Fire Fighter Venting A Roof

One of the fastest avenues through which fires spread is the attic.

Fire fighter venting a roof.

Operating on the roof during a building fire requires us to have a secondary means of escape. Firefighters may go ahead of the fire on a roof cut holes to access the attic and stop the fire from spreading through the attic. The guys on the roof kept stepping on the part of the roof he was cutting he coulda fallen in and he one fire fighter was sitting on the top of the roof where it was strucutally ompromised and there was a fire fighter inside the building wen the. 2 my experience taught me that the larger the hole the better.

There are two types of ventilation we deal with all the time at fires. My partner and i learned to cut in segments. However there are many other critical steps that we need to master in order to make roof ventilation an efficient process. Heat and smoke rise into the attic where the fire can move quickly.

Another reason for venting the roof is to see how far the fire has progressed. This will likely be the responsibility of crews on the ground. But if resources are such the vent team may need to place both sets of ladders prior to making the roof. Ventilation is an important tactic at structural firefighting operations.

When we talk about roof ventilation we often focus on the cut itself.