High rise Flashcards
Define a high-rise building?
Is a building containing floors at such a height or position that external fire fighting and rescue operations may not be feasible.
What are the 3 main groups of hazards of high rise firefighting?
- Building height, layout and design.
- Fire behaviour and development.
- Firefighting and rescue operations
The unavailability of which facilities will increase risk to firefighters and hinder occupants evacuating the premises and increase the resources required to resolve an incident?
Facilities such as fire mains, ventilation systems and compartmentation.
What are the basic Firefighting facilities and fixed installations provided within buildings above 18 Metres?
- Firefighting shaft.
- Dry/wet rising mains (DRM or WRM).
- Firefighting lift
To establish effective command and control, where should the IC be situated at a high-rise incident?
They shoud remain at ground floor level unless planning arrangements have identified a more appropriate location e.g. the Fire Control Centre
What are the early considerations on arrival for the IC of a High-rise incident?
- Whether additional resources are required to support operations.
- Recognise the effect of wind, noting this may be amplified and made more unpredictable by factors such as the building’s height and its proximity to other tall buildings.
- The need to layout jets to control fires caused by falling debris and deploy ground monitors to prevent external fire spread.
- The need to establish, if appropriate, separate attack and evacuation stairwells.
- If this tactic is employed, personnel assigned to assist evacuation must then use a different stairwell that should be clearly identified as the evacuation stairwell.
How much can a DRM deliver?
at least 1500 litres of water per minute.
What capacity are wet rising mains designed to supply?
1500 litres per minute for 45 minutes as a minimum.
What are the considerations in the event that the fire lift is not available?
- The resource implications for teams accessing and carrying equipment to the bridgehead.
- The use of aerial appliances to transport equipment to the bridgehead (if the building design makes this a viable option).
- Additional resources to enable safe manual handling of casualties down stairways to the point where they can be passed to the care of the Ambulance Service.
Where should the bridgehead be located?
Two floors below the fire floor unless planning arrangements or the specific design features of the building allows for safe air to be reliably maintained in a position which is closer to the fire.
What is the minimum role that can be nominated as the fire sector commander at a High-rise incident?
Crew Manager
Who is responsible for establishing a bridgehead?
The Fire Sector Commander
What equipment must be provided at the bridgehead as soon as possible?
- Two lengths of 45mm hose with carrying straps
- Immediate Emergency Care (IEC) pack
- Two BA sets
- Long Line
- Breaking in Gear
- One BA Board
- Thermal Imaging Camera)
- One F.I.R.E bag containing
What is in the contents of a F.I.R.E bag?
- One controlled dividing breeching
- Three Hose Identifying Sleeve
- One DeltaFire Quickattack branch
- One Set of lift access keys
- One F.I.R.E tool roll
What specific information should be confirmed with teams and recorded on FIBs?
- The location of persons requiring rescue
- A record of persons rescued and areas searched or partly searched
If the bridgehead is required to be repositioned because of worsening conditions or fire spread, what actions should be carried out?
- The IC, all officers and BA teams must be informed of any decision to re-locate the bridgehead.
- All BA teams must be informed to ensure they monitor their air supply and take the new distance into account when assessing their turn around time.
- As relocation will increase the travel distance for BA teams, consideration must be given to the immediate withdrawal of BA teams. Any decision to withdraw breathing apparatus teams must be balanced against the urgency of the task(s) they are performing.
- If not already established, an emergency team the same size as the largest committed team and rigged to at least the same level of protection must be made available at the bridgehead as soon as practicable.
- All information and resources should be transferred to the new bridgehead location.
- Consider implementing Stage 2 BA procedures.
- Where life saving operations are delayed, the IC should consider alternative methods of effecting rescue.
What does the communication of the ‘high-rise procedure implemented’ message indicate?
A risk assessment has been carried out, and that a safe system of work has been implemented.
What are the minimum systems of work required before a High-rise implemented’ message is sent?
- The location of the bridgehead has been risk assessed as appropriate for the incident
- Access and egress to and from the bridgehead is secured and maintained
- The bridgehead is established with two charged jets deployed
Where should the initial BA team’s charged branch be supplied from (where possible)?
The rising main outlet one floor below the fire
Where a rising main is not availble one floor below the fire floor, where should the next available source be supplied from?
The nearest available outlet below the fire floor.
What should be the length of the second jet, which is provided to protect and support personnel involved in rescue/firefighting operations.
This second jet should be at least one hose length longer than the first. This allows the first team to be supported in firefighting and allows rescue of the team without compromising water supply.
Where can the second jet can be supplied from?
The rising main outlet on the fire floor or the next available outlet below the fire floor, as appropriate (this can include the additional outlet provided by the dividing breeching).
When must a covering jet and BA team be present before the search and rescue/firefighting team can be committed into the fire compartment?
If signs, symptoms or conditions that may lead to backdraught, flashover or other abnormal fire development are present.
When can crews be committed and work in an area above the bridgehead without BA?
Where the IC has confirmed that the building’s construction and any fire engineered solutions have not been compromise.
