Not just what and how, but why!
Tucson AZ Overpressure Event Earlier this month, Chief Billy Goldfeder examined an incident involving an overpressure event that occurred in May 2025 in Tucson, Arizona. The initial response was a single company dispatched to an unknown type fire near East 22nd Street and South County Club Road. Arriving at the reported location, they observed light … Read more
Smoke Explosion Recognition and Mitigation Smoke explosions (and backdrafts) are an infrequent occurrence on the fireground. Firefighters and fire officers need to develop their situational awareness by recognizing key fire behavior indicators and reading the fire. While having a small number of fires is desirable for the community, firefighters have limited opportunities to gain the … Read more
Backdraft Indicators and Mitigation In the late 1970s I was blown out of a building by a backdraft during live fire training in an acquired structure (pre NFPA 1403 Standard on Live Fire Training Evolutions). Fortunately, I only had minor injuries, but this ignited my passion for understanding fire behavior and developing the ability to … Read more
Ventilation and Ventilation-limited Fires As discussed in the last post (Backdraft and Smoke Explosion: Part 3), with normal ventilation fires in buildings other than large open plan structures will generally become ventilation limited early in their development. In typical residential occupancies and smaller commercial occupancies, fires that have progressed significantly into the growth stage likely … Read more
Errata Thanks to Dr. Stefan Svensson for identifying an issue in Backdraft and Smoke Explosion: Part 2. The term surface combustion was taken from the 14th Edition of the Fire Protection Handbook (NFPA, 1976). I had always thought that the explanation of flaming and “surface” combustion from this text was simple and easy to understand. … Read more
Back to the Beginning Really understanding the difference between backdrafts and smoke explosions requires an understanding of several basic concepts of fire dynamics. Much of this should be a review, but there are several important connections to the phenomena of backdraft and smoke explosion. Combustion Combustion is a chemical process where a fuel reacts with … Read more
After reading National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Death in the line of duty…2012-28, I was left scratching my head. For many years I have been a supporter of the Firefighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program and have served as an expert reviewer for several reports involving fatalities resulting from extreme fire behavior. … Read more
This week’s questions focus on training firefighters to recognize, prevent, and if necessary react appropriately to flashover conditions. Casey Lindsay of the Garland, Texas Fire Department sent an e-mail to a number of fire behavior instructors regarding how they conduct “flashover training” One of the challenges we face in discussing fire behavior training, particularly live … Read more
Updated with Additional Video On March 10, 2013 five Harrison, New Jersey firefighters were injured in an explosion while working at a commercial fire at 600-602 Frank E. Rodgers Boulevard. The fire originated in a two-story commercial building at the corner of Frank E. Rodgers Boulevard North and Davis Street and extended into Exposures Charlie … Read more
Video of several incidents involving explosions during structural firefighting operations have been posted to YouTube in the last several weeks. Two of these videos, one from New Chicago, IN and the other from Olathe, KS involve residential fires. The other is of a commercial fire in Wichita, KS. When a video shows some sort of … Read more