Multiphase Study on Firefighter
Safety and the Deployment of
Resources
High-Rise
Field Experiments

High-Rise Toolkit
What’s inside?
• Full Report
• Dept. of Commerce release notes
• 10 Fact Sheets
• Executive Summary
• DVD of photos
• Contact information for requests

Subjects of Further Discussion
• Timing Performance in
Experimental Search
• Generating % comparison tables
• Time-to-Task Data
• Determining design fire for model
• FED Model Results

Experimental Search Data pages 64-68

17
5
16
4
15
14
3
13
12
18
Reading Button Plots
19 20 21
6 7 8 9
2 1
11 10 24
22
23

3-Person 10 th Floor Search
20
15
10
5
0
Floor 10 Inside Loop
8
6
4
2
22 24 26 28 30
Time (minutes)
Floor 10 Outside Loop
20
15
10
35 40 45 50 55
Time (minutes)
10 20 30 40
Time (minutes)
50
Inside Loop
Outside Loop
60 70

4-Person 10 th Floor Search
20
15
10
5
0
8
6
4
2
Floor 10 Inside Loop
25 30
Time (minutes)
35
10 20
20
15
10
Floor 10 Outside Loop
40 45 50
Time (minutes)
30 40
Time (minutes)
50
Inside Loop
Outside Loop
60 70
55

5-Person 10 th Floor Search
20
15
10
5
0
Floor 10 Inside Loop
8
6
4
2
18 20 22 24 26 28
Time (minutes)
10 20
20
15
10
Floor 10 Outside Loop
20 25
Time (minutes)
30
30 40
Time (minutes)
50
Inside Loop
Outside Loop
60 70

6-Person 10 th Floor Search
20
15
10
5
0
Floor 10 Inside Loop
8
6
4
2
18 20 22 24 26 28
Time (minutes)
10 20
20
15
10
Floor 10 Outside Loop
20 25 30 35
Time (minutes)
30 40
Time (minutes)
50
Inside Loop
Outside Loop
60 70

Comparison Time Data pages 138-146

Generating % Tables
Starting with synthetic data…
Differences are found by subtracting the row time data from the column time data.

Generating % Tables
Divide differences by the time value of the column.

Generating % Tables
Convert to % by multiplying previous by
100.

Fire Out Comparison

Floor 10 Search Comparison

Overall Time Comparison

Time-to-Task Data pages 69-83

Reading the Graphs

Attack Line Pathway
Enter Core
Attack Stair Evac Stair
Enter Fire Floor
Start
Stop

Advance Attack Line

Advance Second Line

Fire Out

Search Patterns: Fire Floor

Search and Rescue Fire Floor
(10 th Floor)

Victim #1 Found (Fire Floor)

Search Patterns: Floor Above Fire

Search and Rescue Floor Above the Fire (11 th )

Victim #2 Found
Floor Above the Fire

3-person Crew Operations

4-Person Crew Operations

5-Person Crew Operations

6-Person Crew Operations

Fire Modeling and the
Fractional Effective Dose pages 84-95

Design Fire
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0
Cook County
Slow
Medium
Fast
6 12 18
Time (min)
24 30

Fire + Suppression
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0
Slow
Medium
Fast
Water On Fire
6 12 18
Time (min)
24 30

Water on Fire / Fire Out
Crew Size Ascent Method Average Water on Fire Time
(MM:SS)
Average Fire
Out Time
(MM:SS)
3
4
6
4
3
5
5
6
Stairs
Stairs
Elevator
Stairs
Stairs
Elevator
Elevator
Elevator
18:48
17:01
15:45
15:19
14:52
14:47
14:21
12:10
28:04
26:22
26:48
24:33
21:17
24:02
23:20
19:32

Tenability: FED
FED Value
Range
Estimated
Population Range of Incapacitation
FDS-
Smokeview
Coloring
0.0 < FED ≤ 0.3
0.0 < % ≤ 11
0.3 < FED ≤ 1.0
1.0 < FED ≤ 3.0
FED > 3.0
11 < % ≤ 50
50 < % ≤ 89
% > 89

Tenability During Search: Stairs
18 19 20 21
6 7 8 9 17
5
16
4
15
14
3
13 2 1
12 11 10
18
3-Person Crews
19 20
24
21
23
6 7 8 9 17
15
5
16
4
14
3
13 2 1
12 11 10
5-Person Crews
24
23
18 19 20 21
6 7 8 9 17
5
16
4
15
14
3
13 2 1
12 11 10
18
4-Person Crews
19 20 21
24
23
6 7 8 9 17
5
16
4
15
14
3
13 2 1
12 11 10
6-Person Crews
24
23

Tenability During Search: Elevator
18 19 20 21
6 7 8 9 17
15
5
16
4
14
3
13 2 1
12 11 10
18
3-Person Crews
19 20
24
21
23
6 7 8 9 17
15
5
16
4
14
3
13 2 1
12 11 10
5-Person Crews
24
23
18 19 20 21
6 7 8 9 17
15
5
16
4
14
3
13 2 1
12 11 10
18
4-Person Crews
19 20
24
21
23
6 7 8 9 17
5
16
4
15
13
14
3
2 1
12 11 10
6-Person Crews
24
23

Tenability / Search Complete

Crew Size Comparison

Conclusions
1) When responding to medium growth rate fire on the 10th floor, 3-person crews ascending to the fire floor confronted an environment where the fire had released
60% more heat energy than the fire encountered by the 6-person crews doing the same work.
Larger fires expose firefighters to greater risks and are more challenging to suppress.

Conclusions
2) Larger fires produce more risk exposure for building occupants.
In general, occupants being rescued by smaller crews and by crews that used the stairs rather than the elevators, were exposed to significantly greater dose of toxins from the fire.

Standards of Cover
• Resource distribution is associated with
– geography of the community
– travel time to emergencies
• Distribution is typically measured by the percent of the jurisdiction covered by the firstdue units.
• Concentration is also about geography
– arranging of multiple resources,
– spacing them so that an initial "effective response force" can arrive on scene within time frames established

Conclusions
3) Properly engineered and operational fire sprinkler system drastically reduces the risk exposure for both the building occupants and the firefighters.
According to NFPA:
• ~ 40% of buildings are NOT sprinklered
• Sprinkler systems fail in about one in 14 fires
Fire departments should be prepared to manage the risks associated with unsprinklered high-rise building fires.

Next Steps
1) Urban Fire Forum High Rise
Implementation Guide a. 1 st Edition – Community Risk Assessment
(Residential- Low Hazard) b. 2 nd Edition – Community Risk Assessment:
High-Rise Implementation Guide
2) NFPA 1710 Committee a. Proposed language – Public Comment closed
May 16, 2014.
b. Revision scheduled for release May 2015

Next Steps
2 nd Edition –
Community Risk
Assessment:
High-Rise
Implementation
Guide

Matching Resources to Risk
If fire department resources (both mobile and personnel) are deployed to match the risk levels inherent to hazards in the community, it has been scientifically demonstrated that the community will be far less vulnerable to negative outcomes in…
• firefighter injury and death
• civilian injury and death
• property loss

Matching Resources to Risk
• Following a community hazard/risk assessment,
Chiefs must prepare a plan for timely and sufficient coverage of each hazard and the adverse risk events that occur….
Standard of
Response Coverage . (Standards of Cover)
– Total number of fires occurring annually should NOT be the sole driver of crew size, overall staffing or on scene assembly needs.
• Standards of response coverage is defined as the written policies and procedures that establish the distribution and concentration of fixed and mobile resources of an organization

Matching Resources to
Risk
• Response time goals for first-due units (distribution) and …
• Response time goals for the total effective on-scene emergency response force (concentration) …
• … Drive fire department objectives like fire station location, apparatus deployed and staffing levels.

Explaining to Decision
Makers
• If response times and force assembly times are low , …
– it is an indicator that sufficient resources have been deployed and outcomes from risk events are more likely to be positive.
• Conversely, if response times and force assembly times are high ,
– it is an indicator of insufficient resources and outcomes from risk events are more likely to be negative.

Fire Service Leaders Faced with Decisions
• Decisions must be based on understanding of
– relationship between community hazards and associated risk,
– basic emergency response infrastructure , including fire department response capability
– outcomes of emergency incidents
• Considering these three elements AND the tools available to decision makers, a basic community vulnerability formula

Vulnerability Formula
Risk Level
Too few resources (-)
= (-) Outcome
Risk Level
Appropriate Resources (+)
= (+) Outcome

High-Rise Guide (pg 15)
• High-Rise/High Hazard
• Dispatch 4 engines, 4 trucks, 3 ambulances, 2 BCs
• With 5 or 6 FF per company
• Initial response total 50 – 58
• First engine in 4 minutes
• Full initial alarm in 8 minutes

What’s Next?
• Fire Prevention and Safety Grant award pending
– Vulnerability Assessment Tool