SOP 208.03 STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

The strategic objectives or steps in firefighting can be listed in descending order of priority as follows:

Rescue

Exposure Protection

Confinement

Extinguishment

Overhaul

Ventilation

Salvage

This list can be recalled using the acronym RECEO. Ventilation and salvage are also strategic objectives, but may be assigned various priorities depending upon the incident.

The RECEO system was developed by Lloyd Layman in Fire Fighting Tactics many years ago but is just as valid today as it was then. The priorities involved in fire fighting have not changed.

Another way of expressing Strategic priorities is:

RESCUE

EXTENSION CONTROL

EXTINGUISHMENT

Regardless of which list is employed, the point is that one needs a system for establishing what to do first at an incident after size up is completed. Without a method for prioritizing fireground activities, you run the risk of overlooking important things to be done in the race to put water on the flame.

Let's define what each strategic priority entails.

Rescue

Human life is the most important consideration at a fire or other emergency. The strategy of rescue means removing the humans from a place of danger to a place of safety. This may or may not be outside of the building. It could mean moving the persons beyond a firewall or separation in a hospital or to another floor in a high rise. In ranch and farm areas across America, certain types of horses and other livestock may be more valuable than the structures they are housed in. Loss of prize racehorses, for example, can result in a million dollar fire loss.

Rescue of humans overrides all other strategic considerations at a fire. Certain tactics such as extinguishment or ventilation may be employed towards protecting people, but the strategy is rescue. One common tactic to accomplish rescue may be to get a hose line between the fire and the occupants.

Tactics to accomplish rescue will be discussed later on. The key point is that firefighting operations must in no way interfere with or delay rescue operations. It requires a lot of discipline to let the fire spread while the first alarm assignment commits to removal of humans, but it may have to be done.

You can only do a certain number of tasks at any one time, so you will have to prioritize what you are going to do. The officer in charge must determine during size-up if, in fact, people are in danger. If they are, he must employ the strategy of rescue first. To do this he must decide the best tactics to employ to effect rescue.

Time of day and type of occupancy have a direct bearing on the rescue problem. A hotel at 2 am has a much more severe life hazard than the same occupancy at 12 noon. A bank at 2 am may only have a janitor inside. However, rescue must be considered at all fires of any consequence in all occupancies. The fire officer can never be sure that no one is in the building until his own personnel have conducted a search. The officer must not rely on what the people at the fire tell him. The occupants of the building or bystanders will be excited and their statement to the presence or absence of trapped victims is very unreliable. For example, the manager of a hotel may say that everyone is out, not knowing that a visitor to someone's room had come in during the night.

Another example would be a residential fire where the family was babysitting a friend's child and in the excitement of the fire forgot that the child was in the house.

Certain bystanders at fires may be of diminished mental capacity. They might make false statements to the fire department in order to gain attention or to make the situation "more exciting".

Exposure Protection

Exposure protection is the strategy of preventing a fire from spreading to uninvolved buildings or separate units. First alarm units, especially as they are manned today, can only do so much. The most important thing they can do after performance of a comprehensive size-up and rescue operations is to begin to get a handle on the perimeters of the fire by addressing the exposure problem. They must make an effort to keep the fire from spreading to unattached structures. If this strategy is not employed, the fire can extend across alleys, streets, or down the block while the fire department is putting water on flames in the building of origin. If the building in which the fire has started is fully involved with fire, it is probably lost anyway. There is no urgency to putting it out. If an experienced firefighter thinks back on the fires he has been to where the building was fully involved, the building was probably torn down after the fire department had put out the fire. The thing that fire officers must remember is this "You did not start the fire, you are just there to find the best way to handle the situation. In major structural fire situations, if the people are saved and the fire is being kept from spreading, the fire department has accomplished a lot. The fire officer must not take it personally if the building was lost to fire by the time the fire department arrived or if the fire was just too large for the capability of the on-scene forces or the water supply.

The priority in major fires is to keep the tremendous heat being released from igniting something else in its path, by means of convection, radiation, or conduction. Fire departments in large, older cities are experienced in exposure protection and are well aware of its urgency and importance. Firefighters from rural or residential areas are not as familiar with the potential for conflagration and the effects of excessive heat.

The strategic mode decision may have to be one of "writing off" the building on fire and concentrating on protection of exposures-in a defensive mode or a defensive/offensive mode. A fire officer who understands fire behavior and who knows the capabilities of his men and equipment can make this type of strategic decision only after a comprehensive size up. Many times the best method of exposure protection is an aggressive attack on the fire that is the source of the excessive heat.

Confinement

After the officer has a handle on the exposure problem, the strategy of confinement is employed. Confinement means preventing the fire from extending to uninvolved sections of the building. There are six sides to a fire.

Heated gases and smoke try to go up and push out of a building. When they reach the top of a structure and cannot get out they will go horizontally until they find a vertical or a horizontal opening to the outside. If an opening to the outside is not found, the heated gases and smoke begin to bank down throughout the building. This spread of the heated gases and smoke is generally referred to as "Mushrooming". Fire is spread in this fashion due to excessive heat raising combustibles to their ignition temperature and due to the ignition of liberated vapors and gases.

Radiation from flame goes in all directions, much like the rays of the sun. Fire can be spread by the conduction of heat through walls, floors, ceilings, along pipes, steel beams, etc. Through this method of heat transfer, combustibles on all six sides of the fire can be ignited. Convection spreads fire by the transfer of heat through a circulating medium such as gas or liquid. A common example of convection is heat rising up an open stairway.

Burning materials fall down through walls and pipe chases and ignite fires below the fire floor. Flying embers and sparks can spread fire within a building or to exposures.

All six sides of the fire must be considered in rescue, confinement and the other strategies in fire fighting. If they are not, the officer may suddenly find that-while he is fighting a basement fire, fire appears in the attic of a building having balloon construction (no fire stopping in the walls). How did the fire spread to the attic? It got into the walls in the basement and the heat of the flame ignited the combustibles in the wall and fire spread vertically. Rising heat ahead of the flame can also ignite combustibles. Remember, that the excessive heat is causing the fire spread. Direct flame impingement is not necessary.

An example of fires that present confinement problems is the shopping center with a common attic over several stores. If the fire department does not employ a confinement strategy, but goes directly into extinguishment, the fire may get into the attic and spread across the attic.

Immediate extinguishment might be the most expedient solution to the confinement problem. However, if the fire has already extended out of the cubicle of origin, the fire department must know this and get ahead of the fire to cut it off. Otherwise it will end up chasing the fire through the remainder of the building.

One of the major problems in older hotels and residential buildings, for instance, is the fire leaving the point of origin and heading for a stairway. It then spreads up the open stairway. One of the first tactics to employ to accomplish the strategy of confinement in this case may be to darken down the stairway as the engine company moves down the hall.

An example of an order assigning the strategy of confinement might be: "Engine 915”, take the floor above and stop extension of the fire."

Extinguishment

And now, the moment that everyone's been waiting for, putting the fire out. After the fire officer has considered and covered all the other strategic bases discussed so far, namely that no human is endangered, exposures are not endangered or ignited, and the six sides of the fire have been considered for confinement, extinguishment can be sought.

Then the actual seat of the fire is attacked and extinguished. Remember, in most fire situations a quick and aggressive attack on the seat of the fire will take care of rescue, exposure and confinement at the same time. There is no substitute for aggressive, interior fire fighting whenever possible. An effective fire officer is able to determine when a quick attack on the seat of the fire is most appropriate and when a more methodical, step-by-step approach toward extinguishment is needed due to the complexity of the fire situation.

Methods of extinguishment and various types of equipment for extinguishment are discussed in this course. The size-up will provide information as to techniques, equipment and manpower needed to overcome the heat being generated. This is the basis of the solution: no heat = no fire.

Good strategic orders for extinguishment would be: "Engine 915, put water on the fire", "attack the main body of fire" or "handle extinguishment".

Overhaul

The purpose of overhaul is to make sure the fire is completely out. Overhaul is a dangerous phase of fire fighting. Many firefighters are killed or injured during this phase. They are more relaxed, tired, perhaps less alert and thus more apt to get injured. The firefighters may have taken off their breathing apparatus yet toxic gases may still be liberated. Buildings, tanks on roofs of buildings, facades, marquees, signs, etc. are more susceptible to collapse at this point. If a fire rekindles, it may spread more rapidly than the first time because walls, ceilings, shafts and floors are opened up or missing. The fire resistance of the building is affected. It may be better to wait until morning to overhaul a nighttime fire if the danger of collapse is a factor.

Fire investigation begins when the first fire fighting crew arrives. Much valuable evidence has been destroyed in fires during fire fighting and overhaul. Proper investigation may require that overhaul wait until the investigation is completed. Cause determination at a fire is a very important objective, especially in the war on arson. It may be prudent to leave a man with a watch line, radio, and tools all night at the scene of a major fire or one that may rekindle. A rekindle is somewhat akin to the stitches coming undone after the doctor finishes an operation. It can be disastrous and, at least, is embarrassing, unprofessional and painful.

Ventilation

The strategy of ventilation may need to occur at any time in the strategic hierarchy, based upon, the situation. Fire officers overlook the value and importance of ventilation many times. This is especially true in fire departments that do not have ladder companies. Ventilation is sometimes looked upon as something that is done after the fire is out or done solely for the comfort of the firefighters. In reality, ventilation is a key firefighting tool which may be vital to rescue operations, confinement, extinguishment, and which could affect exposure protection.

In rescue, ventilation can be employed to channel heat, smoke and fire away from potential victims. In fires in older, multi-story buildings with open stairways, the stairway is a primary path for fire, smoke and heat travel. It may be vital to ventilate over stair-shafts as a part of the-rescue operation in this case.

In confinement operations, rooftop ventilation is used to help prevent flashover by removing heat. Ventilation also channels the travel of heat and fire.

In extinguishment operations, ventilation will clear the atmosphere and cause the fire to be more visible to the firefighters. It allows the interior of the structure to be more tenable and safer for fire fighting operations. Fire attack teams that can properly coordinate ventilation operations with hose-line operations will generally have a high level of success in combating structural fires.

The key point in ventilation is knowing when, how, and where to do it. Ventilation may be employed as a strategy in a structure that is full of flammable or toxic gases. Ventilation may be the first strategy employed at a building experiencing a back draft condition. The building is opened up at the highest point to allow the smoke, heat, and gases to escape, prior to entry at a lower level by the fire department.

Salvage

Salvage may need to begin at various points during a fire operation. Salvage is defined as those operations required to safeguard personal property, furnishings, and the unaffected portions of a structure from the effects of heat, smoke, fire, and the weather. Salvage includes protection of vital business records, school records, medical records, photo albums and other irreplaceable family memorabilia, church furnishings and religious items, clothing, drapes, store and warehouse stock, machinery, and any other items of value that can be protected from damage.

Salvage generally consists of use of salvage covers; smoke deodorants, removal of water, and removal or relocation of contents to a safe location. Debris removal and removal of valuables from debris is a part of salvage also. Cleaning and drying of furnishings, machinery, and equipment are also considered salvage work.

Firefighter lives are not risked for purposes of salvage, but salvage is important psychologically to the fire victims. A good salvage and clean up job by the fire department helps the victim feel that the situation may n6t be so bad after all.

Dollar loss figures can be controlled by good salvage work. Insurance companies operated and manned salvage patrols in the past in major United States cities. They recognized the value of effective salvage work in reducing fire loss. Many fire departments operated two-person salvage companies in the past. Budget cuts and manpower costs have caused most of these units to be shut down. They have been combined with truck-company operations. In the absence of a truck company, the engine company must perform salvage work.

Greater alarm assignments may have to be called and committed to the strategy of salvage at a major fire in such occupancies as department stores, shopping malls, large libraries, warehouses, and industries with sensitive or very valuable equipment, records, and machinery. The fire officer should not hesitate to make this commitment if justified. Thousands or millions of dollars can be saved and the public relations aspect for the fire service is great.

Salvage really begins when water is applied on the fire. Judicious use of water and hand tools can help the salvage effort tremendously. The final step in salvage is securing the building and contents from weather and intrusion.