Chapter 5 Firefighter Safety Flashcards
The guiding objective of this text is preparing the fire officer to take command at structure fires by fully using available resources in a ______________.
safe and effective way
Probably the most important safety factor at the scene of a structure fires is a ____________________ based on a solid ______________ utilizing ___________. +++
- well-organized operation
- solid risk-verses-benefits analysis
- effective tactics
Poor ventilation combined with a _________________ is a deadly combination.
lack of protective hose lines
Duties of the Incident Safety Officer include:
- Report to command and confirm incident safet officer assignment
- Determine the strategy and tactics being employed at the incident scene
- Evaluate the operation by systematically visiting every area where FFs are deployed (start with area of greatest hazard)
- Share safety concerns with the officer responsible for that specifc area.
- After completing a tour, report back to the IC.
- Continue touring the fire ground throughout the fire suggesting changes as required
At the scene of a major and widespread fire, who is often the only person with a complete view of the fire scene?
The incident safety officer
Several organizations publish fire investigation reports that analyze fires that resulted in FF fatalities (NFPA, NIOSH, USFA, and others). These reports provide information, which, if properly used and analyzed can prevent future on-duty deaths and reduce injury __________________.
Frequency and severity.
Once a fire occurs in a nonresidential occupancy, the risk to FFs is ________________.
much greater.
The death rate in fires at manufacturing occupancies is:
22.5 per 100,000
The death rate in fires at residential occupancies is:
2.6 per 100,000
Low air alarms sound at:
33% of the air remaining.
A notice of _______________ is probably sufficient in a typical dwelling, but may not provide sufficient escape time when a FF is disoriented or working in larger buildings.
10 minutes
Probably the most imporant element of the incident safety program is applying ________________ to fire ground operations.
risk management
The single most important ability the fire officer must acquire is being skilled at ___________________. +++
recognizing the point at which the risk to FFs lives outweighs the possible benefits of saving lives and property.
The first-arriving officer must consider the possibility of poeple being in the building not as a yes-or-no propositiong, but rather as a ___________.
degree of probability
In the past, the time from ignition to flashover was given at 10 minutes. The actual time can vary significantly depending on a number of variables:
- Compartment size
- Available air supply (ventilation)
- Ignition sources
- Fuel type
- Geometry of the enclosure
- Distance between fuel packages
- Location of the fuel
In UL experiments, the time to flashover in a living room furnished with modern furniture occurred in __________, compared to ____________ for the same room furnished with legacy furniture.
3.5 minutes / 29.5 minutes
Loads imposed on a building are divided into _______________ loads.
- Live
- Dead
- Seismic
- Wind
- Snow
- Ice
The 20-minute rule states that when a heavy volume of fire is burning out of control on two or more floors for 20 minutes or longer, _________________ should be anticipates (this is based on Type III construction).
structural collapse
NFPA 1500 requires dispatch to notify command every _____ minutes until the fires is knocked down, the incident becomes static, or the IC cancels the notifications.
10
The fire officer should ask four important questions before assigning FFs to roof operations:
- Are roof ops necessary?
- What do I hope to gain (benefit) by opening the roof?
- How long has the fire been impinging on the roof components?
- What is the safest method of operating on this roof?
What are four issues with solar panels?
- Add to the roof load
- Create a potential ignition source
- Make roof ventilation more difficult
- Present an electrical shock hazard that is difficult to de-energize.
What is the most effective method of fighting a basement fire?
From the exterior of the building
Various tactics have been used to fight basement fires. Probably the most often used, and the most difficult and dangerous, is _______________________.
advancing a hose line down the interior stairway from the first floor to the basement.
Firefighters are at significant risk of injury or death when fighting fires in basements or floors below grade level. The increased risk is due to:
- Limited entry and egress
- Working above the fire
- Weakened floor structures in the fire’s flow path
- Unknown fire load
- Ventilation issues
- Utility panels
- Hanging wires
- Utility meters
- Appliances
Basement fires are often confined to:
Clothes dryers or HVAC equipment
Standard on-scene measures used by FFs to test a floor for structural stability (sounding the floor, thermal imaging, and floor sag) provide some indication of an impending collapse but are ____________________.
very late indicators that are not entirely reliable.