Description

Coordinating Ventilation: Supporting Extinguishment & Survivability

Ventilation can make or break the outcome of a fire. Successful execution requires a practical understanding of how it works and the precautions that must be put in place to ensure the actions taken are well coordinated and achieve their intended outcome. This program breaks down ventilation and identifies its relationship with fire dynamics, firefighting operations, and most importantly, victim survivability, to identify how the tactic influences the fireground. By coupling past experience with the latest research and rescue data, the common pitfalls and misconceptions are addressed to reduce potential errors and avoidable losses. A set of guiding principles and practices is provided to establish an operational baseline. The framework is universal and can be applied to any environment – from rural to urban communities. With a functional understanding of ventilation and the means for its execution, participants can more consistently make the right call for their fireground.

Nicholas Papa is a second-generation firefighter with 20 years of experience in the fire service. He is a captain with the New Britain (CT) Fire Department, where he has served for 16 years. He was the co-founder of the department’s fire academy, and the lead instructor for the inaugural recruit class. Nick entered the fire service in 2003, volunteering for a neighboring suburb until his appointment to the NBFD. He is a contributor to Fire Engineering and the author of the book, Coordinating Ventilation: Supporting Extinguishment & Survivability. Nick is a FDIC International advisory board member and has been a classroom instructor since 2017. He also served as a technical panelist for the UL-FSRI research project, “The Study on Coordinated Fire Attack in Acquired Structures.” Nick is also the founder of the training organization, Fireside Training, LLC.