Almost 10 years ago, the Toledo Department of Fire and Rescue Operations began hearing about a new method of venting structures called “positive-pressure ventilation” (PPV). At that time, we were using traditional measures such as vertical venting through the roof and horizontal venting with electric fans. There was no discussion about positive or negative ventilation. We simply placed the fan in the window or suspended the fan from the door and pulled smoke out of the structure.
Since then, much has been written about PPV, and many of our departments have been using it. However, I believe that it is a topic that is still very much misunderstood in the fire service as a whole. In Toledo, we start the fan after the fire has been located and knocked down. Other departments turn on the PPV fan prior to entering the structure on the initial attack.
–Roundtable Moderator John (Skip) Coleman, deputy chief of operations, Toledo (OH) Department of Fire and Rescue; author of Incident Management for the Street-Smart Fire Officer (Fire Engineering, 1997); editorial advisory board member of Fire Engineering; and member of the FDIC Educational Committee.
Question: “Does your department use positive-pressure ventilation and, if so, to what extent?”
