Bunker Boots » Truck 106

House Fire at Box 7216

Jae Park — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 15:02:45 +0000

On December 26, 2009 (approximately 4 hours after getting off my 13.5-hour non-stop flight from Seoul, South Korea) I managed to hop on Truck 106 on a call for a house fire at fire box 7216.
This would be my first working house fire call.

We arrived on scene for a two-story single family dwelling with flames showing on the Alpha side of the first floor.
First and second due engines deployed the primary and secondary attack lines and made entry from the front door on the Bravo side, where they attacked the fire in fully involved living room.

The incident lasted well over an hour, with the incident commander striking a second alarm and calling in Light and Air 103 and Canteen 106.

A couple of points worth mentioning from this call:

– The 28′ extension ladder is a pain to carry by yourself, but is doable. I had to carry the thing to the Charlie side of the structure to ventilate the second floor window. That being said, firefighters should practice and develop a sense of what ladder you would need, and how much you have to extended before deploying it to a building. They say this comes with lots of practice and experience. And as always, CHECK FOR OVERHEAD OBSTRUCTIONS!!!

– The structure appeared to be of Type III construction, with brick walls on the exterior and concrete floors on the first and second floors. While it is not impossible to breach the brick walls in order to escape from the structure, the task is obviously much more difficult than in a Type IV or V. Assessing building construction upon arrival on scene would go a lot way in preparing yourself before entering the building (i.e. what tools do you need? what hazards do I need to look out for? How would it affect my tactics inside the building?)

– The call involved a hoarding situation at the residence. Hoarding can create dangerous conditions for firefighters as the excess contents are literally fuel just waiting to be burned, causing rapid development and spread of the fire.

– Hoarding can also creates numerous obstacles and causes problems for advancing and retreating attack lines, as well as search and rescue. The photos below shows just how much stuff had to be pulled out for overhaul. The pile on the front door was just part of a larger pile still in the living room.

– Hoarding can also cause some disorientation, especially in sensory-deprived environments. Piles and piles of junk could change how the room and the floors are perceived by firefighters and cause confusion while conducting search and rescue. This could lead rescuers to get lost, stuck, or even crawl out a roof, thus prompting a subsequent mayday and RIT activation .

– Red hats have a lot of external work to do on the fire ground! (Nuff said.)

Two-story single family dwelling at box 7216. The living room was fully involved upon arrival on scene.

Two-story single family dwelling at box 7216. Notice the pile of household items in front of the front door.

This was part of a larger pile in the living room, which measured about a foot high from the floor.

ACFD firefighters on Truck 106 after completing overhaul operations at Box 7216

Engine Company had all the fun…

Training at an Acquired Structure

Jae Park — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:25:48 +0000

I dug up some photos from training on an acquired structure back in December that I had completely forgot about.

Yes, in a real situation, I would have my SCBA on.

Pulling the window open. this window opened inward from the middle when we slammed the tip of the ladder into it. Even one of the old time career guys on Truck 106 said “Hmm… that’s new.”

Arlington Truck 106 (Reserve Truck 111) and Fairfax Tower 430 (Merrifield)

Fairfax Tower 430 (Merrifiled) was invited to train on the acquired structure with T106.

Crews of Arlington T106 and Fairfax TW430 review forcible entry tactics

Duty calls: T106 responds to a call for a pedestrian struck. Literally a block away from where we were training.

Trying out the K-12

Accident with Injury Response on N Washington Blvd. and N Ohio St.

Jae Park — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:48:56 +0000

ACFD responded to a call for an accident with injury on the intersection of N Washington Blvd. and N Ohio St.

Responding units: Engine 106, Engine 108, Medic 106, Medic 102, Medic 104, Truck 106, Battalion Chief 112, EMS Supervisor 112, Command Aide 114

Fellow volunteer John Bonds and I were with the crew of Truck 106, which conducted extrication for one of the patients.

Falls Church VFD and ACFD FirefightersÂ secure the patient on to a long board with spider straps after extrication

Falls Church VFD and ACFD Firefighters ready the patient for transport (Yours truly on the bottow center doing head stabilization on the patient)

Another day on Truck 106

Jae Park — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:22:59 +0000

When I received my operational gear in April 2009, upon graduation from Arlington Countyâ€™s volunteer indoctrination training program in December 2008, I started out riding Engine 106. Its versatility of running both EMS and fire calls was very appealing, and Truck 106 simply felt way too much for me. The sheer size of the apparatus itself, on top of the several dozens of tools it carried, was very intimidating.

â€œTHEâ€ Truck 106

Until I ran that one structure fire call in Fairfax County on Truck 106 (of which I will get into more detail in a later posting) that had me turn into a â€˜truckie,â€™ running fire calls with the A Platoon under Captain William Bennett, one of ACFDâ€™s finest line officers.

So it was another usual day riding with the ACFD career crew of Truck 106 on 20 November 2009. Only this time, it was a day of a lot of trouble shooting. The original Truck 106 was at the property yard for repairs, and had to ride on Reserve Truck 111 (redesignated as Truck 106 until the original returned). The Arlington County Fire Department runs a total of four aerial ladder trucks: Truck 106 at Station 6 (Falls Church), Truck 105 at Station 5 (Jefferson District), Tower 104 at Station 4 (Clarendon), and Reserve Truck 111 which is usually kept at the Arlington County Property Yard.

T105, TW104 and RT111 have identical chassis, which includes a heavy-duty ladder and a pump on board (Tower 104 has a bucket on its aerial, hence its designation). T106, a 2001 an Emergency-One Cyclone II medium duty aerial ladder truck, does not have a pump. Because of the space taken up by the pumper block of the chassis on RT111, tools have to be rearranged every time T106 goes out of service for routine repairs or emergency maintenance. As such, the crew spent most of the day rearranging the layout for tools.

Reserve Truck 111, redesignated as Truck 106 while the original undergoes repairs

Rearranging tools wasnâ€™t the only task the truck crew had to face. Firefighter Joe Marr, A Platoonâ€™s designated chauffeur and long-time veteran on Truck 106(and one of the very few who can actually get things fixed on T106) noticed the aerial-mounted monitor would not elevate to achieve a straight level. Apparently another crew ran the monitor into another object and left it crooked (fresh scratch marks were found on the mount). So the truck crew ran down to the property yard to remedy the problem.

The damaged aerial ladder-mounted monitor on RT111

The mechanics at the property yard tells the crew that they would have to put the monitor out of service, which would leave RT111 without a monitor to execute master stream operations. FF Marr suggests that they swap the monitor on the original T106 (which was at the property yard at the time; it wasnâ€™t going anywhere anyways). And so the operation to swap monitors begins.

CPT Bennett works on releasing the bolts securing the aerial ladder-mounted monitor on T106

Firefighter Runion shows off his big guns while carrying the monitor from the original T106

Firefighters Gorman (right) and Marr work on removing the damaged monitor mounted on RT111â€™s aerial ladder. Note the scuffmarks on the waterway.

The aerial ladder on RT111 extended into one of the maintenance bays at the Arlington County Property Yard during nozzle replacement

The tip of the aerial ladder on RT111, minus the nozzle turret

Aerial-mounted nozzle being installed on to RT111

Firefighters Gorman (right) and Marr checks the range of motion of the newly mounted monitor

Later we return to the station, where I assist FF Marr in hooking RT111 onto a hydrant, filling the on-board water tank, and operating the pump panel while he makes manual adjustments on the monitor while water was being pushed out.

Reserve Truck 111

The day went by without any calls, which is a good thing. We were there to do the job right, and that we did.

Another day of preserving life and property on Truck 106.