Three-year veteran Firefighter Jones is driving the ladder for only the third time as a newly “certified” driver in his department. He has been told countless times by senior members that the “ladder always gets the front of the building.” He has had an uneventful day driving to three alarm drops and three medical emergencies. At 0400 hours, he is awakened by the tones for a fire on Main Street in the Nichols Drug Store. He moves quickly to his seat, fires up the apparatus, and rolls out with his officer on his two-person ladder company.
The shift officer in charge on board the engine in front Jones’s ladder company radios light smoke showing. If this was a trivia question, where do you think Firefighter Jones spotted the ladder apparatus?
Throughout America, firefighters respond to residential building fires on a more regular basis than commercial building fires. Our standard practice is to spot our apparatus (preferably a truck company) in front of the building. This works most of the time, but what about when we respond on a Main Street for a commercial fire?
A quick refresher in building construction will tell us that the parapet wall is the least stable of all walls under fire conditions, and parapet collapse can have devastating consequences not only for our members but also for the million-dollar fire apparatus parked in front.
Today’s Main Street Memo reminds us to always approach a commercial building with a “flanking” mindset, that is, to keep apparatus and firefighters away from the front and to set up master streams on the corners. This is easy to remember when you pull up to an advanced fire, but when you pull up to the Main Street building with nothing showing or a perceived small fire, doing what we do on most other events (spotting in front) can cause issues.
Always keep in mind flanking and spot apparatus on the corners, regardless of whether it’s a routine alarm drop or smoke showing from a block away. It’s up to all of us veterans to remind the Firefighter Jones of our service the value of planning ahead, including apparatus placement.
Download this training bulletin as a PDF (4 MB).
JOSEPH PRONESTI is the chief of the Elyria (OH) Fire Department. He is a graduate of the Ohio Fire Chiefs’ Executive Officer program and a lead instructor at the Cuyahoga (OH) County Community College Fire Academy. He is a frequent contributor to fire service publications and sites, including Fire Engineering and FirefigherNation.com.
CHRISTOPHER TOBIN is a firefighter assigned to St. Louis (MO) Fire Department Rescue 2.
ALEXIS SHADY is a firefighter/paramedic with the University City (MO) Fire Department.
