Fire Chief

“Comfortably Numb” is a song from Pink Floyd’s The Wall; it’s also how Las Vegas Fire & Rescue Chief Ozzie Mirkhah described the U.S. fire service’s response to 4,000-plus fire fatalities and 100-plus firefighter line-of-duty deaths each year.

Every day fire marshals, prevention officers, public educators, inspectors, plans examiners and fire engineers make decisions that will affect the public for years to come as they deal with new construction or enforcement of the existing fire code. These decisions guard the welfare of the community and make it safer for residents and firefighters should a building catch fire.

When I recently purchased new living-room furniture, I glanced at the label and asked the salesperson if the material was flame-resistant? She said yes, but I knew better.

Previously, I looked at how clusters of homes on smaller plots of land increase fire hazards. In some cases, these homes are less than 10 feet apart. Fire chiefs also must view the challenges associated with the narrow streets in cluster developments from yet another angle — the actual fireground operations and tactics. Apparatus placement is significant in fireground operations. The narrow streets and long dead ends present major challenges to response and further delay rescue and suppression efforts.

The problem doesn’t start with the building; it starts with the construction codes. Our real enemies are the ones who allow such buildings to be built with little regard for the occupants’ safety and even less regard for the firefighters’ safety.

Increasingly, firefighters are responding to situations where the R-13 residential sprinkler system has done its job: early activation for quick extinguishment or substantial control of a fire in its incipient stage.

After witnessing a code hearing for the first time, I found it an intense but understandable process with which fire chiefs need to be actively involved. To get to a national requirement for residential sprinklers, we need to be involved in this code process.

Fire protection professionals have been working for nearly 30 years to promote the installation of residential fire sprinklers in U.S. homes. It is the one way to reduce home fire risk, short of actually preventing fires from starting. Teamed with smoke alarms, residential sprinklers nearly eliminate fire deaths in homes. Only those who are intimate with the fire are at risk.

A couple months ago, I had breakfast with Chicago Fire Department Commissioner Raymond Orozco Jr. Discussion soon turned to Orozco’s efforts to upgrade Chicago’s turnout gear, train with positive-pressure ventilation and test Class A foam for fighting residential fires.