In Episode 18, check out UL's Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) Advisory Board Member and Milwaukee Fire Department Battalion Chief, Erich Roden, discuss how there can be survivable spaces upon arrival at a single-family residential home fire.

You are dispatched to a structure fire with possible occupants trapped. Upon arrival, rescue is the first priority. The commanding officer is now faced with the decision of “risk vs. reward,” weighing the potential for a victim to survive the given environment and risking crews on the interior search prior to fire control. Two things impact the survivability of a given space in the structure: the proximity to the fire and the elevation in the space. The proximity to the fire compartment relates to the thermal exposure and the elevation in the space relates to the exposure to toxic gases and thermal exposure.

To learn more about this tactical consideration, take FSRI’s Suppression Tactics in Single-Family Homes online training course.