Searching a burning building is one of the most important and dangerous aspects of a firefighter’s job. It’s also fairly common: We must conduct a search at every fire to which we respond. Every firefighter must therefore have search procedures down pat.
Searches can be divided into two basic types: primary and secondary. These searches are different and require different tactics. Both can be, at times, extremely dangerous. They can also be incomparably rewarding: If you find the fire and put it out, you’ve done your job; if you find a victim and make a rescue, you feel like a hero.
The Primary Search
We’ve all heard the training motto, “As the first line goes, so goes the fire.” These words are true, and to put the fire out, the engine company must know where the line is going–the first goal of the primary search. By finding the fire, the search crew can prioritize the areas in need of search and work back, or away, from the fire.
Step 1: Find the fire and, if possible, confine it. We can close a door, use a 2 1?2-gallon pressurized water extinguisher or remove a door from another room and use it to keep fire from escaping the involved room. Once the fire is in check, we can start our search for victims.
Primary SOGs
Methods of search should be covered in your standard operating guidelines (SOGs) and must include basic communications. For example, if a truck company wants to go above the fire floor, the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) requires that the company officer tell the officer on the fire floor that they’re going above. This system ensures the crew on the fire floor will look out for the truck company above.
You should also tell the engine company officer and nozzle team if you’re going past an operating hoseline. That way, if they have a problem, they can let you know so you can withdraw quickly. Such basic safety considerations are essential inside a fire building.
SOGs should also address advancing past the fire. This is an aggressive firefighting tactic that must be done after a careful risk-vs.-reward assessment is made–you don’t want to end up with no way out. That said, you might consider advancing past a fire if other members of your department have established a secondary means of egress, and you suspect a victim’s life is at risk beyond the fire. Depending on staffing, fire conditions and your department SOGs, you might only be able to work back from the fire, toward the entrance through which you entered, until the line is in place and operating. Once the line is in place and operating, you can proceed past the handline to continue your search.
And who conducts the primary search in your department? If you have an engine company with three people entering the building and an apparatus operator/driver manning the rig, consider yourself lucky in today’s fire service. Most departments are still trying to get a fourth member on the engine company. If you’re operating with a three-member crew, three members of your first-in engine are required to stretch a line, force the door and find or acquire a secondary means of egress before performing a search. This is too much for three people. So what don’t you do: stretch the line, search, enter the building or secure a secondary means of egress? These are all basic search activities and with insufficient staffing, your search will be slowed. You must prioritize based on the individual situation.
Victim Found
Suppose you find a victim while stretching the first-in line–what do you do now? Most people would answer, “Remove the victim.” But to do so would slow the first line’s operation, and if we abandon the first line to rescue a victim, we also leave the protection and security of the line. This means every firefighter and potential victim in the building is now operating without the security of a hoseline. The victim might already be deceased. Remember: We in the fire service are caring and compassionate people, and we want to save lives, but we must think twice about whom we may endanger in our haste.
A member of that engine company should advance the line past the victim and get it into operation as soon as possible. The location of the victim is then communicated to other firefighters, who will make the rescue. Or, the line should be advanced and operated, at which point a member of the engine company drops off to assess the victim and request help. Leaving a victim behind is a difficult concept for most of us to stomach, but we must remember that the first line in protects everyone!
Secondary Search
The secondary search is a complete search of the entire premises for all possible points of fire extension and all possible victims. Chief among our concerns: finding rekindles.
Rekindles occur due to a failure to extinguish the fire in the first place. Imagine how that looks to the person who is calling you back to their home to put the fire out–again. If you think there might be a pocket of fire in a wall or a ceiling, it must be opened up and examined. The major fire damage has been done; we’re searching for what is hidden but poses more harm if ignored.
The search for occupants must now be completed. Tip: Complete the secondary search with different members than those who conducted the primary search. Fresh eyes might see something that the primary search overlooked.
As you search for victims, keep in mind what residents and witnesses have told you. If you are told
that someone is in the fire building, they probably are. Even if not, you still must account for that missing person before you leave the fire scene. Before we turn the structure over to the occupants, we must have everyone accounted for. Just imagine the headlines when the occupants discover a body you missed!
Your search might expand outside of the fire building, incorporating areas such as setbacks, perimeter landscaping and central elevator shafts. It might require that we get shovels and go through the fire debris. Remember: Time is not important here; accuracy is!
Search Tools
You must have tools to be effective at a fire, and the tools for primary and secondary searches include the hoseline and search tools, such as an axe, a Halligan, a 2 1?2-gallon water extinguisher or a pike pole. A firefighter without tools is a well-dressed bystander!
The best tool for finding a fire is the thermal imaging camera. This tool allows you to locate the fire easier than ever before, but it’s electronic and therefore can fail. The battery can go dead, the screen go blank–are you ready to handle this? When technology fails, our basic coordinated and land-marked search will allow us to complete the task. Remember: Whatever tools you’re assigned, have them ready and know how to use them.
In Sum
Learning to do a safe and successful search requires experience, and experience is difficult to come by in most departments these days. A lack of experience can only be overcome with training. Search drills are easy to plan, create and complete in any fire department, requiring only gear and a plan. By training, we make our members better firefighters and officers. They become more confident in themselves and their abilities to get their job done effectively and safely.
