A Budget War Story from 1961
Many initiatives get funded in the wake of a disaster or tragedy. Some become the fabric of the fire service story. Listening to local politicians reacting to the weekend wind-driven fires reminded me of this story.
The November 6 – 7, 1961, Bel Air/Brentwood brush fire remains one of the largest losses in Los Angeles County. (see map HERE) While battling that blaze, with 60 mph winds, a second major fire started at Santa Ynes on November 7.
Combined, the fires consumed 16,090 acres, 493 homes and 190 outbuildings – $30 million loss. 200 firefighters injured. L A County reported that 78% of the endangered homes were protected. (Flashback: The Bel-Air/Brentwood Fire)
Only the Los Angeles/Orange county Sylmar fire on November 15, 2008, was worst, losing 6,500 acres and 600 mobile homes. (LA Times comparison)
James O. Page provided this example of disaster-based budgeting :
On the first night of the Bel Air Fire (November ’61) I was driving Chief Victor Petroff and we were on the move all night long. Several times during the night we met on dusty fire roads with Chief Klinger and his driver. Throughout the night we could hear the boss on the radio, seeking updated information, arranging for meetings with other chiefs, inquiring about the welfare of personnel, and scolding food dispenser operators to “get over there and take care of those guys.” He was 50 years old at the time but he didn’t slow down or sneak off for a nap all night long.
The rest of the story was told to me by Kenny Hahn in 1977. According to Kenny, the Board of Supervisors was having its regular Tuesday morning meeting. “All of a sudden,” Hahn said, “the wooden doors at the back of the meeting room swung open, and through them marched Chief Klinger. He was covered with soot and dust and I swear he must have had a fireman out in the lobby with a bellows full of smoke, puffing it through the doorway after the chief.”
“He marched down that aisle like he’d just bought the Hall of Administration,” Supervisor Hahn continued. “He wasn’t on the agenda but he walked right up to the podium and took over the meeting.”
“What could we do?” Hahn asked rhetorically. “It seemed like the whole county was on fire and the fire chief wanted to talk to us. Keith Klinger knew how and when to get attention.”
“I noticed he had a folder in his hand,” Kenny Hahn remembered. He then recalled how our chief gave the Board a blow-by-blow report on the battles that were underway in the mountains between Sepulveda Pass and Topanga.
Then, Hahn recalled with a grin, Chief Klinger pulled from the folder a ten-year plan for improvement of fire protection in LA County. Again, he asked, “What could we do but vote yes on it?”
The Board of Supervisors adopted Chief Klinger’s ten-year plan and provided the money for it, thus the fleet of brush rigs to be known as ’400′ engines, as well as several new stations. Obviously, Chief Klinger had the plan developed long before the Bel Air Fire and was just waiting for the best time to spring it on the Board of Supervisors.
source: oral history collected by the Los Angeles County Fire Museum
Can We Do The Same Thing Today?
Three northern Virginia fire chiefs have performed a similar response in the past decade:
Arlington County Fire Chief Ed Plaugher was ready when his Board of Supervisors asked the "what we can do?" question in the aftermath of the 2001 Pentagon attack. Resulted in four-person staffing for all fire suppression companies.
Alexandria Fire Chief Adam Thiel pushed to increase truck company staffing from three to four and to staff a heavy rescue company in the aftermath of a 2007 high rise fire called "catastrophic" by Virginia OSHA. More than three employees were hospitalized overnight, one was in intensive care for days. It was a three alarm fire in an unsprinklered 18 story highrise at the height of a violent thunderstorm. Three hundred occupants, 4 civilian and 6 firefighter injuries. (After action report HERE)
Prince William County Fire Chief Kevin McGee was required by his board to zero-out any additional career positions in his Fiscal Year 2007 and 2008 submissions. In the aftermath of the line of duty death of Technician Kyle Wilson, McGee propoosed a five year plan to get to four person minimum staffing on 21 engine companies and establishing 24 hour career battalion chief coverage.
None of them got everything they asked for. Wonder what our Maryland colleagues will do with their opportunity?
Weekend casualty in Prince George's County: Baden VFD old Brush 36 – overrun by fire
Picture from CJ-5 Fire Service Jeeps.
They also covered the 2008 fire over-run of Baden's 1978 Jeep CJ-5 65gpm/75gwt, BX 36 (HERE)
Baden aquired a replacement for BX 36 in 2010 with a 2009 Ford F350/DPC brush rig (100 gpm/150 gwt).
Details HERE
from FireAppPhoto40
Mike "FossilMedic" Ward
McMansions – Part 3
3 commentsNozzle Power and Fire Loads
(McMansions Part 1 is HERE)
(McMansions Part 2 is HERE)
Chief Glenn Gaines, who is the Acting Director of the United States Fire Administration last week put something out on Facebook that I thought was very interesting. In his short posting on Facebook, he opened up discussion on the use of 1 ¾” handline, especially looking at the current fire situation. I thought that this was an excellent point and one that allows me to make a great segue into this week’s discussion. Due to the heat release potentials in today’s households and structures, do we need to rethink the initial handline? I think there is a lot of validity to this thought and I think that we need to re-evaluate our tactics…
The size up, nothing in the fire service is more critical than a good size up and maintaining situational awareness after that size up. As was discussed in the last article it is very important for the first in officer to make a lap of the structure, especially McMansions. Due to the size and the potential fire load in these structures, the officer needs to capture as much information as possible. From the size up, we develop our strategy and tactics to handle the fire.
One thing I think we need to caution folks on is choosing the right hose line for the fire. Now this one is up for discussion and I do not have the crystal ball answer. I have pulled the 1 ¾” line and never had a problem with it but there have been instances where you can be overwhelmed. The fire that occurred in Prince William County, VA and took the life of Technician Kyle Wilson is a case in point. The troops from PW tried to get a 2 ½” line into the house, but because of the severe wind conditions, they were not successful. This was a rare situation and I think most of the time the 2 ½” line is one of the trump cards we bring to the game, but unfortunately, in this instance they were overwhelmed.
Another issue is the fire loading. We have been brought up with the time temperature curve and have based a great deal of our decision-making on that tried and true instrument. Do not forget that when we are talking about wood products we are talking about 8,000 BTUs per pound; with petroleum products, we have the potential of 16,000 BTUs per pound. I encourage everyone to look at the work that NIST is doing in their fire modeling and look at the significant fire development that occurs with modern furnishings. The rapid development of fire in furnishings made from petroleum-based products is “incredible”. These fires and their resulting flashover are explosive and even with handlines in place firefighters are being injured and killed. So once again, I think that we must take the time and consider a more aggressive move towards handline advancement in these structures to ensure that we have sufficient knockdown capability and sufficient holding power in case we need to get out of the structure.
Along with proper selection of handlines, we also need to be careful with ventilation. Gone are the days when the truck company made a lap and took out every available window. Careful consideration needs to be given as to what will happen when we open up the structure and we need to think more about channeling the fire and products of combustion. One of the issues that I saw that came out of Charleston, and the Sofa Store fire was the opening up of the windows in the front of the building. From what I have seen and what I have read, this act really pulled the fire out of the front of the store. I can see the frustration in the faces of the troops and understand that they were trying anything to get the brothers out, but in this instance, it may not have been the best task based on the build up inside the store. So, make sure that we take a minute to figure this out, ventilation has to be done, but it needs to be done correctly.
Post & Courier
A little bit to think about, but things we do need to think about on a regular basis. Please make sure that you are reading, going to classes, and networking to get the best information available to make the best decisions you can on the fireground. When you go to fires, look at what they are doing, read the building, read the smoke, and read the fire…..
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