Universal Studio Fire

[chris]

Did anyone else watch the fire at Universal Studio and see the footage of a dozen or so fire fighters on the roof with a large opening at their feet blowing out large volumes of smoke? Could someone explain what they were trying to achieve?

[wee brian]

They are big on barbeques over there, maybe they were browning off a few steaks.

[John Webb]

It could be that they were a specialist ventilation team who had just made the large opening?

When I used to read the American fire journals when working, it was noticeable that the Fire Service in the USA seems to go in for rather more of the specialized teams approach than we did; this includes 'ladder companies', venting teams etc. This may be because often the first-in fire trucks may only have three or four riders at most on board, perhaps, and cannot spare anyone for the special jobs?

[White_elephant]

I would say ventilation would be the likeliest reason, although there could be a host of other reasons, persons reported on the roof??

[Big T]

Got to be ventilation, however, they may have been hoping to cause a backdraft.

I heard a story once via an ex colleague of mine from a firefighter in America. Apparently a lot of the mad stuff we see the americans get up to is all to do with "Jazzing up" a fire to make it seem more exciting. Getting the ratings on tele and getting more funding from the mayor etc. Sounds extreme but it makes some sense. Why climb on a ladder safely when you can dive head first out of a window and grab the ladder with one hand and nearly die in the process. Exciting stuff!

The yanks seem to embrace the Hero stuff a bit to much. I'd rather have a nice brew

[John Webb]

The London "Evening Standard" last night reports that roofers were using torches to affix asphalt shingles to the roof of a set.....

[Tom Sutton]

I think John is correct they call it roof venting look at http://www.firetactics.com/TacticalVentilation.pdf

[Tom Sutton]

From the LAFD copy of an email.

The reason that they were on the roof and you saw large opening was that they had probably just finished cutting a heat and smoke hole to allow all that stuff to escape out of the building so they can see what they are going to attack with there hose streams. We call it a ventilation hole.

http://fire.lacounty.gov/

[chris]

Am I the only one who sees it as an unsafe practice? I know it’s their country their rules, but the building was clearly lost so why risk their lives? If it’s such a clever technique why don’t we use it in the UK? Would any OIC in the UK send Ff’s onto a warehouse roof to do that?

[Clevelandfire]

No.

But then again we dont anything that constitutes anything remotely dangerous anymore.

Someone drowning in a lake we just stand by and watch because we aren't allowed to enter the water until water rescue arrive.

Someone stuck up a tree we stand on the ground and watch until rope rescue arrives.

Two extremes One job

[johno67]

Am I the only one who sees it as an unsafe practice? I know it’s their country their rules, but the building was clearly lost so why risk their lives? If it’s such a clever technique why don’t we use it in the UK? Would any OIC in the UK send Ff’s onto a warehouse roof to do that?

Seems pretty unsafe to me. Which I do find quite surprising considering the amount of fire-fighters who die in the line of duty in the US each year. Mind you I don't know what their thinking or risk approach was at the time, so hope I'm not speaking out of turn.

The US military seem to have a pretty similar approach.

Mind you our approach to house fires was a bit gung-ho pre Blaina.

I remember when fire-fighters from Sweden used to come to the station I was serving on at the time on an exchange program and how we sniggered at their gas cooling techniques.

I think perhaps we learn more quickly?

[Tom Sutton]

I wouldn’t discount purpose built manual roof ventilation and I do remember on incident were a vent had to be dragged open using lines and firefighters providing the muscle.

Another I remember was firefighters getting on the roof of an adjacent building, were the party wall came three feet above the roof. They used the wall for protection and with ceiling hooks they smashed a hole through the slates of the building on fire, which proved successful.

But in general it must be a NO NO.

[messy]

For anyone who hasn't seen the images, the FFs concerned make an appearance about 1min 30 secs into this BBC news footage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV8R4W9v_tc

 Although I accept that the zoom lens of the camera may 'squash u'p the true picture, I've watched in a couple of times now and I certainly would not like to have been so close to that opening