Fire Fighting Access Considerations

by Chris & Bronwyn Clear

 

 

Lakeview Estates is a beautiful, heavily wooded environment with moderate topography. Many of us chose to buy here because of the semi-wild nature of our surroundings. Although beautiful, these surroundings can provide challenges to fire fighting response.  Let’s review access, i.e., apparatus entrance, room for apparatus positioning, and access to water. You should keep these ideas in mind when modifying or changing structures on your property to help the firefighters’ efforts to lessen potential fire damage.  We are volunteer fire fighters, but not members of the Coldspring VFD. Therefore, the below comments are somewhat general in nature.

 

Fighting fires takes lots of equipment and water. There’s no way to describe the average fire, because each situation has different demands and therefore different “truck” requirements. However, we can simplify the details to the fact that firemen responding to a building fire need to use multiple trucks and will want to deploy multiple fire hoses to pump thousands of gallons of water. Depending on the size, pumpers generally carry 300 to 1000 gallons of water and since large fires require 100’s of gallons of water a minute, water has to be supplied by other means. Therefore, the FD either brings additional tanker trucks or they draft water from a nearby source. The firemen are trained to configure their equipment to get the job done, but the more tortuous the homeowner makes the path, the more manpower and time it takes to initiate and maintain operations.

 

Entrance access and set-up space can be a key factor.  It seems obvious, but the closer that the FD can position their lead truck safely, the quicker the water operations begin. Fire Department apparatus that is damaged or destroyed is of no use for the next response.  Therefore, FD’s try very hard to eliminate risk to their equipment. It is not reasonable to expect the FD to park their trucks under a canopy of trees while trying to fight a fire that could potentially spread to the vegetation by embers or radiant heat. Because of the potential for radiant heat damage, the lead truck will not position itself directly adjacent to the house either.

 

Water requirements – We are surrounded by a lake so it should be simple, right? Sorry it is not.  As you know we do not have a positive pressure hydrant system in our subdivision. The hydrant we have in the Boat Park is really more of a stiff straw permanently stabbed into the lake with a convenient coupling mounted to the shore side. This allows a fire truck to suck water out of the lake to fill its tank or to act as a pump and push water to other trucks. Flow rate is constrained by the diameter of

the pipe and the truck pump size, so the most common use would be to fill truck tanks for a water supply shuttle to the fire. To use the lake as a direct source, one of the fire trucks would need to get close enough to put a hard line into the lake that doesn’t collapse under suction. For most departments this is 20-40 feet hard line. The reality comes down to the fact that unless you have an open area within 30 feet of open water, then that shimmering lake probably doesn’t help much.

 

So what can we do about these realities? When planning or modifying the entrance to your property and the location of structures, try to incorporate a large open area somewhat near the primary structure with a safe approach and retreat space for one large truck. With one truck positioned in close, the Coldspring VFD can pump water from tankers or other pumpers to the truck or trucks actively fighting the fire. Also a circle drive with forward egress from the property or a wide, well cleared driveway will greatly aid the confidence of the fire officer that it is safe to pull in closer to the fire. If the open area happens to set up near the water, then there could be a benefit to not having locked fences or other barriers blocking the access to the lake.

 

We realize that these ideas will be difficult to incorporate in our subdivision, and our house at 1701 provides an excellent example of a bad situation. We have a tight downhill driveway with dense canopy over the top. At the base of the drive there is an opening, but not enough room for a fire truck to turn around or maneuver. Across the front on the roadside we have a hurricane fence, locked gates, and 30 yards of wild trees and shrubbery before reaching the house.  A fire truck officer probably will not risk taking a pumper down our driveway. Therefore, fire operations would be conducted from the road, requiring 100’ of hose JUST to reach the door regardless of going up the stairs and into the house. Long hose lays reduce pump pressure and water flow.  Yes, firefighters can get through any gate, but cutting the locks takes time.  We are considering some changes to our property in a few years that will incorporate a circle drive and an open area, which won’t be covered by tree canopy. This will facilitate not only our kids, guests, and their cars, but also fire-fighting equipment if ever needed.  We hope that you will take fire fighting concerns into account when you are modifying your property for the future.  And always please review and update your homeowner’s insurance for fire coverage at least every other year.

 

Note:  Chris & Bronwyn Clear have been volunteer fire fighters for the last 4 years and are members of two VFD’s