BACK TO THE BASICS

The Truck Company is the unit that can make or break a fire everyday or the week. If the crew loses "crew integrity" or is inexperienced, the fire scene can quickly become one of chaos or even worse, death. But, if the crew is experienced and maintains "crew integrity", the scene will be one of success.

With the Fire service becoming younger and younger, due to the large number of baby boomers that have reach the age of retirement, the level of experience is dropping. The younger guys coming on are watching the "salty" veterans, and only learning to check for this or that, or vent these windows and not those, but not why. Even worse than this is for them to not even have the opportunity to work with these veterans and not learn anything at all.

One of the most important duties of the Truck Company is one for debate, so I will try to outline ALL the important duties of the Truck Company. I will start with entry into the building. Most truck companies will split up into 2 groups of 2 (if manning will allow) and each group should have a halligan and an ax would be nice too. I always carry two tools, which are a 6ft. hook and a halligan. Having the halligan will allow for entry through a locked door, or a gated window. Once the door has been opened, it is a good practice to remove the door, to prevent it from either closing again, or binding up the advancing hose line.

Once you've gained entry, you now have to decide what your next course of action is. If you have reports of victims or see signs that there are possible victims, then you have to initiate a search. This should be done according to your local SOP, but if you don’t have one, here are the basics for one. Start by always looking inside and around the corner of all doorways, if you are going to enter the room start to your left, keeping either a hand or boot on the wall at all times. I prefer to use my boot against the wall so that I may search the center of the room easier. You should also use your tool to sweep the floor. If you come to a bed, look under it, on top of it, and behind it, then fold the mattress in half so that others know that may come to the room that it has been searched. Look in closets, open drawers in the dressers, you never know where a small scared child might hide. If there is a pile of clothes, look in the clothes. If you can't get inside the structure, say due to a large volume of fire, still force the doors and look just inside. Vent the windows and look on the floor, most people try to get out, so they may have made it to the window or doorway then collapsed. A very useful tool that my Captain gives out at all the recruit classes is a simple one inch diameter, 6" piece of wooden dowel with a nail driven halfway into the end then bent over. Once a door is opened for search, you put the tool in the door hinge by hanging it by the nail. This will keep the door open, so you always find your way out of the room.

If there is no report or sign of victims, then your job now will be to locate the fire. If the fire is contained to a room or several rooms the have a door, close the door. Keep the fire there until the line is brought in. Do not vent windows that put you between the fire and the vented windows, for you will soon be in a world of sh#t. Once the fire has been located and the line is in place, maybe it would be a good idea to check both above the fire and below the fire. Maybe the fire is actually in the basement and extended into the first floor? Or maybe it has extended into the second floor, the only way to know for sure is to look. Oh yeah, while you’re in the basement, shut off the utilities if they are there. It sucks to be pulling a ceiling and hit a live wire. In your effort to find the fire, you should also be attempting to locate the stairs. A good practice is to look where the stairs are when you go into these houses, or apartments on squad ( first-aid ) calls, so you get a good feel for where to look in a fire.

Your other objective at a fire is ventilation. I can't tell you how many times I have seen guys venting the front windows when the fire is in the rear and there is no hose line yet. This is a good practice if you really want a big fire, but unfortunately our job is to extinguish the fire. Unless you are venting for life, which means that you are searching and venting as you go incase there is a victim, you should not ventilate until the hose line is advancing into the building. Then, when you know the hose line is at the fire room, vent that room only. If you vent windows on the opposite side of the building, you will only draw the fire in that direction. This is called horizontal ventilation. The other type of ventilation is vertical ventilation. This means that you must go to the roof and open it up. On a peaked roof you should always vent downwind and OVER the fire, not just where you happen to put your ladder. And if you have to work in an area other than where your ground ladder is, don’t work away from the ladder, work towards it. There was an incident recently where two guys with 5 years on the job, almost all at a truck co. opened a hole from there roof ladder, then scooted down the roof to open another hole, when all of a sudden there first vent hole did it's job it vented. Then they had to go through that fire to get to their ladder to get down. Not too bright if you ask me. If the roof is a flat roof and there are skylights, take them out. If your going to cut the roof start with an inspection hole, which is a small triangle shaped cut to see where the roof rafters are. Try to cut with a rafter in the middle of the cut so that it is easier to push the hole in when you’re done cutting. And no matter where the hole is, make it a vent hole, that will vent, not a 2 ft.X 2 ft., make it at least 4X4. Once the hole has been made, push the ceiling below down so that the smoke and heat and fire will vent.

Now, for a very important note. If the fire is anywhere that you have to get to via stairs......STAY OFF THE STAIRS. No matter what part of the country you live in, the stairs seem to get clogged at ever fire. If the hose line is at the top of the stairs and the fire is preventing their advance, they shouldn't have to worry about crawling over 10 guys to get down the stairs if the fire flashes. If they're stuck stay at the bottom and don’t let anyone by you.

To sum up what I've talked about let me list it for you;

1.entry

a.have right tools

b. remove doors

2.search

a.look in all doorays

b.check all windows

c.look in closets, dressers, beds

3.locate fire

a.confine fire if possible-close doors

b.check floor above and below

c.locate stairs

4.ventilation

a.horizonal

1.vent at fire

2.don't just take windows out.

b.vertical

1.peaked roofs -open over fire

-downwind

-work from ladder not away

2.flat roofs -open sky lights

-inspection hole

-place rafter in center of hole

3. all holes atleast 4 foot x 4 foot

5.KEEP STAIRS CLEAR

There are always other procedures that are local. Some Dept.'s don't have balloon construction and some do, some only have garden apartments or ranch houses. So, this isn't the gospel. It is only the basics, the procedures that should be accomplished by the truck co. so that the scene you’re at next hopefully doesn't become a disaster. If I'm lucky, this will be new information for some of you and it will be an informative article. For this of you that are experienced and know all this information, this isn't meant as a boring article, but one of a reminder.

Stay low, stay safe and keep the love of the job.

Jason M. Czora

If you have any questions please feel free to E-Mail Truckiebfd11@cs.com

Bio: Jason Czora has been involved in the fire service for 14 years. He is now a career Firefighter with the Buffalo Fire Department.  He has been a carreer firefighter for 5 years and is assigned to Truck Company 11.  He has an AAS degree in Fire Protection Technology from Erie Community College

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