Four-Story Office Building: Position, Path, and Pressure

Spot at the northwest corner, northbound, with the hydrant at the rear and the FDC forward.

Why it works:

• The hydrant is 30 feet south of the north wall on the west side, and the FDC is 15 feet east of Stairwell A on the north wall. From one position at the corner, both are within a short stretch - the engine can take the hydrant and supply the standpipe without a second engine and without a long supply lay.
• The one-way northbound street means you approach the corner anyway; you are not detouring to get there.
• Stairwell A is the closest stair to the reported fire quadrant (northeast) via the north corridor, so the attack team's hose stretch and the engine's supply are on the same corner.

What you trade away:

• You are blocking the only northbound lane on the west side. The ladder truck and later-arriving companies may not be able to pass.
• Your apparatus sits close to the building on the windward face, which is the side most likely to be used for evacuation.

Judgment: take the position, but tell the second-due engine and the truck company on the radio exactly what you are blocking and where they should approach from - typically around the block to the east or south side.

Route: the Stairwell A door on floor 3 opens onto the north corridor, which runs east along the north face for the full 200 feet. The northeast quadrant begins east of the cross corridor that is 130 feet east of the west wall.

• Distance from the Stairwell A door to the 130-foot cross corridor: about 130 feet east.
• The fire office lies in the remaining 70 feet of the building beyond that cross corridor, on the north side.
• So: east along the north corridor roughly 130 feet, then into the northeast quadrant. Total travel to the fire room is on the order of 150–200 feet.

What changes the route:

• Smoke pushing west down the north corridor - the fire is on the north face and the north corridor is the direct path. If the corridor is charged, use the cross corridor at 70 feet to work east behind a door or use an alternate stair.
• Stairwell B in the southeast corner is the far stair; it is a fallback, not a first choice - it adds roughly 200 feet of corridor travel on the fire floor.
• A reported or suspected victim in the 70-foot segment between the 70-foot cross corridor and the fire changes the priority from fire attack to search, and the search line runs the same corridor.

State it plainly on the radio: which stair, which floor, which direction and distance, so the truck company vents and the RIT knows the path.

Wind from the west means: air moves west to east. The west face is windward - cleaner air, smoke pushed away from it. The east face is leeward - where products of combustion will accumulate and exit.

Evacuation and command: west side.

• Occupants leaving by the west doors walk into clean air and away from the smoke plume drifting east along the north face.
• Command post, staging, and the medical group belong on the west or southwest, upwind and out of the collapse zone.
• Apparatus on the west side is also upwind of the fire floor, which is where you already spotted the engine.

Ventilation: discharge on the east side.

• Open the exhaust on the east face or through the east end of the north corridor so the wind pushes heat and smoke out rather than through the building.
• Wind-driven smoke still travels the north corridor, so the attack and search advance from the west end with the wind at their backs, and the corridor is ventilated in the direction of travel.

Stairwell A (northwest) is on the windward side and is the better attack and egress stair. Stairwell B (southeast) is downwind and may pressurize with smoke - treat it as a secondary exit and check it before committing occupants to it. Coordinate ventilation with the attack: venting the east before the line is in place pulls fire down the north corridor toward your crews.