|
|
|
|
|
17 July 2026
|
Featured FRI Magazine article: Fires in high-rise buildings: Extending hose lines for initial attack by Ian Schnetler
|
|
https://www.frimedia.org/uploads/1/2/2/7/122743954/fri_vol_4_no_1.pdf
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: Fires in high-rise buildings: Extending hose lines for initial attack written by Ian Schnetler, chief fire officer, City of Cape Town Fire and Rescue Service (at the time of writing this article) (FRI Vol 4 no 1). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
Fires in high-rise buildings: Extending hose lines for initial attack
By Ian Schnetler, chief fire officer, City of Cape Town Fire and Rescue Service (at the time of writing this article)
The ‘Fires in high-rise buildings’ series of articles offer practical know-how to responders to these perilous fires. This fourth part of the five part series focuses on extending hoselines for initial attack.
The possibility of backdrafts or flareups from the sudden loss of windows and the high probability of flashover temperatures all require that the initial attack line be charged before entering the floor. The easiest manner to extend hose onto a fire floor, is to stretch it up the attack stairwell and pull it down as you advance onto the floor. Crews should layout the dry hose approximately 15cm from the outside wall as they progress up the stairs.
When charged, the hose will expand against the wall without kinking. The fire fighters extending hose on the upper landings will be exposed should the fire flash out the stair door and up the stairs. A back-up line with a fog nozzle should be in place before opening the door to advance the attack line, both to protect the attack crew and the fire fighters in the stairwell.
Connect both the attack line and the back-up line to the hydrant outlet on the fire floor and assume a position below the level of the stair door as the door is opened or forced through broken glass.
Heat from a fire near the stair door may have warped or expanded steel doors or jambs and they may have to be forced even though they are unlocked.
Crews must insure that composite type stair doors are not consumed by the fire before occupants descending from above have passed. Protect these wood veneer, gypsum filled doors with fog streams.
Water supply
The incident commander must ensure that the pump operator of the initial engine on the scene should connect to a fire hydrant sufficiently close to the booster connections, supply the internal system with sufficient water pressure. In most cases, it is best to have the engine at a hydrant away from the risk of falling glass but in very tall buildings the pumper must be located at the base of the building to provide adequate pressures.
If there are multiple hydrants, hose must be connected to each inlet. If the chosen hydrant is not close to the dedicated fire department access, then the crew and equipment can be dropped at the designated entrance and the pump operator continue to the hydrant to make the connections.
Dry stand-pipes should be pressurised according to standard hydraulic calculations. In wet systems, the lines should be wetted but not pressurised until verification that the fire pump is not operating. Wet systems may require that the fire engine duplicate the system’s pressure provided by the fire pump. Lobby may be able to verify the building fire pump operations from the fire control room or by sending a crew member to the pump room.
The pump operator should take a position away from the hazard of falling glass until pumping operations are necessary. If available, hose should be protected from glass and debris. The pump operator should take shelter in engine cab during pump operations to be protected from falling glass and other debris.
Safety when dealing with high-rise Incidents
• Do not operate alone. A minimum for any task except the elevator person is two fire fighters with a radio. Maintain personnel accountability report (PAR) at all times.
• Maintain full PASSPORT accountability, PASS alert and radio protocols.
• Wear full protective gear at all times. Conditions can change rapidly.
• Do not operate on an involved floor without a charged hoseline.
• Do not allow doors to lock behind you.
• Carry the necessary forcible entry tools.
• Be alert to backdrafts. High-rises are tightly sealed buildings. Feel metal jambs when assessing interior doors. A high-rise floor can have many compartments.
• Be cautious of open shafts or windows. Barricade all openings as soon as possible. Vision on the floor may be reduced even after ventilation because of impounded heat.
• Monitor your air supply closely. There is no diving out a window as at ground level.
• If you are sent into remote areas of the building, take a spare cylinder with. If you have not reached or completed your objective by the time the first cylinder is exhausted, use the second to immediately leave.
• You cannot independably break an upper window for air in a high-rise, especially in winter time. Both the pressure of fire gases in the cores and the upward winter time stack will bring smoke to the opening.
• Maintain a 60m clear perimeter around the building.
• Do not attempt to change breathing apparatus (BA) cylinders in smoke.
• Do not store BA cylinders in the stairwell. You can trip and if the cylinders get loose, they are dangerous to descending occupants.
• Use the hoseline as a reference point when searching in smoke. Return to it after sweeping each room. If you become disoriented, remember female couplings take you back to the stairs or passage.
• Be cautious of your back-swing when forcing doors and windows in smoke. Especially, do not follow the tool out a window!!
• Where applicable shut off the floor heating/electricity as soon as possible at the sub panel or in the main electric room.
• Be cautious of the electricity when breaching walls or pulling ceiling. Do not direct streams into the sub panel room or closet. Water leaking under the door can disrupt power to the building.
Accountability
PASSPORT accountability should be maintained in high-rise fires in the following manner:
• Initial attack crews/units. The initial crews/units to enter the high-rise building may leave their PASSPORTS on the dash of their apparatus.
• Upon the activation of the lobby sector, all crews sent into the building should turn in their PASSPORTS to the lobby sector officer (or designated accountability officer). The lobby sector officer must retrieve any PASSPORTS left on apparatus of initial arriving crews already in the building. Crews arriving in lobby without a PASSPORT must have a ‘make-up’ PASSPORT.
• Once the resource sector is established, the resource sector officer should assign accountability officers to the stairwell doors in resource.
• PASSPORTS will be collected from crews leaving resource to a hazard zone ie fire floor and returned to crews returning to the resource sector. Accountability officers should monitor duration times of crews assigned to hazard zones and report any delayed/overdue crews. Standard PAR benchmarks should be utilised for high-rise operations.
In the following and final part of this series, we will detail the command strategies for high-rise fires.
Photo1: The pump operator should take a position away from the hazard of falling glass until pumping operations are necessary
Photo2: The easiest manner to extend hose onto a fire floor is to stretch it up the attack stairwell and pull it down as you advance onto the floor
Photo3: Connect both the attack line and the back-up line to the hydrant outlet on the fire floor
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: Fires in high-rise buildings: Extending hose lines for initial attack written by Ian Schnetler, chief fire officer, City of Cape Town Fire and Rescue Service (at the time of writing this article) (FRI Vol 4 no 1). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
Fires in high-rise buildings: Extending hose lines for initial attack
By Ian Schnetler, chief fire officer, City of Cape Town Fire and Rescue Service (at the time of writing this article)
The ‘Fires in high-rise buildings’ series of articles offer practical know-how to responders to these perilous fires. This fourth part of the five part series focuses on extending hoselines for initial attack.
The possibility of backdrafts or flareups from the sudden loss of windows and the high probability of flashover temperatures all require that the initial attack line be charged before entering the floor. The easiest manner to extend hose onto a fire floor, is to stretch it up the attack stairwell and pull it down as you advance onto the floor. Crews should layout the dry hose approximately 15cm from the outside wall as they progress up the stairs.
When charged, the hose will expand against the wall without kinking. The fire fighters extending hose on the upper landings will be exposed should the fire flash out the stair door and up the stairs. A back-up line with a fog nozzle should be in place before opening the door to advance the attack line, both to protect the attack crew and the fire fighters in the stairwell.
Connect both the attack line and the back-up line to the hydrant outlet on the fire floor and assume a position below the level of the stair door as the door is opened or forced through broken glass.
Heat from a fire near the stair door may have warped or expanded steel doors or jambs and they may have to be forced even though they are unlocked.
Crews must insure that composite type stair doors are not consumed by the fire before occupants descending from above have passed. Protect these wood veneer, gypsum filled doors with fog streams.
Water supply
The incident commander must ensure that the pump operator of the initial engine on the scene should connect to a fire hydrant sufficiently close to the booster connections, supply the internal system with sufficient water pressure. In most cases, it is best to have the engine at a hydrant away from the risk of falling glass but in very tall buildings the pumper must be located at the base of the building to provide adequate pressures.
If there are multiple hydrants, hose must be connected to each inlet. If the chosen hydrant is not close to the dedicated fire department access, then the crew and equipment can be dropped at the designated entrance and the pump operator continue to the hydrant to make the connections.
Dry stand-pipes should be pressurised according to standard hydraulic calculations. In wet systems, the lines should be wetted but not pressurised until verification that the fire pump is not operating. Wet systems may require that the fire engine duplicate the system’s pressure provided by the fire pump. Lobby may be able to verify the building fire pump operations from the fire control room or by sending a crew member to the pump room.
The pump operator should take a position away from the hazard of falling glass until pumping operations are necessary. If available, hose should be protected from glass and debris. The pump operator should take shelter in engine cab during pump operations to be protected from falling glass and other debris.
Safety when dealing with high-rise Incidents
• Do not operate alone. A minimum for any task except the elevator person is two fire fighters with a radio. Maintain personnel accountability report (PAR) at all times.
• Maintain full PASSPORT accountability, PASS alert and radio protocols.
• Wear full protective gear at all times. Conditions can change rapidly.
• Do not operate on an involved floor without a charged hoseline.
• Do not allow doors to lock behind you.
• Carry the necessary forcible entry tools.
• Be alert to backdrafts. High-rises are tightly sealed buildings. Feel metal jambs when assessing interior doors. A high-rise floor can have many compartments.
• Be cautious of open shafts or windows. Barricade all openings as soon as possible. Vision on the floor may be reduced even after ventilation because of impounded heat.
• Monitor your air supply closely. There is no diving out a window as at ground level.
• If you are sent into remote areas of the building, take a spare cylinder with. If you have not reached or completed your objective by the time the first cylinder is exhausted, use the second to immediately leave.
• You cannot independably break an upper window for air in a high-rise, especially in winter time. Both the pressure of fire gases in the cores and the upward winter time stack will bring smoke to the opening.
• Maintain a 60m clear perimeter around the building.
• Do not attempt to change breathing apparatus (BA) cylinders in smoke.
• Do not store BA cylinders in the stairwell. You can trip and if the cylinders get loose, they are dangerous to descending occupants.
• Use the hoseline as a reference point when searching in smoke. Return to it after sweeping each room. If you become disoriented, remember female couplings take you back to the stairs or passage.
• Be cautious of your back-swing when forcing doors and windows in smoke. Especially, do not follow the tool out a window!!
• Where applicable shut off the floor heating/electricity as soon as possible at the sub panel or in the main electric room.
• Be cautious of the electricity when breaching walls or pulling ceiling. Do not direct streams into the sub panel room or closet. Water leaking under the door can disrupt power to the building.
Accountability
PASSPORT accountability should be maintained in high-rise fires in the following manner:
• Initial attack crews/units. The initial crews/units to enter the high-rise building may leave their PASSPORTS on the dash of their apparatus.
• Upon the activation of the lobby sector, all crews sent into the building should turn in their PASSPORTS to the lobby sector officer (or designated accountability officer). The lobby sector officer must retrieve any PASSPORTS left on apparatus of initial arriving crews already in the building. Crews arriving in lobby without a PASSPORT must have a ‘make-up’ PASSPORT.
• Once the resource sector is established, the resource sector officer should assign accountability officers to the stairwell doors in resource.
• PASSPORTS will be collected from crews leaving resource to a hazard zone ie fire floor and returned to crews returning to the resource sector. Accountability officers should monitor duration times of crews assigned to hazard zones and report any delayed/overdue crews. Standard PAR benchmarks should be utilised for high-rise operations.
In the following and final part of this series, we will detail the command strategies for high-rise fires.
Photo1: The pump operator should take a position away from the hazard of falling glass until pumping operations are necessary
Photo2: The easiest manner to extend hose onto a fire floor is to stretch it up the attack stairwell and pull it down as you advance onto the floor
Photo3: Connect both the attack line and the back-up line to the hydrant outlet on the fire floor