Fireground Size-Up Considerations for Fires in Churches

A fire in a church is among the most challenging, resource-intensive and dangerous incidents that any one of us will respond to. The buildings can vary greatly in size, age and construction—for example, 200-year-old, gothic-style, heavy timber structure, to contemporary-style building that’s composed of lightweight building materials. Experienced chief officers often say that fires in churches come in two sizes: small and very large, with a quick transition between the two.

If that wasn’t enough, churches take on numerous additional roles other than Sunday service—from daycare center, to homeless shelter, banquet hall, parochial school and food kitchen. The additional occupancy concerns can take place any day of the week, at any time of the day or evening.

In either case and everything in between, it’s critical for the fire officer to anticipate the challenges that might be presented, including via preplanning, and to prepare for a difficult operation.

Construction/building design

If we concentrate on the older heavy timber buildings, churches will consist of masonry exterior walls and large wooden interior timberwork covered by a steeply pitched slate tile roof. Although considered one story in height, these buildings can have peaks that reach 60 feet or more and steeple heights of 100-plus feet.

The Class 4 heavy timber interior design will make up a significant portion of the building’s skeleton. Large columns and girders of wood support the floor and roof spans, while the timbers that are used to support the roof system often are represented by a scissor or triangular truss design.

The space that makes up the roof support members often is referred to as the hanging ceiling space or the attic space. This area between the auditorium (aka nave) ceiling and the underside of the roof deck can be quite sizable. On average, heights can range from 12–18 feet and often cover the entire church auditorium. If getting into this space is required, the access will be extremely limited. Often, the entrance to this area will be through a small trap door that’s only reachable by a narrow staircase or access ladder.

Covering the church auditorium will be a vaulted plaster ceiling. These heavy, ornamental ceilings could extend 50 feet or more above the auditorium floor. The heavy plaster ceilings are of particular concern to advancing firefighters because of the possibility of large sections of the ceiling failing and dropping to the floor once fire attacks the attic space. Sections weighing 100 lbs. or more can drop into the auditorium, bringing large lighting fixtures down with them.

Heavy timber church slate tile roofs most often are constructed over wood planking on a 45-degree pitch. Inherently strong and virtually unaffected by their exposure to the weather, a roof of this design is extremely difficult to ventilate. 

Location/extent of fire

The fire’s location and extent are details that all fireground commanders immediately seek out to deploy and assign resources. What makes the information-gathering process difficult in churches, particularly older churches, are the numerous places where fire can start and travel through. Primary concerns within this size-up factor are when the fire involves the below-grade areas of the furnace/boiler room and the hanging ceiling space that’s above the church auditorium.

When we look at the furnace/boiler room of large, older churches, a number of problems arise. The first is poor housekeeping. Many times, because of carelessness and complacency, the furnace/boiler room becomes a collection point for the storage of combustibles, paints, varnishes, etc. It’s only a matter of time before the room’s contents come in close contact with a heat source.

A second concern is the integrity of the furnace/boiler room to prevent any amount of fire from spreading. Fires that start in a furnace/boiler room can spread quickly to other parts of the structure—initially, to other areas of the basement/cellar area through flimsy or non-fire-stopped partition walls. Often, a framed-out partition wall is covered by wooden clapboards or gypsum wallboard and only extends up to the underside of the unfinished floor joists. With an unfinished ceiling, a partition wall that’s installed at a right angle to the floor joists allows large horizontal openings for fire to spread from the furnace/boiler room up through openings in and around heating ducts. Walls and ceiling spaces throughout a church can be hollowed out as much as 16–20 inches to accommodate heating ducts, thus offering expanded raceways for fire to extend up into the sidewalls of the church auditorium and the hanging ceiling space over the entire church.

The hanging ceiling space over a church is the most difficult and most inaccessible space that’s in the building. Access to this area generally is limited to a narrow staircase or a wooden ladder that leads to a trap door. Fire can originate in this area or enter this space from numerous wall voids that are around the structure. With the large, wooden interior timberwork of the ceiling and roof support system, accompanied by heights in these spaces that average 12–18 feet over the entire length of the building, chief officers must be prepared for defensive operations once fire enters this space.

Engine company operations

When the decision is made to commit arriving engine companies to an offensive attack, actions must focus on establishing a sufficient water supply by stretching large hoselines to the seat of the fire. The requirements for a successful outcome for a fire in a heavy timber church are the speed, accessibility and amount of water that can be delivered. Hoselines of adequate size, preferably 2 inches to 2½ inches in diameter, must be given early consideration when arriving at a church fire. The amount of fuel that this type of building can produce as well as the sizes of the void spaces and the reach, penetration and volume of water that’s required not only to slow the fire spread but also to extinguish it require the capabilities of a large hoseline. The concept behind this thought is to pool your resources to deliver the biggest punch.

Ladder company operations

A consideration that must come early in the operation is the placement and position of the apparatus. Company officers must direct their apparatus drivers/chauffeurs to place apparatus with both the offensive and defensive modes in mind. Keeping the front and flanking positions of the building open for the placement of the truck company will become an initial consideration.

With this thought in mind, the front of many heavy timber churches offers openings for ventilation and eventual stream placement. Large churches’ oval-shaped, decorative window in the front gable (i.e., the rose window) can be penetrated to vent the church proper. It also can allow access for a strong stream from an elevating platform into the church auditorium or can be used by a tower ladder to penetrate the ornamental ceiling in an attempt to get water into the attic space.

Another smaller window that can be found within this same space but higher into the gable is the vent window. This window (or louvered opening) allows direct access into the attic space over the church auditorium and gives the ladder company another opportunity to vent or direct a stream into the attic space. Although this opening’s small size definitely limits the maneuverability of an elevated stream, its presence requires early consideration.

Additional ventilation options for a fire in a church come with limitations as well as with some hesitations. Stained glass windows are expensive and often difficult to replace. That said, the hesitation on breaking them to provide a large opening for ventilation can result in the loss of the entire building. If their removal will assist the operations as well as prevent further structural loss, they must be removed.

Roof ventilation efforts by a ladder company at a church are extremely difficult and dangerous. When fires can’t be controlled in large, old churches, the two main reasons are inability to ventilate the roof and inability to quickly open concealed spaces and voids.

However, there can be options to assist with these difficulties. The first is particular to the address. Pre-incident information that’s particular to churches might identify construction features that might be utilized to assist with the roof vent. Natural roof ventilation options for the ladder company might come in the form of roof turbines, louvers and ridge vents, to name three. Depending on their design within the space, they might assist with ventilation in the church auditorium or attic space.

Locating the fire

A necessary tool for ladder company members to assist with the difficulties of quickly opening the building’s concealed spaces and voids is the immediate deployment and use of thermal imaging. Prioritizing efforts on identifying the fire’s location not only assists with early control but also with preventing firefighter injury or death.