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Pre-Fire Planning helps firefighters save lives
Special to R&L
Firefighter Tony Armstrong puts the finishing touches on a pre-incident survey.
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Published: November 9, 2009
What is pre-fire planning? Well, when you see Statesville firefighters visiting local businesses in our area, we are not there just to fill time in our day. We have a purpose for our visit — to establish a pre-fire plan much like you have a fire escape plan for your home.
We visit businesses in our areas and do pre-fire planning. We collect various data pertaining to each business. We identify hazards; best entry and escape routes; utility cut-offs and much more. We then take this data and transfer it to the on-board computers on our fire trucks and command vehicle.
This is a large task and we have been involved with this process for the past 20 years. This is an ongoing process with new businesses and the revamping of old businesses. In the past, we used to do everything on paper and place the reports in a binder, which stayed on our fire trucks. Since we are now in the computer age, we are busy transferring all of our collected data, as well as new data, to our computers for easy access.
How can this pre-fire planning save lives? When we are dispatched to a report of a building fire, we can pull that business up while en route. For example, our city has a lot of old buildings with balloon-frame construction. We know fire spreads in this type of construction at an alarming rate and a small fire in a wall can quickly reach the attic area, where it will grow more rapidly. We can access that data while en route and plan our fire attack accordingly. This, in turn, can save firefighters' lives as well as occupants who may be trapped in the building. We will also know in advance the location of any hazardous chemicals and their storage areas. This pre-fire knowledge is invaluable.
Throughout the city, there are numerous target hazards — places that firefighters talk about around the fire station. The discussions almost always begin with "If that place ever catches fire ..." The target hazard can be a life hazard, a firefighting hazard or both. The bigger the community, the more target hazards you are likely to have. By being proactive with our pre-fire planning, we obtain valuable information about specific manufacturing and commercial buildings, schools, hospitals, nursing facilities, assisted-living residences and group homes and similar occupancies in our response areas. Being proactive is a lot better than being reactive — it allows you to begin life-saving rescue operations if needed while implementing a safe fire attack knowing valuable information and specifics about the building.
Pre-incident planning is essential to successful fire operations in large and complex properties. While information is seldom complete during the first critical minutes on the fireground, approximately half the factors affecting fireground decisions can be known in advance. Failing to use these factors in planning a response often means that the incident commander is forced to make tactical decisions based entirely on the visual information available at the scene, placing firefighters at a disadvantage.
It's crucial that fire companies know their response areas well. Important information gained during district reconnaissance — such as the fact that firefighters can expect to find holes in the first and second floors of a specific building — must be recorded and shared with all personnel. One additional piece of information about pre-fire planning: The Insurance Services Office (ISO) also gives points to fire departments who conduct these surveys annually. So, with this information, we'll also be able to use the data to help us lower fire insurance rates in the future.
Firefighter Tony Armstrong is the man behind our renewed efforts to transfer our old data and collect new pre-fire plans. This is an arduous task that demands a lot of his time. He has done an excellent job coordinating these assignments, along with shift representatives Firefighter Matthew Baity and Firefighter Andy Russell, who oversee their shifts' input of pre-fire plans. Tony is an experienced firefighter and has served our department for 11 years. His experience with computers makes him the perfect pre-incident planning czar. Firefighter Armstrong enjoys living in the East Statesville Area with his wife, Jenny, and children Noah and Calbe. The Armstrongs are expecting a new addition soon. Thanks, Tony, for all of your efforts.
Football fundraiser
In closing, I would like to invite everyone to a great fundraising event. Outback Steakhouse is sponsoring our first Firefighter/Policeman football game. That's us in red against the guys in blue on the gridiron under the lights at Statesville Senior High's Greyhound Hollow. This event will take place on Nov. 21, at 7:30 p.m.. The price of admission is $5. We're raising money to battle, Frederick's Ataxia, a rare disease that affects the central nervous system. All proceeds from the game will be donated to help fight this disease. We would like to thank the coaches and principal at Statesville High for all of their support. Hope to see you at the game. It's going to be a good one. Stay fire safe!
Jeff k. matheson is a captain at the Statesville Fire Department. Got questions? Send them to jeff_matheson@ci.statesville.nc.us.
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