Tips for safely & effectively finalizing extinguishment & preventing rekindles

PHOTO JOHN CETRINO Truck crews working on the roof poke around areas that often host hidden embers. In this case, the crew found a considerable amount of fire.

No matter how organized or well trained a fire department is, initial attack at a fire scene can be hectic, confusing and chaotic. Events unfold quickly as firefighters assess the situation and formulate tactics. Truck crews on the inside search for victims and fire, head to the seat of the fire, try to locate stairs and try to find a path to the fire for engine crews.

We do all this while groping through heavy smoke and sometimes fire, trying to maintain a sense of direction and an idea of where we are in an unfamiliar building. We hear the crackle of the fire along with the sounds of air draining from a freshly charged handline.

As ground ladders hit the roof, we hear a resounding thud. I think I can safely say that for most firefighters, this is the most invigorating time at a fire.

As the initial calamity of the fire attack and all that it encompasses takes effect, the fire scene becomes a little more relaxed. The fire is not quite under control, but conditions improve enough for those on the inside to stop and assess what’s happening. At this point, I can give a radio update, which usually sounds something like this: “Search complete and visible fire has been knocked down. We are checking for extension.”

Following this announcement, overhaul begins. Most truck operations classes break up functions into neat categories: ventilation, search, overhaul and so on, and we usually practice these tasks individually. But on an actual call, most of these functions blend together and the same crew may complete all of them. If we are working inside, we head to the apparent point of origin to begin opening up and looking for hidden fire. If we are on the outside, we check around windows and doors that recently played host to venting heat. We open up and inspect eaves and soffits that may have been affected by fire.

Crews on the roof pick through areas that often host hidden embers to determine whether fire hidden below them.

Tools of choice for overhaul depend on what was burning and the building’s construction features, but in general, they include the tools we’ve used since our arrival at the fire: axes, mauls, long and short hooks, halligans, chain and rotary saws and a thermal imager.

While engine crews can back off for a moment and take a breath, those assigned to overhaul get no break in the action. Although the danger and stress of working in an out-of-control fire have passed, the physically demanding job of opening the building’s hidden spaces in search of elusive hot spots is no walk in the park. A systematic approach to opening up buildings makes the job more efficient, safer and thorough.

Note: During overhaul operations, it’s common to find pockets of hidden fire. Sometimes we find ourselves excitedly calling for a line for these little areas of combustion. The very people who calmly crawled through an inferno moments before are now frantic about little areas of fire. Remember: It’s OK. We’re the fire department, and we can handle it.

Kitchens
Kitchens usually feature many hidden spaces, such as soffits and other areas covered by cabinetry, as well as several areas of chases for pipes, wiring and vents.

You may need to remove kitchen cabinets to get at hidden fire. Even a small fire on a stove may require removing the overhead cabinet and opening up the wall behind the cabinet. In older homes, cabinets were often built on site and in place; removing them will usually require disassembling the cabinets as you pull them away from walls. You’ll need prying and pulling tools to complete the job. Tip: Drive the adz of a halligan behind the cabinets and use it to pry them away from the walls. Usually, such cabinets are attached with nails, and after unseating them slightly by prying, a little pulling effort should bring them down. 

In newer or remodeled kitchens, cabinetry is often installed in sections, ranging from a couple of inches to 48 inches wide. These cabinets are commonly attached to the walls and to each other with a few screws. If you’ve ever installed them, you probably wondered how they manage to defy gravity and stay on the walls. To pull these cabinets away from the wall so you can check for fire spread, find a point to grab onto with a pulling tool, then yank a little.

Note: Many homeowners store prized possessions along with necessary household items in kitchen cupboards. Remove as many salvageable items as practical before removing cabinets.

Trim & Coverings
Door and window trim, along with wainscoting, crown molding and other moldings, can host hidden and/or smoldering fire. Truck crews often struggle when pulling off these finished trim pieces because they pull on flexible spots somewhere in the middle of the pieces, and the wood just snaps back in place like a guitar string. The key to removing finished trim: Imagine how the carpenter attached it originally, and work in the opposite order. Prying at an end rather than the middle removes trim pieces easily, sometimes without even destroying them.

PHOTOS JOHN CETRINO Firefighters waged an interior attack on this fire (above). Once the fire is knocked down, truckies move into overhaul mode (right). Sometimes finding pockets of hidden fire excites us more than the original inferno through which we just crawled.

Wall and ceiling coverings are usually made of drywall or plaster; one tap with a tool on the surface should tell you which one. Drywall feels soft when you tap on it; plaster feels harder and more solid. Poking a tool through drywall and simply pulling will usually only pull a small section down because there’s nothing substantial for our tools to grab. To get around this, poke your tool through the surface of the drywall, turn the tool a little and then pull on the drywall a few times without applying enough pressure to pull the tool through the material. By doing this, you’ll tap the drywall slightly away from studs, rafters or joists, enough to pop the nail or screw heads through the paper surface of the drywall. Then, give your tool a full yank and you’ll pull off a substantially larger piece. 

Behind plaster, you’ll usually find many strips of horizontal wooden lath. To pull down a large section, poke through with a traditional pike pole and twist the pole so that the hook catches the lath. Some areas of plaster are found over metal mesh, which is nailed to the studs. This puts up a little more of a fight; use an axe to cut the mesh backing.

There was a period before builders began using drywall where drywall-like panels were nailed to walls and then plaster was applied over the panels. You can open these walls in a similar fashion to drywall, but because they are plaster-coated, they are tougher to break through and a little heavier. Contrary to popular belief, walls and ceilings in new construction can be also covered in plaster. 

Homeowners often convert attics into habitable space. Knee walls are found on the sides of peaked roofs and can conceal considerable amounts of fire. Open and inspect these areas if they’ve been exposed to the path of the rising smoke, heat and fire.

Ceilings
Fiberboard ceiling tiles will often harbor embers. Several years ago, I was at the scene of a stove fire. A frying pan full of hot grease and buffalo wings ignited and traveled up a wall, hit the ceiling tiles and traveled over to a ceiling fan. The tiles were slightly scorched. I wanted to remove the ceiling fan to check for embers in the tiles surrounding the fan, but the incident commander elected not to cause additional damage, so we did not remove the fan. Two hours later we were called back and found flames blowing out of the kitchen window. The homeowner met us at the curb and sardonically asked, “Can you put it out this time?” He also mentioned that before the ceiling burst into flames, he saw heavy smoke chugging from the tiles around the ceiling fan.

PHOTO PETER KERTZIE When pulling off pieces of interior trim, start at the ends and work your way from one end to the other.

A dropped ceiling with metal grids and fiber panels is extremely easy to pull down with hooks. Remove any stray pieces of hanging grids by cutting the wires holding them up or by yanking them out where they are attached above. Although opening up a dropped ceiling is usually very easy, the bad news is that many times they are installed during remodeling to cover an existing ceiling, which means there’s another ceiling above the dropped ceiling to open up and inspect.

One particularly punishing ceiling we sometimes come across: tin ceilings. Although they’re very attractive, getting them down is an ugly job. The best way to do so is to locate the seams and pull down.

A Note on Interior Operations
As you move through the fire building, opening up from burned to unburned, if you notice cobwebs, you probably don’t have to venture any further. If the fire went by, it would have destroyed the cobwebs. If you don’t see any cobwebs, keep opening up until you get from burned areas to clean and unburned areas. Often, we open areas that were not touched by fire. Don’t beat yourself up with guilt about this; it’s a necessary part of overhaul. One or two opened channels found to be clean will not greatly add to the homeowner’s damage tab. Further, the cost is definitely worth it when weighed against leaving the scene with hidden fire present.

PHOTO PETER KERTZIE A plaster wall is opened to reveal wood lath backing and below it a base of heavy wire mesh. Note the built-in-place kitchen cabinets.

Doors, Windows & Porches
When conducting exterior overhaul, check areas the fire has touched. Pull off affected siding until you get to unburned areas. To quickly separate the siding from the building, slip a tool underneath the siding and pull forward.

Also open and examine window and door openings that have been subject to passing flame and heat. Many times the entire window or doorframe, which may have suffered severe damage, is easily removed. At a minimum, open the framework surrounding window and door openings to check for fire. It’s not uncommon to find smoldering materials hidden within.

Outside soffits, overhangs, porch roofs and areas where different roof lines meet are all areas you may need to open up if they were in the path of passing heat and fire. From the outside, the fire often appears out, while underneath the exterior, smoldering embers may be growing to flames. You can use long hooks from below to pull apart these construction features, but doing so is awkward and physically draining. If you must open large areas, it may be worth the effort to place and work from ladders and cut the roof with a power saw. 

PHOTOS PETER KERTZIE After firefighters initially put this fire out, small amounts of smoke seep from hidden spaces.	Hot spots eventually light up. Problem areas include the spaces where different rooflines meet and boxed soffits. These areas must be opened up and hit with water to ensure they are out.

Roofs
Hot air rises, which means you must direct a major focus of your overhaul to the roof area. Timely and proper roof ventilation should help minimize the extent of overhaul required for the roof. However, even when crews do things by the book, heat will rise and roof materials will absorb it.

PHOTO JOHN CETRINO Truckies removed this door trim during overhaul, revealing a substantial pocket of fire. Window trim, door trim and other trim that was in the path of heat and flame must be removed to check for hidden fire.

Begin by examining scorched materials visible from the inside. If you suspect hidden embers, open up the area. Sometimes simply taking a sharp poke at the underside of the roof with a pike pole will cause embers to drop, revealing the location of a potential rekindle. Older roofs with several layers of roofing materials may require removal of the entire roof section above the fire, due to numerous hidden embers. To do this, use several firefighters with pike poles to push the roof off from below in a systematic fashion. You can make the task more manageable by cutting vertical relief cuts with a chain or rotary saw.

The roofing materials around chimneys are particularly vulnerable to hidden areas of smoldering. Chimneys feature framing where they come through the roof, and there is normally a small space between the framing and the chimney. Rising heat will build up in these areas, which are many times out of sight of overhaulers’ eyes.

Supporting Building Materials
While going about our business of opening up walls and removing burning or smoldering construction materials, it’s easy to go too far. We may inadvertently remove vital structural elements or other construction features that support a structure. Examples include bearing walls, H columns, certain headers and other supports that may not be as obvious, such as those that hold up rooftop mechanical equipment like air conditioners, or structural members supporting masonry features, such as a chimney. 

As you overhaul, determine what supports the building, and avoid tugging on those elements. If too many supporting members are gone, crews should not work inside the structure and instead battle hot spots from outside.

PHOTO PETER KERTZIE If you must remove large areas of the rake edge, put up ladders and make a long cut down the roof with a chain or rotary saw and remove the entire assembly.

Hydraulic Overhaul
Hydraulic overhaul is a really fancy term for watering the bejeezus out of everything. However, copious amounts of water will not necessarily ensure the fire is out and no rekindles will occur. In fact, sometimes placing water on every little smoking area causes us to lose sight of the hot spots. Instead, step back and let hot spots build a little, making it easier to locate them and exposing hidden problem areas. For a few moments, keep your flashlight off and don’t apply water. Watch for firefly-like embers and listen for crackling noises to point you in the right direction. You must carefully examine hidden areas of the structure before the final wet-down. Performing the wet-down too early is like taking a bow before the curtain comes down.

Incomplete Overhaul
Sometimes the building’s condition prevents a complete overhaul. After all, if the backhoe is coming in two hours to finish the wrecking job the fire started, why risk someone’s health or life to get at the last ember?  Leave a crew at the scene or rotate in fresh crews to keep hot spots in check.

PHOTO JOHN CETRINO Using long pike poles to push the roof from below is labor intensive. Planting the end of the pole in your chest and pushing with your whole body will give you the maximum force possible. To make the job even more manageable, use a chain or rotary saw to make vertical relief cuts every couple of feet.

For small, almost indistinguishable hot spots, we may be tempted to just pick up and wait for a rekindle. Remember: There is a thin line between a wisp of smoke and a wisp of steam. Civilians around the fire scene will keep calling in a rekindle unless a fire department vehicle is on location. And of course, there’s the very real chance that a smoldering pile can grow quickly, endangering exposure buildings.

Another reason often cited for not conducting a complete overhaul: The scene must be preserved for fire investigation. However, this reasoning always struck me as odd. If we don’t do a bit of overhauling, there may not be anything left for the investigators to look at. Further, it’s possible to do a thorough and complete overhaul and still maintain the evidence, as long as doing so doesn’t cause the building to start burning again. For legal reasons, firefighters must remain at the scene until investigators arrive. After the investigators see what they need to see, we can complete the overhaul.

All Finished?
When you think you are all finished and the fire is totally out, leave a charged line and maybe a ladder or two, and exit the building to finish picking up all your unneeded hose, tools and equipment.

When complete, re-enter the building to take another look. In the short time it takes to put our equipment back in order, embers can grow to produce wisps of smoke or flame. Flashlights and an imager in hand, retrace the fire’s path and check one last time for hot spots. A rekindle is not a crime; it just feels like one. Rekindles are sometimes averted by firefighters watching the fire building as they head back to quarters.

PHOTOS PETER KERTZIE Top: Be careful not to remove supporting construction members. This roof was overhauled during a nighttime fire, and crews failed to notice they had removed much of the framing that held this corbelled chimney in place. Fortunately, it did not collapse on them. Second from Top : As nearby 4th of July fireworks light up the sky, it’s business as usual for this truck crew finalizing overhaul. Leaving a ladder in place after the fire is believed out gives crews a solid working surface as they gain access to elusive hot spots.

The bottom line: A thorough and complete overhaul will allow you to rest easy after a fire, knowing you did all you could do to keep the fire out.

Peter F. Kertzie is an 18-year veteran of the Buffalo (N.Y.) Fire Department, currently serving as captain of Truck 14. He is a New York State-certified Municipal Fire Training Officer and holds a bachelor’s degree in business and an associate’s degree in fire-protection technology.