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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2010
When the fire’s this high, you better bring your‘A’game Surrey firefighters share expertise about tackling blazes in highrises
The Surrey fire department has gleaned ideas and procedures from around the world about the best way to fight a highrise fire.
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urrey’s fire service Ted is once again tak- COLLEY Staff Reporter ing a leadership role in its field, this time in the art and science of fighting fires in highrise buildings. Staff from the city’s fire service will lead a seminar Wednesday at the Justice Institute in New Westminster. There, they’ll pass on the procedures and methods they’ve developed to other smoke eaters. “We’re going to have 150 to 200 firefighters from all around the province trying to learn what we’ve adopted here,” Deputy Chief John Caviglia said Monday. More and more highrise buildings are going up in Surrey and the department realized it was time to develop tactics and strategies to deal with them in the event of fire. “Highrise fires present challenges like access if the fire is high up off the ground and the number of occupants,” Caviglia said. “It’s a lot different than a fire in a regular structure.” He said ladder trucks frequently can’t reach higher than seven or eight floors because of limited access and the angle of the ladder. That means a fire higher up has to be tackled by sending people – firefighters – into the building and doing so safely means lots of careful advance planning. “We’ve taken a systems approach to attacking these fires and not just on the
day of the fire.” Caviglia said the service has gleaned ideas and procedures from around the world to help it develop its highrise firefighting plan. The service has also collaborated with John Jay College associate professor, Dr. Charles Jennings, a renowned expert who has served in senior fire service positions in New York State and Maryland. It’s not an easy thing to get water on a fire 20 or 30 storeys above street level. Stairways and elevator shafts create potentially deadly air currents that can cause fire and smoke to move in unexpected ways. Just getting enough bottled air to firefighters working in smoke-filled buildings can be a major undertaking. Fire in an occupied highrise could mean having to evacuate hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of people in difficult and dangerous conditions. All of these circumstances and more have to be planned for if the fight is to be successful and the Surrey Fire Service has left no stone unturned, no source ignored, in its quest for a plan of attack. “We looked at best practices all over the world,” Caviglia said. On Wednesday, Surrey’s best will share what they’ve learned with their comrades in other towns and cities. “We wanted to inform the other departments and help them adopt our methods,” Caviglia said. tcolley@thenownewspaper.com
❚PHOTO/Sharon Doucette
Golf with us tomorrow and this could be yours! (Model wearing Gretzky jersey not included in silent auction) Play golf with the Now at Hazelmere Wednesday to benefit the Surrey Food Bank’s Tiny Bundles program. The Now’s sales GM Arlie McClurg said a hockey jersey from Wayne Gretzky’s personal collection – and autographed by the Great One himself – will be auctioned off at the event, courtesy of Laura Ballance Media Group. Tiny Bundles provides formula, diapers and other essentials for babies. Call 604572-0064 to register a team or see page 12 for more details.
‘Now’ general sales manager Arlie McClurg models a hockey jersey signed by – and once owned by – the Great One himself.