Miami-Dade (FL) Captain Bill Gustin responds to questions from his January 2013 Webcast, “Hoseline Operations for Fires in Multiple-Family Occupancies.” View an archive of the Webcast这里.
Q：比尔，你坐在轮椅上吗？
A: No. I use a walker with tennis balls stuck on the feet so I don’t scuff up the nursing home floor.
Q: What is your department’s policy on connecting to theFDCfor supporting the sprinkler system? Is that one of the first things done, or do you prefer setting up hoselines for fire attack?
A：这是我们到达封闭的，无人居住的非住宅建筑时所做的第一件事，例如烟雾，例如，在清晨，一个大仓库。我们将需要时间进行大小，强迫进入并定位火。希望洒水器一直在火上排出水，以防止它蔓延。我们需要通过提供这些洒水装置来控制火力。FDC每平方英寸100-150磅（PSI）。这对于没有消防泵的建筑物至关重要。因此，洒水系统取决于城市水压，该水压通常在40至70 psi之间。对于所有消防员来说，了解现代洒水系统的液压系统设计用于排放一定密度，以加仑/平方英尺/平方英尺测量，这一点非常重要。例如，轻危险占用通常需要0.1 gpm/sq ft的最小排放密度，而高危险占用率的高危机可能需要大量的塑料燃料负载，可能需要排放密度高达0.5 gpm/sq ft。
放电密度被设计成具有给定静态和残余压力的洒水系统，以及预计将打开并流动以控制而不是灭火的洒水头的数量。现在，由于存储的占用或商品的变化，或者系统的变化量低于设计的压力，发生了什么？洒水系统不会控制火灾的机会很大。再次提供FDCearly in an incident will give a sprinkler system operating below its designed pressure or overwhelmed by an undersigned fire load its best shot at controlling a fire.
At residential fires, there will also be a time lag between firefighters ascending to the fire floor, stretching a hoseline, and getting water on the fire. Sprinklers will, hopefully, be keeping the fire in check, but they may be deprived of adequate pressure. Accordingly, driver-engineers should be capable of securing a water supply, supplying an FDC, and ensuring that riser-control valves are open by themselves while the engine crew is making its way to the fire floor.
Q：通过快速（从外部）技术进行快速破折号，您永远不会出错。当强行进入时，我成功地使用了它，并花了一些额外的时间来避开避风港并进行入境哲学！
A：作为我父亲是芝加哥消防局33年的老兵，在职业生涯的早期就教我：“只要您的室内攻击延迟，就不要害怕从外面给大火。”我想清楚地表明exterior attack默认情况下执行；它很少是首选方法。内部攻击几乎总是优于外部攻击，因为它可以保护建筑物的主要出口路径，走廊和楼梯。此外，消防员前进软管上楼梯和走廊的下降可能会发现无意识的乘员在火上。
Q：说“油门”是什么意思？
A: I ordered the nozzle firefighter to “throttle it” in the video of deploying the Cleveland hose bundle. It means to rapidly open and close the nozzle to work out the kinks in thehoseline. If you don’t “throttle” the nozzle when deploying the Cleveland load, you’ll end up with a gaggle of kinks. As I stated in the Webcast, I’m not a big fan of the Cleveland load, but I admit that it
在某些情况下，在某些情况下工作得很好，例如garden apartment is open, making the fire floor landing untenable. In this case, firefighters must advance a charged hoseline up the stairs to the fire floor landing for their protection. The Cleveland load requires very little space to deploy, making it possible to charge it on a small landing or a stair half-landing below the fire.
Q: You demonstrated an attack to an apartment through a neighboring apartment. What points would be for/against attacking this fire directly from a ladder rather than from the interior? It would be faster and you keep the interior hallway free from smoke. (Maybe you should position a firefighter with a “can” (pressurized water extinguisher) inside to prevent fire spread into the hallway and to control the door).
A: The most important factor would bestaffing. Attacking a fire from the exterior directly or through an adjoining apartment may be the only option when there aren’t sufficient personnel to stretch from an engine to the fire building, up to the fire floor, and advance down the public hallway to the fire apartment.
另一个事实r is the degree of fire separation between the fire apartment (compartment) and the rest of the building. Lack of fire-rated doors, walls, and ceilings can result in fire extending beyond the fire compartment. Consequently, firefighters attacking from the exterior will be unable to get ahead of the fire. You suggested that a firefighter be positioned in the public hallway to control the door to the fire apartment; that’s an excellent idea. Attacking and entering a fire apartment from a ladder would be ideal under the following conditions: (1) The apartment is known to be unoccupied, or the fire inside the apartment is not survivable, and (2) The fire has not extended beyond the compartment of origin.
Q:Thank you for emphasizing some of those基本技术that we have to be ready to use. I am not sure what specific event took place that made us wary of hitting a fire from the exterior, but the urban myth that came about has done more harm than good. YouTube has been infamous confirming that we have a mindset that we HAVE TO stretch interior while the fire intensifies and we either lose it–or worse! It’s all about application and context, and that comes with good size-up, knowledge, skills, and education. Let’s make it safe for us; we can’t get back what is already lost.
A: I again want to make it clear that an interior attack is almost always better than anexterior attackbecause it protects major exit paths. That being said, I believe that a lot of opposition to initially attacking a fire from the exterior is caused by paranoia that streams directed from the exterior will “push” fire farther into a building and steam will scald trapped occupants. Water does not push fire; wind pushes fire and air induced by fog streams may push fire. However, research conducted by Underwriter’s Laboratories finds no evidence of this. Again, I will ask the question: If applying a stream to a fire from the outside is so bad, then why has the fire service developed “below the fire” nozzles to direct an exterior stream into a wind-driven fire?”
Q:您难道不认为最初的外部攻击（在可能的情况下）是最好的外部攻击，可以使相关单元的门关闭，从而将热量，火焰和烟雾挡在走廊上？在我看来，这种策略可以更好地适应和保留其他居民和消防员的出口途径，以帮助撤离它们。
A：是的，前提是消防部门已经确定开火公寓的门已关闭，火灾被装在火公寓内。此外，重要的是，消防员最初从外部梯子中控制大火，并毫不拖延地进入火公寓。理想情况下，这将是两条式火 - 一条线从外部攻击大火，而第二个软管覆盖了公共走廊的公寓门。这两条线都同样重要。但是，如果从外部升级的霍斯线成功，则内部线不会流下水。
Q: If you have a multifamily dwelling with small compartmentalized units well involved (let’s say four units), at what point would you choose 2½-inch hose?
A: One example would be a large volume of fire involving a garden apartment building of lightweight wood-frame construction. In this case, use 2½-inch hoselines, an apparatus-mounted deck gun, or a portable master-stream device to bring the fire within the suppression capabilities of 1¾-inch hoselines. Once the bulk of the fire has been darkened down, 1¾-inch hoselines can then be taken to upper floors and maneuvered through the apartments. Operating large-caliber streams from the outside doesn’t require a lot of personnel. For example, one firefighter can stretch a 2½-inch hoseline and operate it by himself by sitting or kneeling on it. It’s important that firefighters fighting a top-floor fire in a multiple dwelling realize that above small, compartmentalized apartments, there is a vast, wide-open “lumberyard” of an attic that is often not compartmented by fire walls. Additionally, fire-rated barriers in an attic are often violated by television cable.
Q: Are you teaching atFDICso my crews can attend your class?
A: Yes. On Monday, April 22, I will present a four-hour HOT workshop called “Intelligent Firefighting,” and on Wednesday, April 24, I will present a classroom session, “Hoseline Operations for Fires in Multiple Dwellings,” which is an expanded version of my Webcast.
Q：如何在五星级酒店预订房间（演讲中）？
A:你必须知道someone. Fortunately, I am friends with the concierge. Rooms go for $500 a night, but they’re worth it because the hotel is walking distance to the Opera, Ballet, and art museums.
Q: You covered how much hose is required for a well stretch or exterior landing. How much do you estimate for an interior stairwell stretch?
A: If you can stretch hose from the attack stairway or a window that is close to the attack stairway to the door to the apartment directly below the fire, then 100 more feet of hose will allow for 50 feet to stretch from the floor below the fire to the fire floor on return stairs with no well and 50 feet for the nozzle’s stream to reach any point in an average-size apartment. The advantage of this method of estimating hose is that it’s really not estimating; you’re actually laying hose out to the door of the apartment directly below the fire. This has to be done anyway to eliminate potential kinks and facilitate a smooth advance.
Q：我们的部门的政策是从火山地板的入口处前进不超过150英尺。人们认为这可以防止在紧急出口的情况下前进。你的意见？
A:我当它是可能的,尤其是in a nonresidential occupancy. The deeper firefighters penetrate into a fire building, the farther they venture from their means of egress and the greater the danger of running out of air, becoming separated from the hoseline, or becoming lost or disoriented. Additionally, the chances of not escaping a flashover, collapse, or wind-driven fire increases as the distance to a means of egress increases. It’s important to remember that the longer a hoseline is advanced into a hostile environment, the more firefighters will be required on the line to maneuver it around corners and obstacles; consequently, more firefighters are put in harm’s way.
Q:This was a very informative class. I just wish everyone in my department would watch it.
A:The presentation will eventually be in the Fire Engineering Web site archives for six months, so everyone who wants to watch may do so at their convenience.
Q: How important is the low-pressure fog orsmooth bore(nozzle) to the operation? All we have is a 100-psi automatic nozzle to work with, and I think we could change to at least a low-pressure fog, but need some fire power to back up the case.
A: An automatic nozzle will work for all the evolutions examined in the Web cast because we are not using a standpipe and don’t have to contend with the associated pressure limitations. A nozzle that operates at 100 psi may limit the amount of 1¾-inch hose that can be stretched because more pump discharge pressure will be needed to maintain 100 psi in addition to friction loss in the hose and five psi for every floor above the ground. Compare this to a hoseline that supplies a nozzle that operates at 50 psi; that’s an additional 50 psi that can be used to overcome fiction loss in a greater length of hoseline.
Another advantage of a “low-pressure” nozzle–that is, one that operates below 100 psi–is that its nozzle reaction will be lower than one flowing the same amount at 100 psi. When firefighters find nozzle reaction to be excessive, they have a tendency to gate down the nozzle. A reduced flow will result in less nozzle reaction, but it can fail to control a fire.
Q: Does stretching a hoseline through a window compromise your ability to maintain egress if the fire rolls into the hallway?
A: In terms of occupant protection, the answer is definitely yes. An interior attack is almost always better than attacking through a window because the hoseline protects main exit routes, hallways, and stairways. The reason that the fire can roll into the hallway is that the door to the fire apartment was left open. Now, let’s look at your question from another perspective–that of firefighter protection from a wind-driven fire. Say a fire is in an apartment on the windward side of a building being subjected to 30 mile-per-hour winds. If the windows in the fire apartment fail and the door to the apartment door were left open by fleeing occupants, the wind can drive fire down a hallway, severely burning firefighters advancing a hoseline. The combination of the windward- side windows failing and the open door will definitely compromise the firefighters’ ability to maintain their path of egress, especially in a long hallway. Now consider that directing a stream from the exterior, laddering, and advancing a line through a window keep the wind at the firefighters’ backs and their means of egress close by.
Q：您的部门是否有直播训练？您的软管演变和部署培训是否在您自己的受控设施中进行？
A: It depends if you consider liquid petroleum gas fire props to be live fire. Our trips to the department’s training facility are few and far between. It took three training captains almost a year to get all of our companies through a third-floor apartment fire scenario. Most of our training is at the company and battalion level and is not conducted at our training facility because travel time takes away from highly coveted drill time. My company often trains in a parking garage where we can stretch and advance hose; however, our drills are frequently interrupted by EMS calls. It’s important to know that it doesn’t take live fires or an extravagant training facility to practice hose evolutions. In a sense, performing hose evolutions in a training tower is unrealistic because there are no hallways.
Q: If you placed the hose under the railing (of an exterior hallway or balcony), would it kink easier than going over the rail?
A: No, because hose that goes up and over the railing and back down to the floor landing has to make a sharp bend that can result in a kink. Bringing the hose under or through the railing eliminates or reduces this sharp bend and the potential to kink.
BILL GUSTINis a 39-year veteran of the fire service and a captain with the Miami-Dade (FL) Fire Rescue Department. He began his fire service career in the Chicago area and conducts firefighting training programs in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. He is a lead instructor in his department’s officer training program, is a marine firefighting instructor, and has conducted forcible entry training for local and federal law enforcement agencies. He is a contributing editor and an editorial advisory board member for Fire Engineering and an advisory board member for FDIC. He was a keynote speaker for FDIC 2011.
