So, do you want to vent Side B or the Roof?

[Dalmatian90]

http://tinyurl.com/2x846

AUBURN- Fire yesterday afternoon heavily damaged a single-family, A-frame house at 7 Laurel Lane, displacing a family of four.

Fire Chief William A. Whynot said the fire started as owner Todd Ferrie tried to thaw pipes with a plumber's torch in a crawl space under the house about 2 p.m. "and something ignited."

He said Mr. Ferrie was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. Firefighter Joseph Carron suffered a dislocated shoulder. He was treated at St. Vincent Hospital at Worcester Medical Center, Worcester, and released.

Chief Whynot said the fire had worked its way into the walls and attic by the time firefighters arrived. Access to the road was through a trailer park off Route 20. He said it took about 20 minutes to control the fire.

The house sustained about $30,000 damage and is not habitable, according to Chief Whynot, who said the American Red Cross was assisting the family.

Worcester and Millbury firefighters assisted Auburn firefighters at the scene, while Leicester and Oxford firefighters covered the fire station.

http://tinyurl.com/37c2s

[ShuswapFireF]

Why isn't the fire fighter in the door way wearing a helmet? Especially with fire fighters working directly above him.

[StayBack500FT]

Side "A" is easy to identify!:)

[Weruj1]

ZING !!!!!!!!!!! here we go again !

[stm4710]

Someones trying to look like Boston fd........:p

[SagTwpStation3]

The man at the door is not only not wearing his Helmet, but also is not wearing his coat, maybe the sweatshirt is a new bunker we have not yet heard of :rolleyes:

[firenresq77]

How did I know this was going to go this direction????

[ThNozzleman]

I'll bet that if he DID have one on, the strap would not be fastened properly! :D

[firefiftyfive]

WOOOOPS!!!!!!:o

[SPFDRum]

AGAIN:
"Firefighting isn't dangerous, getting your picture posted on firehouse.com is."

Hard to believe the USA has so many perfect departments....

[hotboy]

From this view it would appear to me that this shot is the rear of the house. Normally Sector(C). I would vent here. If this is the rear of the house and your point of attack is here, Is this considered sector A or C?

[MalteseMonster]

It would be side A, Look at the way the hose is going...We use the truck as the starting point....If you pulled up on this side and droped a line that would be side A.....:cool:

[hotboy]

Originally posted by MalteseMonster
It would be side A, Look at the way the hose is going...We use the truck as the starting point....If you pulled up on this side and droped a line that would be side A.....:cool:

This could be a 2nd unit, Approaching from the rear!

[MalteseMonster]

Exactly why this armchair B.S. don't work!!!!;)

[SSHANK42]

The bottom picture, the one with the fire showing, is that from the same fire as the first picture? The second picture seems to have a chimney to the FF's right that he is touching. Would it have been easier to vent the second floor window instead of the roof, or are they concerned with the extension in between the rafters? If you were to vent the window then you would have to worry about the possibility of the power lines burning of the house and having another problem to worry about.

[FFTrainer]

I think the point Dal was trying to make was the fact that this house has a roof that goes all the way to the ground in true A-Frame design so are we referring to the vent location as SIDE " X or are we calling that the roof. I guess its technically "vent the roof on the x side"

Perhaps he was simply trying to point out some of the strange things that arise a fire scene that add to the confusion and not trying to Monday Morning QB another dept.

[CaptainGonzo]

There is an A frame house right across the street from me.

The problem is solved by having the truckies open up the B side and the roof! :D

[Dalmatian90]

Really didn't have any point, other than I thought they were a couple good photos in a style of house you don't see everyday. We do have 2 or 3 of these in my town or nearby.

My guess looking & reading is they were chasing a void fire since the fire started with the homeowner thawing pipes in a crawlspace.

I'm not really concerned about what the engineer or officer was doing in that place at that point in time -- looks like he was straightening out some problem. If you can't articulate a safety concern other than "he didn't have gear" I'm not sure there's a reason to criticize that photo. The only thing remotely looking threatening was the roof vent, and that was a good distance away.

As for the A/B/C/D thing, well, we have classes that praise the benefits of always using plain english, and 2 minutes later then explain why we should use code the sides of a building.

I think I know which house this is, and if it is it's "front" door faces a four-lane undivided US Highway which even if you parked a truck there you'd have to go over a guard rail and down a 10' embankment to reach the "front" door. They were, I assume, and a side street right there that was safer & better located to operate from.

To my mind, if that's the logical front of the residence that the 1st due engine would take, that's the place to call A. Everyone else in the operation has to be aware enough if there's any question what you might call "A" you have to get clarification. There is absolutely, positively no 100% fool-proof method to assign "A" in 100% of case, you gotta establish which side is A.


That holds true to Front/Back/Left/Right as well -- that's also a "Code" although in "plain" english.

Since I've never seen a group of firefighters with an inate sense of North and South, we'll have to wait till the day we have PASS devices with integrated GPS-like thingys to be able to use those absolute directions with confidence as an alternative.