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Al Mullins Remembers 911 – Part 2

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Note:  This is the conclusion of a 2-part posting.  Read Part One HERE before continuing with this entry.

Remembering that day, September 11th…

No day in modern history holds as much pain for the American people as September 11th. Granted, December 7, 1941 is as FDR proclaimed a date that will live in infamy! But 9/11, well that is our Pearl Harbor and that is the day we will always remember and those of us who know what happened that day and are part of the fraternity of firefighters who charge up those stairwells will forever carry that scare. The FDNY is one of the best fire departments in the world and I was fortunate to know a couple of those guys who put on their gear that day for the last time. Terry Hatton for one was a real character; I met Terry when he was a firefighter at Rescue 2 in Brooklyn in 1988. His legacy and work in the FDNY was impressive and will live on……… Thank God for people like that…

Back to my recollections, I left off at the barbershop where my twins and I had just witnessed the first collapse and all I wanted to do was get home because I knew that I was going to work that day. I settled with the girls and guys who cut our hair that day and headed home, all the time keeping a wary eye on the sky. Got the boys home and my wife had gone and gotten my daughter so the entire family was at home… However, nothing, the recall never happened so I was stuck watching all the activity in New York and Arlington. I went to bed early because I felt that the next day might be interesting.

September 12th was a carbon copy of September 11th and I headed in to work early, earlier than my usual 0630 I think I actually got in to work at 0600 and relieved the B shifters. Looked up at our staffing and was thinking about what the day would be like. Working at Fire Station 23 in West Annandale I felt like we would be well out of the activity that day and really I was Ok with that, with the bulk of the fires taken care of I felt that any work at the Pentagon would be tough. If you have never found a burned up person I think you are lucky and I hope you never do because it is ugly, in many ways. Being a firefighter getting burned is that one thing you are always looking to avoid, yeah we get the occasional hands, face, ear and neck burns, but the really bad burns those are tough to behold and truly tough to get through and God Bless the brothers and sisters who have to go through that pain. Back to the story! Yes I would have been happy to answer local calls and other "minor" incidents that day but at 0645 I get a call from the battalion chief telling me that our engine was part of a task force going to Arlington to assist with the operations at the Pentagon.

Take another look at the crew, not a bad collection and one that would do a good job when we got there. Let the guys know what was going on got some extra stuff (gloves, hoods, etc) to ensure we had enough to last us through the day and headed to Fire Station 8 in Annandale to get placed into a task force for the Pentagon. As we were getting out of 8, the department’s behavioral specialist was there and he was letting us know we were heading to something that might be a little tough to see and to take and that he would be available when we got back. We mounted up and then proceeded out of the parking lot. The one thing I really remember is that we had a weird mix of units but when I looked at a lot of the drivers and officers, I saw people I had known for years and who were good firefighters and that really gave me a bit of comfort. So here, we are a procession of units responding in a solemn column down Columbia Pike to the Pentagon.

Cresting the hill and coming down to the Pentagon was surreal, movies are great and we have such a grasp on verbal communications today that I thought I would be ready for what I was about to see. As we got closer, the real magnitude of the scene unfolded before us and we knew that it was going to be a long day. The fires in the roof spaces had started up again and the smoke coming out of the building was impressive. As the units got to the staging area all of the officers were directed to report to the fire operations "command post" so I hooked up with the other OIC’s and we headed over there. The ICP was right in front of the collapsed section of the building and I could feel the pressure of the building. Not sure of the dynamics there, but I really felt a pressure being that close to the collapsed part of the building.

We get our marching orders and I am assigned to the roof division on side David of the fire to "stop" the roof fires. Evidently there was something important up there because we were told that we would stop the fire, I am good with that give me a task and set me to work… The task was further enhanced when we were placed under the leadership of Battalion Chief John Gleske. John Gleske and I went to recruit school together and had studied together with Mike Godbout, Jerry Roussillon, and Boots Elmore for almost every promotional exam since then. In addition, I have said and still feel that John Gleske is one of the most competent and schooled tactical fire officers I have ever worked with…. Yeah I did beat him in a couple of those promotional tests, but yeah he is better. Now I am good, I am working with a tough crew and I have an excellent fireground officer to watch over us, not too shabby.

Really, there isn’t much to tell here, a lot of tough work. The area we worked on had a slate roof and we had to tear off the slate, pull up the wood (I think there were 1×6 inch boards supporting the slate) and get to the fire. Not easy but not impossible, but it is time and labor taxing and since I had already entered my 40’s I was working hard and feeling it. A couple of really weird things did happen while we were working on the roof. The first thing was that we were on the D-Ring, there are five rings at the Pentagon and the D ring is the second to last one before you get to the courtyard. I only had my crew at first so we were working pretty good while other crews were stretching a line to where we were at. As the crew and I were basically tearing off the roof a propane bottle below us blew up, that caused us a little excitement. I looked around at the other crews especially at the E Ring and saw Captain Tyrone Harrington (maybe a bit better that John Gleske, that speaks volumes) and he looked over at me waved and laughed. We went right back to work and with all the help we finally got we actually put the fire out, but it was tough work.

As the fire goes out and we are cleaning up and doing some overhaul work we are all sitting up on the roof and just thinking and talking about what happened and about what we knew was the loss of hundreds of firefighters in New York. Suddenly my portable radio went into the "Oh Shit" mode, the evacuation tone was going off. I looked at the other guys and really couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Then the message came in that an unidentified plane had been spotted and was coming towards the Pentagon. The Combat Air Patrol was 5 minutes away and the unknown plane was two minutes away. The radio message was to evacuate the building as quickly as possible. Ok, based on what had happened yesterday I am heading for the spot where we left our ladder truck. We jog over to that spot and to our amazement there is no ladder truck. The crew had a blown gasket and the ladder was actually set down next to the truck. Well the language was a little colorful and we all decided to just look and see if we could spot the plane, I actually had a halligan in my hands and was trying to decide if I could get the pilot before he got me, yeah I know sounds good but I am really a terrible shot so I know who would have won…..

Well that is about it, we really worked hard up there and yes when I was told that we were going that morning that really didn’t make my day. Would I change it? Not on my life. I have been a firefighter for over 30 years and pride myself on having done a good job. While my part may have been small that day I was proud to have been there and proud to have worked with my brothers as we fought the fires at the Pentagon!

………. Al Mullins

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Posted by on September 11, 2011 • Filed under: Al Mullins, commentary • Tagged:

Al Mullins Remembers 9/11

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Remembering That Day …. September 11, 2001

I barely remember the day that JFK was assassinated. I remember my Mom watching the news on the old black and white television and her crying, but that is about it. Fast forward to September 11, 2001, well yes I remember it like it was yesterday. How can you forget that day, and how we have changed in that time?

Like everyone else on the East Coast, we woke to a pristine fall day, clear blue skies light humidity and a gorgeous day. Our daughter was in kindergarten so getting up and getting her out to the bus was the big activity that morning, that and the fact that I had a couple of errands to run that day with our twin boys. After walking my daughter up to the bus stop and seeing her off, I headed back down the street to get my boys and head out on my errands. Twin boys are very cool, everyday that I spend with them is just amazing and this day started that way.

Our first stop was at the bank, I had to drop something off at my bank (well before online banking) so I grabbed the guys took them out of their car seats and headed into the bank to take care of the transaction. As soon as I did that, I was headed to our favorite barbershop to get everyone a haircut, but as I was walking out of the bank, a woman who was walking in stopped and told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Now she did not have to fill in the rest since I naturally knew where they were and what they were. In fact, I am a native New Yorker and as a young boy, I watched the WTC or twin towers being built. I lived up in the Catskills, but had relatives in New York so we would often come down to visit.

I heard her say that the WTC had been hit by a plane and my love of anything FDNY (Fire Department of New York) reminded me that something like this had happened before in New York. A Mitchell B-25 (Twenty Seconds over Tokyo or the twin-engine bombers in the movie Pearl Harbor for the younger crowd) flying to Floyd Bennett Field had gotten lost in the fog and had crashed into the Empire State Building. I looked up again at the sky and I just thought that some wayward general aviation plane had really messed up; I did not even consider a terrorist attack. I really dismissed what she had said and drove over to the barbershop.

Stopped the car got the boys out of their car seats and walked in to the barbershop where I stopped dead in my tracks. The 55-inch rear projection high definition television in the barbershop was showing pictures from the WTC and I really knew right then that this was not a general aviation plane or a mistake. I also knew that every firefighter in New York was going to this fire. If I was at the firehouse and this came in, I would have done the same thing. Yes I know and you know that this is wrong, but back then… yeah I was going.

This was like no fire I had ever seen in my life, First Interstate Bank and Meridian fires in LA and Philly paled in comparison (and they were both huge fires). I also knew this was going to be the toughest fire these guys would ever have to handle, especially since all the elevators were out and those guys had to walk. I have had to go up 10 and 20 story buildings with full gear and equipment on and know that was tough, but almost 100 floors OMG!

Then as I was watching the second plane hit, I could not believe it now I started to get nervous since one was bad, but two was worse and I thought that two would not be the end of it. Shortly after (at least what seemed to be shortly after) the second plane hit the twin towers I called TROT (Technical Rescue Operations Team) central. Fire Station 18 in Fairfax County is really TROT central and as a former shift member there, I knew the number by heart. The driver on the shift answered the phone and I asked him if they had seen the news and were being geared up, as I was talking to him the third plane hit the Pentagon and FS18 actually were toned out on the response… I said a quick good bye and was a little worried, since I knew all of those characters and was concerned for their well being.

Now I turned back to the TV and saw a humongous cloud of dust in New York, and my blood turned to ice water. I knew what had just happened and I knew that many firefighters had just died. As a former member of the TROT group in Fairfax County I had gone up to Baltimore in the late 1980’s to work with the folks from Montgomery County in a drill at the Francis Scott Key Medical Center. The medical center was dropping one of their 14 story buildings and we were going to work on it after it fell. As a young sergeant on the rescue, I was really forward to getting an opportunity to get some good experience on this structure. Battalion Chief Mike Tammillow and Captain Chuck Jarrell, two of the more senior members of the team were kind enough to give me a video camera and put me in position to catch the falling of the building. I grabbed the camera got as close as the security folks would let me and started filming, it was really a great vantage point and I got to see and hear the entire demolition of the building from a close vantage point. Now remember that dust? I had no clue about the dust in the late 80’s, heck I was still listening to Journey… So I am filming the building coming down and watching the dust come towards the camera and not really appreciating what was going to happen next when I couldn’t breathe anymore…. I know how the people on the ground felt that day and I knew the significance of the dust.

(To be continued tomorrow…)

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Posted by on September 10, 2011 • Filed under: Al Mullins, commentary • Tagged:

Strip Mall Shopping Centers – Part One

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Let’s Take a Look At Strip Malls

Strip shopping centers are everywhere!  From small towns to large cities, strip shopping centers are found in virtually all communities.  I would like to look at them in a series of articles and one of the main reasons for this is that strip shopping centers have been a notorious killer of firefighters.  Knowing what the inherent dangers are and pre-planning these structures will go a long way to helping keep us safe.

The history of firefighters and strip shopping centers has shown that we are very susceptible to getting hurt in these types of occupancies.  We need to remember past events and learn from them or we are doomed to relive them.  Looking back, I cannot think of a more devastating fire than the 23rd Street Fire that occurred in New York.  On October 17, 1966, units from the FDNY were engaged in fighting a fire in a taxpayer in Manhattan when the floor gave way killing 12 members of the department.  This was the most deadly fire for New York firefighters up to 9/11.  Moving ahead, we go to Chesapeake, Virginia, March 18, 1996.  Units from the CFD were dispatched to a fire in a strip shopping center and they lost two firefighters.  These are just two examples, but we need to learn from these and make sure we adjust our actions.

6 East 23 Street

What is this main issue?  I think that most fire departments deal with fires in residential structures most of the time, so that is where we are most proficient.  While we all have these strip malls in our areas of responsibility, we do not have the experience in fighting fires in them.  So what do we do?  Well, we fall back on our experience and knowledge and try to fight fires in strip shopping centers like those that we do in residential structures, and most of the time it works.  Unfortunately, these are not residential structures and they do not behave like them.  Most strip shopping centers carry a much higher fire load than residential structures, and once the fire gains a significant headway our tried and true 1-¾” hose lines cannot compensate for that fire load and that rate of heat release.  I feel very strongly that any fire in a strip shopping center should be attacked with a 2-½” line, no questions asked.  If we lead off with the larger line we have the ability to keep reach and penetrate the fire.  If not, we have a great line to lead us out of the building. Think of it, the 2-½” has a lot of punch and knockdown power so we are operating from a position of strength.

Size up….yes we need to get a good size up of the structure.  This is one time that we have the ability to come into a place, look at it before the fire, and really make an impact.  Get out, inspect these buildings find out what the roof looks like, are there any hidden areas, and is there a sprinkler system? All these questions can be answered before the alarm and should be captured in pre-plan information.  When we arrive on the scene, we should have at the very least a working knowledge of the building.  These structures do not lend themselves to easy size up, it takes coordination between units to get a good size up completed and initiate operations.  I worked in a system where we had developed a very good standard for addressing fires in strip shopping centers and I think having a plan in place helps dramatically.  The time to develop an SOP, SOG, or manual for fighting fires in strip shopping centers is before the fire, so please take some time learn from others, both good and bad outcomes and make a plan.

Next:  Part Two – The Plan

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Posted by on March 4, 2011 • Filed under: Al Mullins, Building construction, Training, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged:

McMansions – Part 3

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Nozzle 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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Posted by on February 18, 2011 • Filed under: Al Mullins, Building construction, commentary, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged:

McMansions – part 2

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Here’s Why They Are Different

Congratulations to Firegeezer on its 10,000th posting! I know that Bill and the rest of the crew do a lot of work to keep the website up and current. That hard work pays off in having an excellent site where firefighters can come to look at news and hopefully pick up something, some nugget of information that will make their job safer! Congrats Firegeezer!

Last time we talked about what McMansions are and started some discussion on construction issues. One thing that you also have to keep in mind is their size. There is no hard and fast rule but I would consider them to be over 3000 square feet and to have significant open areas. Look at some of the buildings going up that can be classified as McMansions and think about that open space. The buildings that many of us, especially us geezers have grown accustomed to fighting fires in are the ranch style, split foyers, and Cape Cod homes. Many of those homes that we grew up in may have hit the 2000 square foot mark, but typically were around 1800 square feet. Now we are looking at buildings that vastly overshadow them. The ability of a fire in a Cape Cod to be contained can be easily seen, small rooms in a very compartmentalized home. Now look at the typical McMansion and look at the open floor spaces, huge!  Think of the fuel requirements necessary to bring these areas to flashover.  Significant!

When looking to make an interior attack on a fire in a McMansion we need to remember the basics, and one of the most basic things we can do is to perform a good 360-degree size up, prior to advancing a line into the structure. Knowing where the fire is where it is going is important, and how it will affect our ability to extinguish it. Another construction aspect that I want to pass on to you that is directly related to this size up of the exterior is vinyl siding. Many new homes especially the McMansions have a significant amount of vinyl siding on the exterior.

Vinyl siding while it may not contribute a great deal to the fire, burns away rapidly and allows the fire to access the OSB (oriented strand board) located underneath. Once the fire gets to the OSB, it has a chance at getting into the attic. Another thing that the OSB does is it contributes a great deal of fuel for the fire. The rate of spread on the exterior to that attic is impressive and can have a profound effect on the firefighters as they try to get ahead of the fire. In most circumstances, we are right on, the money with that call, but in cases where the fire has started on the exterior, we need to hit it from the outside to keep it from getting inside.

There have been several fires in recent years in the McMansions that have actually started on the exterior, but due to conditions moved up into the attics and have punished crews trying to put lines in service from the interior. We need to learn from that and make sure that we do the lap, get a good size up and then initiate our attack. In cases where you have these fires on the exteriors that move up the vinyl siding, get a line on them and make sure it is at least a 1 ¾” line. This allows us to knock down a great deal of the fire and to cut off the production of heat and combustible gases from getting into the attic.

Ok, now do not forget “take a lap”, make a good size up. This may very well be where the firefight is won or lost, the ability to see what the situation is and make good decisions based on good tactical and strategic priorities is very important, it could save a life.

Read Part One of Chief Mullins’ articles on McMansions HERE.

Posted by on January 31, 2011 • Filed under: Al Mullins, Building construction, Fire Rescue Topics • Tagged:

McMansion? What’s That?

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They’re Not Just In Big-City Suburbs Anymore

Just wanted to open this one up and say to all the brothers and sisters out there to be careful. The recent firefighter deaths need to be a message to all of us to be careful on the job, Baltimore County, Maryland just lost a firefighter this week and we all feel the loss. So please, “Let’s be careful out there!”

McMansions … I mentioned that term on my last posting and I wanted to take some time and expand on them. I do not think that these are a problem just in large metro areas. These homes have been and are being built all over the country. Yes, I know the economic downturn, especially in housing has stopped the mass production of McMansions, but look around.  Some of these mega-homes are sitting there unoccupied.  What are McMansions?  Well this was a term coined by Jay Westerveldt to describe the building of these large, single-family dwellings that were springing up all over the country. The term has its roots in MacDonald’s and their Big Mac sandwich. Like the Big Mac, the McMansions are large and they are built almost in assembly line fashion from pre-made parts. These homes can be in part of a development with a lot of like structures, or they can be placed into existing neighborhoods. The ones placed in existing neighborhoods are really interesting and make it very necessary for us to get out and drive through our response districts to make sure we know what is going on and to look at these buildings before they are built.

Ed Ruping photo used with permission

The home construction industry, like all other aspects of modern society, have been faced with the growing realization that we need to conserve our natural resources and one way that they have responded to that dilemma is to engineer structural building components.  The use of these engineered components is widespread and an accepted practice within the home building industry.  The use of items like trusses, wooden I beams, and laminated beams helps better utilize our natural resources.  In addition, of course, these components are engineered to carry specific loads.  Go out and look at these buildings especially if you are in an area where they are still being built and look at what is going on before the sheetrock is applied to the walls and the ceilings.  

I know that Frank Brannigan spent countless hours talking to us about the dangers of wood trusses, but we need to remember that lesson and not lose it.  While engineered wood is great, it carries the loads it is designed to carry and it saves natural resources, but it also does not seem to have the same ability to stand up to fire that regular sawn joists have.  Brannigan used the term fat to describe the extra material in wood beams that needed to be lost in a fire before the fire would affect the carrying capacity of that beam.  There is not any fat in a truss and there is no fat in a wooden I-beam, period!  These engineered wood members are designed to carry a specific load and there is little or no ability for those components to sustain their loads under fire conditions.

Now back to the McMansion, look at the roof.  We know what is in the roof, trusses.  Look at the roofs again and think about all the nominal 2″ x 4″s that are in the roof and how much they will contribute to a fire in that attic space.  Once again, get out look at these buildings as they are being built and develop your tactics and strategies before the fire.  Also, take a quick look at how you can get to the attic.  Do you have to cross a large foyer to access the stairs and get up to the second floor?  If so what are you walking under?  Will that huge span remain intact while lines are being deployed to get to the fire in the attic?  That is a big question that we need to figure out now, and not when we arrive on the scene with a working fire.

Roof trusses in a McMansion.  Notice the cutouts in
the roof to allow inspection/access of additional roofs.

This was short, and I hope to expand on it next time.  My department and several other departments have had difficult issues with McMansions.  In fact I live about two miles from where Technician Kyle Wilson of the Prince William County Fire and Rescue Department lost his life on April 16, 2007.  Where did Kyle die?  In a McMansion!

Posted by on January 21, 2011 • Filed under: Al Mullins, Building construction, commentary, Training, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: , ,