Multiphase Study on Firefighter Safety and the Deployment of Resources High-Rise Field Experiments

High-Rise Toolkit What’s inside? Full Report Dept. of Commerce release notes 10 Fact Sheets Executive Summary DVD of photos Contact information for requests

Subjects of Further Discussion Timing Performance in Experimental Search Generating % comparison tables Time-to-Task Data Determining design fire for model FED Model Results

Experimental Search Data pages 64-68

Reading Button Plots

3-Person 10 th Floor Search

4-Person 10 th Floor Search

5-Person 10 th Floor Search

6-Person 10 th Floor Search

Comparison Time Data pages

Generating % Tables Starting with synthetic data… Differences are found by subtracting the row time data from the column time data.

Generating % Tables Divide differences by the time value of the column.

Generating % Tables Convert to % by multiplying previous by 100.

Fire Out Comparison

Floor 10 Search Comparison

Overall Time Comparison

Time-to-Task Data pages 69-83

Reading the Graphs

Attack Line Pathway

Advance Attack Line

Advance Second Line

Fire Out

Search Patterns: Fire Floor

Search and Rescue Fire Floor (10 th Floor)

Victim #1 Found (Fire Floor)

Search Patterns: Floor Above Fire

Search and Rescue Floor Above the Fire (11 th )

Victim #2 Found Floor Above the Fire

3-person Crew Operations

4-Person Crew Operations

5-Person Crew Operations

6-Person Crew Operations

Fire Modeling and the Fractional Effective Dose pages 84-95

Design Fire

Fire + Suppression

Water on Fire / Fire Out Crew SizeAscent MethodAverage Water on Fire Time (MM:SS) Average Fire Out Time (MM:SS) 3Stairs18:4828:04 4Stairs17:0126:22 3Elevator15:4526:48 5Stairs15:1924:33 6Stairs14:5221:17 4Elevator14:4724:02 5Elevator14:2123:20 6Elevator12:1019:32

Tenability: FED FED Value Range Estimated Population Range of Incapacitation FDS- Smokeview Coloring 0.0 < FED ≤ < % ≤ < FED ≤ < % ≤ < FED ≤ < % ≤ 89 FED > 3.0 % > 89

Tenability During Search: Stairs 4-Person Crews 3-Person Crews 6-Person Crews5-Person Crews

Tenability During Search: Elevator 4-Person Crews 3-Person Crews 6-Person Crews 5-Person Crews

Tenability / Search Complete

Crew Size Comparison

Conclusions 1)When responding to medium growth rate fire on the 10th floor, 3-person crews ascending to the fire floor confronted an environment where the fire had released 60% more heat energy than the fire encountered by the 6-person crews doing the same work. Larger fires expose firefighters to greater risks and are more challenging to suppress.

Conclusions 2) Larger fires produce more risk exposure for building occupants. In general, occupants being rescued by smaller crews and by crews that used the stairs rather than the elevators, were exposed to significantly greater dose of toxins from the fire.

Standards of Cover Resource distribution is associated with –geography of the community –travel time to emergencies Distribution is typically measured by the percent of the jurisdiction covered by the first- due units. Concentration is also about geography –arranging of multiple resources, –spacing them so that an initial "effective response force" can arrive on scene within time frames established

Conclusions 3) Properly engineered and operational fire sprinkler system drastically reduces the risk exposure for both the building occupants and the firefighters. According to NFPA: ~ 40% of buildings are NOT sprinklered Sprinkler systems fail in about one in 14 fires Fire departments should be prepared to manage the risks associated with unsprinklered high-rise building fires.

Next Steps 1)Urban Fire Forum High Rise Implementation Guide a.1 st Edition – Community Risk Assessment (Residential- Low Hazard) b.2 nd Edition – Community Risk Assessment: High-Rise Implementation Guide 2)NFPA 1710 Committee a.Proposed language – Public Comment closed May 16, b.Revision scheduled for release May 2015

Next Steps 2 nd Edition – Community Risk Assessment: High-Rise Implementation Guide

Matching Resources to Risk If fire department resources (both mobile and personnel) are deployed to match the risk levels inherent to hazards in the community, it has been scientifically demonstrated that the community will be far less vulnerable to negative outcomes in… firefighter injury and death civilian injury and death property loss

Matching Resources to Risk Following a community hazard/risk assessment, Chiefs must prepare a plan for timely and sufficient coverage of each hazard and the adverse risk events that occur….Standard of Response Coverage. (Standards of Cover) –Total number of fires occurring annually should NOT be the sole driver of crew size, overall staffing or on scene assembly needs. Standards of response coverage is defined as the written policies and procedures that establish the distribution and concentration of fixed and mobile resources of an organization

Matching Resources to Risk Response time goals for first-due units (distribution) and … Response time goals for the total effective on-scene emergency response force (concentration) … …Drive fire department objectives like fire station location, apparatus deployed and staffing levels.

Explaining to Decision Makers If response times and force assembly times are low, … –it is an indicator that sufficient resources have been deployed and outcomes from risk events are more likely to be positive. Conversely, if response times and force assembly times are high, –it is an indicator of insufficient resources and outcomes from risk events are more likely to be negative.

Fire Service Leaders Faced with Decisions Decisions must be based on understanding of –relationship between community hazards and associated risk, –basic emergency response infrastructure, including fire department response capability – outcomes of emergency incidents Considering these three elements AND the tools available to decision makers, a basic community vulnerability formula

Vulnerability Formula Risk Level Too few resources (-) = (-) Outcome Risk Level Appropriate Resources (+) = (+) Outcome

High-Rise Guide (pg 15) High-Rise/High Hazard Dispatch 4 engines, 4 trucks, 3 ambulances, 2 BCs With 5 or 6 FF per company Initial response total 50 – 58 First engine in 4 minutes Full initial alarm in 8 minutes

What’s Next? Fire Prevention and Safety Grant award pending –Vulnerability Assessment Tool