Trade Articles

Included on this page are several articles of interest to emergency responders, written by the staff of Fire Planning Associates and our friends for your education and use.

If you would like to submit an article for distribution on this page, please contact us. We're especially interested in personal experiences as they relate to preplanning.

Smaller pieces may end up in our newsletter as well.

Understand the Past to Move Forward

I was taking one of my daughters to a soccer tournament this weekend, and passed through the nice little town of Boyertown, PA, population around 4000. Rather typical Pennsylvania small town, and probably typical of many small towns across the US - it is located about 1 hour West of Philadelphia. Signs throughout the town proclaim, "Making History Since 1866," which was the year it was incorporated.

Unfortunately for Boyertown, one of the ways it has made history was by having what the NFPA lists as the 9th deadliest US single building or complex fire or explosion, with 170 dead at the Rhoads Opera House Fire in January, 1908. Interestingly enough, there is a commemorative plaque on the building that now stands on the location, and one at the local cemetery - one says 171 died, the other says 170 died (one was a firefighter). 2/3 of the victims were reportedly women and children. Regardless of the exact number, you can just imagine the impact on this small community (pop 2500 at the time) this horrific event had. See here and here.

Families were attending a church-sponsored presentation of "The Scottish Reformation." The room was reportedly packed with a sellout crowd of 312. Kerosene lighting was used (reportedly fed by a 5 gallon barrel) and is blamed for starting the fire, but exits were locked or unmarked, and doors swung inward.

The building was rebuilt after the fire in much the same manner as it was when the fire occurred, and is a rather similar building to many I have seen in my travels across the country - probably similar to ones in your town. It doesn't take a big building far in the past to have a tragedy - think about the Happy Land Social Club in NY or the Station Nightclub in RI. In my FD's rural coverage area, we have a meeting hall for the Jehovah's Witnesses where upwards of 1000 can meet on a weekend - and there isn't a (wet) hydrant within miles.

You get asked often - "Why do I have to mark this exit?" "Why does the door have to swing outwards?" "Why can't I have a few more people sit in the aisles to watch this show?" Or sometimes, you don't and you may be faced with having to tell folks something they don't want to hear.

Not to pick on Boyertown, but while I was sitting at a traffic light, I looked up at the building on the corner, and noticed this interesting fire escape that doesn't lead to the ground (pardon the photo, camera phone out the car window...)!

And I happened to remember this recent fire in the very same town where a woman was killed in a residential fire started by cooking just a few blocks from where the Rhoads Opera House burned.

Enforcing the codes isn't easy - but someone has to do it to prevent the past from being relived. Many of you face this challenge everyday, and you can make a difference by your actions. Making progressive changes in the codes to prevent even further tragedies requires even greater courage. The opportunity is now - let's prevent fire deaths by putting sprinklers in residences!

I apologize for my rambling, but we need to understand the past to move forward!

-- Greg Jakubowski, PE, CSP, FSFPE

Unfamiliar Territory

By Greg Jakubowski (Fire Rescue, Feb 2006)

Hazards and Tactics for Industrial Fires

Blazemark Review

from Fire Rescue magazine, Sep 2007

"...After testing Blazemark myself, I can report that the company's claims about the software aren't just hype. I took a predetermined data set and created a preplan using the software's easy plug-ins. Blazemark really works and it's definitely user-friendly."

Fire Service Features of Buildings and Fire Protection Systems

Free publication for distribution to architects, engineers, and municipal officials

A new publication offered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that will help increase the safety of building occupants and emergency responders by streamlining fire service interaction with building features and fire protection systems. This is an excellent document for fire marshals and building officials to share with architects and engineers. FPA Principal and Chief Engineer Greg Jakubowski was one of the technical reviewers of this document.

Jekyll & Hyde Fires

from FireRescue Magazine, November 2006. Author - Greg Jakubowski

Hazards and tactics of fighting laboratory fires.

How to Conduct Live Fire Training Article

from Fire Engineering, June 2005 co-author Bart Krauss

Find out how to do "Acquired Structure Burns' safely in this article. Upper Makefield Fire Co. has done a great job of getting three homes "donated" to the fire company. This is the smallest of the homes, the two others were 7000 sq ft and 14,000 sq ft.