By Dwight Clark

In firefighting, what improves visibility reduces, interior temperature and prevents firefighter injury?

VENTILATION!
Ventilation is the most under-taught firefighting technique. In training, we must show firefighters what ventilation will do for them. By orchestrating proper ventilation and applying adequate H2O, you significantly reduce firefighting risks. Ventilation drastically reduces smoke, heat, toxic gases, stress and firefighting time. In most cases, it eliminates rollovers, flashovers and backdrafts.

As incident commanders, team leaders and firefighters, we all should be concerned about rollover, flashover and backdraft. During my 31 years as a career firefighter in San Angelo, Texas, I experienced all three of these firefighting situations. You see a lot of rollovers; they look pretty cool coming down a long hall. I was in a backdraft during the mid-1970s right after I made battalion chief. It blew six of us out of a church. Luckily, we weren’t seriously injured.

In 1989, Mike Young, one of our firefighters, was caught in a flashover, and he was lucky to survive. He received second- and third-degree burns, but made it back to work in three months. If you want to see a flashover, better to reserve a seat in a flashover simulator.

Personally, I don’t care to see another flashover or backdraft. My goal is to prevent them. And you and I know that VENTILATION will prevent them. So let’s review some basics:

- Forced or natural—VENTILATE! Appropriately used fog streams and power ventilation fans make quick work of removing heat, smoke and toxic gases.
- Open up the hot spots. Note signs of intense heat when doing your 360-degree walk-around of the structure. Look for "sweaty" windows or those you can see fire through. Flame penetrating doorways is another telltale sign. Breaking these windows or forcing the door just before the attack will force out the smoke and heat. Be careful: If no heat and smoke escape after you’ve ventilated these areas, the area is isolated from the rest of the structure. An option may be to continue into the isolated area, force another entry and fight the fire from a protected position with the forced ventilation (positive pressure ventilation or PPV). The team may choose to move to the outside and attack the fire from a vented window.
- Vent high. Heat rises. Ventilating at the highest possible place above the fire will allow the heat to escape quickly.
- DO NOT PUT WATER IN A VENT HOLE! I’LL KICK YO’ BUTT! Putting H20 in the vent hole results in an interior-exterior firefight and is very dangerous to those inside the structure.

A few other key points we should teach to make life easier at a structure fire:

    - Dress appropriately for the party;
    -Check in with command;
    - If possible, do a 360-degree walk around of the building;
    -Request help early;
    -Develop a plan and share the plan with those you expect to perform the tasks;
    -Locate an adequate a water source;
    -Decide if ladders are needed and where to place them;
    -If possible, attack the fire from the smallest side;
    -Get the H2O application devices in place;
    -Apply H2O to burning materials;
    -Rescue: If there are victims or suspected victims, conduct primary search as soon as it’s safe;
    -Monitor your plan: Is it working? Does it need tweaking? Do you need another plan?
    -In the firefight, overwhelm the fire! SHOW NO MERCY!

Have you thought about …the roof, floor, basement, exits, alternate water sources, firefighter rescue, exposures, utilities, rehab?

Ventilation will help you do all the above. Take the time to do it and make the fireground a safer place to work. Remember: The hot stuff wants out. Accommodate it.

There’s still more to say about what ventilation can do for you. In my next article, we’ll discuss some acronyms to help firefighters remember ventilation strategies and make their lives simpler and safer.

Could we make this a month free of firefighter deaths? Let’s try real hard. After all, it’s our job! Y’all be real safe out there, ya hear?

Dwight Clark, the deputy chief of the Forsyth County (Ga.) Fire Department, is a contributing editor to FIRERESCUE. Contact him via e-mail at pushpulcut@aol.com.