Considerations for Instructors: How to Fight a High-Rise Building Fire
The primary factor that makes fighting fires in skyscrapers so challenging is their height. A single building can have thousands of occupants. Fires are beyond the reach of routine ground-based operations and deprive the fire department of using exterior ground ladders for rescues and firefighting, even with aerial apparatus.
Aerial rescues are limited to the eighth or ninth floors. Ladder pipe master streams may reach the 16th floor to fight against auto exposure, but it is unlikely these streams will be effective in penetrating fires above the eighth floor. Access to the fire floor may only be from one of two stairways, and heat and smoke are difficult to ventilate.
Regardless, the incident priorities remain the same: life safety, incident stabilization, extinguishment, and property conservation. The primary goal is still to quickly establish a water supply and put the fire out. Everything gets better when the fire is out. The best way to save lives in a high-rise building may in fact be to extinguish the fire. After that, toxic smoke production ceases and temperatures begin to drop. Read on to learn how to more effectively teach this skillset.
What Exactly is a “High-Rise?”
A high-rise is any building where the floor of an occupied story is greater than 75 feet (23 m) above the lowest level of fire department vehicle access. Many new buildings have only six floors to avoid falling under more restrictive fire code regulations that apply to high-rise buildings. Since case studies reveal that most high-rise building fires began on floors no higher than the sixth floor, and every building that is four floors or higher has a standpipe, you don’t have to work for a major city fire department to experience all the problems in high-rise firefighting. Any city with six-story buildings can potentially have a high-rise fire scenario, so you have to prepare for it.
Most firefighters will go their entire career without battling a truly significant high-rise fire. Those with experience are a select few. The rest of us have to rely on study, theory, fire science, understanding fire behavior, examining high-rise case studies, computer modeling, fire simulators, diligent new-construction inspections, pre-incident planning (prefires), and on-site hands-on training.
In the 2016 NFPA research report High-Rise Building Fires, U.S. fire departments responded to an average of 14,500 high-rise structure fires per year. Sixteen firefighters were killed from traumatic injuries while fighting fires in high-rise buildings between 1977 and 1996—a relatively high number compared to the actual confirmed high-rise fires we respond to. Nine of those 16 firefighters became disoriented and ran out of air, dying of asphyxiation. Forty civilians died, and 520 civilian injuries occurred annually on average between 2009 and 2013. Sixty-two percent of all high-rise fires occurred in apartments, and 64 percent of high-rise civilian fatalities also occurred in apartments. Of all the high-rise property classes, those least likely to be sprinklered are apartments.
The load-bearing steel structural members of Type I fire-resistive construction are protected with fireproofing material. Columns have a four-hour rating, beams have a three-hour rating, floors and shafts have a two-hour rating. Type I fire-resistive construction allows the most time for interior fire operations. Because the floors have the lowest rating, two hours is the operational time reference.
Type I fire-resistive construction usually has open areas and a fire load that produces a considerable amount of energy. Because of the tremendous fire load and occupancy load potential, loss of life can be great. Yet Type I construction and built-in fire protection systems mean that fires in high-rise buildings are less likely to spread beyond the room and floor of origin, making high-rise structures safer than all the other types of buildings we respond to. Type I buildings are designed to contain content fires to the floor of origin. They are like giant incinerators, designed to withstand the burn time of combustible furnishings without contributing fuel to the fire. The fire load will burn down, or burn out, before the structural integrity of the building weakens. No Type I fire-resistive high-rise structure in the world has ever collapsed as a result of fire, with the exception of the controversial collapse of World Trade Center Building 7 on September 11, 2001 (the actual cause of which government agencies, physics professors, architects, structural engineers, and fire service experts don’t agree).
The leading cause of fires in high-rise buildings involved fires in the kitchen, cooking areas, and with cooking equipment, in other words, food on the stove. Not all high-rise fires will be as spectacular as the 1988 First Interstate bank building fire in Los Angeles but if we’re going to respond to one, it will likely be a high-rise apartment fire.
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The Secret to Successful High-Rise Firefighting
The secret to success in fighting fires in high-rise buildings includes prefire planning, consulting with the building engineer, developing a prefire plan, and following the IC high-rise firefighting checklist. All the possible scenarios, foreseeable problems, and answers regarding water pressure, sprinklers, fire pumps, standpipes, pressure-reducing valves, elevators, and the capability of the HVAC system to pressurize and ventilate the structure, electrical system for the building, and emergency generators need to be identified and entered into the prefire plan. A high-rise firefighting checklist should be developed and carried on every fire apparatus, then followed. High-rise buildings are rarely left unattended; usually some responsible person on duty 24 hours a day has knowledge of the building systems or can quickly call a knowledgeable person.
Regardless of the building’s height, the incident priorities for high-rise firefighting remain the same. Following the godfather of fire science Lloyd Layman’s tactical objectives—Rescue, Exposures, Confinement, Extinguishment, Overhaul, Ventilation, and Salvage (RECEO VS)—also remain the same. Our size-up, identification of problems, and decision-making process don’t change. It’s just that life safety, incident stabilization, and extinguishment take place on a grander scale, and the execution of tactical objectives take considerably more time. For example, ensuring the safe evacuation of several thousands of people can take hours. Though dumping the entire occupancy load of a high-rise building is not advisable, post-September 11th high-rise incidents may not guarantee the public’s cooperation or trust to be sheltered in place or relocated to lower floors.
It might take the first company 12 minutes before a hose line can be in position to apply water on a fire on upper floors. Controlling and extinguishing the fire will take even longer. For example, at the 1988 First Interstate fire in Los Angeles, California, the LAFD took 27 minutes after arrival to begin the initial attack on the 12th floor. RECEO/VS also takes more time to initiate and accomplish. Due to heavy smoke and heat in all four stairways at the First Interstate fire, the trapped occupants on Floor 37 and Floor 50 were unable to be rescued until after the fire was knocked down, over three hours from the start of the initial attack.
The six major problems at any house fire also occur at a high-rise fire:
- Possible trapped occupants
- Visible or confirmed trapped occupants
- Gaining access
- Exposures
- Fire
- Smoke
Possible occupants require a primary search. Visible or confirmed occupants in danger need to be rescued. Gaining access to floors and rooms requires access keys or forcible entry tools. Exposures need to be protected with hose streams. The fire needs to be extinguished with attack lines, and smoke needs to be removed via horizontal or vertical ventilation. Then, salvage and overhaul. What else is there for us to do on the fire floor?
Strategic and Tactical Limitations for Smaller Fire Departments
Most fire departments don’t have the resources of New York City or Los Angeles to throw at a fire, but small cities still have to deal with high-rise structures due to urban growth. The heavy work is getting sufficient hose lines in place and in operation on upper floors.
Smaller departments may have to take a more conservative approach by attacking a large high-rise fire defensively with the use of interior portable master streams, or by taking up a defensive position from a place of shelter, thus giving up additional property loss to the fire. This may mean relying on the integrity of Type I fire-resistive construction to contain the fire to the floor of origin and taking up exposure positions on the floor above after mitigating the life hazard on the fire floor. In other words, if no lives are at stake, protect the exposure floors and let the fire floor burn itself out. If more firefighters are needed to accomplish essential tactics, call for them. If not, it is what it is, and the IC has to manage the available resources as best as can be expected.
The Safety and Preservation of Firefighters
The major issues for firefighters in high-rise firefighting are heat, elevation, water, breathable air, and wind. Due to the elimination of ground-level access and the inability to quickly ventilate a high-rise fire, intense sustained heat will quickly fatigue firefighters during interior operations. Numerous firefighters have died in high-rise fires as a result of becoming tired, disoriented, then lost in the thick smoke. Usually, they run out of air.
The ability to advance a charged hose line will take longer and become more difficult. Crews may succumb to heat exhaustion much faster than on other types of fires. Flashover and post-flashover ceiling temperatures can be up to 2000° F (1093° C), melting everything in the overhead and all office furnishings throughout. Drips of burning plastic will land on the industrial-grade carpeting, igniting the floor and the adhesive mastic underneath. Floor temperatures on fire can be around 500° F (260° C).
It is hard to convey the power of radiant heat energy with words. Keep in mind, your firefighting protective clothing (PPE) has a threshold rating of 572° F (300° C) for 15-30 seconds. The lens and face piece of a SCBA are often considered the weakest components of a firefighter’s protective gear ensemble in high-heat conditions. The softening of the polycarbonate lens is between 293° and 302° F (145° to 150° C) and can melt between 419° F and 640° F (215° C to 338° C). Like everything else in the room, your bunker gear absorbs heat. Once it’s heat-saturated, firefighters will get burned.
Elevation will affect firefighters’ physical stamina as well as create possible water pressure and supply problems. Unlike house fires, gaining quick access to a window or door for fresh air, or escape, is not possible while fighting fires inside high-rise buildings. Wind and stack effect affect the movement of smoke within the building; often wind can create unpredictable air movement, extreme fire behavior, and deadly wind-driven fires.
Interior firefighting may be shortened due to fatigue. Frequently rotating crews actually prevents injuries from heat exhaustion and is the primary reason high-rise fires require multiple alarms and mutual aid. To sustain a prolonged offensive attack, crews have to be relieved more frequently on a regular rotation. Five to 10 minutes wrestling with a 2½-inch hose line on air, in full PPE, in a hot smoky environment is about the limit for the average firefighter. After that, they begin to lose strength and may become too weak to effectively advance the hose. Frequent rotations will allow them to quickly recover and re-enter the battle.
Firefighters who push themselves beyond a self-limiting rotation may succumb to the effects of heat exhaustion and be taken off the fire incident completely. The IC ends up losing valuable resources with the need to replace them. Also, pushing past a self-limiting point may lead to a firefighter collapsing and triggering a Mayday with a rapid intervention rescue, thus changing the incident priority, shifting resources from extinguishing the fire to rescuing a downed firefighter. Crews should not be permitted to use more than two SCBA cylinders before being rotated through rehab. Over the long haul, this strategy of preserving the effectiveness of crews with frequent rotations will actually extinguish the fire faster by extending the working capability of limited resources for the duration, inevitably concluding the incident in a shorter period of time with the fewest number of injuries.
Search and Rescue Stairwell Support Groups
Spare SCBA cylinders may not be readily available in the fire attack’s initial stages, so a staging support group needs to be set up immediately for the transfer of fresh SCBA air cylinders to the staging floor. Staging is set up two floors below the fire, with all firefighting and rescue assignments launched from there. Next to an adequate water supply, firefighters’ demand for air will be paramount. Firefighters’ physical demands will limit them to approximately 20 minutes before needing a fresh bottle. Once the staging area is stocked with sufficient air cylinders and equipment, a SAR Stairwell Support Group should start moving extra SCBA cylinders higher up into the evacuation stairway to support SAR teams operating on upper floors above the fire. Air depots should be set up at least every five floors above staging.
At the Las Vegas MGM Grand, One Meridian Plaza, and First Interstate fires, all the stairwells became charged with heat and thick smoke, with no smoke-free stairways. Many floors above the fire were also filled with smoke. Every floor above the fire needed to be searched. The SAR crews given these assignments ran out of air. In some conditions, it may be possible to remain uncovered until the assigned floor is reached, thus saving air. However, in smoke-filled stairways with tenable heat, crews may have to hike up several floors and use forcible entry to gain access to the hallways—all while being on air. The physical exertion will use up their air and narrow the window to perform the actual search. Some will be tempted to “save their air” and remove their facepieces, but they run the risk of smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide effects. The potential for getting too far in a hallway or getting too far up a stairwell away from staging where the fresh SCBA bottles are stored can get the SAR team in trouble. Air management principles need to be practiced, which may include bringing extra air bottles if the assigned task will require considerable time, taking the crew far from staging.
Three Philadelphia firefighters who died at the One Meridian Plaza fire were tasked with ascending to the top of the stairway bulkhead to vent the smoke. They started hiking from Floor 22 to Floor 38 but became disoriented and ran out of air. An additional SAR team of eight firefighters also became disoriented and ran out of air in the mechanical room on Floor 38 but were rescued by the roof team. As in scuba diving under water, air consumption must be monitored. Because fatigued firefighters consume more air in a shorter period of time, the company officer is responsible for calculating if the assignment can be accomplished on a single bottle of air. Ideal air management is reaching the objective, performing the task, and returning from the objective with air to spare. Taking an extra SCBA bottle with you may be the most important search tool of all.
To learn more about teaching how to fight high-rise building fires, consider downloading a free digital review copy of Engine Company Fireground Operations, Fourth Edition, by Raul Angulo.
About the Author:
Raul Angulo is Captain Emeritus of Engine Co. 33 and Ladder Co. 6, Seattle (WA) Fire Department (Ret). He has over 40 years of experience with engine and ladder company operations. He is the author of the new textbook Engine Company Fireground Operations 4th Edition and is finishing the textbook Ladder Company Operations for the Fireground. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board for Fire Apparatus and Emergency Equipment magazine and has written numerous training articles for Fire Engineering. Captain Angulo has been teaching on a variety of fire service subjects at FDIC International since 1996.
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