Editor’s Note: This article appeared back in the day and Gary has made updates to it. His note about the changes appears at the end.
By: Gary Lane
We have been exploring some different view points the last few weeks with Brian Brush’s articles and videos on search. While some may feel that this is complicating a simple job, others would argue that this methodology has almost become necessary in todays fire service world of overnight opinions, internet sensations, and blog bashing. We do indeed need a data driven and sometimes scientific breakdown of what we do and why we do it… and how to get better at it. While Brian and Chris’s articles tend to be somewhat objective and technical (again… necessary), todays post is going to stray just a little bit off that course and offer a more “from the street” perspective and maybe even a little personal opinion. So put your seat backs and tray tables into there fully upright and locked positions, because we may be about to experience a little turbulence.
We were all (I hope) taught search and rescue during basic firefighting 101. That may have been 2 years ago or 22 years ago. Most likely it involved something similar to what Brian talked about in another article, in regards to a very basic take on the subject. Well, I’m here to tell you that the concrete bunker with a single couch or chair and a couple of victims (usually the hard plastic type) to find is alive and well in todays training facilities across this country. No big deal, we can work with that. The problem sets in when the instructors don’t have either the knowledge, skills or just plain imagination to make it more realistic and relevant to the demands of todays firefighter. It is my hope to throw out some ideas here that were either passed on to me by others over coffee, at different trainings I’ve attended, or learned from actually searching houses first hand.
Raise your hand if you started with the hands and knees crawling method. Yeah, me too. Never leave the wall? Hold onto your partners boot for dear life? Yep, that was me as well. Thats fine… but it is time to move on to the next level with emphasis on the reasons why we are doing this stuff in the first place. Let’s veer off for a second and talk briefly about fire behavior. It is well known and well written about that fires are doing a really great job of making our job more difficult! Fires are reaching flashover conditions extremely fast (One UL/NIST test had it at 72 seconds after our arrival) and the heat release rates(HRR) are through the roof! We have to start recognizing some of our textbook techniques of days past may need a little tweaking. With that in mind, why are we searching? To find the victim! They are in serious trouble and have no PPE or SCBA protecting them. Without getting into a victim survivability debate, let’s just say this: Time is critical. They may be alive. We are the ONLY ONES TRAINED AND EQUIPPED TO COME AND GET THEM. We will not keep up with the rapidly evolving fire conditions if we are crawling at a snail’s pace through the house. How about taking a knee instead. This is like a lunge, only instead of standing up, you are scooting forward. Posting one arm down will aid in balance and create a solid three point stance. The change in speed can be dramatic! This is in part due to having your head up in a more natural position. Another benefit is a slightly better orientation to the room. We don’t crawl around our house on our hands and knees on a daily basis, so when dropped into that position with heavy, constricting gear and an airpack, it creates some anxiety and also starts to compress your chest and abdomen causing some physiological changes in your breathing pattern, which may lead to an excessive respiration rate. By being slightly upright in the lunge position, we more closely maintain our natural body position and breathing capabilities. This should also ease some anxiety associated with being in the aforementioned PPE. We will also have our auditory senses (ears) facing in a more common direction as it relates to the way sound from our victim typically travels ie; down the hall, not up out of the floor boards! This may help to catch a faint moan for help from our victim! Let’s further talk about the body positioning. In the lunge position, you will also have a leg out in front of you acting as a “curb feeler” in case there is a rapid change in elevation (stairs or a hole). If your foot drops down, the rest of your body weight can hopefully fall back and away from it to more stable ground.
So, crawling is ok, just painfully slow. The lunge method has some obvious advantages and is a very natural progression from the crawl. Next up is walking. Yes, walking. Walking has been given a bad rap because you can fall and get hurt. That is true. No argument. But we are talking about a typical house fire and a primary search here. I’m not proposing we just stroll around without paying attention to smoke conditions, fire behavior, fire location and building layout/construction. Those are all part of a continual size up! If your district is full of booby trapped drug dens and dilapidated vacants, adapt your methods accordingly. This is where we drive home the point of “Did you check the basement”, “Is the fire running the exterior to the attic or 2nd floor”, “How much time do we REALLY have”. Size up and 360’s (don’t forget to look inside!) do save lives…possibly ours! Walking can be appropriate at many different types of fires with the main benefits being speed and orientation. I say orientation because again, that is how we move about every single day. Muscle memory at its finest. Walking, when appropriate, allows a very rapid search and will result in either quicker victim rescues, or quicker clearing of the house and freeing you up for other tasks. Just keep in mind that if you have zero visibility while standing, you may have great visibility two feet (or two inches!) off the floor! A combination of all three movement styles as well as a belly flop, arm sweep and even calling out “Fire department! Where are you?” While stopping and listening for a few seconds every so often, will make the most of your search and increase your chances of finding a victim, the fire or even just staying oriented in the building. Looking for “Life-Fire-Layout” is something that I have learned from other firemen much more experienced than I’ll ever be, and it is a great foundation to fall back on.
Tool choice and usage should also start coming into play here. Many pick the 6lb. axe to search with because it’s lightweight, but what are its benefits and limitations? Also some discussion needs to happen ahead of time about possibly leaving the tool at the door, or even spiked into the wall next to the door while searching that bedroom. The importance of freeing up our hands to truly feel around cannot be over stated. What about a 6ft. hook? That can get awkward if you’re not well versed and practiced with it, especially in a tight or cluttered area. What about the “people’s choice”, the Halligan? Great pick, but some feel the weight slows them down. An 8-10lb. tool should not be the thing we’re thinking about while searching. Get in the gym more and work on your strength. I know I have, and it has paid off in my perceived physical exertion level allowing me to concentrate more on the search. However, at the end of the day, it comes down to personal preference for most, and unless your department requires certain tools for the position, you will have to make that choice. The key is repeatedly training with the tools and knowing them inside and out.
Let me add something else in here about fire behavior and getting a “feel” for the heat in a room. Are we seriously still teaching people to remove a glove to feel if it is hot? What about the “pulling back the hood” method? You have got to be kidding me! Don’t do either of these! Just stand up! Thats right, I said it. Just stand up and hold your hand up above as if trying to reach for the ceiling. You don’t need to over exaggerate it and let your bunker coat pull up exposing your waist… just stick it up there for a second or two. In today’s modern firefighting ensemble’s of Nomex, PBI and Kevlar, you have the ability to “get in too deep” without knowing it. By simply standing up (if you were crawling) and reaching above your head, you will quickly know how hot it is. What is too hot? That is subjective. If you don’t have the good fortune of going to a lot of fires (myself included), use some of the training fires/live burns in your area to get an idea. You will find gear limitations as well as personal limitations. What about those “flashover” simulators? Ask the instructors if it would be allowable to hold your arm up during the first or second “flash” cycle. Or even stand up in between cycles and feel the difference a couple feet above. This will be before the container (and your gear) starts retaining the majority of the heat that usually causes the minor burns. So back to the house fire we are searching, if you can hold your hand up, with your glove on, and be in ZERO discomfort, you are most likely good to go for another 30 seconds to a minute, at which point you would repeat the process. If you get your gloved hand up there, and feel immediate heat that causes you to jerk your hand back down, that is a sign that you had better be thinking about getting some water into the upper atmosphere in your immediate location post haste! A 2.5 gallon pressurized water extinguisher or “the can”, has proved itself to be invaluable and will buy the searching firefighter time to “make a move” one way or the other. If you are carrying the can during a primary search, consider leaving it at the door of the room you are searching. It makes a very distinctive noise when kicked or ran into as you navigate back to the door and is a small but nice insurance policy for your own protection should there be an issue with a delayed nozzle team or loss of water pressure in the hoseline.
So let’s get into the next part: The landmarks and ways to stay oriented. Finding windows are an obvious choice. Keep in mind that many windows are GENERALLY on a wall opposite the door in bedrooms. Not a 100% rule, but close and a good place to start. The reason has to do with cross ventilation during the summer months. Brian has covered some good stuff on knowing the approximate distance covered in a “move”, which is great. 3-4ft. per scooch or scoot makes for a good estimate of distance traveled, but let’s also remember that we are in a bedroom. A normal bedroom. 10×12? 12×14? Maybe even a little bigger, but not endless. If disorientation sets in because you came off the wall to feel a bed (it happens), thats OK. Relax for a second. Wipe your facepiece with your glove (you may be able to see!) Take a knee or get low and see if that helps. Take a slow, deep, breath and hold it while listening. If you are by yourself, listen for other firefighters working. Stuff breaking, hose streams operating, etc… What about the pumper? Can you hear it easily? Does that mean you’re on the “A-side” close to the street? And finally, remember that you are in a room! Just move forward until you bump into a wall and reset from there! Having a thermal imager would be an obvious benefit as well, but they’re not always available for everyone.
Working with a partner or in groups? Communication is great, but too much of it has some negatives. While one theory states that talking helps you conserve your air supply, talking also may cause you to miss some critical information. Missed radio traffic? A faint whimper in the closet? We recently had multiple rooms being cleared by several firemen at one time. One of them found the victim and yelled out to the others to come help. They didn’t hear him until the fourth call, because they were shouting out that they had found a door, window, wall, etc… Well, no kidding you found a wall! Why are you yelling that out? If you’re trying to check in on another firefighter, a simple “How’s it going?” followed by 5-10 seconds of silence is a much better way to go here. If you are in a kitchen, you don’t need to feel the counter tops for victims! Same goes for the bathroom sink (but DO check the tub) and on top of a dresser! If this is a primary search, then it is thorough but fast, and that means some of the “less likely” stuff needs passed up! If I miss finding a baby because it was kept in a dresser drawer… well, that really sucks, but to think or expect firefighters to get into every nook and cranny is ridiculous until the fire is under control and a down and dirty primary is complete. If I waste 2 minutes opening up dresser drawers and looking for secret/hidden playrooms and then stumble on the victim in the doorway 6 feet further down the hall… well, that is just dumb. We can find all the secret spots during the secondary search. We must ingrain realistic expectations into our men for the 99%… not berate them for the 1% they missed because they didn’t know the book shelf slides out and reveals a secret passage only Scooby-Doo and Shaggy could have found!
Hit the primary places as quickly as possible… the doorways, hallways and bedrooms. Closets and bathrooms as they come up. If you bump into a TV, check across from it! That is where the recliners, couches and beds are at! If you hit a coffee table, you’re almost there! For checking beds- remember “Up, Over and Under”. If the bed is small (twin, single or child’s) you’ll know it because you can reach the other side easily! Is it up against a wall? Check over the side and back between the wall! Sweep under and feel with your hand if at all possible! Use your flashlight and get a good look. If your tool can hook a lump and move it easily, it is probably just clothes, toys or other miscellaneous storage. If it is a soft, heavy lump, feel with your hand and get a light shined in there! Especially in the bottom of a closet. That may be the home run you’re looking for! If the bed is large try going around it if it is free standing and away from the wall, otherwise, climb over. Use your hands! Is that just a pillow or a small child? Avoid flipping the mattress or moving stuff around too much. That’s a waste of our precious time and energy, it can cause disorientation and even bury a victim under it. You should be able to clear the average second floor (2-3 bedrooms) in less than 2-3 minutes without rushing, possibly even by yourself! Zero visibility in hoarding conditions is a different animal and will obviously take longer.
Briefly, let’s talk about preparation. The workouts, the strength training, cardio and mobility drills. The endless donning and doffing drills. The SCBA familiarization. The gloved hand practice with everything in zero viz. All of these “little things” have got to be on auto-pilot when it’s time to search. You will not be thinking about the right things if you are struggling with your glove or a shoulder strap. If you are thinking about what hand to hold your tool in, it’s too late and you’re wasting time. The endless hours of mundane drills that you thought you didn’t have to participate in or pay attention to has now come back to bite you. This must be a seamless effort, as fluid as pouring a glass of water, allowing your mind to free up and think about the real job at hand. The basics of this job can not be underestimated. Nobody should be above this repetitive skill practice. This is the glue that holds it all together.
“The Search Before the Search” as I call it… This is the off duty dog walks with my wife in the evening, where I glance (not in a creepy way!) into peoples front doors and see if I can spot the stairs and if they are where I thought they should be. Driving the district either on or off duty doing the same thing… remember, you’re creepin’, not creepy! Summer nights are the best, because the lights are on and the doors and windows are usually open later. What about the little odd size window half way up between floors? Staircase half landing? In my first due, it is 99% of the time. 2 1/2 story balloon frame with front porch? Is the door favored to the right or left of a bigger picture window? Go opposite and in my city, my first due that is the staircase 99% of the time. Cape Cod bungalow? Basement stairs usually from the side door. Stairs to the 2nd floor are in the front door either right away, or in 10-15 ft., going up to the right or left. Some bungalows have an open first floor with stairs in the middle. You can find this out on all those EMS calls we run to pass the time between fires! Getting to know your district should take on a completely different meaning if your head is in the game. We should do everyone a favor: Pour a cup of coffee and sit down with the guys and pass this stuff on! Talk about previous fires and searches that went well and the ones that didn’t and where we could improve. Instructors, mentors and officers (or just heads-up firemen) should keep no secrets pertaining to the little details of the job that will make a difference! If you are an instructor or the company officer conducting hands on training, I would seriously recommend that you do a “half speed” demo, and then a “full speed” demo for the students to allow them a visual reference to gauge themselves on prior to any of them actually searching. Build that solid skillset in stages and they will be able to retain it as you go along. If we discover something that works better, something that is important, we have an obligation to let others know about it. Doesn’t matter if it comes from the probie or the senior man! Always be training! Always be on the hunt! Expect fire and expect victims on every run!
Authors note December 2019-
This article was originally published several years ago. It remains about 90 plus percent unchanged. I did go back and add or reword a few things that bothered me about it, mainly some of my snarkiness in how I came across. That has always bothered me about my earlier writings. Some of my intended humor is most likely lost in translation over reading it on a computer versus sitting down and actually having face to face conversations with people. Between that and my giant run on sentence style, hopefully there is still some solid information above that at a minimum gets the guys and girls around the firehouse talking about search. Regarding some of the body movement stuff discussed at the beginning, I’ve come to describe it as similar to doing a “burpee” with a constant back and forth between standing, kneeling and belly flop as we move through the building. The topic of search is a big one and there’s just no way to cover every little bit of it in an article like this. Make sure to keep looking for classes, training opportunities and people you could learn from. Please feel free to reach out to me if there is anything else I could try and answer. Also consider visiting the website www.firefighterrescuesurvey.com to see the collection of data that has been reported from across the country in regards to where and when victims are being found, as well as many other details that may help guide and prioritize our searches.
Take care.
-Gary
Love Gary’s stuff couldn’t be more fortunate to to call him a friend too! Keep up the good work!