By Robert Pervere
When the bells hit, everyone’s heart rate jumps as the adrenaline starts to pump. “This could be a job!” Everyone starts moving in the direction of the truck with a hopeful ear out, willing the words “smoke showing” or “fire visible” from the radio. As the dispatcher continues, they hear, “… report of a smoke alarm activation, called in by the occupants. They don’t see or smell anything in the house.” Everyone’s shoulders sag a little, the speed with which they move slows, and inevitably someone says, “Another one?!” (likely with slightly more colorful language).
Everything Is on Fire
Every call is an opportunity to hone our craft, and every call has the potential to turn sideways, even more so when our guard is down. If we approach these alarm calls as “just another false alarm” before we ever leave the building, we are squandering a multitude of opportunities. Change your mindset from “just another false alarm” to “everything is on fire until we say otherwise.” Every alarm call should be treated as though there is a hazard present, until we have arrived and determined otherwise. If nothing else, a faulty detector has the potential to present a hazard to the safety of the occupants by not alerting in the event of a fire.
When we are dispatched to a fire alarm, the call should be treated no differently than when we are dispatched to a room-and-contents fire. Use fire alarms as dress rehearsals to build and solidify muscle memory. If you take the time to do it right every time, you will not be able to get it wrong at 3:00 a.m. when you are half asleep.
Never assume that the reported problem from the occupants is ever actually the problem. Regularly we get dispatched to “carbon monoxide detectors activated,” only to discover there are not any carbon monoxide detectors in the house; learn from your past experience and others’. Approach every alarm call as a hidden fire, and you are not going to get bitten when that “carbon monoxide detector” with “a funny smell” is actually a smoke detector and shorted-out wall socket burning in the void space.
Muscle Memory
Don your turnout gear. Make sure your radio is in the spot you want it and your flash hood is around your neck. Make sure you don your breathing apparatus, secure the shoulder and waist straps, and have your mask with you. Make sure you have got a flashlight, a thermal imaging camera (TIC), and a tool; and make sure someone on the crew is carrying an extinguisher. Small fires become big fires quickly, and delaying putting water on the fire because someone did not bring an extinguisher in with them is simply negligent.
Multigas detectors. Someone on the investigating crew needs to have a multigas detector (or, at a minimum, a carbon monoxide detector) on them. This lightweight tool with audible alerts allows you to perform atmospheric monitoring as you investigate the alarm without having to think about it. On occasion, you will stumble across a problem that was otherwise unknown.
Plan ahead. As you approach the house, know where your first and second choice water sources are; and have a plan in place for laying hose. When you arrive in front of the house, position the truck with the intention of pulling hose. How tall is the house? How far off the road? Are you pulling a crosslay, or are you going to need the flying standpipe off the rear hosebed? Over the years, we have taught our operators to “give me three sides” to have a 75% view before you get out of the apparatus; but is it really necessary? A cardinal rule, now more than ever, is that we have to do a 360o walk-around. Why not position your apparatus in the most efficient hose-pulling, aerial-considering location right out of the gate? You are going to see that third side of the structure and the fourth side as you do your walk-around.
Size up the house. Is it old or new construction? Does it appear to be lightweight or built with dimensional lumber? What are you going to do if there is fire on the first floor, or the third, in the front, or the back? Which direction is the wind blowing from? Where are your closest exposures, and how are you going to protect them if things go south?
Walk around the house. Where is the power meter on the structure? Often your main breaker panel is going to be in the same general vicinity, inside the structure. How many HVAC compressors are outside? Is there a natural gas line coming in, or maybe an exterior buried propane cylinder? Do you see any whisps of smoke coming from the eaves? Is there a crawlspace or a basement? The time it takes to do the walk-around is a perfect opportunity to use the fresh air to “zero out” your multigas detector; it is also the time to take note of the potential for a carbon monoxide emergency (either now or in the future) by noting exterior propane and natural gas sources.
Interview the occupants. What were they doing at the time the detectors started going off? Were they sleeping? Showering? Cooking? Do they have a guess as to which detector they heard activate first? Where was it? Are all the occupants out of the structure? Use the information they provide to paint a better picture of the potential emergency or a likely culprit alarm, but do not let it cloud your judgment or create tunnel vision.
Respect the property. When you make entry into the house with your tools, extinguisher, and gear, take a moment to think about how bulky and clumsy you are. With a lack of immediate evidence of smoke or fire, set your tools and extinguisher down, gently, just inside the door.
Know where they are, and make sure everyone on the interior crew knows where they are, but do not drag them through the house. In the absence of an IDLH atmosphere, you can move more nimbly and navigate the house more cleanly with less chance of accidental damage to their personal property.
Clear the whole house. You do not need a TIC to clear the house; it is tool but not a cure-all. Your ears, eyes, and nose will tell you far more about what is going on in the first few minutes than that TIC ever will. Stick a head in every room and closet; so long as nothing feels/looks/smells off, move to the next room. Clear the whole house, including the attic and crawlspace, before declaring there is no fire. If there is a questionable outlet or HVAC register, then absolutely look for thermal differences and heat signatures, but use your senses and teach the new generation of firefighters to do the same!
All of these tasks should sound familiar; we preach them during every fire academy. Our recruits hit the street with all of this ingrained, and one of the first things we typically do (albeit unintentionally) is start to chip away at rather than build on this foundation. These are all simple tasks, but all too often we overlook or skip steps because “it’s just another false alarm.” When you have new recruits, ask them questions; use their freshly poured foundation to reshore your own.
Public Education
When you discover that not all the occupants are out of the structure following the activation of the detectors, take a moment to educate. Explain the importance of responding appropriately when an alarm sounds. Standing outside the house, you cannot be certain as to whether the alarm sounding is a carbon monoxide, smoke, or combination detector; just as often as not, the occupants are ignorant as to the differences as well as the potential consequences of failing to respond appropriately.
In the worst-case scenario in the middle of the night, you will arrive on scene to be met by a single occupant while the rest are still inside in their beds. As you talk to the representative, you will discover there are children inside the house who were told to go back to sleep as the smoke detectors continued to sound. In these cases, you should feel obligated to educate the occupants. Give them the ability to treat it as a home fire drill, if nothing else. Let them save a little face after you explain to them how incredibly dangerous it is to teach children to sleep through smoke alarms.
Public Relations
After you have the house evacuated and the investigating crew has cleared it of hazards, you have the perfect time to have some fun, make it a memorable and pleasant experience for the people there, and buy your interior crew some time to track down the problem detectors without upset homeowners breathing down their necks. The house is cleared, your operator can disengage the pump and turn to public relations. Have him take the time to walk the kids around the truck, show them the tools and lights, and answer questions about the job. It is also a perfect time for him to do some fire prevention and safety education; pick a topic and change it up every few months (“get out and stay out,” “family meeting places”). Always have plastic fire helmets on the truck to give out to the kids.
Full Service
In the academy, we teach the differences between photoelectric and ionizing smoke detectors just as we teach the difference between carbon monoxide, rate-of-rise, and heat detectors. If we have got a good academy, we may even teach our recruits about six-month battery changes in smoke detectors and the 10-year life the detectors have. Just as often as not, though, we do not walk them through the hypothetical alarm activation and the intricacies involved in handling them appropriately.
As you are clearing the house, make a mental note of the detector locations, styles, and behaviors. During your initial pass, look for the detector that is behaving differently from the rest, and remember where it is. Do not stop and pull it down just yet. Finish clearing the house first, then come back to it. Two things are accomplished when clearing the house and then returning to the detector: (1) You are still ensuring there are not any hazards present, and (2) you are often going to come across another detector elsewhere that is behaving differently.
When you move around from room to room, look for immediately identifiable hazards, such as overloaded power strips or candles in front of curtains. Look to see where the smoke detectors are mounted and whether they are going to be effective at early detection. Also look for potential carbon monoxide-generating sources throughout the house; if you find them, make sure you also find a combination or independent carbon monoxide detector. Any readily apparent hazard you find is a public education opportunity, giving you the chance to make someone’s life a little safer.
With the house clear, return to and removed the detector that is acting differently. Take the time to read the back of it and figure out what the light pattern means. Most of the manufacturers have a light pattern for normal operation, a different pattern for the currently activating alarm, and another pattern for a detector that has activated in the past. Use the patterns to narrow down the issue to a single detector. Remember that if you are handling the entire scene well, you have got some time to do things right; the occupants are outside with your operator going through the trucks or talking about fire safety.
Should you discover an issue with a single detector (whether it be an old battery or an expired detector), take the time to look at the rest of the house and see if there is the potential for the current problem to be repeated elsewhere in the house. If the problem detector is older than 10 years, likely the other detectors in the house are the same. If the problem detector has an old battery in it, likely the others do as well. Rather than just assuming, take the time to ensure you find all of the potential detector issues and either correct them or educate the homeowner. When it comes time to educate a homeowner, do so with some tact and respect, and make sure to mention all the safety hazards you noticed while you cleared the house.
At a minimum, make sure you never leave a house unprotected. Regardless of local building codes, ensure there is a current, functioning detector on each floor of the house and outside of each sleeping area before you leave. Detectors and batteries are inexpensive and simple to install; have a couple of each available on your first-due apparatus. Never leave an occupied home unprotected; no one should have a conscience capable of handling a fatal fire resulting from a lack of functioning detectors in a residence they have visited for a previous alarm call.
Do The Right Thing
You are a public servant; the general public is not only your customer but also your employer. But for their willingness to relinquish their hard-earned money to taxes, you would not be employed. Approach every call as though something truly terrible is happening, and you are providing good customer service and assuring your employer you are worth the money they spend to employ and equip you.
By approaching every fire alarm the same way you would a true fire, you will be ready for nearly anything you could encounter when you walk through the front door, whether it be a bad battery in a 20-year-old smoke detector or fire hidden in a wall. Regardless of what the issue is, leave the house better and safer than when you arrived, and leave the occupants happier and more informed than they were when they called 911.
BIO:
Robert Pervere has 20 years of fire and EMS experience in both volunteer and career departments in coastal North Carolina, during which he has served in every position from probationary firefighter to volunteer fire chief. He is a career fire lieutenant and paramedic for Currituck County (NC) Fire/EMS.
