Non Stand piped Midrise

They are out there, but "what is a mid rise you" ask?  A mid rise is a building that is as small as 4 stories or as tall as 6 stories.  A mini high rise.  What makes these buildings a challenge is that some are old enough that they do not have a stand pipe or sprinkler systems.  Now that you know what they are. Do you have any in your first due?  If you do, have you preplanned them?  "No you say.  What is your plan if one catches on fire?  I bet you have a plan on how to get a victim who is in cardiac arrest in and out of the elevator of these buildings.  Why would you not have a plan on how to get water to the 5th floor of these buildings if there is ever a fire?

There is no one answer to this question, there is only one out come the fire must go out.  Now you can let it burn down to the basement or you can go in and get.  I think you would prefer to go in and get it especially if you rely on donations from the community to keep your fire house running!  I will tell you  my company's plan on how to deal with these fires. Oh yeah we have 13 of these types of buildings in our first due.   

We have two different approaches  to these types of buildings:

Fire reported on the number 1,2 or 3 floor we have a pre-connected 250' 3" line.  If the fire is on the first floor the 3" line is stretched down the hall.  If 250 feet is too much we break the hose down. Once we have achieve the desired length of 3" we then attach our * stand pipe bag to the 3" with a gated wye . The gated wye will provide access for a back up line.  remember the object is to have at least 50' of attack line at the door of the fire apartment.  If the fire is on floor 2 or 3 we use the same pre-connected line, we must deploy the hose up the interior stairs.  This is where preplanning will help you.  If you have 2 sets of stairs they are probably located at each end of the building.  If you were smart and did a good preplan of the building you will know which set of stairs to take that will put you closest to the fire apartment.  Our rule of thumb in figuring out how much hose you will need is 50' per floor. Don't forget how much hose you need to get to the stairs on the first floor.  Some of the floor plans of the buildings I run take 100' of hose just to get to the stair way door. Lets say it is 100' to the stair way door and the fire is on the third floor doing the math that will equal 250'.  The third floor will take 50' per floor for a total of 150' plus the 100' on the first floor to the stairs. I think you get the idea. Lets move on.

If fire is reported above the third floor we have to hump additional hose from our hose bed on our shoulders.  The math is still the same, 50' per floor plus the distance to the stair way door on the first floor.

As you can imagine the operation is very labor intensive.  If you are a command officer don't be afraid to call for an additional alarm.  If you are running 3 on your engines and 3 on your trucks as I do, those 6 people will have to help get the initial line stretched.  Now I know what you are thinking " Dave I am a Truckie I don't do hose"  Well if you want to get up there and do your Truckie work you have to get the line in place.  Now if you have people trapped then yes the truck must focus on search and rescue.

As I stated earlier there is no one way to get water on the fire.  The goal is to put the fire out.  Go out and preplan the buildings in your first due.  Drill, drill, drill that is the key to be good at what you do.  It dose not matter if you are career or volunteer.