Journalist, Cherry Park

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Cherry Park is an experienced freelance journalist and reporter who specializes in features, news, and news analysis, in print and online. She has written extensively in the areas of health and safety, fire safety, employment, HR, recruitment, rewards, pay and benefits, market research, environment, and metallurgy, and she also conducts research.
April 23, 2013

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Crew Size Makes a Difference in High-Rise Fires

A major new study by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and five other organizations has concluded that firefighting crews with five or six members, instead of three or four, extinguish fires and rescue people from fires in high-rise buildings significantly faster.

While it may seem obvious that bigger crews would be more efficient at tackling fires and evacuating people, the report says it is not simply that larger crews have more people, but that they are deployed differently, and are able to perform the required tasks more quickly.

It suggests that larger crews should be sent on fewer units, rather than more units with fewer firefighters on each, to fires in high-rise buildings (defined as those structures with over seven floors).

Jason Averill, an NIST fire protection engineer who headed the research, said:

Unlike most house fires, high-rise fires are high-hazard situations that pose unique operational challenges to fire service response. How big a fire gets and how much danger it poses to occupants and firefighters are largely determined by crew size and how personnel are deployed at the scene.

Crew effectiveness
When compared to three-man crews, six-man crews would:

  • Face a fire 60 percent faster
  • Start extinguishing a fire three-and-a-half minutes faster
  • Complete 14 “critical tasks” 23 minutes faster

The study, which was conducted using 6,000 firefighters in a 13-storey vacant high-rise office building in Crystal City, Virginia, involved 48 controlled experiments with various crew sizes and fire engines, as well as the same number of corresponding computer-modelling simulations to evaluate toxic exposure from burning materials. It assessed three types of representative fires, from slow- to fast-growing.

The computer modeling showed that smaller crews end up facing larger fires because of the additional time required to complete tasks. For example, a three-person crew would end up facing a medium-growing blaze almost 60 percent bigger than the fire faced by a six-member crew; the six-member crew would also start extinguishing a fire roughly three-and-a-half minutes earlier.

An analysis of 14 “critical tasks”, undertaken when potential risks to building occupants and firefighters are greatest, found that three-member crews took almost 12 minutes longer than crews of four, 21 minutes longer than crews of five, and 23 minutes longer than crews of six to complete all tasks. Four-person crews took nine minutes, and 11 minutes longer than five- and six-member crews, respectively.

The researchers found that adding two members to three- and four-person teams would result in the largest improvements in starting and completing critical tasks, such as advancing the water hose to the fire location and beginning search and rescue. Improvements ranged from one minute to 25 minutes, depending on the task.

The research team also evaluated whether dispatching more three or four-member crews to a high-rise fire by sounding a higher initial alarm would be as effective as sending a low first-alarm contingent of engines staffed by more firefighters. They found that a low-alarm response with crews of four or five firefighters outperformed a high-alarm response with crew sizes of three to four firefighters.

Lori Moore-Merrell, of co-investigators the International Association of Fire Fighters, said that before the experiment, logic suggested that if a fire were big enough, more units should be sent. However, she added:

This ignores the fact that larger crews have tactical advantages that reduce risk exposure to people and firefighters. Crews of six and even five can carry out crucial tasks in parallel, rather than in series. Saving time can save occupant lives and prevent firefighter injuries and property damage.

Around 43 high-rise fires occur in the US alone every day, with a 2005-2009 average annual death rate of 53 people, 546 civilian injuries, and $235 million in property damage, according to the NFPA.

The NIST study also found that using elevators instead of the stairs, an action people are normally told never to do, saved time. The researchers looked at the effect of using fire service access elevators to move firefighters and equipment up to the site of a fire in a high-rise building. It concluded that most tasks were started two to four minutes faster when using the elevators compared with using the stairs.

This report could fuel the current debate over the cutting of budgets for fire crews and resources in the UK, since it’s recommending the use of more personnel.

In hindsight, could the way in which the fire at Lakanal House was tackled have benefited from this research?

Frances Kirkham, the Coroner who investigated the six deaths in the Lakanal fire, recommended that “consolidated national guidance” on high-rise firefighting should be provided. Perhaps the results of this study could be incorporated into this guidance, and used as a potential road map for professional standards.

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wildriver
wildriver
April 26, 2013 12:40 am

Yes, one expect a bigger team of fire fighters could use “divide and coquer” approach and have a better chance of fighting the fire