Part one of this article described three important functions Rapid Ascent Teams perform during a serious high-rise fire:
1. Direct people out of the attack stair and out of harm’s way.
2. Perform reconnaissance for the command post; to become the “eyes and ears” of the incident commander.
3. Take carbon monoxide (CO) readings at various intervals to determine where major pockets exist.
Now that we have clearly defined these three important functions, let’s expand the role of Rapid Ascent Teams. How can we ensure the evacuees can get out of the attack stair? What if the stair doors are mechanically locked or only unlock – or stay unlocked – on certain floor intervals?
At too many fires, civilians are on their own for the most part and are not tended to unless they specifically call for help via cell phone or fire phone when they become trapped in the attack stair or other stair that might have also become contaminated. In most modern commercial buildings, the stair doors unlock at alarm or there are re-entry/crossover floors that unlock or stay unlocked every three to five floors, on average (tower stairs in hotels and residential buildings tend to stay unlocked).
Even re-entry/crossover floors have drawbacks, though. For instance, what happens if they are more than three floors apart and the fire happens to be on a re-entry floor level (see graphic 3)? This means people with physical liabilities such as heart conditions or obesity would then be forced to travel back up to the next re-entry floor to leave the attack stair. In proximity to the fire floor, they are not likely to be able to make their way past hordes of firefighters and hose (attack and backup lines) being snaked everywhere. Climbing back up even three, four or five floors could prove to be too much of a burden, especially if they have just descended numerous flights of stairs.
Even auto-release devices on door locks can fail during fires, as it has been estimated that they average a 10-15% failure rate due to improper installation, incorrect hardware, or lack of testing and maintenance. None of these “escape methods” are fool-proof. People must be accounted for and looked after. Do we want our Rapid Ascent Teams forcing doors to provide a way out for people in the attack stair at various levels above the fire? (As noted in part one, the exception would be if it were a hot-weather fire and where a significant “reverse stack effect,” or downdraft, is taking place whereby air and smoke are being pulled downward via shaftways. This movement of air within a high-rise will be further explained in an upcoming article dedicated to “Air Balancing”.) Their energy must be conserved for the climb they must perform. It is imperative that this concern be an integral part of the overall scope of any high-rise incident command system.
In older commercial buildings, the doors may be mechanically locked with no drop-out on alarm, releasing the door locks to the unlocked position. With either mechanically locked doors or re-entry floor applications, eventually all locked doors must be unlocked for the search teams that may be assigned to search floors above the fire in a serious event. Only a few stair keys will be available to fire crews in the lobby on arrival, so they must be used with great wisdom. Sometimes, there are none. This greatly complicates the issues noted here, as at least six stair keys must be available to first responders in every high-rise building. Why?
In many fires, the keys disappear with the first-due attack and search teams heading upstairs, never to be seen again for the remainder of the fire. Forcing doors on numerous floors above the fire is not a realistic option for search teams or Rapid Ascent Teams (see photo 2). Early into the fire, primary Rapid Ascent Teams must quickly follow these units to regain control over these keys, if there are no extras in the lobby. It must be agreed upon that the keys will be placed at a common location – left in the locks at the fire floor (and the floor above) by both search and attack teams – even if the doors were found unlocked. They would then be retrieved by the Rapid Ascent Teams, who begin ascending the attack stair to perform their assignment.
The teams can perform one additional task: as they stop every five floors for a breather and to take a CO reading, they verify that landing’s door is unlocked. If it is not, they to unlock the door and place a blocking device across the keeper, then close the door again to maintain the shaftway’s integrity as much as possible. A solution may be a card key with a strong adhesive easy-peel strip-off backing placed across the keeper (see photo 3), other than using duct tape or rubber straps. These cards can be carried in bulk quantity in a small satchel. They then move on to the next five-floor interval and repeat the process. If a team member carries a marker, the door can even be marked “UNLOCKED” at these levels. This would not be relevant with designated re-entry floors that many buildings have.
What about fire departments that can only afford the assignment of only two or three Rapid Ascent Teams during the initial stages of a serious fire? How can they manage the strain of continuously moving up and down the attack stairs throughout the fire, trying to re-direct a fragmented population of evacuees from the fire floor? In the very near future, one answer may be the placement of red flashing lights inside the stairs at each landing level – or at least every five-floor interval – by Rapid Ascent Teams (see photo 4). These small, lightweight devices can also be carried in satchels. Tenants would be educated through the fire prevention bureau and building management team (as they have over time with the flashing alarm strobes on each floor) about what the lights in the stairwell represent. Even without firefighters present, tenants would recognize they are in danger. The lights can be used in conjunction to public address-system announcements that may or may not be heard inside noisy stairwells.
Red and green lights may one day be hard-wired into all new high-rise building stairwells as a code requirement. At the lobby fire command center, switches on a panel could activate these lights to go red or green on any given stair landing (see photo 5). Once a red light switch is activated, all floors above that landing would go into red blinking mode and others below that floor could be activated manually for warm-weather fires. The designated evacuation stairwell lights could also then be put into steady-green illumination mode. The lights would be complemented by signs mounted on stair doors indicating their presence and use; i.e., “Flashing red lights = Do not use stair for evacuation – Steady green lights = Safe to use stair.” Two recently built high-rises in one Canadian city implemented this concept into their construction plans. This may become standard fare in future high-rise construction.
In conclusion, we must collectively approach the recurring issue of losing civilians in the attack stair due to an inability to quickly address this concern in a tactically effective manner early into the fire. We cannot continue to repeat history. This article hopefully will serve as a basis of dialogue to get firefighters throughout the world to come up with ideas that can further enhance the Rapid Ascent Team concept or even replace it with a better initiative.
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An upcoming article about “Air Balancing” will break down the complexity of air movement within a high-rise structure and why it is so vitally important for fire departments to be educated in this little-understood topic. The movement of fire gases up and down vertical shafts and on and off various floors must be anticipated. To comprehend this naturally occurring phenomenon, it must be understood how air travels within the confines of multi-story buildings at various times due to temperature and pressure differentials. Understanding that a building literally breathes and balances itself relative to air threshold plays a major role in the channeling of toxic gases to particular areas. You can literally predict where the bulk of smoke and CO contamination will occur. Adding this knowledge to your “tool box” will greatly diminish the possibility of life loss on these very challenging fires.
