VEISR

Okay so I'm not about to try and reinvent the wheel here. By no means do I have the experience or know how to try and give my "professional" opinion. But what I'd like to do is give my opinions and discuss things I've learned.

As mentioned in the beginning I am partial to truck company operations and strive to make sure I learn the art of truck work before it gets too watered down in years to come.

A fireground tactic I'm particularly for since I learned it a few years back is VES or incase you aren't familiar Vent Enter Search.

Essentially VES is an aggressive fireground tactic used to rapidly locate and extricate a victim from a room in danger of being overcome with fire conditions and when the only feasble means of entry/egress is through the window. You may have never heard of VES and this is new to you, you may have and need a refresher, or you may be a more experienced man and have better input than I do on the topic. Either way don't take my word for it, get out and train on it, as a company. Learn about it, because if you have any doubts on if you can step up to the plate when the time comes, chances are you can't.

First off we need to identify where the victim is located, we accomplish this one of two ways:
1. We have a very strong indication people are home due to clues on scene, time of day, cars in the driveway, etc...
2. We get off the truck and have a mom grabbing our turnout coat screaming and yelling my babies are in there! And pointing at the bedroom window.

The latter is a pretty good indication you have a victim, just be sure to clarify If her babies are human or animal. Not that it's of any less importance to the homeowner, but it should make a difference on how aggressive our tactics are going to be.

Once we have a possible victim location we need to initiate the first part of VES which is vent. First floor occupancies are an easy go. Take the window, the sash, and the curtains. Clear the glass and remove any obstructions.

I'd like to rewind for a moment and say something I hate that I have to say, but do not get off the truck without the tools for the job. Remember "two hands, two tools" (future article). At a minimum have a set of irons. In a perfect world with perfect staffing you'll have two people dedicated to this function, equipped with irons, a hook or two, a water can, and a tic. So get out and train, one and two man teams. See what works for you. But please, think how embarrassing it would be to get to the window with a screaming mother on your heels only to have to turn and run to the truck to grab your tools.

Back to venting...if its a two story a 24' should do nicely. A proper one man throw should get it in position and vent a good portion of the window. Place it at an exaggerated angle to allow for heavy loads and possible bailouts (remember we're going to the most volatile non-fire rooms there are, so back drafts are common with the sudden oxygen fed airflow we have created. This also means we have to act fast...real fast). Place the tip at or blow the sill.

For elevated first floor windows. Use a Halligan as a step or a loop of webbing on the tip of a hook for a leg up.

Side note. Once vented take this time to mask up. The few seconds it takes will allow it to backdraft if its going to initially. Thus making the room non tenable. If this happens move down the line to the next room. This also allows excess smoke to escape before we enter. Now you may say, we'll if I was ready to jump in before its lit off I might could have the victim. Well probably not. Most likely you would get caught In the flash thus breaking the first priority and point of this blog, life safety.

Now we've vented, next comes entry. Easy enough. Get inside. You can go two ways. Head first or feet first. Both have pros and cons. Head first puts you low and on your belly right away, but be sure you sound the floor before diving in. This way also makes you dedicated to the entry. Can't really turn back. Feet first places your head higher in the heat but allows you to feel the distance to the floor and allows you a back out move if things go south.

Train with your guys on placing a hook in the window sill. This allows two things:
1. It allows you a landmark when coming back around the room to find a window in the darkness.
2. Allows the outside guys to know that window is being searched. One caveat to this is, you have to train on this or to the outside guys, they'll just see is an extra tool. Leaving you landmark-less.

Once in we are going to change the name here, from VES to VEIS. We're adding isolate. By this we mean, isolate yourself and the victim from the fire. Easiest way to do this, find and close the door. Get low, see the door get straight to it. Sweep the immediate area outside the door, don't get crazy, just the immediate area and close the door.

Now comes search. We can do this different ways here. The fire academy way, searching on the wall covering a few feet of floor area. Or we can search for a victim and reach out and get them. Get your feet on the wall reach out and sweep. I'm 6'3" with a 6'5" wingspan, if I stretch out I can cover most any bedroom wall to wall with a tool. Find the bed, search over and under, search the closet, and especially under the window.

In a recent study on firefighter heart rates, heart rate were highest during search and rescue. Therefore making your senses go out the window. Stay focused on your surroundings maintaining situational awareness and be mindful of smoke and heat conditions. If your burning, get out, you don't have long.

For my own wording ill add an "R", standing for rescue. We need to not just practice searching, but also how well rescue a victim. Practice for ladders or high windows (remember Denver?) if we don't practice how well get the person(s) out then what good is finding them?

VES is one of the most dangerous fireground activities we can perform. It's focus is saving lives in the most aggressive manner we can muster as tactically as possible. Don't go out and jump in every window you see. Train on it and practice reading smoke. Our job is to save lives and this is another means of doing so. Remember to train, train, train.