**** Via Halifax Professional Firefighters
Last night at approximately 10:18 PM, #hfxfirefighters responded to reports of smoke in an apartment building on Cole Harbour Road
Our members from Station 17 (Cole Harbour) arrived to alarms activated and reports of smoke on the third floor. The incident was upgraded to a second alarm bringing additional fire fighters to the scene. Crews quickly located a fire inside one of the apartments and encountered a resident suffering from smoke inhalation. The fire was brought under control while additional crews searched the affected apartment and neighbouring units and worked to clear smoke from the building.
The resident was transferred to the care of EHS paramedics.
Fires in multi-unit residential buildings require several critical tasks to happen simultaneously. NFPA 1750 recognizes this risk, with an effective response force of 28 fire fighters for this type of building.
In Halifax, the initial response to a reported structure fire is the same whether it’s a house, apartment building, high-rise or large commercial building — approximately 14–16 fire fighters, plus command and support.
Fires don’t scale down to match staffing — the response has to scale up to match the risk.
(photos contributed)
