Developing and maintaining proficiency in reading the Fire using the B-SAHF (Building, Smoke, Air Track, Heat, and Flame) organizing scheme for fire behavior indicators, requires practice. This post provides an opportunity to exercise your skills using a video segment shot during a commercial fire.
Residential Fire
This post examines fire development during a residential fire in New Chicago, Indiana.
Download and the B-SAHF Worksheet.
Watch the first 30 seconds (0:30) of the video. First, describe what you observe in terms of the Building, Smoke, Air Track, Heat, and Flame Indicators; then answer the following five standard questions?
- What additional information would you like to have? How could you obtain it?
- What stage(s) of development is the fire likely to be in (incipient, growth, fully developed, or decay)?
- What burning regime is the fire in (fuel controlled or ventilation controlled)?
- What conditions would you expect to find inside this building?
- How would you expect the fire to develop over the next two to three minutes
In addition, consider how the answers to these questions impact your assessment of the potential for survival of possible occupants.
Now watch the video clip from 0:30 until firefighters make entry at 3:05. Now answer the following questions:
- Did fire conditions progress as you anticipated?
- What changes in the B-SAHF indicators did you observe?
- How do you think that the stage(s) of fire development and burning regime will change over the next few minutes?
- What conditions would you expect to find inside this building now?
- How would you expect the fire to develop over the next two to three minutes
The crews working in this video appeared to achieve fire control fairly quickly and without incident. However, consider the following tactical and task related questions:
- It did not appear that any member of the first arriving companies performed a 360o recon and size-up (they may have, but this was not visible in the video). Why might this be a critical step in size-up at a residential fire?
- It appeared that two lines were run simultaneously (the first line to the door ended up as the back-up line, possibly due to a slight delay in charging the line). How should fire attack and backup roles be coordinated?
- Fire attack was initiated from the interior (unburned side). What would have been the impact of the first line darkening the fire from the exterior (prior to entry)?
- Were there any indicators of potential collapse (partial) of the roof? How would you manage this risk when working in a lightweight wood frame residence with observed extension into the trussloft? What factors would influence your decision-making and actions?
Reading the Fire
See the following posts for more information on reading the fire:
- Reading the Fire” How to Improve Your Skills
- Reading the Fire: Building Factors
- Reading the Fire Building Factors Part 2
- Reading the Fire: Building Factors Part 3
- Reading the Fire: Smoke
- Reading the Fire: Smoke Part 2
- Reading the Fire: Air Track
- Reading the Fire: Air Track Part 2
- Reading the Fire: Heat
- Reading the Fire: Heat Part 2
- Reading the Fire: Heat Part 3
- Reading the Fire: Flames
- Reading the Fire: Flames Part 2
- Reading the Fire: Putting it All Together
- Incipient Stage Fires: Key Fire Behavior Indicators
- Growth Stage Fires: Key Fire Behavior Indicators
- Fully Developed Fires: Key Fire Behavior Indicators
- Decay Stage Fires: Key Fire Behavior Indicator
Ed Hartin, MS, EFO, MIFireE, CFO