Stratigies and tactics 1.1

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Eastern Kentucky University *

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Mechanical Engineering

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Feb 20, 2024

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FireGround Strategies and Tactics 1 GP Paper Facility Fire By: Michael A Towne

Commercial buildings have a vast array of construction characteristics and fire preventative measures. Every building will host a different purpose with different fire loads and different special hazards. Another thing to remember is a building may have been constructed for a particular use but over time has changed hands and is now used for something completely different. Though inspections for businesses are done regularly there are instances where things are “grandfathered” unless major renovations are going to be done. It is ultimately on us as professionals to know what we have in our districts so we can respond to emergencies appropriately. One build in my district that is always on my mind is a Georgia Pacific owned property. This is a type two, mixed use industrial facility. It functions as a warehouse, manufacturing, and office space. The facility is a total of 415,800 square feet, the front third of the building is two stories with offices and the rear two thirds is manufacturing and warehousing. There is a fire detection and protection system in operation with its own dedicated water supply. The building is of steel frame construction with metal siding and roofing. The building is of type two construction some of which is type two A and some is type two B. In the warehouse and manufacturing portion of the building the ceiling heights are averaged at 30 feet high. It is of steel beam and girder frame welded together. It is a semi rigid frame with diagonal bracing. The wall structure consists of one hour coated steel with aluminum siding. The truss system also consists of a one hour rated steel coating and is a bar joist truss style. All components are exposed. The roof decking is also heavy gauge aluminum. In the office portion of the building there is a type X gypsum fire wall that separates the manufacturing side. The main structure of the building is built with fire rated steel but the inner structure is built with untreated steel components. These components are protected by fire rated gypsum walls though. The building is equipped with multiple life safety devices. To start, the alarm system is a zone based system. Manufacturing, warehouse and front office have their own respective zones with the office having ground floor and second floor zones. If a zone is tripped it will signify the zone but allow the audible and visual alarm to sound for the whole building. The sprinkler system is a wet system with a water supply provided by a deep well on the property and supplemented by the local water system. The system is also a zone base as to only trip the area of the fire. Throughout the building

there are fire extinguishers of various types clearly marked and accessible for use as needed. There are many loads put on a building that vary based on design and use. Of the loads we'll talk about the fire load first. This facility has an exceptionally high fuel load. This load consists of materials stored in the warehouses, the machines and chemicals used to keep those machines running along with all the combustible goods in the front office. The warehouses store raw materials for making paper, another houses the large rolls of finished product. There is a shipping and receiving area that houses everything coming in and going out. In the machining area there are processing chemicals and machine oils and in the offices there is furniture, electronics and other combustible products. All of this combined creates a large fire load with the potential of producing a great deal of thermal energy. There are many other loads to consider in the structure of the building. The dead load, which is the weight of the structure and its components, is pretty hefty itself. The steel beams and trusses make up the majority of the dead load but you can't count out the siding and roof decking as well. The live load in this facility is actually fairly minimal. There are no units on the roof, the office space has the added load of people shuffling around and the weather here in the south to worry about is mainly the wind. One nice thing with the style of construction is the water load is very minimal because the members will not absorb the water. This building is affected moderately by the dynamic load of machine vibrations and the high winds that may occur. There is a lot of potential for a devastating fire in this facility. Life safety is our number one priority but we must always remember that preservation of property and salvage are very important as well. As the first arriving officer to a fire at this facility a BIR or a brief incident report would be given. This amounts to C-HOLES; Construction, Occupancy, Location/Extent, Exposers, Special Circumstances. At this time I would also designate an operations channel and establish command. Upon completion of a 360 if obtainable a report like C- BAR which is Command, Building, Action and resource management would be given. When I say command I would pick an advantageous position for the command, staging, rehab and RIT staging and ensure that it was broadcast for everyone to know. It would offer more building information if obtained, what actions are taking place at this time ( the mode of operation would dictate this based on situational needs and capabilities) and the request for additional resources as needed, not including the RIT, Safety, Accountability. EMS and PD would also need to be thought about.

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With this fire we are looking at a building that is 660x630x30 and a total of 415,800 sqft. For a fire at this facility that were deemed fully involved it would require a GPM of 124,740 for suppression. With that said, based on 1 firefighter to 50 GPM this fire would require 2,494 firefighters. Based on 1 engine for every 500 GPM it would require 249 engines, for every 2 engines a ladder is needed. This equates to 124 ladders needed and 62 chiefs to maintain an appropriate span of control per ICS. These numbers are completely based on the formula given in regards to this paper. For us this would be a major incident requiring help not just from our mutual aid agreement departments but also departments much further away. The requirements to put this fire out would not be obtainable. If this structure were fully involved it would be a defensive operation which is a tough call to make. None of us want to allow someone's property to be lost but the risk vs. reward just doesn't add up in this case. If the situation were different we would have options, we could go defensive-offensive or transitional attack until we have adequate manpower and resources. Maybe we have a simple room and contents in an office and we just hit it hard with an offensive or fast attack. Every situation will require a different response and strategy so we need to have the knowledge and ability to make the best operational decision with the information we have.