Introduction from Dr. Gasaway:
I want to take this opportunity to introduce the Situational
Awareness Matters community of readers to an associate and good friend of mine,
Firefighter-Paramedic Ryan Pennington with the Charleston (WV) Fire Department.
Ryan has been conducting extensive research on the epidemic problem of
emergencies in hoarder homes. Emergencies including everything from fires to
EMS calls to animal hoarding issues – the whole gamut. Ryan has also developed
a knock-out program on hoarder home fires. If you’re jurisdiction is having
problems with hoarder home fires, Ryan’s program may be just what you need.
Let’s see what Ryan has to say in this guest article on “Heavy Content” Hoard
Homes.
Good afternoon and welcome to SAmtters.com. I would like to take this opportunity to
speak to you, the loyal readers of SAmatters, on Hoarder House Fires. Educating firefighters on the dangers
associated with hoarder fires has become my passion, so when Chief Gasaway
offered, I jumped at the chance to share a lesson in hoarding with you. So let’s go into the chamber of hoarders for
an article on using the term “heavy contents” while battling a Hoarder Homes
fires.
Hoarder Home Size-Up
The duty of the first arriving officer is to size up the
situation accurately. During this process
they will use their senses to form a plan of attack by walking around the
structure. During your size up you will
need to pay close attention to windows, front yards, porches, and entry ways
for signs of hoarded interiors. If you
make this determination you need to announce “Heavy Contents” to everyone on
scene and responding to tell them of the conditions. It’s kind of ironic that I am writing about
the use of this term for Dr. G’s website as he was instrumental in developing
it. You see he is the brain science
professor that helped me realize the meaning behind these two terms placed
beside each other.
The Origins of Hoarding
We all have terms that we use to describe a hoarded
home. From “trash house” to “Collier’s
Mansions”, a term derived from the Collier brothers in Manhattan. They made
hoarding famous or should I say infamous. We have used multiple versions of
describing the same thing. These words have the same meaning behind them but
can be harmful to the owners of the homes if they are standing beside one of
our radios when the report gets to command.
You see, people who live in hoarded conditions have an emotional
attachment to their “stuff.” A simple
stack of newspapers to you might have a deep emotional meaning for them. You can see how it might cause a problem if
they overheard radio traffic describing their belongings as “trash” or their
home as a “trash house.” If you choose
to use “Collier’s Mansion” terminology you will need to make sure that everyone
who might respond to your scene has a true understanding of its meaning.
Heavy Contents
That is why I developed the term Heavy Contents. It is politically correct, accurate, and
should trigger your brain to start thinking of the increased weight that is
added to the structure, even before the first drop of water hits the ground.
Hoarded homes often have so much stuff in them that normal living spaces become
uninhabitable. If the belongings are occupying that amount of space imagine how
much extra weight has been added onto the structure. This is where the term
Heavy comes in. A large amount of
belongings equals a large amount of weight and it is a term that anyone can
relate to, even if they haven’t been taught it, due to the use of common terminology.
Property Maintenance
Another complication inside a hoarded home is the lack of
property maintenance. Hoarder conditions
make it almost impossible to reach all the points of the structure from leaking
pipes, busted ceilings, finding termites, or noticing a leaking exterior wall
leading to weakened structural members.
This is troubling to us, as firefighters, due to the chances of
structural collapse being increased, often without us knowing. This is just
another reminder that if we hear the term heavy content called out that we
should automatically think of increased collapse risks.
Piled High and Deep
The second of the two words should warn you of the dangers
that lie inside. With hoarder homes you
can face belongings that can reach all the way to the ceiling. Add in a fast-moving fire with thick dark
smoke and it’s a recipe for your death.
If you hear the call of heavy content you need to go to a defensive
mindset. Not so much that you need to
abandon interior operations, although that would be a wise decision many times,
but you need to be more careful in selecting your point of entry, hand tools,
and absolutely do not enter without a thermal imagining camera and a hose or
search rope to help aid in your exit. In a hoarder home the right and left hand
searches are basically useless due to the inability to use the walls. Your only
link to the outside is that hose or search line if your TIC batteries fail.
In closing I would like to thank Dr. G for giving me the
guidance over the past 20 plus years and the chance to share an article on
hoarder home fires with you. You should read this article, return to your
department, and share the term “heavy content” with anyone who may respond to a
hoarded home in an emergency. It should hammer home the importance that it’s
not a basic fire anymore. Hoarded houses
can put you at a higher risk that needs to be identified and adjusted for
immediately upon the discovery of heavy content’s. Using a term developed with Dr. G’s brain
science will hammer home to your people the need and hopefully make you
remember this article. Just remember
that SA does matter and before you go into your next fire maybe you should
spend some time reading Chamber of Hoarders (www.Chamberofhoarders.com) so you
will be ready to face the Heavy Contents inside your next hoarder home fire.
Hoarder Home Podcast
Ryan Pennington will be a guest on my Leader’s Toolbox
Podcast radio program at Firehouse.com next Wednesday. This is not a live
program. I will send out an announcement
via my social media channels to let you know when it goes live, along with a
link.
Hoarder Home Webinar
Ryan and I will also be jointly presenting a Webinar on
situational awareness and firefighter safety in hoarded environments. The date
will be announced soon on my social media channels. If this is a topic that
interests you, please post a comment at the end of this article and send me a
message on my Facebook Fan page or on Twitter. Thank you! Your participation is
very important to the success of Situational Awareness Matters!
