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“Tactical Safety: The Why Behind Two Floors Below”…
By thehousewatch | August 16, 2009
“Examining the process of firefighting to see if there is a better and safer way to operate”
Tactical Safety – The Why Behind Two Floors Below
By: Ray McCormack
Two floors below the fire, remember to get off the elevator two floors below the fire. But why? Four good reasons to stop two floors below the reported fire floor are: Scissor Stairs, Access Stairs, Incorrect Location, and Bad Information. As you can see, the first two reasons are related to building construction features while the other two are related to communications.
Scissor Stairs
Many firefighters are initially confused by this type of staircase design. This is a case where actually getting up close and personal really helps. Scissor stairs consist of two identical stairways placed side by side with each other; however their landings are crisscrossed from each other. If we were to look from the side the two staircases would form the letter X. It is easy to get confused especially if you have limited experience with them because they do not return you to the same location on each floor.
Once you enter a particular stairway, e.g. A, and you take it all the way to the top without exiting, all the landing doors you encounter within that stairway should be labeled A. The same is true for the other stairway, e.g. B. Incorrect stairway labeling has caused problems on the fireground. The A and B doors will swap locations from one floor to the other. Only on every other floor will the A and B doors stack up on each other. This is why we exit two floors below so that our orientation or our (personal) “you are here” stays constant with the fire floor. If you exit the elevator on the 10th floor and take the A stairway to the fire floor (12), you will be in the same relative location.
Access Stairs
These are also called convenience stairs and they differ from traditional stairways in that they are contained within the occupancy. They are not designed as public use or exit stairways. They serve a tenant that occupies two or more floors within the building. So when an alarm is activated on a floor that is served by access stairs, the actual fire may be on the floor below the detection device or caller. This is why the two floor rule exists; so that if you only get off the elevator just one floor below the reported alarm, you could end up on the fire floor.
Even though this interior floor breach can spread fire and smoke rapidly, many access stairway are not fire protected or specifically enhanced. It is important to note the location of these stairways within a building. If entry is made on the upper level of the occupancy, operations would be similar to making a cellar advance. Remember the effects of a fire on the lower floor could be much more severe on the upper level connected by the access stairs.
Incorrect Location
Who do we depend upon for the fire’s location in a building? The building personnel who work there everyday? Or the officer who forgot his glasses? We have to get the fire’s location from a source. Once we are inside the building we are dependant on detection systems and those in the know. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the sequencing of numbers on the panel or readout so that you are confident with the information you have gathered. Once you get your location information and start out, radio back to someone in the lobby to confirm that information. Many times station numbers can be confused with floors. By having someone reconfirming the initial location, we are assured that our information was the best available at the time.
Bad Information
Bad information usually takes one or more of these formats: Bad dispatch information, on scene personnel with limited knowledge, or incorrect radio transmissions. In some buildings you will receive no assistance, or the assistance you get will be actually worse than none at all. With any information you must process it; you must use your own reliability scale to judge the information you have received. Is it bad? How did it sound? Did it make sense? Was it through? Take information with a grain of salt and exit that elevator two floors below the reported fire floor and you will be rewarded with a good starting position, which is all any of us can ask for.
Next Tactical Safety – Cellar Stairs
Topics: Training and Development | 2 Comments »
August 17th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Thanks for this–I learned quite a bit. The first time I ran into access stairs it was in a fire, didn’t see them in the smoke, and it confused the heck out me as I searched for the fire (starting a floor too high!). And while there’s no scissors stairs in my local, it’s good to know.
August 22nd, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Nice job Rya, keep’em coming.
Bruno Lamarre
MFES, Canada