Wind Driven Fires

Seven Firefighters Injured Seven firefighters were tragically injured in Prince George’s County Maryland on Friday, February 24, 2012. The fire broke out in the basement of a single-family, one-story house located at 6404 57th Avenue in Riverdale, MD shortly after 21:00 hours. Note: View from Alpha-Bravo Corner street side. Photo by Billy McNeel. On arrival, … Read more

Flashover!

There were multiple near miss incidents and injuries involving flashover during the month of December. These incidents point to the importance of understanding fire dynamics and reading the fire as part of initial size-up and ongoing dynamic risk assessment. Each member operating on the fireground must maintain a high level of situational awareness and communicate … Read more

Hazards Above: Part 3

My last two posts (Hazards Above, Hazards Above: Part 2)examined a series of incidents involving firefighter injuries or near miss incidents involving fires occurring in or extending into void spaces in wood frame, residential structures. Yesterday, two members of the Bridgeport, Connecticut Fire Department lost their lives under similar circumstances. Bridgeport, CT LODD At 1553 … Read more

Hazards Above: Part 2

My last post, Hazards Above, provided a brief overview of three incidents involving extreme fire behavior in the attic or truss loft void spaces of wood frame dwellings. This post will examine the similarities and differences between these lessons and identify several important considerations when dealing with fires occurring in or extending to void spaces. … Read more

Hazards Above

Finally! It has been quite some time since my last post, but the CFBT-US web site and blog have been attacked twice by hackers WordPress and ISP upgrade issues have been a major challenge and it has taken some time to get things back to normal. A Big Improvement, But More Work is Needed The … Read more

NIOSH F2009-11: The Minority Report

As a critical friend of the NIOSH Firefighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, I have provided testimony at public hearings and engaged in discussions with NIOSH staff regarding improvement of the quality of information provided in Death in the Line of Duty Reports, particularly in incidents involving extreme fire behavior. In addition, I have provided … Read more

Chicago-Extreme Fire Behavior

Updated March 7, 2010 with Longer Video Clip of this Incident On the afternoon of February 18, 2010, firefighters in Chicago responded to a residential fire at 4855 S. Paulina Street. First arriving companies discovered a fire in the basement of a 1-1/2 story, wood frame, single family dwelling and initiated fire attack and horizontal … Read more

Battle Drill Part 3

A Quick Review As discussed in the previous posts in this series, military battle drills are an immediate response to enemy contact that requires fire and maneuver in order to succeed. Battle drills are initiated with minimal commands from the unit leader. Soldiers or marines execute preplanned, sequential actions in response to enemy contact (see … Read more