fire science filed report responding
At 1300, my truck company was dispatched to an automatic aid call for a structure fire with a neighboring fire dept. There were reports of a fire in a two-story apartment building with garden level units. The first due engine company reported a large amount of smoke coming from the mansard style roof and soffits with no visible flame on the exterior. We were the third company on scene and were assigned pre-control overhaul in the fire building to locate fire.
My truck had four personnel, an officer, an engineer and two firefighters. My crew stretched 200" of 2-1/2" hose line with a gated wye to the center courtyard and then connected 100" of single jacket 1-3/4" high-rise hose for the fire attack. Two firefighters and I began pre-control overhaul on the Charlie side of building, searching for hidden fire in the walls and ceilings of apartments. We encountered large amounts of smoke and flames inside the walls and ceiling of a top floor apartment. This information was relayed to the incident commander and we began extinguishing fire in conjunction with overhaul. We were engaged in this for approximately 45 minutes. I estimate approximately 300-400 gallons of water were used from our truck, which has a tank capacity of 500 gallons. Towards, the end of the incident I was approached by the safety officer, a battalion chief from my department, asking "Where is your engineer? Your pump is unmanned and the high temperature alarm is sounding!" Further investigation revealed my engineer was in another division of the fire assisting another engineer. I found the pump overheat alarms sounding, no external water supply had been secured, there was 1/4 tank of water remaining and there was no engineer in sight.
Lessons Learned
The lessons learned here are far reaching and number one is personal accountability. This engineer had 30-plus years on the job and still allowed this incident to occur. Also, the engineer stated, "My officer never told me to get a water supply." I believe that if this individual owned up to his mistakes, many others could have learned from his mistakes.
Demographics
Department Type: Paid Municipal
Job or Rank: Lieutenant
Department Shift: 48 hours on - 96 hours off
Age: 34 - 42
Years of Fire Service Experience: 7 - 10
Region: FEMA Region VIII
Service Area: Urban
Event Information
Event Type: Fire emergency event: structure fire, vehicle fire, wildland fire, etc.
Date and Time: Jul 1 2009 1:00PM
Hours Into the Shift:
Event Participation: Involved in the event
Weather at Time of Event:
Do you think this will happen again?
Contributing Factors? Accountability, Decision Making, Human Error, Individual Action, SOP / SOG
What do you believe is the loss potential?: Life threatening injury, Lost time injury, Property damage
