Kill The Flashover

I work in a department where we utilize a traditional (some might say aggressive) interior attack on fires at every chance we get. Sure, there are some empty lots in our City…including some parking lots downtown. We haven’t saved every building…but our track record is pretty good. Chalk that up to our quick responses and ability of our firefighters. I wish I could say that we get decent fire training made available by our department numerous times each year, but that is not true. I wish I could say that our staffing levels and lack of closing down companies are the reason why our responses are so quick, but our story is very different.

We are just like every other department, we get the job done with what we have to work with.

Transitional attack is something you might see in our department, but you probably wouldn’t hear anyone using the terminology “Transitional Attack”. It would merely be a case of cooling the fire prior to heading inside if needed.

One thing I will note is the old teaching of pushing the fire through the house…I have never seen this happen. I am not saying it can happen. I will just say that the way we used to teach that you HAD to fight fire from the unburned side to keep from pushing the fire will not always occur if you get in their and put plenty of water on the fire.

Kill The Flashover

Their motto is “We test, we demonstrate, you decide”

Watch the video below…

What do you think?

Kill the Flashover is an experiment. Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t find a definitive web site for the project. Joe Starnes’ web site has information on the project(2011 here and 2012 here) and then points to BShifter.com. I couldn’t find any information other than “Blue Card Certification” on BShifter.com though…nothing on Kill the Flashover. Maybe I just couldn’t find it.

There is a Facebook Fan Page for Kill the Flashover here.

There is a Youtube channel for Kill the Flashover here.

The Average Jake Firefighter recently wrote about the video I shared above. The post “So Traditional Attack is Wack Huh?”, delves into what you watched above and discusses its use in his departments.

Mark Vonappen also speaks on the topic in a post titled “Pride and Anecdotes”.

What do you guys think?

Here are some other videos from Kill the Flashover

Kill The Flashover (Burn Down Training Moment) Albemarle, NC
Watch this video closely and comment what you think the training moment is. There is a very important lesson in this short video that we all need to learn from.

Kill The Flashover Using Air Intake
This video clearly demonstrates the effects on temperature that something as simple as closing a do can do. This footage was taken during the first Kill the Flashover burn held in Shelby, NC in 2011. For more information on Kill the Flashover see us at www.facebook.com/killtheflashover