[kye994]

EXCELLENT POST BY "FaceToTheFloor"

As for these types of occupancies:

Church fires are very tough and construction features can be very dangerous.
They look great, however they burn like shit.
Only one small portion of this place actually resembled a tradtional church.
With the ever changing demographics of Long Island, keep on your toes as to who occupies what. "Churches" are popping up all over.
Some (like this one) double as flop houses for the parishoners(cult followers).
There were numerous rooms with mattress' and it reminded me of a Williamsburg Brooklyn Yeshiva. Scuttle covers were gone and the roof was sealed over for "security" reasons. Sometimes they are only papered and tarred over and not meant for any weight on top of them. Firefighters (one I know ) have been tranversign the roof and stepped where said cover used to reside. It failed and he took the express train into the occupancy. Thankfully not near the body of fire.


Search Ropes are a must to deploy and STAY ON THEM.
Roof team can help the Inside Team find the fire by relaying conditions they find.
Augmenting Spklr Sys.
Pop ceiling tiles as you search to keep aware of what is going on above your head.
Use Thermal Imaging Camera.
Vertical Ventilation is paramount if accessible and fire conditions allow.
Know the Building Contstruction. (this place was steel I-Beam with composite roofing and tar. )
***Again Contruction dicates the above. Store front churches were in mind with roof team suggestion above***
Stay Safe All.

[greggreg259]

90% of the time if you loose the steeple you loose the bldg

[TA313]

On the subject of churches, have noticed the places "OF WORSHIP" poping up in residential homes in district, we went into one of them and what a maze it was, your normal room split into 3-4 living area's, your common basement was split into places of "worship". was not a residential set up anymore. in the event of any type of fire you could easily get disoriented.
In your travels, especially on the bs alarms pay attention to the new and old construction homes in your area and try to keep a mental note on what you see for that little tid bit you observe may help you or your crew going in later down the road.

[Slim]

Originally Posted by TA313

On the subject of churches, have noticed the places "OF WORSHIP" poping up in residential homes in district, we went into one of them and what a maze it was, your normal room split into 3-4 living area's, your common basement was split into places of "worship". was not a residential set up anymore. in the event of any type of fire you could easily get disoriented.
In your travels, especially on the bs alarms pay attention to the new and old construction homes in your area and try to keep a mental note on what you see for that little tid bit you observe may help you or your crew going in later down the road.

Question since they are places of worship now not houses can't you do preplanning and do fire inspections (who ever took the class that is)


Slim

[TA313]

Slim-great question..
The occupants only rented the house, they were not recognized as a legit house of worship, they put up a sign on front lawn with hours of prayer. after complaints they left, but seem to poping back up here and there under a different church(if you can call it that) name.

[Navy076996]

If it's late at night, don't assume the building is empty. Especially in poorer areas, you can have volunteers, church members, and clergy sleeping in them.

[FaceToTheFloor]

The above mentioned incident had multiple mattress' in different areas.
Also as mentioned before, the ever changing demographics have taxpayer occupants staying on premises during off business hours. Regardless of this fact, relying upon the experience of reading smoke and fire conditions will frame our perspectives on search and "victim survival odds". We must make thorough searches as well as keeping the firefighters survival in the forefront. Never assume "nobody is in there".

Also another great time to pre-plan is during medical calls.
Collyers conditions, odd construction features, disabled occupants, ILLEGAL alterations and apartments. See it?????Say it!!!!!!!!!

[Ericb410]

There is an article in this months Firehouse magazine regarding fires in places of worship..

[underthedome]

Get into attached rectories right away. Many in the county have retired/older priests living there...and if you are in 620, please save the little stuff I do own.

If you get a report of a fire in a older "traditional" Church at night, it has probably been burning for a long time and finally started to show to a passer-by. The construction probably includes heavy wooden beams on the room and a lot of open space and air for fire spread. It would be a good idea to do a little pr-planning to set up a priority list of what can be salvaged (assuming, of course, that ff safety comes first). Churches and houses of worship are all going to have valuable and priceless and sacred objects that we should make our best efforts to preserve. One of my goals when I get the time is to put together, with another member, a training on each Church and synagogue in our district where we set up a power point of pictures of each structure and then examine them from three different angles (building construction, preservation of sacred objects and artifacts with their locations, and then firefighting strategy and tactics). The idea would be to get a tour of each building with the clergy and have them tell us both what is important in the building and things about the building we should know and then take pictures to show the guys. It is probably not a bad idea to set up some walk-throughs to familiarize the companies with what they will face. If everyone were to look through the history of the departments, I bet that most if not all have had a major fire in a house of worship at some time in their past.