in several of these clips that there is a moderate to light smoke condition pushing from the ventilation opening until the members pushed the ceiling down. After the ceilings are pushed down in each clip, conditions changed drastically as the fire inside the building is successfully vented. Then and only then, will the members operating on the interior actually feel and/or see a difference in conditions. Note the wide-spread use of the “louver-cut” which is my preferred method when cutting a peaked roof. I have no idea how the videographer gets in position to take this footage, but we need a few more like him scattered throughout the country.

Notes:

- Clip 1: 1 second - 25 seconds:

• Note the coordination between the members prior to pushing down the ceiling. One member turns around and appears to communicate that they are pushing down the ceiling.
• Keep an eye on the member with the saw. In my opinion (and it might be the angle of the camera) he comes dangerously close to the member’s leg. As a rule of thumb, chain brake on or not, I keep the blade/chain of a running saw touching the roof so it cannot spin/rotate. This assures that I will not come in contact with another member’s leg.
• Personally, I am uncomfortable if I sense or feel that someone is touching me while I am operating on a roof (especially a peaked roof and especially if I am operating a saw). I feel that I am more likely to be thrown off balance if I meet resistance or get more momentum as I move in a specific direction. The direction that I move may or may not be anticipated by the member “backing me up” and could cause an slight unintentional pull or shove in a direction that could throw me off balance.
  • With that said, several members have learned roof and saw operations while being “backed-up” (hand on coat tail, cylinder or belt) by another member. I don’t feel that there is a right or wrong way. Figure out what works for you and if you are not comfortable as a saw operator being “backed-up”, don’t be afraid to tell the guys working around the hole with you not to touch you.
  • If you are the firefighter on the roof that is expected to “back-up” a member operating a saw, NEVER touch the member operating the saw unless he knows your intentions. Your intentions are good, but many firefighters are more comfortable operating a saw without the “back-up” man in direct contact. Just because the member doesn’t want to be in direct contact, doesn’t mean that your job is complete. Conduct tasks such as: Assuring that the saw man does not walk off of the roof, monitoring radio traffic away from the saw so you can hear and assure the skylights, scuttles and bulkhead doors are opened up.

- Clip 2: 25 secs - 37 secs:

• This clip shows an excellent example of what conditions may be like on a roof. If the weather conditions are right, the smoke may hang low on the roof and obscure vision. If this is the case, as with any other case where you cannot see your feet, GET ON YOUR KNEES AND CRAWL! When operating inside a building, it is very easy to walk into a hole in the floor or fall down a set of stairs. If you are in front of a burning store with a heavy smoke condition, you may fall into an open exterior cellar entrance. If you are walking on a roof in conditions such as the conditions in the video, it could be very easy to walk off of an edge of a roof or into a scuttle or ventilation opening. Remember, not all flat-roof buildings have parapet walls on all 4 sides. Sometimes the rear wall will not have a parapet. Take your time and crawl when you can’t see your feet no matter where you are. Don’t worry about looking silly, no one can see you anyway!

- Clip 3: 38 secs - 50 secs:

• In this clip it appears that there is a scuttle in the bottom left of the video pushing heavy black smoke. Remember to open up ALL natural openings (skylights, scuttles and bulkheads) prior to starting a cutting operation. Interior companies are operating in the spaces served by the natural ventilation openings. They will directly benefit from those openings being ventilated first, and they are easier to complete. If you start a roof cutting operation prior to getting the natural vents, you may never get back to the natural ventilation openings.
• The ventilation cut is working very well at this fire. I am not sure of the layout of this building or even what type it is, but IF the building is a multiple dwelling, I may have placed the cut a little further in from the left wall in an attempt to ventilate another room. If it is a corner like this, my goal is to come four feet from each wall and start there. Your cut should then vent at least two rooms unless the room is very large. Their cut placement seemed to work for them in the video, just something to think about.

The clips between 50 seconds and 1:46, I find to reinforce much of what I have typed above. If anyone has anything else to add, please jump in with the time in the video and your comments.

- Last Clip: 1:46 - End:

• The members here may be operating on a bow-truss roof. It is hard to tell from the camera angle, but it appears that there is a slight bow in the roof. If it is a flat roof and I am wrong, I apologize but I would be remiss if I did not bring up the dangers of bow-truss roofs. If this is a bow-truss, a fire condition of this magnitude would be putting the members operating on this roof in extreme danger. Bow-trusses collapse with no warning and in huge sections.

• 6 FDNY firefighters killed in Brooklyn on August 2nd, 1978 at the Waldbaums Supermarket fire. For more information visit: http://stevespak.com/waldbaums.html
• 5 Hackensack, NJ firefighters killed on July 1st, 1988 at the Hackensack Ford Dealership. This fire was one month and a day short of being exactly 10 years later.

If anyone has comments or questions regarding anything that I have stated or have anything to add, we invite you to comment. We invite your constructive thoughts and comments to the thread for others to learn.

Respectfully,
Nate DeMarse
Brotherhood Instructors, LLC.
ndemarse.broinstructors@gmail.com

**Unsigned posts or posts that simply attack the video will not be posted. We strictly moderate our site.**

As it appears in this video, my first line would probably head to the rear door in an attempt to make a less punishing advance down the interior basement stairs. That is a great move and with minimal manpower to stretch and advance the first line, it is probably the best option.My second line however would be stretched to the front door and charged. That line would be responsible for protecting anyone operating on the first floor or any members proceeding to the 2nd floor to search the bedrooms (main priority). If there is no line in the front and the fire started to light up as it did, any members operating on the second floor would be trapped above until the line could be repositioned and knock the fire down.My third line if available would back up the first line in the rear. Back-up lines are important, but I would opt to cover the members searching above before backing up the first line.A few comments:1) Does it appear that a dry line is chocking the outward swinging front door in the middle of the video? I don’t know if they were operating and lost water or if they were in the house with a dry line. If they never had water or had a known water issue, venting the front picture window was not a good idea. As you saw, the influx of air caused the fire to intensify and drove them from the building. Coordinate venting with the application of water.2) I don’t believe that the first floor “fire phenomenon” was a flashover. It was definitely a rapid fire progress and on it’s way to a flashover, but they caught it before it actually flashed over. Keep in mind that the orange you see lapping out of the front door is also more rapidly making it’s way up the interior stairs and towards the bedrooms. Any members searching above will need portable ladders or the fire to be knocked down to escape. That is my justification for a hose line through the front door.3) Did you hear the radio traffic reporting “holes in the floors”. That was a heads up move to alert all members operating on the first floor of that hazard. If there are small holes in the floor an interior door can be removed from a bathroom or closet and placed over the holes so no one will get hurt.

4) Many departments declare that a building is “fully involved” when a window or two of fire is showing. When I hear the term fully involved, in my mind there is fire pushing from every opening in the building and no one is going to be alive in the structure. There are most certainly areas in this building that a victim could still be rescued after our arrival. In my opinion, every area with the exception of the direct fire area (room) in the basement could have housed a viable victim.

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Nate DeMarse
Brotherhood Instructors, LLC