Now it's time to fight fire in our study of the 1-story frame dwelling. Our concentration is on the variety with an attached garage area.

How well you suppress fire in the dwelling depends on a number of factors, but one leading point is the type of fire department you're associated with. All fire departments are not created equal. They can be separated into three groups: career, combination and volunteer. The paid career portion is mostly in the larger, mainly urban communities. The combination departments are, as a rule, in smaller urban communities and can have some rural responsibility. The volunteer type has a degree of urbanization and its rural commitment varies.

Naturally, a career department can get out quicker and reach the incident faster. As a rule these departments don't run out of town, with some exception. Compare that to an all-volunteer fire department whose members must cease whatever activity is at hand, get to the station, suit up, crank up and set out, often into the hinterland — there's some time gap there. Put the combination fire department somewhere between those two extremes and you can expect a mid-range figure timewise.

Let's use the example of a bedroom fire in an extended 1-story frame dwelling. Fire spread is a timely item — give it time and it will spread. So by looking at these three examples of our fire service organizations and the response factor of each, you can get some idea of where your involvement will fall.

I'm not trying to sell paid, combination or volunteer fire departments to anyone. I'm not finding fault with the makeup of our national fire service. I'm saying you should identify your place in the fire service and be honest about what you can expect to find when you arrive. If you are on the job and have only a short run, you will naturally have simpler situations than if you are somewhat removed from your rig and have to go and get it and travel some distance.

So rather than separate the incident with fast, intermediate or delayed arrival for all three components, let's start at the same level. There are a few other factors involving arrival that can set back the fastest response, but I have a long-standing belief that if you can handle full involvement well, everything below that will become routine.

Full involvement

If you pull up to an extended 1-story frame dwelling and it's fully involved, what do you do? If this was the same bedroom fire mentioned earlier, you would give it the preconnected 1I-inch line and associated hand tools, which as a rule will control that simple scenario. But in a fully involved extended 1-story frame dwelling we have heavy fire conditions with all the popping and snapping that complete combustion seems to produce.

In this case you have to give it your best shot. Of course you consider exposure and life hazards, but when it comes to reversing the tide of destruction you have to hit big with a mobile stream. The 2H-inch line window by window will do wonders for multiple-room involvement in these buildings.

I've never seen the master stream used in the case we are considering. I have seen this instrument used in full-dwelling involvement in multi-story situations, and I did see a videotape where this choice was used on a fully involved extended 1-story frame dwelling. The device was mounted on a pumper and the adjusted pattern was narrow, not a straight stream. By the time the water got to the target, I would say that it gave the front wall a good wash. It was a wasted effort consuming a valuable commodity.

Again, mobility of that hardworking fire-killing stream is what it's all about. Perhaps a 2-inch line might be in order, but I'm not aware of any fire department that has put the medium to that strong of a test.

Next you will ask, “What about the water?” That's your problem. I'm not trying to be harsh or uncaring, but we're fighting fire in a time of large water tanks, tank trucks and the shuttle process, along with large-diameter hose. It's the age of better supply, better than ever. If you haven't geared up to the contemporary delivery, it's time you did. Fire has gone big-time and so should you.

Fire in the garage

The next biggest event this class will give you is heavy involvement in the garage area. This space can provide vast involvement because of the nature of the items usually stored here. I was once an observer at such a fire. The occupant of the house was working on his pickup truck inside the garage. He got a good one going and the rural fire department in his area had a three-mile run. By the time they arrived and got a couple of lines in operation, it was discovered that the fire had gotten beyond the garage and when the smoke had cleared, the owner was out of the house, out of the pickup truck and in the hospital.

How do we treat this? My way is to get the first line, 1ⁱ inch, in the front door of the dwelling and into the kitchen to prevent lateral extension. There's a lot of value beyond that kitchen door down through the balance of the house and it needs to be protected.

Meanwhile, the garage gets the big line for the quickest control you can get. Critics of this application say you should hit the garage first, not second. If you can only staff one line, that's sensible. However, I find it difficult to violate the process of locate, confine and extinguish. There's no question that you have located the fire, but you have not confined it and lateral spread into the greater part of the structure is highly undesirable.

You have just as much or more of a chance that your fire has traveled into the attic space above the garage. If possible, a hole in the roof over the garage area will assist in inducing the fire to burn upward. If the fire is in the attic, there's a quick route to that chamber if it's used for storage. Look for the pull-down stairway hatch. There are two general locations for this device: in the garage area, in which case it might not be easy to get at because you might have a vehicle right beneath it, and in a hallway in the living space. This will get you where you want to go, but don't venture up without a charged line at the ready. If you have the pre-constructed joists supporting the roof, operation of that stream won't be easy and neither will movement. However, it's better than inattention in that area.

At this point, you will have three lines out: one for lateral spread on the ground level, your big line for the big burn and a third line for fire spread in the attic. Next, have a backup line in the event one of your previous lines malfunctions or in case of other mishap.

That arrangement gives you a lot of firefighting ability, and if you can't get it done with that firefighting power, you have an unusual fireground situation. There are variations to this routine, but you can't pin down every fire and pre-situate for it. Nonetheless, this method is valid and possible to do from most contemporary attack pumpers. Three preconnected 1I-inch lines and a preconnected 2H-inch line are in today's ballpark. Of course you have to establish that water supply with haste, but that's modern firefighting — I didn't invent it and I don't prevent it, but I subscribe to it.

Concealed-space fires

We have looked at the two greatest situations that will involve you on arrival at a fire in an extended 1-story frame dwelling. Single-room concealed-space or storage-space fires are of lesser significance by comparison. It would seem that still high on the list of fire problems for us to deal with is the cellar fire.

Remember that in the 1-story frame dwelling the cellar door is likely to be just inside a rear or side door. In the extended 1-story frame dwelling, that side door is in the garage, so you look for that cellar door in the kitchen. No way do you use that opening for a vent device. You hustle a line to that door along with a backup line. You beat out the cellar windows before you make the move downward, or the line crew will take a beating and the fire will want to get up that stairway without the optional releases that the open windows will provide.

With a basement fire in one of these homes, you often encounter so much smoke that you just don't know what you have. It's hard to know whether you even have a basement, let alone a fire in it. Of all the types of dwellings, these are the most difficult one to identify the location of a basement.

You must look for windows in the foundation as the garage has no cellar beneath it and the accompanying side wall is taken up by the garage. The front wall is useless to you because it's taken up by the front entrance and the balance is likely covered by shrubs, so if windows do exist in the foundation in front, you won't see them. You have to go clear to the far side to spot cellar windows. Perhaps you may approach the fire from that direction and you can pick up your intelligence from that quarter. Mostly the cellar windows in the extended 1-story frame dwelling are found on that far side and along the back wall. That's the cellar fire, and as in any cellar fire you have to have all levels above it opened up and under observation for extension.

Ventilation hints

A general ventilation hint in this class of dwelling, providing the fire is on the ground level in close proximity to the garage area, is to raise the garage door or doors. That's a lot of area that's open and can draw an interior vacuum, which will encourage air exchange readily. If you have a high wind blowing right into the garage doors I would hesitate to do this until fire control is achieved.

There's an additional feature in most of the extended 1-story frame dwellings that's a great ventilation feature. It is, however, an emotional subject to the homeowner. It's the grand and glorious picture window, not to be wasted of course, but in serious conditions it is pop goes the weasel as far as I'm concerned.

Once I heard a homeowner beg the chief in charge not to touch his pride and joy when combustion was occupying his domicile. It seemed as if he feared losing that window more than his house. He ended up keeping both thanks to the good work of the chief and his following. Another time a fire chief friend of mine asked me to meet with a homeowner who lost his picture window and was more than miffed. He claimed that the brothers (no sisters on the job in those days) had gotten out of hand. The fact was the window blew out as the first-due company arrived. He refused to believe this. I looked the job over and of course it was a wonder that man got away as easily as he did. I laid out the facts as I saw them and it shut him up for the moment, but I doubt if I won the case for my friend.

Laddering and heat

Fire in the extended 1-story frame dwelling can be rather fierce due to the flammability of the building and the furnishing components, which produce heat, gases and smoke that are highly laden with particles of partly burned fuel. This fallout is extensive, so ventilation is essential. Get a good worker in these houses and that fallout manages to get everywhere, and the damage from that can be as high as from the fire.

Heat also will be a damaging factor. You will be amazed at the number of items that will melt down to no more than a blob of plastic, including light fixtures, telephones, lamps, radios and TV sets. I have yet to find a computer in such circumstances to see what happens to it once exposed to fire, but I'm certain its condition will have downloaded, as they say.

Laddering of the extended 1-story frame dwelling will be on the simple side. As previously indicated, you might need a short ladder, something like a folding attic ladder to reach the undersized bedrooms, mostly located along the rear wall. If you go to the roof, it's only a short climb, owing to the one-story height. If you have to open the roof, use caution where pre-constructed roof-joists are concerned. These tend to break down under high heat conditions. The metal gang nails or gussets that hold the assembly together tend to fail. This gives you a weak or spongy roof, and you don't want to risk firefighter safety. This type of roof joist has been common for about 20 years.

In all reality, you will do the same functions in these houses that you do in any other kind. After control you'll need to check for extension and ultimately overhaul. Salvage, of course, can always be done, but not post-fire control. Get that going as soon as possible.

That should pretty well cover it for the extended 1-story frame dwelling, and for our entire study of the 1-story frame dwelling. Looking back we have built, in our minds, three types of these structures. We have had numerous fires in the imagination at which we operated our various hose lines, chopped holes, taken out windows and ventilated in the horizontal and the vertical.

We, no doubt, didn't cover every instance possible in our text but no study does when it comes to firefighting. You digest what has been written, add in your past local experience and you will be the better to stand taller in your boots and work your way through an incident in the 1-story frame dwelling of any variety.

The ubiquitous one-story frame dwelling stands from shore to shore. Old and new, they have stood the test of time. They are ours to live in and enjoy, well-sheltering us from the extremes of our climate. Also they are ours to protect and preserve. They are worthy of our protection and all the service they require of us.

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Prior to his retirement, Donald L. Loeb served the Dunkirk (N.Y.) Fire Department as a volunteer firefighter, assistant chief and chief. His experience spans six decades of military and civilian firefighting, teaching and writing.