SOP Manual - Cleveland Fire Department

Cleveland Fire Department
b. Checking Walls
Operations Manual
The search for vertical fire spread should begin directly over the fire on the floor
above the fire floor.
If fire is extending upward within the wall, a line should be called for and the
wall opened up to allow streams to hit the fire. If the fire is at the baseboard
level only, or if there is heat but not fire, the wall need not be opened further.
Streams should be directed at the opened baseboard area if fire is showing. The
walls themselves should be checked for the signs of fire. A wall that shows any
signs of fire must be opened to allow a stream to be directed onto the fire.
When fire is found to be extending up past the wall opening, the area above it
must also be checked. This means checking another story, an attic, or a cockloft.
Is the fire has extended beyond that area, higher stories must be checked until
the extent of the fire is found. Streams must be directed onto any area that has
been touched by the fire.
c. Checking Vertical Shafts
Truck crews on the floor above the fire must check all rooms that could contain
utility shafts or pipes.
d. Checking Stairways
Stairways and the spaces under them must be checked if they are near the fire,
either on the fire floor or on the floor above the fire. Because the stairways will
be used by escaping occupants as well as by advancing firefighters, if at all
possible the stairs must be kept intact and eliminated as a source of fire
extension.
e. Checking Doors and Windows
3. Horizontal Fire Spread
The areas around doors and windows should be carefully checked if they have
come in contact with fire or if fire has burned into doors and windows on the fire
floor.
All horizontal channels must be checked for signs of extending fire.
a. Indications
Truck crews must check floors and ceilings for smoke, fire, discoloration, hot
spots, blistering paint, black heat streaks, and the sound and smell of fire.
Effective: June 1, 1997 Revised: 5/14/2009 Page | 212
Approved by: Chief Chuck Atchley