Fire streams & fire attack for Firefighter I

A 1½-in. line flows even less than a 1¾-in. and is too light for heavy commercial fire.

A booster line is for small outdoor fires and cannot deliver an interior attack flow.

The 1¾-in. line is the usual choice for residential room-and-contents fires but cannot match the heavier flow.

A 2½-in. line delivers about 250 gpm or more, the flow a large, well-involved commercial fire calls for.

Painting is a gentle, steady stream laid onto hot walls and ceilings.

Penciling uses short bursts of straight stream through the smoke onto burning fuel and hot surfaces.

Pulsing sends short bursts of fog into the overhead gas layer, not a straight stream onto fuel.

Hydraulic ventilation uses a fog cone at a window to draw smoke out and is not an attack technique.

An indirect attack turns water to steam in the upper layer of a closed space; it is not defined by high flow.

A combination attack pairs gas cooling with a direct attack on the fuel, usually from inside.

Hydraulic ventilation clears smoke with a fog stream and is not a suppression tactic.

A blitz attack hits heavy fire with a large flow from a deck gun or big line for a quick knockdown before crews move inside.

Chocks do nothing about tire failure, which crews manage by approach angle.

Fire can destroy brakes and the transmission's hold, so a burning vehicle may roll into crews, especially on a slope.

Chocking the wheels does nothing to stop a fuel leak.

Chocks are not a path to ground and are not used for static.

Fog droplets have more surface area and absorb heat faster than a straight stream.

A wide fog shields crews from radiant heat; a straight stream does little.

Fog spreads over a wide area, while a straight stream covers a narrow path.

A straight stream keeps water compact, so it reaches farther and drives deeper into burning material.

Flashover is a compartment event and does not apply to open-air stacks.

Steam burns are a hazard of fog in closed rooms, not outdoors.

Large outdoor fires loft burning brands that the wind carries far downwind, starting new fires on roofs and other stacks.

Backdraft needs an enclosed, oxygen-starved space, not open stacks.

Boilover is an event in heated crude-oil tanks, not in a gasoline spill.

A solid stream's force splashes burning gasoline, and because gasoline floats on water the fire spreads farther.

Steam production is not the problem with a pool fire; spreading the fuel is.

Gasoline does not react chemically with water.

A hotter hallway is the old belief that outside water pushes heat inside; the measurements did not bear it out.

Research found a short exterior stream into the fire room cools it without pushing fire into connected rooms, which supports transitional attack.

Water into the fire room cooled it in the tests; that cooling is the point of the tactic.

Backdraft needs air suddenly let into a starved space; applying water does not create that.

Raising nozzle pressure cannot drive water through a sofa.

A wide fog spreads water into the air and adds steam without wetting the hidden fuel.

Sweeping the floor wets the area in front; fuel behind the sofa stays dry.

Bouncing a straight pattern off the ceiling or a wall rains water down onto fuel hidden behind furniture.

A container fire against a building is an exposure problem, so siding, eaves and vents are checked right after knockdown.

Waiting delays the check of the building, where the real threat lies.

Working the dumpster first leaves possible hidden fire in the building to grow.

Closing the lid starves the fire only for a while, and it can flare again.

Burning tires produce intense heat, thick toxic black smoke and oil that fouls the runoff.

Tire fires make dark smoke and heavy contaminated runoff, not white smoke.

Quick extinguishment is unlikely: water struggles to penetrate a pile, so these fires take a long time.

Slow smoldering is wrong: once a pile is involved, rubber burns very hot.

The backup line guards the attack crew and their way out and adds flow if conditions worsen.

Overhaul lines are a later assignment, not the backup's purpose.

Exposure protection is a separate assignment.

The supply comes from the pump, not from a second handline.

Perimeter dousing is not a recognized attack method and names no specific technique.

Working along the sides from a secure anchor point narrows the head while keeping the crew out of its path.

A frontal attack meets the fire's fastest, hottest edge and is limited to small, low-intensity fires.

Attacking the head directly faces the most intense part of the fire.

Opposing streams push heat, steam and burning debris at the crew facing them from the other side.

The concern is crew safety, not water use.

Where lines point has no effect on pump discharge pressure.

Fast cooling is the goal of an attack, not a hazard.

Hose flaked toward the floor above feeds down onto the fire floor easily as the line advances.

Excess left outside has to be pulled up the whole stairway.

Hose piled at the fire-floor landing kinks and blocks the doorway.

Hose stored below the fire floor must be dragged uphill against friction to advance.

Situation status is a reporting term, not part of LCES.

Supervision matters but is not one of the four LCES elements.

LCES stands for Lookouts, Communications, Escape routes and Safety zones, places where crews can survive without a shelter.

Staging is where uncommitted resources wait, not a wildland safety element in LCES.

An incipient fire is handled with a direct attack or an extinguisher.

With victims near the fire, the steam would injure the very people crews are trying to save.

An indirect attack fills a closed space with steam, so it is used only where no victims or firefighters will be exposed.

In a vented space the steam escapes through openings, so the method works poorly.

More water on the outside still runs off without reaching the fire deep inside.

A cover hides the hot material and can trap heat.

Rekindle means fire deep in the stack where water cannot reach, so the stack is broken apart and each piece soaked.

A wide fog from a distance cannot get water into the middle of the stack.