To Vent or not to Vent

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You are a firefighter and upon arrival at the scene of a working fire you have a lot of decisions to make. One of the most key decisions a chief officer, or firefighter following standard operating procedures has to make in the early stages of a building fire is whether to ventilate or not? The strategy of venting fire buildings must be approached from many angles. In the United States it has long been accepted that there are three criteria for making that decision. Vent for life, safety or the fire with that in mind firefighters must make themselves aware of the effects of ventilating structure before making the that decision. All fire departments should have a set of standard operating procedures (SOP’s) that serve as a frame of reference for firefighters when determining how best to handle a fire situation. Venting for life is a situation that is routinely part of those SOP’s. The Jefferson Parish Louisiana Fire Departments SOP’s relating to venting for life states: “Firefighters may create openings, or break windows, to gain access from an exterior position to carry out a primary search in a high-risk area of the structure.” These openings are most often windows that can be in an area adjacent to the fire or in another area of the fire building that is deemed most effective. This method of ventilation is called V-E-S (vent, enter, search) and while it is a common practice among fire departments it is a strategy that is often filled with hazards but may produce great rewa...

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