Erik Reinhardt from Baltimore County (MD) Fire Department sent in something he and the crew discovered during pre-fire planning of an apartment complex. At first glance, the outside team might breathe a slight sigh of relief when a porch roof or balcony is found on the structure. Under most circumstances a balcony or porch roof offers a stable platform for performing VES operations. However, like so many things in modern building construction, it is not always what it appears.

In this particular set-up, the first floor balcony doesn’t really exist. Apparently, it just appears to have one  in order to match the second and third floor balconies. In this instance, the absence of a sliding glass door on the balcony should be an indicator. This set-up was present at every building in the complex, so it’s not just a replacement or repair issue.

An important part of throwing ladders to the structure is truly evaluating their placement, and their effectiveness. Don’t waste time, or ladders, because the situation wasn’t fully evaluated.

Jake Portillo from Corona (CA) Fire Dept. Ladder 3 “B” sent in some photos of a tip without a bucket. Although you cannot really tell from the photo, Ladder 3 is a Tractor Drawn Tiller Aerial, obviously with no bucket. In order to simplify getting saws to the roof, Corona Fire Department created what they call the “Aerial Saw Scabbard”. Apparently the name has a funny, easy to remember abbreviation. Jake pointed out that they do not run with the saw in the A.S.S. Upon arrival, the cab fireman hands the saws up to the tillerman for placement in the scabbard.

The scabbards do not have any retention straps; the angle of the scabbard keeps the saw in place. The scabbard is a simple bracket made from some diamond plate with a nylon insert to prevent damage. Notice the way the scabbard is mounted, the bolts do not go through the aerial at all. The bolts simply clamp the scabbard to the aerial. Jake also pointed out that they do in fact run with the rubbish hook stored on the aerial as seen in the first picture. The climb to the roof is much easier with two saws, and one hook already at the tip of the ladder, allowing the roof team to make it to the roof quicker, and with the ability to carry additional equipment.

Firefighter Matt Fisher from Cunningham Fire Protection District (CO) sent in these photos of something he and his crew ran into. Basement egress windows are required in many areas when any area of the basement will be used as a bedroom. Well like so many other things we run into in the field, it doesn’t matter what the code says, it’s what the occupant does that we need to watch out for. In this set up the egress window is obviously present but the homeowner decided to install a bay window right on top of it essentially making it unusable for egress.

Fortunately, the galvanized tub which creates the well would not take much to defeat. A rotary saw and a set of irons could certainly make this opening usable. The key here is to defeat it immediately (depending on fire conditions) when crews begin operating in this structure, regardless of the floor of operation. If crews are on the main floor, the well should still be opened as proactive RIT. It would suck to have a brother firefighter fall through the main floor, end up in the basement, and need to egress from this blocked window.

DJ Stone from Fort Walton Beach (FL) Truck 6 sent in these photos of a drop bar installation with a pad lock. They ran into this in an office area of a large warehouse style building. Obviously, once the padlock is in place, it takes away a few of the options we may use to defeat the drop bar from the outside.. While some of the bumping the bar from the outside trick may not work on this one, the rotary saw treatment to the bolts would definitely still defeat this. Another point to mention is that you would have no way of knowing if this was present from the outside.


The arrows in the photo above show where the padlock would be installed on the drop bar to prevent it from being bumped out of place.

Here is a helpful tip that makes a simple job even easier. Undoubtedly, every one of us has had to try multiple times to hook up a twist lock electrical connection. Common, admit it, not even at 03:30? …Thought so.

Ryan Skabroud from Chippewa (WI) Fire District sent in his rendition of an idea he originally learned from St. Paul Fire. The idea is to simply mark the odd prong on each connection. A few sharpie markers (black and silver) are all you need. Simply connect (but don’t twist) the plug and draw your mark on both the male and female ends of the plug. Then when its time to make the connection, just line up the marks, and you’ll have success first time, every time.

The District of Columbia Fire Department is in the process of training the entire department in Rapid Intervention Team skills. One of the many skills covered is to replace a downed firefighter’s damaged or missing SCBA face piece. This somewhat simple skill becomes significantly complicated while wearing gloves in a low-vis environment. Some of the brothers knew there had to be a better way, so they came up with a simple, yet effective, modification to an old face piece. The information for this post was sent in by two individuals: Captain Daniel Troxell from Truck Company 6, and Lieutenant Tony Carroll from Rescue Co. 2.

Click here to get the details of this useful modification.

Parking garages are becoming more popular in many jurisdictions. They are also getting quite crafty with the way they are building and disguising them. You know what they say, they just don’t build them like they used to…

Lieutenant Matt Rettmer from Castle Rock (CO) sent in these photos of a garage in his first due. The Photo above, from the A/B Corner, the structure looks like everything else on this street, a typical store front. But the photo below, a view from the B/C Corner, paints a different picture. The structure is actually a three story parking garage. Take a quick look back at the first picture, look in the windows, it’s a dead give-a-way.

A car fire in a parking garage is much different than any other type car fire. Fortunately parking garages are typically going to be build with Type I or Type II construction, so (under most circumstances) the building itself is not much of an issue.
Because car fires tend to be a compartmentalized fire, sprinkler systems (when provided) do little to actually extinguish the fire. This is why a truck company may be needed to “open things up” with the rotary saws. Take the time to discuss with the Engine Crew about the tactics for a car fire in a parking garage, it’s one of those situations we probably haven’t spent too much time thinking about.