Firefighting tactics should focus on safety of firefighters

AS a former firefighter, it troubles me, and makes me very angry, that nine firefighters died recently while fighting a furniture-warehouse fire in North Charleston, S.C.

You might recall that in 1995, four Seattle firefighters died during the Pang warehouse fire. In both of those fires, I believe the firefighters should not have been inside the burning buildings. More than likely, both of these fires were situations where containment, while fighting the fire from the outside, might have been the best option.

There have been many other firefighter fatalities involving fire scenes and structural collapse.

In the U.S. from 1994 to 2004, approximately 181 career and volunteer firefighters died on duty, due to fire-scene asphyxiation, being caught or trapped, or building collapse, according to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

A Federal Emergency Management Agency report stated, "Between the years 1979 and 2002 there were over 180 firefighter fatalities due to structural collapse, not including those firefighters lost in 2001 in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. Structural collapse is an insidious problem within the firefighting community. It often occurs without warning and can easily cause multiple fatalities."

I realize the thermodynamics involved in each commercial building fire can be different. Nevertheless, there are certain conditions that are somewhat common, as in the basic issues of fire spread, mixed flammability of combustible materials, flashover characteristics, etc.

Everyone who has served in the fire service has either had firsthand experience or has seen the training films that show how quickly fire spreads — within as little as two minutes — when certain synthetic materials are the fuel. All firefighters know how untenable and dangerous a room can become with one burning sofa or chair, not to mention a warehouse full of sofas.

This is 2007, and there are standards available for all kinds of fire-safety issues. However, on a national basis, there appears to be an absence of a safety standard for firefighters regarding when, and when not, to enter a burning commercial building.

Clearly, there should be a national firefighting standard — or guidelines — that either prohibits or recommends against routine entry of the interior of a commercial building containing extremely flammable contents.

In addition, there are times when an attempt to rescue a person who might be inside a burning building has too great a risk to firefighter safety. Reasoning and common sense must prevail. There ought to be a consensus that no buildings or contents are worth the life of any firefighter.

No one should point fingers and lay blame. However, the fire services across this country should come together to consider ways to change commercial-building firefighting tactics with the goal of trying to make firefighter safety the paramount issue, and try to prevent such incidents from ever happening again in the future.

Within Snohomish County, there are dozens of small to large commercial buildings that contain extremely flammable furniture and other household products. Therefore, all fire departments and fire districts, whether in Snohomish County or anywhere else in the country, need to be very mindful of those potential dangers and develop firefighting tactics that make firefighter safety the No. 1 priority.

Gary Clark of Marysville is a one-time firefighter and a veteran who retired from the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs, where he worked with homeless and incarcerated veterans.