Multiphase Study on Firefighter Safety and the Deployment of

Resources

High-RiseField Experiments

High-Rise ToolkitWhat’s inside?• Full Report• Dept. of Commerce release

notes• 10 Fact Sheets• Executive Summary• DVD of photos• Contact information for requests

Subjects of Further Discussion

• Timing Performance in Experimental Search

• Generating % comparison tables

• Time-to-Task Data• Determining design fire for

model• FED Model Results

Experimental Search Datapages 64-68

Reading Button Plots

3-Person 10th Floor Search

4-Person 10th Floor Search

5-Person 10th Floor Search

6-Person 10th Floor Search

Comparison Time Datapages 138-146

Generating % TablesStarting with synthetic data…

Differences are found by subtracting the row time data from the column time data.

Generating % Tables

Divide differences by the time value of the column.

Generating % Tables

Convert to % by multiplying previous by 100.

Fire Out Comparison

Floor 10 Search Comparison

Overall Time Comparison

Time-to-Task Datapages 69-83

Reading the Graphs

Attack Line Pathway

Advance Attack Line

Advance Second Line

Fire Out

Search Patterns: Fire Floor

Search and Rescue Fire Floor (10th Floor)

Victim #1 Found (Fire Floor)

Search Patterns: Floor Above Fire

Search and Rescue Floor Above the Fire (11th)

Victim #2 FoundFloor Above the Fire

3-person Crew Operations

4-Person Crew Operations

5-Person Crew Operations

6-Person Crew Operations

Fire Modeling and the Fractional Effective Dose

pages 84-95

Design Fire

Fire + Suppression

Water on Fire / Fire OutCrew Size Ascent Method Average Water

on Fire Time (MM:SS)

Average Fire Out Time (MM:SS)

3 Stairs 18:48 28:04

4 Stairs 17:01 26:22

3 Elevator 15:45 26:48

5 Stairs 15:19 24:33

6 Stairs 14:52 21:17

4 Elevator 14:47 24:02

5 Elevator 14:21 23:20

6 Elevator 12:10 19:32

Tenability: FEDFED Value

RangeEstimated

Population Range of Incapacitation

FDS-Smokeview

Coloring

0.0 < FED ≤ 0.3 0.0 < % ≤ 11

0.3 < FED ≤ 1.0 11 < % ≤ 50

1.0 < FED ≤ 3.0 50 < % ≤ 89

FED > 3.0 % > 89

Tenability During Search: Stairs

4-Person Crews3-Person Crews

6-Person Crews5-Person Crews

Tenability During Search: Elevator

4-Person Crews3-Person Crews

6-Person Crews5-Person Crews

Tenability / Search Complete

Crew Size Comparison

Conclusions 1) When responding to medium growth rate

fire on the 10th floor, 3-person crews ascending to the fire floor confronted an environment where the fire had released 60% more heat energy than the fire encountered by the 6-person crews doing the same work.

Larger fires expose firefighters to greater risks and are more challenging to suppress.

Conclusions

2) Larger fires produce more risk exposure for building occupants.

In general, occupants being rescued by smaller crews and by crews that used the stairs rather than the elevators, were exposed to significantly greater dose of toxins from the fire.

Standards of Cover• Resource distribution is associated with

– geography of the community – travel time to emergencies

• Distribution is typically measured by the percent of the jurisdiction covered by the first-due units.

• Concentration is also about geography – arranging of multiple resources, – spacing them so that an initial "effective response force"

can arrive on scene within time frames established

Conclusions 3) Properly engineered and operational fire

sprinkler system drastically reduces the risk exposure for both the building occupants and the firefighters.

According to NFPA:• ~ 40% of buildings are NOT sprinklered• Sprinkler systems fail in about one in 14 fires

Fire departments should be prepared to manage the risks associated with unsprinklered high-rise building fires.

Next Steps1) Urban Fire Forum High Rise

Implementation Guide a. 1st Edition – Community Risk Assessment

(Residential- Low Hazard)b. 2nd Edition – Community Risk Assessment:

High-Rise Implementation Guide

2) NFPA 1710 Committeea. October 8-9 - Atlanta

Next Steps

2nd Edition – Community Risk Assessment: High-Rise Implementation Guide

Matching Resources to RiskIf fire department resources (both mobile and personnel) are deployed to match the risk levels inherent to hazards in the community, it has been scientifically demonstrated that the community will be far less vulnerable to negative outcomes in…

• firefighter injury and death • civilian injury and death

• property loss

Matching Resources to Risk• Following a community hazard/risk assessment, Chiefs

must prepare a plan for timely and sufficient coverage of each hazard and the adverse risk events that occur….Standard of Response Coverage. (Standards of Cover)

– Total number of fires occurring annually should NOT be the sole driver of crew size, overall staffing or on scene assembly needs.

• Standards of response coverage is defined as the written policies and procedures that establish the distribution and concentration of fixed and mobile resources of an organization

Matching Resources to Risk

• Response time goals for first-due units (distribution) and …

• Response time goals for the total effective on-scene emergency response force (concentration) …

• …Drive fire department objectives like fire station location, apparatus deployed and staffing levels.

Explaining to Decision Makers

• If response times and force assembly times are low, …– it is an indicator that sufficient resources

have been deployed and outcomes from risk events are more likely to be positive.

• Conversely, if response times and force assembly times are high, – it is an indicator of insufficient resources

and outcomes from risk events are more likely to be negative.

Fire Service Leaders Faced with Decisions

• Decisions must be based on understanding of – relationship between community hazards and

associated risk,– basic emergency response infrastructure,

including fire department response capability – outcomes of emergency incidents

• Considering these three elements AND the tools available to decision makers, a basic community vulnerability formula

Vulnerability Formula

Risk LevelToo few resources (-)= (-) Outcome Risk LevelAppropriate Resources (+)= (+) Outcome 

High-Rise Guide (pg 15)

• High-Rise/High Hazard• Dispatch 4 engines, 4 trucks, 3

ambulances, 2 BCs• With 5 or 6 FF per company• Initial response total 50 – 58• First engine in 4 minutes• Full initial alarm in 8 minutes

Proposed Action• Urban Fire Forum ADOPT this paper

as a WHITE PAPER on the framework of considerations when making decisions about fire service resource deployment to high-rise structures in local communities.

• Likewise Metro Chiefs ADOPT this paper as WHITE PAPER or endorse the decision of the Urban Fire Forum.

Questions?