Sleeping Couple Unhurt

TA / Lemuth

A FLASH-FREEZE IN THE STUTTGART, GERMANY, area Thursday evening caused chaos on the highways and more than 300 accidents.  The most unusual wreck was a freight truck that suddenly slid off the road in Meiningen and jacknifed into a house with the truck cab crashing through a bedroom.

Bild

The 42-yr.-old truck driver was ejected from the cab during the crash and died on the scene from his injuries.  The man and wife who were sleeping in the bedroom were unhurt.

Dieter and Heike Bohme, the unhappy but lucky couple
who were sleeping just feet away from the truck.  (Bild)

The house was left unstable and ready to collapse.  A police spokesman said that the house would have to be shored up and made safe before they could even try to move the truck away.

Bild

Bild has the STORY.

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One of the newest members of the FireEMSBlogs family is the specialty blog Green Maltese.  This very interesting website is published by Lt. John Shafer, Training Officer for the Greencastle, Indiana, Fire Department.  John is also the Indiana Homeland Security District 7 Fire Training Coordinator, and in this capacity coordinates and facilitates firefighter training courses for firefighters through much of the State.  Laurence interviewed Lt. Shafer and he tells us a little about his unique and interesting blog.

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Fireball Laurence Delorme: Why the name Green Maltese for your website?

 John Shafer:  I had started a Facebook page called Green Building Construction for the Fire Service, which is still up, by the way (please "LIKE" it, LOL). I was at FDIC 2011 and was given a wonderful opportunity by Christopher Hebert of Go>Forward Media to start a blog about Green Building Construction, but needed to come up with a name. So I thought it over for a day or two and came up with Green Maltese, since I was going to be covering Green Buildings for Fire Service and every firefighter wears a Maltese Cross on their uniforms. I had a Maltese Cross that was green with the recycle symbol made as the image for the site.

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 LD:  Why did you create such website? Would you say that there are more and more green building constructions in the USA?

JS:  As I mentioned earlier, I had a Facebook page that I started to share information on as I did my research. What started my whole interest and research in Green Buildings was when I came across an article about Structural Insulated Panels (SIP) and I had never even heard of or seen one before. And I was the one teaching most all the building construction in my state’s homeland security district and considered myself fresh on the topic of building construction. So that was close to 7 or 8 years ago and that's what sparked me to began my research. I was quickly overwhelmed with a whole new world of buildings and green concepts that I had no clue of! I then became very studious of green buildings through internet searches. While doing many internet searches I realized at that time there was no place for firefighters to go to for the latest information on modern green buildings. I also realized that there wasn’t anyone in the mainstream fire media or conferences that were talking about it. So I set out to hopefully fill the void, although it took me several years to get to where I am now. And now there are several people and places that help firefighters become better informed on this subject.

Henrico County "Green" Station 7
DCH Architects design

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LD: What are the advantages of such a website for your readers?

JS: Well I hope the advantage will be that firefighters and instructors can have a place to go to for the latest information on green buildings and green concepts from a firefighter point of view. Another part of the website that I added that wasn’t part of the original plan was the Submit a Green Firehouse page. In my research I soon realized that many cities were building new green fire stations and I wanted a place where fire service leaders could come to and see what really worked in other cities that had built green stations. However this area hasn’t seen the submission i was hoping for. So if you know anyone that has a green station, please have them submit it so that others can learn from your projects instead of from slick salespeople.

Lt. John Shafer

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LD: According to you, in the green building constructions, which components/parts are the most dangerous for firefighters? Solar panels…..

JS: Most dangerous? Well I will not say there is one hazard more dangerous than another simply because there are many potential hazards and each one is a serious issue. Now as far as solar panels that is probably one area in the green movement that has the most written about it but there are many dangers and that is what I try and point out. There are also many newer construction types that we really don’t have much data on as far as fires in them. But I feel construction in SIP and Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) also have potential hazards as they make the building much more airtight.

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LD: Could you give some tips to firefighters who have to fight fires inside a green building construction?

JS: Most firefighters will probably not be aware that they are fighting a fire in a green building or newer building with green concepts unless they have preplanned the building ahead of time. So my word of advice would be to make sure you do a walkthrough of all the new buildings being constructed in your response area as they are being built. Otherwise you will not notice new green methods or materials being used. Once the building is finished and occupied it will look the same as any other building, although it will not likely behave the same way once on fire. Since the biggest push in green construction is energy efficiency. Firefighters need to keep in mind that if a building was built to be extremely airtight to keep heat and air in to save on energy bills, guess what? It is also going to keep all the heat and smoke inside while on fire. Making for extreme fire behavior conditions for us firefighters.

LD:  Thank you, John.

Visit the Green Maltese website HERE.
John Shafer's trend-setting Facebook page is HERE.

Cincinnati "Green" Fire Station 51
(College Hill eNewsletter)

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Bus Served as Shelter From Collapse

ABOUT 17 PEOPLE WERE SLIGHTLY INJURED Tuesday morning in Harlem, New York City, when a construction scaffold suddenly collapsed onto a bus next to the sidewalk.

New York Post

The btus was at a stop and the waiting passengers had just boarded when the structure came down, missing the near-victims by just moments.  The scaffolding was covering a 5-story building on West 125th Street during a major renovation.  The New York Times reports:

A police spokesman at the scene said that eight of the injured people were passengers on the bus and that two police officers sustained minor injuries. He said it appeared from preliminary accounts that during work on the elevator shaft in building, bricks fell from building onto the scaffolding, knocking it down.

At the scene of the accident, a busy commercial strip lined with clothing stores and other retail stores, firefighters swarmed the bus and the collapsed scaffolding.

New York Times

The scaffold along with part of the building's facade came down without warning at 9:30 am, trapping the bus's 30 passengers.  Fourteen of them were transported, all with minor injuries, along with two police officers who were already at the location and had immediately started to dig through the rubble.  There are also reports that as many as four of the injuries were construction workers.

WABC-TV posted this video report:

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Google Street View of the 4- and 5-story building
that is being renovated.

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If You Can't Trust Your Homebuilder, Who Can You Trust?

ON AUGUST 19, 2010, THE MAINE Building Codes and Standards Board met in Augusta and heard public testimony on the proposed new building code that would require residential sprinklers in new single-family homes.  Excerpted from the minutes we read:

Mark Patterson, President of Maine Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Maine. (MHBRA). testifies: "MHBRA is not in favor of making sprinklers mandatory due to the costs which are estimated to be between $4,000 – $8,000."

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ON JULY 1, 2011 THE PORTLAND PRESS HERALD is reporting:

The fire broke out at about 9 p.m. at the home of Mark Patterson, co-owner of PATCO Construction, a residential and commercial construction company based in Sanford.

The nearest hydrant was a half mile away, so Cushing ordered tanker trucks to set up a water shuttle. The roof collapsed and the second floor collapsed into the first, he said.

The house had no sprinklers installed and was a total loss according to the Sanford Fire Department.

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Condemned Building Undergoing Renovation

A MOTHER AND HER TWO CHILDREN died early this morning when a vacant hotel collapsed onto their apartment building.

Liberation photo

The 4-story hotel has been vacant for years and was recently condemned by the local council.  According to neighbors, renovation work had begun on it several months ago and it is believed that the interior had been gutted. Just before midnight "everything fell in a thud" one neighbor stated.  Practically the entire hotel fell against the four-unit apartment house that was home to 16 people.

When the building came down, part of the debris crashed onto the hood of passing police car, so the alarm went out immediately.  Eventually there were 120 firefighters from 20 companies on the scene along with rescue dogs to search for any more survivors or victims in the two buildings.  The search process lasted for 11 hours until the entire rubble had been looked through.  Several dozen people in other buildings were evacuated until their buildings had been declared safe to return.

AFP

Besides the woman and two children (one of them an infant) who died, 8 other people were injured, 3 adults and 5 children.

The investigation has already started into the cause and a police forensic team is on the site, too.  The vacant building's owner has been taken into police custody while the investigation takes place.

Liberation has the story HERE and HERE.

This video report carries views of the collapse site:

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Safe For Another 1,000 Years

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE, FIRE CAPTAIN Dean Fontaine lives in one of the country's most unusual homes, an Armageddon-proof structure, and had a crowd of friends over Saturday to test the house under the maybe-Rapture event this past Saturday.

Capt. Fontaine poses in front of
Millenium Manor.  (News Sentinel photo)

Fontaine, a 27-yr. member of the KFD, bought the house fifteen years ago as a curiosity and is gradually restoring it.  Built back in the 1930's the concrete and stone structure was built by hand by a preacher who thought the Armageddon was going to arrive in 1959.  So he built the home with the thought in mind that while the world was being destroyed around him, he could hunker down with his faithful followers to survive the initial wave.  Then, according to his plans, the cult would come out and live in peace and happiness for the next 1,000 years.

The walls are three feet thick and the floors are four feet.  There is also an underground bunker which is where Fontaine lives part-time while he carries on the restoration.  This video report takes us on a tour of the house and gives us a brief history of the place which is located in Alcoa, Tennessee:

Capt. Fontaine didn't believe that Saturday would be the end-time, but he found it a good excuse to throw a party.  Each year on Memorial Day weekend he has an open house for curious visitors to drop by and see the novel structure.

Read more about it in the Knoxville News Sentinel HERE.

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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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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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Why Do They Continue To Put Flat Roofs on Large Buildings?

FIREGEEZER HAS NEVER UNDERSTOOD WHY architects continue to design building with flat roofs.  Even without any weather disasters they ALWAYS leak rainwater eventually,  no matter what kind of roofing material is used.  And when you get the occasional winter with back-to-back snowstorms, well ……….

Building Completely Destroyed – Everyone Escapes

AN INDUSTRIAL BUILDING IN MILFORD, CONNECTICUT, collapsed suddenly Wednesday at 11:30 am with approx. 30 employees inside.  All of them were able to self-evacuate after the catastrophic collapse, but two people had to be transported for non-life threatening injuries.

New Haven Register

When the Milford Fire Department arrived on the scene they encounterd a large gas leak from the severance of the service line along with live electrical lines.  The regional USAR team was mobilized and a haz-mat team was brought in due to several dangerous chemicals such as cyanide and sulphuric acid.  It is probable that the business was engaged in metal plating.

A Fire Captain with the Milford Fire Department held this press conference
that is presented here in two parts by the New Haven Register:

WTNH-TV Ch. 8 filed this video report with additional views of the destruction:

It is conditionally thought that a heavy load of wetted snow on the flat roof of the building caused the collapse.  Search dogs along with the USAR team are giving thorough search through the rubble, but it is strongly believed that everyone has been accounted for.

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