r/Firefighting Jan 27 '25

Photos Whats this smoke tell you?

Post image

Initial size up described conditions with “turbulent smoke”…

1.7k Upvotes

679 comments sorted by

View all comments

94

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '25

[deleted]

18

u/KYYank Jan 27 '25

I don’t think the fire is in the attic…yet. The lazy smoke pushing out of the eaves is the clue. If the attic were involved the eaves would be air intakes. Instead the cooler smoke is making its way out the easy path of the eaves .

The smoke is not blowing out the ends so this is an interior aggressive attack.

8

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '25

Unless it has plenty of oxygen from elsewhere (internal structure) and there isnt enough negative pressure venting yet. I would call this an attic fire. Looks like a small attic, wouldn't take much smoke to get down to those soffit vents.

Still going interior. Bring a pike pole, find the seat within the living area and start ripping drywall as the nozzle takes care of the room.

Could be wrong about the attic, but you're going to take all those actions at some point, best to get the drywall open asap.

2

u/KYYank Jan 27 '25

I always enjoyed a solid stream into the drywall. Always tried to cut circles.

Then shove the nozzle into the opening and whip it around like a crazy person.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '25 edited Jan 28 '25

Makes sense. We don't run solid nozzles, never tried a straight on the fog top break drywall, don't think it works.

My crew lost an entire building once to an attic fire when i was on probation. Long story, but i now feel it's better to assume it's up there if there's even a moderate chance. You need water up top immediately or it's over.