Click on pictures to enlarge
 
   
Mark Fishlock. Site technical advisor.
 
HIGH-RISE Fire Fighting
   
  Developing better responses to fires in tower bocks and high-rise buildings.  
 

Welcome to High Rise Fire.

  High Rise Fire aims to be a one stop resource for anyone involved in fires or fire prevention in high rise buildings. This will range from occupants to landlords, Architects to builders, Firefighters to Incident Commanders. It is an educational resource.  

Source : AP : Photo Stephen Carr

 

This site contains works, professional discussions, reference and technical documents. It reviews, proposes and discusses various tactical options available to initial attendance crews. Although its contents are universal, it is primarily based around UK firefighting and buildings.

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WHAT TO DO... First actions and Tactical selection for Initial crews.

 

Remember: I-RISE

 

INFORMATION   Gather and assess any existing building risk and current incident information.
RESCUE's   Rescue tactics for SAVABLE life
INTERVENTION   Firefighting and Extinguishing tactics
STABILISATION   Contain and control Fire & Smoke
EVACUATION   Clear all potentially affected areas

 

 

 

I-RISE FLOWCHART

Click to enlarge

Smoke travel, Fitzroy House, London

Source: Croydonguardian.co.uk :Photo: David Groves

 

 

Understanding what you see.

 

Why is the majority of the smoke at this fire traveling downwards?

 

 

Reading a fire from outside the building is a skill all first-attending Incident commanders must master.

Understanding how tall buildings behave in the wind and how this affects what we observe both internally and externally will help better inform tactics.

 

Rescues from High rise fires.

Highrisefire present a quick RESCUE tactic for prioritizing and carrying out rescues in residential high rise buildings.

 

   

Source: BBC News (London) : Photo : Alex Joy

 

Stabilisation & Containment for Incident commanders.

IC's need to understand Stabalisation as a tactic in High rise fires. Containment, in the form of compartmentation, starts long before the incident starts. We discuss what stabalisation and containment is and how the IC and Fire fighters can implement it.

 

Photo: Chubb

 

  Wet and Dry Risers.
Wet and dry risers are an invaluable design feature of many (but not all) tall buildings that assist fire service personnel in maintaining the compartmentation of the building. This will lessen smoke and fire spread.

 

Firefighter Safety in High-rise buildings.
With the recent fire in London which hospitalised 4 firefighters (after them becoming trapped in a lift), there is ongoing concern that these building's pose a much higher than anticipated risk to firefighters. Work is required to reviewing these incidents on a national basis to coordinate a strategic response. Hopefully this would become a motivator for UK FRS to train or re-train first attending crews in risk awareness and identification. (Discussion paper to follow soon)

 

Fire Lifts ??

LIFT USAGE FLOW CHART
Fire lifts are generally NOT well understood by fire service personnel. There are clear distinctions between a fully BS/EN approved Fire lift and a conventional lift, with additional facilities installed to assist the Fire Service.

Understanding these differences is an important part of assessing safe lift usage at an incident

 

 

Lift Motor room fire

Photo: Nick Thompson

Bronto HLA 112 (112M Reach):

Photo:APF magazine

(Click to enlarge)

 

 

 

Height Vehicles.
Use of external 'high reach' appliances; ALP, Turntable ladders and Hydraulic platforms. There use in pre-intervention containment and to carry out rescues and firefight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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We are rewriting many of our technical pages into an 'Article' format and we will be providing them a downloadable Adobe (PDF) via a link.

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