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Fires in Vacant and Abandoned Buildings
#TheOccupiedVacant
“Real-World" Tactics for Fires in Vacant, Abandoned, Hazardous Buildings w Entrapment.”
Vacant properties used to be an inner-city problem but that is no longer the case. Suburban and metropolitan areas have seen an increased presence of abandoned residential and vacant commercial properties. Many of these buildings are not only prone to fires, they’re occupied by drug users, gangs, copper thieves, squatters, and vagrants.
These properties may be structurally unstable with many interior and exterior dangers from holes in the floors, open roofs, rotted floor decking, fortified board ups (HUD's) window bars, VPS, and makeshift barriers. Many of these buildings have prior burns and bio-hazards as interior dangers. In addition, firefighters may have to navigate broken glass, tires, needles, and hoarding conditions. We can’t always assume that these buildings are unoccupied and go defensive.
This presentation focuses on size-up, identifying hazards and signs of occupancy from the street. With entrapment we must locate and remove victims with unique and unorthodox rapid search methods. Secured burning vacants may have several different types of barriers to remove requiring numerous types of hand tools and saws to open up.
It's critical for all firefighters, company and chief officers to understand the dangers of the perimeter, structural stability, signs of collapse, and the damaging effects of thermal expansion, urban mining, abandonment.
This is our most popular course and is available for drill nights, seminars, fund raisers, conferences etc.. Use the hashtags #TheVacants and #TheOccupiedVacant on social media for posts and articles on this subject.
Related article: https://www.firehouse.com/operations-training/article/12389383/marking-vacant-and-abandoned-building
HOT
UrbanFireTactics-UrbanFireTraining LLC is available for consulting and running a hands on program with your organization or department if an acquired structure is obtained. Contact urbanfiretraining@gmail.com with interest.
Construction and Models
Drill Nights, Seminars
We all know the basic 5 types of construction and hybrid, they can all be found and described in many books and various articles by fire publications. For some firefighters, 'extensive' building construction can be boring or feel irrelevant. How can we help them understand and comprehend it better?
It's critical to understand WHY building construction is so important. We are firefighters, we are not building the structure but need to know why construction matters when the building is burning.
When the building is on fire we can use the buildings construction and model type to our benefit. It's more than just layout and lumber. Knowing the model types alone can give us valuable information when it comes to type of construction, fire spread, collapse, fire attack, initial and secondary egress, ventilation, search, ground ladders, forcible entry methods, and even how much water needed to knock down the fire among other things.
Imagine not even being on scene and hearing the sizeup report by the first arriving IC and instantly knowing how that fire will be attacked, the preferred type of ventilation, location of bedrooms, fire spread concerns, ground ladder capabilities and access/egress before arriving on scene. This course is designed for construction relevance as it relates to our job as firefighters. Book now for 2021.
BOOK NOW FOR 2021
We are booked solid for 2020 but have some openings in late spring 2021 or weeknight drill nights in the NJ, NY, PA region. Contact us UrbanFireTraining@Gmail.com
"Kids in the Attic"
The 2.5 Frame
“Kids in the Attic” Undermanned and First Due w Entrapment in the 2.5 Frame.
The 2.5 frame can be a very deadly place for all inside especially kids and fires originating on the lower floors. With rapid fire spread and entrapment above there’s often very limited time to escape. Although titled the 2.5 frame, we cover the 1.5, 3, 3.5 story frame as well.
Whether balloon frame, braced frame or lightweight construction, a single, semi or a row, there are many different variations of the 2.5 frame. The life hazard can be in the basement, the attic, and anywhere in between. These homes are located in urban areas and the burbs to rural areas.
Response time, crew capability, staffing and luck are just a few of the factors that will determine whether there’s a successful outcome or not. When it's determined members will be sent above to search for trapped occupants, and the more difficult task of searching for children, it's going to be the most dangerous search conditions we encounter.
Location and extent on arrival will usually determine initial actions. Where’s it at, where’s it going, what’s there. A fire in the attic is going through the roof,, a fire in the second floor bedroom or first floor living room is heading north. Worst case scenarios will be presented.
Fatal fires in these particular structures are extremely common in MI, OH, IL, PA, NJ, NY, MO and the New England region.
Always prepare for entrapment above the fire because it’s likely to occur. And when it does you may be first on scene and undermanned. It’s time to improvise, adapt, and overcome because that’s what firemen are supposed to do.
If your department would like this course it’s currently offered as lecture, hands on, or both for 2021. Contact Us.
Why?
This hybrid course was created out of pure passion. There's an article from Brian Butler on Firefighter Proving Grounds titled, "Kids in the Attic" which focuses on arriving to fire below the occupied half-story.
The 2.5 frames w living space attics are common from big cities to small towns and rural areas.
“The title is the potential, and when shit gets real we can’t panic or ponder, we gotta go to work prioritizing our multitasks quickly."
CONTACT: UrbanFireTraining@Gmail.Com
Company Officer Development
NOW SCHEDULING for 2021
Despite the good intentions of so many in the fire service to prepare our future leaders, there are some barriers being created by others who are countering those efforts. There are some individuals and organizations who are not working in the best interest of the fire service despite claiming to do so resulting in confusion, ignorance, poor decision making, bad practices, and even dangerous recruiting campaigns. There are agendas out there designed to create division, push false narratives, use scare tactics, and encourage an “us before them” mindset. Training academies teaching fire 1-2 and the many beneficial books out there have great intentions and they are helpful but are just not enough to fully prepare our future leaders.
We are teaching many of our new firefighters to become robots, droids, and drones. Instead, we should be teaching them how to improvise, overcome and adapt if that’s the avenue needed for a successful outcome. Not being able to think or perform outside of a guideline, rule, common practice, or an SOP is dangerous. Realistic training has also become more difficult. There’s more than one way to perform a rescue, extinguish a fire, throw a ladder, force entry, supply water.
In today’s society, everything is being filmed and uploaded for everyone to see. Liability issues lurk everywhere in our culture of legitimate and frivolous lawsuits.
This course is for the aspiring, acting, and new company or chief officer. Career, volunteer or combination department.
This 16 hour 2-day fast pace-content-loaded course will focus on street smart tactics and critical decision making for the following:
SFD’s, MFD’s, Taxpayers
Basements, Cellars,
Attics, Cocklofts,
Highrises Fires-Emergencies,
Target Hazard Occupancies (Vacant Structures, Service Stations, Prisons, Hospitals, Hotels, Motels)
Difficult to Access Areas (Bridges, Tunnels, Parking Garages, Marinas)
Target Hazard Vehicle Fires and Rescues
Rapid Rescue Operations (Vehicles and Structures)
Proactive RIT/FAST
CNG, LPG, Flammable liquids
Transportation Machinery (Elevators, Rapid Transit)
Bottom line, 🚒 First on scene, 🔥 First Due Initial Actions, 👨🚒 Aggressive Realistic Tactics, 💩 No Bullshit. Improvise, Overcome, Adapt, by preparing firefighters to achieve successful outcomes during routine and complicated incidents. Contact Brian Butler urbanfiretraining@gmail.com
Course Offerings
Attic and Cockloft Fires
This course will cover strategy and tactics in attics, cocklofts, and half-stories. Not all top floor fires are the same, there are several different types of attics and lofts with different methods of fire attack. From cocklofts in taxpayers and residential suburban storage attics, to urban living space attics in 2 1/2 story wood-frame homes, your on-approach size up indicators will set the stage for your incident action plan. The main focus for this course will be size-up, determining the type of attic from the street, fire attack methods, difficult access, ventilation options and overhaul, the importance of safely checking and extinguishing hidden fire in void space.
Basement and Cellar Fires
Fires in basements kill more firefighters than any other area of the structure. This course will include basements, cellars, and sub-cellars, covering initial size up, floor stability, floor and building construction, support systems, renovated structures, urban vs suburban basements, living space vs storage, utilities, entanglement/entrapment hazards, forcible entry of Bilco and several different types of window barriers, MAYDAY response, exterior and interior egress, fire attack, and ventilation options for SFD's, MFD's, taxpayers, and garden apartments.
In addition, the critical role of the pro-active RIT duty assignments, and making the "go" or "no go" decision to advance over the fire and down the stairs.
Using UL studies, real basement fire incidents involving close calls and LODD"s; This course is a must for every interior firefighter.
Urbanfiretraining@gmail.com
Course Offerings
If you have alley dwellings, tight residential streets and alley streets with rowhomes, this course is a must for all firefighters, driver/operators, company and chief officers.
Drill Nights
Drill nights are weeknights at fire department halls, training rooms, or academy classrooms. They typically run between 2-3 hour and are very affordable. Contact us to schedule.
Fires in Vacant, Abandoned, and Hazardous Structures
Service Station Fires
This course will cover strategy and tactics during fires involving auto body shops, auto repair shops, auto parts stores, junk yards, car dealerships, big box and convenience stores with filling stations. This class will focus on burning vehicles at gas pumps, on lifts inside the structure, propane releases, fires, structure fires, and the various hazardous materials present at these fires.
Also, to quell the many myths out there involving fire and explosions, a brief overview of the many safety features at filling stations will be covered.
This course is often combined with the "Target Hazard Vehicles" course.
High-Rise Fires and Emergencies
This course goes beyond just highrise fires. With less time devoted to the obvious building construction and incident command, the course will focus on wind-driven fires, elevator operations, size up, residential vs commercial strategy and tactics, ventilation, search and evacuation, roof operations, attached occupanices, adjacent properties, underground parking areas, utility areas, transformers, penthouses, HVAC-air handlers, storage areas, methane, propane, and CO releases, stack effect, and fires in the subdivision.
This course prepares the new firefighter and company officer to mitigate various incidents involving a highrise building. Additional UL studies, NIST and LODD case studies will be reviewed and discussed.
Custom extended courses covering machinery and elevator extrication, high-angle rope rescue and hazmats can be requested.
Rapid Transit Emergencies
This course will help prepare firefighters and company officers handle various emergencies involving high speed commuter rail, passenger trains and light rail service. Rapid transit is common in urban, suburban and metropolitan areas transporting thousands of commuters every hour.
Fire departments must prepare for passenger car and locomotive train fires, transit bus fires (CNG, Hybrid) extrications, pins, and other various emergencies on rail property.
It’s critical that ALL firefighters understand the dangers with catenary systems, third rail, and diesel-electric propulsion in electrified territory and the tactical considerations for train fires involving tunnels, bridges, elevated platforms, subways, and adjacent rail properties.
Basic train anatomy, safety procedures, tunnel ventilation systems, protective systems, proper tools and equipment for rescue incidents, extinguishing agents, and fire attack methods for Class A, B, C fires and maintenance trains will be reviewed.
This is a FIRE course for firefighters of all levels that concentrates on preparing FIRE departments for various emergencies and proper pre-planning for the types of rapid transit that service their particular district/response area. This course is not intended to make firefighters experts in the mass transit rail industry. It's intended to improve preparedness for the fire service.
January 2019: 'Advanced Rapid Transit Emergencies'
The 3 hour emergency response presentation will expand from suppression and propulsion to an 8 hour advanced "Rescue Company Operations" course.
Course Description: Advanced train anatomy, suspension systems, locomotive and passenger cars specs, lifting, spreading, cutting, stabilization, emergency egress, forcible entry, pin/crush injuries and additional emergency operations involving rapid transit trains and buses. In addition, hybrid, CNG and conventional bus fires will round out this full day course to prepare firefighters for mass transit emergencies.
Book now for spring of 2021
"Target Hazard" Vehicle Fires
This course expands on conventional vehicle fires and hybrids by preparing firefighters for more complicated, dangerous fires. These high risk/low frequency fires involve RV's, food trucks, sanitation vehicles, ambulances, bobtails, trailers, high hazard commercial vehicles, and gasloline tankers. Course will also cover the hazards of the modern day motor vehicle, handling burning magnesium, running fuel fires, and AR-AFFF use. This course can be customized and is usually combined with our "transportation machinery" course (see below).
Motel vs Hotel Fires: There is a Difference...
Hotels, Motels, what's the difference? There's a huge difference. This course will focus on motel fires. Building construction and configuration, fire spread, rescue, evacuation, and various fire attack methods are major concerns for the IC. If a motel fire is not contained quickly, the building will be a total loss. This course is 2 hours and includes podium constructed 5 story residential apartments with underground parking that are used often in Airbnb rentals.
Sizing Up Passenger Occupied Machinery
Elevators, Trains and Automobiles are types of "transportation" machinery. They are moving, passenger occupied machines that transport millions of passengers every single day. Transportation machinery requires a thorough size-up before any rescue or suppression begins.
Encountering high voltage, flammables, explosives, hydraulics, stored energy, malfunctioning equipment, running fuel, heavy vehicles, vehicles transporting children, the elderly and handicapped or trapped passengers with traumatic injuries are just some of the obstacles firefighters will be faced with when arriving to an emergency involving transportation machinery.
Imagine arriving to an overturned RV with passenger entrapment, exposed propane tanks and fire in the engine compartment. What are your initial actions for a rapid rescue with an understaffed suppression unit on a busy highway?
Should we even attempt to stabilize a damaged elevator full of passengers?
What size up factors should we consider when arriving to a burning passenger train under high voltage lines in electrified territory away from the terminal?
The liability issues of untrained firefighters attempting to perform rescues and suppression around dangerous complex moving machinery must be recognized. Just because the fire department arrives first doesn't mean they alone are responsible for complete mitigation of the incident.
When dealing with various elevators, high speed passenger trains and light rail, and "target hazard" vehicles from passenger loaded buses to CNG trucks, a size up is critical.
This course will cover the dangers and hazards to mitigate and resources to contact BEFORE rapid rescue, extrication, suppression, or recovery operations begin.
This is a size-up class on dangerous and complex machinery. See article in September 2019 issue of Fire Engineering.
Rare Event Fires Involving Parking Garages-Bridges-Tunnels-Marinas
This course will review several difficult to access fires where so many things can go wrong. The company officer will need to improvise, adapt and overcome any obstacles during these rare event fires. Case studies of real incidents will be discussed with class participation and critiques.
Murphy's Law for the Millennial Firefighter
New class for new firefighters and new company officers.
Are you ready for Murphy when he shows up at your next emergency?
Prepare to handle the most challenging and complex incidents without tunnel vision or hesitation. How can new or inexperienced firefighters and company officers gain the confidence needed to turn that "oh shit" moment into an "I got this" moment? How can we best prepare for any incident thrown our way on any given tour of duty?
Using the "HERCULES" method of acquired training will give you the confidence and the skill set needed to take on "Murphy's Law" when he shows up and turns your scene into a potential disaster. With every incident being recorded and uploaded to the internet, preparing for these situations are crucial.
Using actual events where so many things can go wrong, and hypothetical complex scenarios, the students will discover how the method is applied to various emergencies, utilizing any number of personnel on-scene regardless of experience or advanced training. Learn how using mind trigger methods and event forecasting can improve performance on the fireground.
Fire Escapes
Hands On- Coming Soon....
High-Rise-Low Frequency
East Coast- West Coast Tactics
High-Rise-Low Frequency
Los Angeles March 2019
East Coast- West Coast Tactics
High-Rise-Low Frequency
East Coast- West Coast Tactics
East Coast- West Coast Tactics
East Coast- West Coast Tactics
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Fires in vacant Buildings
Danville VA, Feb 25th, 2019
East Coast- West Coast Tactics
Danville VA, Feb 25th, 2019
Danville VA, Feb 25th, 2019
Danville VA, Feb 25th, 2019
Rapid Transit Emergencies
Danville VA, Feb 25th, 2019
Danville VA, Feb 25th, 2019