Fire on the 11th floor

(Skip Coleman, YouTube)

By John “Skip” Coleman | Fire Engineering

This scenario involves a residential high-rise fire. The fire originates on the 11th floor and spreads to the penthouse. Please view the video to see smoke and fire conditions. Assume you are responsible for initially establishing command at this fire.

Other units responding are what your department would send on a report of a fire in this occupancy type.

Answer the questions below or make your own strategic, tactical, and task level questions to answer.

Can Crews safely effectively Enter and work?      Yes        No

Could there be savable people inside?                  Yes        No

Will you allow Offensive (Interior) Operations?  Yes       No

First Assignment:___

Second Assignment:__

Third Assignment:__

Fourth Assignment:___

For Fire Attack:  Size of Line (Control)__  : Taken in from and taken to:  (Confine)_

For Ventilation

            How_

For Search

            How_

For Back Up. How___

John “Skip” Coleman retired as assistant chief from the Toledo (OH) Department of Fire and Rescue. He is a technical editor of Fire Engineering. a member of the FDIC Educational Advisory Board; and author of Incident Management for the Street-Smart Fire Officer (Fire Engineering, 1997), Managing Major Fires (Fire Engineering, 2000), Incident Management for the Street-Smart Fire Officer, Second Edition (Fire Engineering, 2008) and Searching Smarter (Fire Engineering 2011) and 2011 recipient of the FDIC Tom Brennan Lifetime Achievement