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Earlier video of explosion
Video above from Andy T of yesterday’s fire in Harrison, New Jersey that injured five firefighters in an explosion described by fire officials as a backdraft. This view of the explosion (at 6:50) isn’t as dramatic, but the video provides a lot better view of the fireground prior to the explosion. There is more video from Andy T here and here.
Below is some even earlier video shot by a neighbor.
Anthony J. Machcinski, The Jersey Journal via NJ.com:
The fire, which started around 11 a.m., is believed to have started in the kitchen area of a restaurant located at 600 Frank E. Rodgers Blvd. in Harrison. According to Fire Director Harold Stahl, the fire heavily damaged two buildings, 600-602 and 604-606 Rodgers Blvd. and an adjacent residence on Davis Avenue.
Stahl said that backdraft, which is caused by a buildup of unvented gasses inside an area, could have been much more dangerous.
“I’m a career firefighter and I’ve been caught in a backdraft,” Stahl said. “I’m very grateful that the injuries weren’t more serious.”
Jersey City Fire Director Armando Roman said that the backdraft could have been prevented had the roof been vented, a process of putting holes in the roof that would allow the trapped gasses to escape.
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Also on STATter911 …
- UPDATE – Must see video: Five firefighters injured in explosion, described as backdraft, at Harrison, NJ 5-alarm fire. – March 10, 2013
- Harrison, NJ backdraft puts spotlight on staffing cuts. Union officials explain people without PPE handling hose & on ladder. – March 13, 2013
- Must see: Neighbors capture video of explosion during Pittsburgh apartment fire. – March 30, 2013
- Early video: Garage fire with exposures in Kearny, NJ. – April 6, 2013
Comments
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Heavy smoke seeping through the bricks around the windows. Doesn’t that demonstrate the need for immediate ventilation? At least punching the window glass to provide some release of the internal heat? Fire professionals please chime in…
Dave,
Any way you can find out whos’ bright idea it was to let civilians get that up close and personal with the scene? In that still photo, you can clearly see those two. I amazed they weren’t killed.
she wasn’t a civilian she was a Volunteer firefighter who just came to scene from work plus her brother was on ladder helping out their whole family Volunteer firefighter.
Ron, if that’s the case, they both need to be terminated. Their actions are inexcusable.
She IS NOT an East Newark FF. Once upon a time maybe. Her brother was not on any ladder. Her husband how ever was off duty helping in the front of the building. (He’s a Career Harrison FF) he’s the dude in the football jersey.
Looks like off-duty members operating on scene with no PPE.
Today’s tip……..vent early, vent often.
If the gentlemen who has the vest on incorrectly is command. This shows why command needs to be monitoring the incident better, ot was obvious with the change of the smoke conditions that things were getting worse. But wasnt there but again obvious smoke conditions appears were missed.
Were the two buildings attached? Was there smoke spread into the cockloft of Exposure B1? What were the members doing in exposure B1 just before the backdraft? Pulling ceiling? A lot can be learned from this incident.
They need to pay more attention to what the smoke is telling them. That building was “telling” them that a bad event is about to happen, but nobody seems to pick up on the clues. That was a deep seated fire in a well sealed building. Darkened windows with puffs of smoke seeping out around cracks under pressure. Smoke pushing through cracks in the walls. It all says bad event is coming.
Make sure Dave Dodson see these videos on this incident. It appears fairly early in this video you can see smoke from cracks in the front of the corner building every so often. I took the Reading Smoke class at FDIC a couple of years ago, one of the best lectures I’ve attended in my career. It should be required for fire officers. Obviously these buildings were connected in some way, at least as far as smoke travel was concerned. This will be a great case study once all of the information is compiled.
Reading the Smoke should be included in rookie school now. There were way too many warning signs that this backdraft was about to occur. Poor IC and possibly some tunnel vision by FF’s on the scene too.
If you listen closely, it was mentioned to “open up the roof”. Apparently someone was reading the smoke, they just never got the time to complete the task.
@ Ron…. Do they now implant kevlar and nomex in your skin after your get voted into a NJ VFD?
I cannot believe anyone would be that close to the fire scene without PPE on, esp. in a bigger city like Jersey City.
What I also cannot get over is the lack of SCBA on PPE wearing Firefighters. What is it with people not wanting to wear it? There’s heavy smoke everywhere and they’re up there not wearing anything. Drives me crazy, something so simple to wear.
This video def. shows all the signs of something bad going down way before it actually went down, that’s for sure.
OK, just a couple quick KIC observations.
1) They didn’t have half the manpower on scene they should have. Am I mistaken or are there 3 different structures involved? Near as I can tell, there is. That volume of smoke, with that much pressure, that far into the fire should be telling someone it’s time to change tactics, because they are NOT getting ahead of this fire at all. Maybe there were, but there should have been multiple crews in each of those buildings.
And don’t give me crap about being short-handed, I’m on a POC dept and we always run short-handed. You do the best you can with what you have, but that far into the incident someone should have been questioning the intelligence of the tactics being used.
2) There is NO excuse for not having PPE. Whether that’s the 2 idiots that responded direct or the guys on the roof without SCBA. Totally ridiculous.
As most older city fires, this one was manpower intensive with a lack of manpower. Call early, call a lot of MA. No excuses.
At least 4 engines and 2 ladders in first 5 minutes. Problem was at least 3 buildings were already going. Those 2 idiots are not firefighters of any departments present. Those chiefs from Harrison, East Newark and Kearny that did nothing to remove them should be fired.
I can only echo the sentiments of others above vis a vis wearing protective clothing. There is not one single one of us that is that essential to the mission at hand that we must go without our PPE. No reasons. no excuses, no way.
Guys, ever hard of CFBT Training. Those that have would know the signs of extreme fire behaviour, such as backdraft. Venting a back draft is not the answer ever time, as it gives the fire/situation what it wants, oxygen, when venting it clears smoke but oxygen is also introduced.