Firefighting In Multiple dwellings

This training program was developed for suburban fire departments that may not have sufficient staffing or hose load configurations to rapidly perform a conventional stairway stretch to the upper floors of multiple dwellings and modern office buildings.

• Students attending this class will learn:
• Why differences in design and construction of residential and office buildings indicate differences in tactics and strategy.
• Methods and techniques for rapidly positioning a hose line with a minimum of personnel to the upper floors of apartment buildings, town houses and hotels.
• Locating a fire in a multiple dwelling.
• A fool-proof method for determining the amount of hose needed to reach a fire in buildings with long hallways and more than one stairway.
• The number of firefighters needed to advance a hose line and where to position them.
• Methods for stretching hose lines to courtyard and garden apartments when preconnects are too short to reach a fire.
• Standpipe operations: hose line selection, pressure limitations and troubleshooting fire department connections.
• Conditions when it is more effective to stretch hose lines directly from apparatus rather than use a standpipe.
•  How to stretch hose lines to upper floors when fires are beyond the reach of pre- connect hose lines
• How to stretch an “improvised standpipe” in buildings not equipped with standpipes.
• Methods to minimize pressure fluctuations when operating hose lines supplied with a wye.
• Why fires in sprinklered buildings may require longer hose stretches than in buildings without sprinklers and why they do not guarantee that there will never be a serious fire in a sprinklered building.
• Conditions when is acceptable/preferable to stretch “dry” on the fire floor and, conversely, conditions/indications when personnel must have the protection of charged hose line.

This is an intermediate level training program and intended for Command and Engine Company Officers.

Instructed by: Bill Gustin