WE CUSTOMIZE COURSES AND SEMINARS
COURSES TO CHOOSE FROM
-VACANT AND ABANDONED BUILDINGS
-CONSTRUCTION AND MODELS
-ATTIC COCKLOFTS "TOP FLOOR JOBS"
-BASEMENT AND CELLAR FIRES
-HIGHRISE EMERGENCIES
-RAPID TRANSIT EMERGENCIES (RAIL)
-TRANSPORTATION MACHINERY
-TARGET HAZARD VEHICLE FIRES
-KIDS IN THE ATTIC (THE 2.5 FRAME)
-SERVICE STATIONS (AUTO REPAIR, FUEL)
-HOTEL AND MOTEL FIRES
-ATTACHED STRUCTURES, ROWHOMES
-UNDERMANNED ENG/TRUCK "OUTGUNNED, FIRST DUE"
-URBAN TACTICS SEMINAR (BAR SEMINAR)
A REAL TRUCK SEMINAR FOR THE GRUNT
TRUCK COMPANY OPERATIONS BEYOND THE BASICS INCLUDING ENGINE DOING TRUCK. GRUNT WORK NEEDS TO BE PERFORMED SOLO AND TASKS PRIORITIZED BASED. THIS SEMINAR WAS CREATED FOR THE NEED OF LADDER COMPANY OPERATIONS IN THE REAL WORLD.
THE 2.5, 3.5 FRAME
KIDS IN THE ATTIC
TOP FLOOR JOBS
ATTIC AND COKCLOFT FIRES
UNDERMANNED ENGINE/TRUCK
OUTGUNNED AND FIRTST DUE
CELLAR TO LOFT
TARGET HAZARDS AND INSTITUTIONS
HANDS ON ACQUIRED STRUCTURES ONLY
ROWHOMES ATTACHED BUILDINGS
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 vacant and abandoned residential and 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 numerous interior and exterior dangers from holes in the floors, open roofs, rotted floor decking, interior locks, fortified board ups (HUD's) window bars, VPS, makeshift barriers, and entanglement issues to name a few. Many of these buildings have had prior burns we must recognize from the exterior if possible. In addition, firefighters may have to navigate broken glass, tires, needles, biohazrds, and hoarding conditions.
We can’t always assume that these buildings are unoccupied and go defensive.
This presentation focuses on identifying the hazards, dangers, signs of occupancy and structural instability during size-up from the street. These buildings are often occupied illegally and require unorthodox tactics. With entrapment in a hazardous building, we must locate and remove victims with unique and rapid search methods. A burning vacant or abandoned building will often have several different types of barriers to remove requiring numerous types of hand tools and saws to open up. But there are often barriers already moved for easier access if you know where to look.
It's critical for all firefighters, company and chief officers to understand the dangers of the perimeter, structural stability, signs of collapse, and the different tactics needed when dealing with these target hazards. The damaging effects of thermal expansion, urban mining, abandonment, and areas of the building squatters and vagrants are likely to be found are beneficial from the firemen searching the interior to the Chief in command outside.
This is our most popular course and is available for drill nights, half and full day seminars, fund raisers, conferences and can be customized into other subjects. This course covers relevant construction, collapse, fire spread, sizeup, entrapment, RIT/FAST, barrier removal, and overall engine/truck tactics needed to improve the chances of having a successful outcome.
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
Construction and Models
Drill Nights, Seminars
For many firefighters, extensive building construction beyond the basics can be boring or even feel irrelevant. How can we help them understand and comprehend it better? #WhyConstructionMatters
It's important and beneficial to understand the construction 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 overhaul.
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. We focus on type 3-5 COMBUSTIBLE CONSTRUCTION, NEW CONSTRUCTION, and common residential MODELS found in the hosting location.
Contact us to schedule 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.
Company Officer Development
NOW SCHEDULING for 2025
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
Additional Information
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.
Outgunned and First Due
“Arriving With The ‘A’ Team”
The first arriving company and their actons during the first several minutes can make or break a
fire. Often, we arrive without having the additional needed resources on scene to complete all
of the required tasks. How can we assure most of those initial tasks are prioritized and
completed within the first several minutes with limited personnel? Simultaneous actons and
multi-tasking along with that fire service bad word ‘freelancing’ must oTen be performed to
increase the chances of a successful outcome, especially during a confirmed entrapment.
Whether arriving on the first due engine without a ladder to reach the 4th floor windows or
arriving on a truck company with no tank water, we have to adapt and overcome unQl additional
help arrives. This is not always difficult if you are arriving with the ‘A’ team. Crew capability and
preparedness are major factors. The fire service needs more independent critical thinkers who
are reliable and CAPABLE of performing tasks solo, and less fireground robots.
This presentation will focus on doing more with less on the engine and truck company,
prioritizing our tasks during residential and commercial building fires, rapid rescue situations,
top floor fires, and the sizeup indicators that factor into our decision making.
A FIREMAN WALKS INTO A BAR
Contact Us
OUR VERY POPULAR URBAN TACTICS SEMINAR IS AVAILABLE FOR LATE 2023 AND ALL OF 2024. CERTAIN SPECIFICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS NEED TO BE MET FOR THIS SEMINAR. TO REQUEST A REVIEW AND SCHEDULE A DATE CONTACT URBANFIRETRAINING@GMAIL.COM
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 and dangerous fires involving explosive gas powered vehicles (CNG, LPG). These high risk/low frequency fires involve RV's, food trucks, transit buses sanitation vehicles, ambulances, bobtails, construction vehicles, hazmat trailers, and other high hazard commercial vehicles, These vehicles come with the additional hazards that can kill or injure firefighters. These subjects are an often neglected subject(s) of training. The dangers present range from flammable liquids, gases, hydraulics, pneumatic, electrical, explosive, stored energy, and class B and D fires to name a few. This course will also cover the hazards of the modern day passenger vehicle fires, burning magnesium, running fuel, foam and optional suppression methods. This course can be customized and is usually combined with our "transportation machinery" course (see below).
Transportation Machinery
This is an awareness and operations seminar focusing on the dangers and initial actions during our high risk and low frequency encounters with transportation (passenger occupied) machinery. This course is CUSTOMIZED and often combined with the "Target Hazard Vehicle Fires" course.
Elevators, Trains and Automobiles are types of "transportation" machinery. They are moving, passenger occupied machinery transporting millions of passengers every single day. Transportation machinery requires a thorough size-up before any rescue or suppression begins. There are many hazards and liability issues when working around this type of machinery.
Passenger Elevators- Hydraulic, Traction.
Fire Service Elevators and the 'Elevator Control' position.
Passenger trains, locomotives and passenger Cars.
The 'right of way' maintenance trains and properties.
High speed catenary, third rail, diesel -electric and multiple units (light rail) territories relevant to response area will be included.
Terrain- Tunnels, Bridges, Rail Crossings, Platforms, Transit Stations, Difficult to Access Areas.
Encountering high voltage, flammables, explosives, hydraulics, stored energy, malfunctioning equipment, running fuel, CNG/LPG, heavy vehicles, vehicles transporting children, elderly, handicapped, trapped passengers, and those with traumatic injuries are just some of the challenges firefighters will be faced with when arriving to an emergency incident 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 without prior training?
What size up factors should we consider when arriving to a burning passenger train in electrified territory under catenary and 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, light rail, and "target hazard"' vehicles, a thorough and PROPER sizeup in critical before even considering taking action.
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 an awareness and size-up class on dangerous and complex moving machinery.
See article in September 2019 issue of Fire Engineering.
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.
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
