Blog Archives
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The tale of two holes--does an eighth of an inch make a difference?
By Capt. Dave Fornell - Monday October 31, 2011I was having a discussion the other day with some members of a nearby department about increasing the flow and safe handling ability of their 2-1/2” preconnected line. The officers gathered about decided to replace their 100-PSI combination nozzle with a smooth bore that would operate more efficiently at a lower pressure, and would provide more flow while being a bit easier to handle due to reduced nozzle reaction forces. So far, so good, but when it came time to determine the tip size, the discussion became somewhat derailed when someone suggested picking the nozzle bore based on what the big cities use. I suggested that it might not be the right way to go about things. For example, if you decide to use the... -
When the Towers Fell
By Capt. Dave Fornell - Sunday September 11, 2011
When the dust started to clear hours after the collapse of towers No. 1 and No.2 of the World Trade Center, it was apparent that the Fire Department of New York was in serious trouble. Three hundred and forty-three members were dead or missing, the top commanders including Chief of Department Peter Ganci Jr., First Deputy Commissioner William Feehan, and Assistant Chiefs Gerard Barbara and Donald Burns were dead. To make matters worse, practically all of the on-duty personnel assigned to the department’s rescue and squad companies were missing as well, including their commander Battalion Chief Ray Downey. In addition, the collapses showered millions of tons of debris down on two fifth alarm assignments of FDNY... -
Déjà vu all over again
By Capt. Dave Fornell - Friday July 22, 2011
A post-fire report was released this week that describes the problems experienced by the Gloucester, MA Fire Department when attempting to fight a fire last March in a two-story, downtown, commercial building—and the conclusions aren’t pretty. The city-commissioned report prepared by Municipal Resources, Inc., describes how first arriving companies found a working fire in a law office on the first floor of a two story ordinary construction building, how they attacked the fire and knocked it down, vented the roof, set up a PPV fan, and then executed a shift change, sending all but one engine back to quarters. In the meantime, people in the street noticed an increase in smoke issuing from the building and the tenant of an... -
It can happen anywhere, any time
By Capt. Dave Fornell - Wednesday June 22, 2011
Last week, firefighters in a number of departments around Aurora, Illinois, faced an extremely unusual situation. Arriving on a dramatic scene that could have been straight out of an airfield in England in World War II, they faced a burning, restored B-17 Flying Fortress bomber that had landed in a farm field shortly after take off from the Aurora Municipal Airport, about 40 miles southwest of Chicago. The Liberty Belle, one of only about 10 remaining flying examples of the aircraft out of 12,731 built, developed a fire in an engine, causing the pilot to turn back to the airport and then deciding to set the plane down in an unplowed field. First arriving units found the plane intact, with the fire spreading, located... -
In Search of the Perfect Hose Bed 2
By Capt. Dave Fornell - Wednesday May 25, 2011
Most attack line hose beds are stacked vertically, and being able to remove them quickly and efficiently stretch them to the point of operation is a basic fireground challenge. When deciding how to pack an attack line hose bed, a good dose of common sense is in order. Ok, you say, this is just basic stuff, but stay with me here. It seems that everywhere I go, I see hose packed in countless unmanageable fashions, mostly as a result of whoever decided to use them did not fully understand the basics of hose line management. I witnessed a drill not long ago when a firefighter stretched a department’s high-tech, wizzy hose load, and then dropped it into a pile before it was extended its full length, getting it all knotted up in the process... -
In Search of the Perfect Hose Bed 1
By Capt. Dave Fornell - Monday March 28, 2011
Get a Handle On It Last fall, I had the chance to pull the initial attack hose line on a fully involved combine fire. For you city folks, that's the big green or red machine driving around behind the barn that costs $300,000 and harvests beans and corn. Because when things go wrong, these things are usually out in the fields, our first-in rig was a 4-wheel drive brush truck. While we normally are pretty particular on how we finish off the hose loads on our pumpers' structural attack lines, the 1-1/2" line on this rig was just folded into the shallow hose bed on the brush rig accordion style. Well, the line came off, as it always does, but when we were packing it back up, I thought, boy, it sure needed some type of handle to help in... -
In Search of the Perfect Hose Bed 1
By Capt. Dave Fornell - Monday March 28, 2011
Get a Handle On It Last fall, I had the chance to pull the initial attack hose line on a fully involved combine fire. For you city folks, that’s the big green or red machine driving around behind the barn that costs $300,000 and harvests beans and corn. Because when things go wrong, these things are usually out in the fields, our first-in rig was a 4-wheel drive brush truck. While we normally are pretty particular on how we finish off the hose loads on our pumpers’ structural attack lines, the 1-1/2” line on this rig was just folded into the shallow hose bed on the brush rig accordion style. Well, the line came off, as it always does, but when we were packing it back up, I thought, boy, it sure needed some type of handle to help in... -
It's All About the Water
By Capt. Dave Fornell - Monday January 31, 2011With temperatures outside in the teens and seeing on the weather channel that another winter storm is on the way, I find that the dark days of late winter are a great time to catch up on reviewing fire reports; gleaning information that can be passed along to make the job safer and more efficient. While going back through some line of duty death reports, I again found a common thread that continually echoes through most fireground LODD reports-lack of water being applied to the fire. I usually hesitate to publicly comment on someone else's fire ground actions, basically because I was not on the scene to observe and form opinions first hand. In these cases however, the details in the reports tell the story, and there are lessons to be... -
There's no such thing as a routine fire
By Capt. Dave Fornell - Sunday December 26, 2010
Tragedy struck the Chicago Fire Department last Wednesday when a collapsing truss roof on a vacant south side building killed two firefighters and injured 17 more. By all accounts, it was a routine fire. Two lines were led out on a fire that appeared to be contained in the rear office area of a building known to be frequented by vagrants and homeless people. Because a rear door was open on the boarded up structure, a search for victims was initiated as the lines hit the fire. Extra companies were called as a precaution when a frozen hydrant was encountered, but, as far as fires go, it was quite ordinary. Except that there is no such thing as a routine fire. We forget this from time to time, only to be reminded, as... -
Sometimes, a fireground picture is worth a thousand words
By Capt. Dave Fornell - Thursday November 18, 2010
Many fireground photos pass through my screen over the course of a week, and a set that hit here yesterday really caught my eye. Chicago fireground photographer Hank Sajovic happened to catch an amazing sequence of fire progression photos right after he arrived on the scene of what eventually progressed to a second alarm (2-11 in the Chicago area) in Oak Lawn, IL. The photos are especially instructional as they show an attack going from offensive to defensive and in the process, responding apparatus were spotted in positions that allowed them to fully utilize their capabilities. The full set of photos is posted here . Here’s what they show. It appears that the fire got into the cockloft and rapidly spread...
