quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Wait, "overhaul" means the FD is carrying out furniture, papers, computers or whatever from a burned-out building? That seems crazy to me.

Just adding to what oldfireguy said. When I was on overhaul basically meant taking any room with fire damage down to the studs, all furniture and property came out, carpet came up, walls and ceiling stripped clean. As oldfireguy said you're looking for fire extension. It has a nasty tendency in homes with that blow in insulation to creep and crawl unnoticed, sometimes for days, before breaking out in a fire again.

If the fire is suspicious in origin this has to be done carefully to preserve evidence and our Fire Marshal was always involved.

Property was handled carefully to avoid any further damage. Wedding pictures, awards, jewelry boxes, firearms, etc were typically placed right in the homeowners hands or in police custody if they weren't present to keep it safe.

Everything else we tore out was dumped on the lawn or wherever was convenient.

Once this is complete and the Fire Marshal had what he needed, we would board up or secure what we could, or cover with thick sheet plastic to keep out wind/rain/snow. If the place was heavily damaged and large sections of roof were missing then it was what it was and our goal was just to secure to prevent unauthorized entry.

Big city departments, especially very busy ones like FDNY, Detroit, Chicago, Boston, etc will do a quick overhaul, take up and move on. They run too many calls to tie companies up on extended overhaul operations.

In the department that I worked for, the off duty Paid On-Call that responded would remain on scene with a Reserve Engine. The Full time and on duty On-Call would return to service with the front line equipment as soon as possible. Often the Batt. Chief would remain with us, or the first due company would remain In Service at Location until we were done.

My Dad was retired SFFD. He passed away from complications related to cancer in 2011. I always assumed it was because he smoked for nearly 30 years. He worked in that time when firefighters didn't really emphasize the use of safety equipment like they do nowadays.

HCN and the associated issues are well understood today. Nobody should let anyone do anything off air till the levels are ok. That's the practice in my department and I hope everywhere else.