BY FRANCIS L. BRANNIGAN,SFPE (FELLOW)
Editor’s note: For further reference, consult Building Construction for the Fire Service, Third Edition (BCFS3). Page numbers, where applicable, are included after the caption.
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▲ Row buildings usually have a common cockloft and, in older buildings, brick nogging in the party walls, a naïve attempt at a fire barrier. The brick nogging often has many gaps through which fire can pass, and there is no protection of common floor voids. We think of neighboring units as exposures, but to the fire, the building is all one structure.
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▲ Adequate resources must be summoned on arrival. If the assistance is mutual aid, discuss your plan with those departments to cut off, “Over there in Rowhouseville, they got panicky and sent an unnecessary second alarm.” At Navy Norfolk, our policy was, “If we send an ‘unnecessary’ second alarm, nobody knows but us. If we send a delayed second alarm, everybody knows it.” Don’t hesitate! We must think like the fire and get ahead of it. The roof must be opened on both sides of the fire building. Fire can extend through the porous walls and the floor void, so units must be on all floors on both sides of the fire. If assistance must be delayed, or serious fire is found in the immediate exposures, it would probably be best to drop back to the next, as-yet-uninvolved, unit to make a stand. Chasing a fire from behind is doomed to fail.
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▲ This is brick nogging in a detached building. Its purpose is to act as a heat sink to keep the temperature even. The loose brick is a hazard in a collapse; keep clear of the collapse zone.
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▲ This is Cannery Row, made famous by John Steinbeck’s novel of the same name. To the fire, this is all one building. An early decision must be made relative to where the fire will be stopped, considering the time it will take to get assistance.
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▲ This expensive firewall is supposed to separate the two units on one side from the two units on the other side, but …
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▲ it does not even reach to the roof. Even if it did, the plywood roof delaminates and raises up, thus allowing fire to pass through. Plan to get a line into the attic of the exposed unit ASAP. In fact, if the fire unit is heavily in-volved and no life safety issues are present, it might be best to make that line the first line. Many years ago, I was unacquainted with the incident commander at a garden apartment fire. The end unit was well-involved. The fire department was busy setting up its brand-new aerial to use the ladder pipe. I was studying garden apartment fires for the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) at the time. I persuaded the fire marshal to suggest to the incident commander that he get a line into the attic of the next unit. They just got into position when the fire started to come over the top to the roof “firewall,” which did not reach the underside of the roof. The fire was cut off. (BCFS3, page 111)
■ FRANCIS L. BRANNIGAN, SFPE (Fellow), the recipient of Fire Engineering’s first Lifetime Achievement Award, has devoted more than half of his 63-year career to the safety of firefighters in building fires. He is well known as the author of Building Construction for the Fire Service, Third Edition (National Fire Protection Association, 1992) and for his lectures and videotapes. Brannigan is an editorial advisory board member of Fire Engineering.
