HOW TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF CIVILIAN INJURIES AND DEATHS AT FIRES?

If you keep up with the Fire Service, you know that in the last few months it has been a very troubling time. We have lost way too many firefighters in the Line of Duty. We have also had too many civilian fatalities. I understand that this is what sometimes happens in our line of work. That is the risk we took upon ourselves when we swore to the oath to protect our neighbors lives and property. What I want to discuss today is  a way we can reduce the number of civilian casualties. 

Some of the numbers I will use are a few years old, but that is all I could find at the time I was writing this piece. But keep in mind even though the numbers may be a few years old, today's numbers will be very similar.

In the year 2002 we had over 3,000 civilian deaths caused by fire in the United States. If you do the math, that was a fire related death (civilian) approx. every 156 minutes or so. That is incredible and horrible. In that same year we had over 18,000 civilian injured by fire. This number is most likely to low actually, because of under reporting. Of the 3,000 plus fire deaths that occurred in 2002 80% of then were in residential structures. So how do we, as a Fire Service, reduce this number? That is our number one priority- LIFE SAFETY.

We do this by changing our searching technique at residential structure fires. The technique that is proven to work is called VES or Vent Enter Search.

A retired Lt. from the FDNY, where VES was developed, named Bob Pressler is quoted as saying "After observing countless fire departments, I have concluded that responding fire departments can reduce the number of civilian casualties by aggressively doing VES". But because of departments being understaffed and sometimes under trained, alot of departments do not perform aggressive searches.

Most of you reading this will be familiar with the term VES. For those of you that are not, VES is when firefighters either create openings or can access to a structure from the outside to perform a primary search in high risk areas of the structure. VES is done without the safety of a hoseline and under most circumstances is performed away from the initial attack area.

Is this dangerous, yes. May we find great rewards by aggressively searching in this manner (a victim), yes...

 Why do we in the Fire Service even do ventilation? We vent for Life, we vent for Fire, we vent for Safety. So VES simply meets the first objective of ventilation immediately. We vent to rescue any possibly victims and make the conditions in the structure more tenable for possible victims. Life Safety, our number one priority right?

Now is VES needed at every structure fire, absolutely not. But we should make it a standard of practice at residential structure fires where there is even the smallest possibility of a down victim and the chance we can reach them. Structures do not spontaneously combust. 

Many of the fires which our Fire Service responds to are room and contents fires. These fires can usually be extinguished with a single hoseline, most likely (if trained properly) using less then 500 gallons of water. Most of the fires vertical ventilation is not needed and horizontal ventilation is already done by the first arriving engine company. Quickly going and opening windows and doors in the proper places does not take very long. 

So if horizontal ventilation is in place and the attack crew is going to make an advancement, how can we utilize our man power a little better on scene? By performing VES. Most departments that perform VES, will have the first arriving truck company take this task. But there are too many departments that do not have adequate truck companies, so this task must be giving to and performed by and engine company. They will vent for Life, they will vent for the Fire and they will enter and search and locate any possible victims.

Again VES should be performed on any fire where the probability of life hazards are high. This is a great tactic to deploy for companies that do not carry water such as rescue companies and some truck companies. It may have to be done by an engine company as well, due to the lack of resources. But one thing is for sure, it must be done to reduce civilian injuries and deaths.

We will not go into how to perform VES, this will be up to the individual department and how they wish to train their personnel to do so.

With all this talk about VES, we want to make sure it is clear that there should never be a delay in the suppression efforts. Rescuing a victim happens in two ways - Removing the victim from the fire and Removing the fire from the victim. There have been small fires that have gotten out of hand because of a delay in suppression efforts for search and rescue efforts. This is a no no...

Is VES too aggressive? Does it put firefighters in too much danger? Not in our opinion. If firefighters are well trained and proficient and thorough with their gear, the danger is significantly reduced. Another quote from Lt. Pressler pretty much sums it up. "VES is dangerous, so why do we go there? Because that is the people we are! It's that simple. You have the proper training, proper gear, you are wearing a SCBA, your victime has neither."

So can we help reduce those injury and death numbers pertaining to civilians in fires? Yes we can, by VES. But it will take serious training and serious dedication to do so. Do you have it???