19 Safety Precautions Prior to Collapse Flashcards
The response by an incident commander when he is informed of danger should:
equal the danger reported.
The response to a reported danger may depend upon several factors:
- Who transmits the danger
- The seriousness of the warning
- The FFs available to respond to the crises
- The urgency of rescue Ops being carried out at the time of the report
A list of safety actions an IC may consider:
- Acknowledge the report and take no immediate action
- Light up the danger area
- Assign an experienced officer or chief to investigate
- Increase supervision
- Alert a RIT to respond
- Evaluate an unstable structure with a telescopic lens
- Rope or tape off a danger area
- Establish a collapse safety zone
- Evacuate people and FFs near a reported danger
- Order a partial withdrawal of FF from a section
- Change strategy from offensive to defensive
- Order an immediate emergency evacuation of all FF
All reports of danger must be ____________ by the IC.
Acknowledged
Several operations in burning buildings where the assignment of a chief is often directed:
- Cellar fires
- Operating on the floor above a fire
- Roof venting
- Top floor fires
- Hoseline advancement at a rapidly spreading fire
When a collapse zone is ordered by the IC, responsibility to comply rests with who?
The company officer and the section/division officer
The most dangerous type of parapet wall is?
An ornamental cast stone wall - a hollow ornamental cast stone wall is tired together (entire wall will come down, not just a section, so entire horizontal area is collapse zone)
A true fire wall, separating two sections of a building, has ___________________ and is designed to do what?
An independent foundation / allow collapse of the roof and floors of one section without affecting the integrity/stability of the fire wall and other section.
Some structural hazards and warning signs that would justify a complete withdrawal of FF:
- An expanding crack in a masonry wall
- Bricks falling out of a wall
- Walls separating at the corners
- A structure leaning to one side
- Large volumes of runoff water through mortar joints or over tops of windowsills
- Roofs from which joists have fallen or extremely bouncy
- Floors and roofs that give the sensation of swaying or moving with supporting wall.
- Floor or roof joists pulling away from masonry wall
- Vibrating floors that are lower at center
- Steel columns or girders out of plumb, warped, sagging, twisted, or fallen
- A building that has sustained any interior collapse.
- Severe cracking and slanting of interior walls or ceiling
- Creaking, rumbling, or cracking sounds
- Any fire where steel bar joists, timber or lightweight truss construction is exposed
- A large body of fire on several floors in an old building
Of all the warning signs, which is the most frequent event that causes ICs to withdraw FFs?
A large body of fire on several floors in an old building
The time of evacuation must be recorded. The exit time is the time from when __________ until the time when _____________.
the signal is transmitted / all fire companies report PAR.
