The way the fire was rolling out those windows; there should not have been ONE man on that roof. The roof could have collapsed at any minute. Somebody needs a refresher course in keeping firefighters alive to fight the monster again.

Classic "Ok, now what?" moment. Somewhere is an Officer that needs to be horse whipped. Way too many guys on that roof. Not even gonna mention the SCBA. Too much fire showing. Every second those 5-6 guys are on that roof, (standing in a group), that roof gets weaker. Now its a race against time. C'mon guys, I hate funerals. Lets think a bit, ok?

Great video of everything NOT to do while fighting a fire.

Why where they even up that roof? I mean the house was already lost and is was just too dangerous for them to still be on that roof

3:01 sick double high five.

Brother Rocko, your reply is passionate. I respect that. Bravery has nothing to do with it. The crews clearly did good work. HOWEVER your IC, ISO and other officers were letting you down that cold day. They failed to protect you and set a good leadership example by not switching to defensive ops earlier. Any good investigator can work with whatever is left (yes, I'm an investigator too) and it's not worth a brother's life when the occupants are out. Take the IAFF "HazMat FRO" course! Be safe!

Nice Video. Finally getting some good action over there.

WOW is that a fire chief on the roof as well?? 2:17

They made it look easy! Good job guys!

Glad the guys got off that roof. But sad that a young girl's life was lost.

yeah I know I got lucky the last few weeks... by the way how did you get 400000 views on your vancouver snow video?!

Serious question, why vent the roof directly above a venting window?

Love it about 5:00, spend all that time cutting vent holes then shooting a narrow fog stream into the openings slowing the venting you just risked too much doing. And oh boy! Right at the end, roof evacuation needed, and there's the aerial sitting on top of the truck! Should been up long before.

I would like to know how they got up there in the first place. Why weren't there ladders already in place? It was just sheer luck that they got off in time. What was the chief doing up there? Time to go back to the classroom.

Can I ask you something? Do you feel that it's safe to operate a roof saw while wearing a facepiece? Also...may I ask where you worked? Many thanks.

I am not a firefighter, but I have done independent study using textbooks and watched numerous fire videos. The second I saw a firefighter directly above a fully involved, venting, room I wondered why the hell they were even there! Then it took forever to finally get off the roof to the next building roof. Last guy gets big tools. Is a life worth replaceable tools? I was sitting on the edge of my seat hoping nothing happened before everyone was safe. More anxious then with a movie because it was REAL. Now that I know they get off safely, I can watch it again.

wow bravo

The amounts of fire coming out the windows, venting the roof would do nothing. Except burn the roof off faster.

That's a "Chef aux Opérations", Operations Chief. It's a shift chief for a given sector (I guess a rough FDNY equivalent would be a battalion chief.)

I don't think this video is going to accomplish much more than being a black eye on the department involved. I actually don't think those guys were trapped as well, as there was a means of egress set up on the Charlie (?) side of the building. Utterly pathetic to see one person on that roof not masked up, beyond the realm of stupidity there.

No, carcinogens kill you. There was absolutely no reason to be on that roof anyway. One of these days you'll find out. Wait 'till you get a claim denied because you refused to wear PPE. (that is if you're still alive) Bet your dept's SOP says otherwise as well.

Oh ! Ici, il y a des pompiers bien téméraires sur le toit d’un édifice déjà très enflammé. Sans faire de jeu de mots; ils jouent avec le feu !

@Barbnjak1 well said. Those are some hard working, dedicated firefighters. Maybe command should've been more on the ball and ordered the vent team to evacuate much sooner.

I agree. I never liked roof work..

Safety Sally's live long enough to teach their sons and daughters the job....sounds good to me!

Why is there one firefighter on that roof without an SCBA on with that kind of fire showing?!? Venting the roof is probs the most dangerous job on a fire scene and to do it without an SCBA is just a complete disregard to his own safety and the guys around him. If there was an ISO on scene he should have been all over this, and I agree those guys should have never been on that roof trying to vent. Definitely glad to see that they all made it off the roof though

The first 3 seconds of this video clearly shows poor conditions on the roof and the rooms underneath. At one point you have over 7 firefighters standing above a totally involved second floor occupancy. It didn't appear there was ANY urgency to get the HELL off the roof. I hope your department educates themselves and learns from this video making roof operations and tactics much safer for future scenes. If your dept. continues making poor decisions seen in the video the outcome will be deadly

Wow, last time i checked it was at 300,000. I don't why its so popular, I guess people just like snow?

I hate to be an armchair QB but here i am.......2 things. #1. No way they should have been on that roof, even before he makes the first cut they should have been in a defensive attack. #2. How did they get on the roof??? As soon as they saw that their aveune of regress had become compromised all operations should have come to a stop and quick and safe exit off the roof should have been the number 1 priority, not continuing to vent the roof.

สู้ สู้ นะจ๊ะ

TERRIBLE INCENDIE !!!

why would you vent on the roof without any water being applied to the fire??????

Why risk a lot to save nothing. Why even be on the roof of a fully vented fire, trying to vent when the roofs about to collapse. Officers need to keep our brothers safe and this isn't the way. Where's the IC & ISO keeping an eye on the conditions. Some guys not even on air? Glad everyone made it off.

Preserve the scenes for the investigators? Really? Since when is that a higher priority than safety? Nothing done on that roof during this video was helping any occupant or firefighter inside the building. Maybe roof ops were called for when members initially started working there but they should have been removed as conditions deteriorated. Axe is a real slow way to open up a roof. No saws? The dedication and commitment of these men is clear to me, but the entire roof operation was misguided.

5:59 "I get my ass off that burning death trap just to be strangled by the !%*&#$%@ caution tape!"

I take it your very young and very eager. Safety Sally's???? Really??? Do you actually figure you can run back, pack up and get back to where you were when your partner(s) fall through, wind changes, structural failure occurs or you finally get that hole cut and that cancer causing super heated gas comes rushing at your face? Be safe my friend....you still have your life ahead of you!! Live it in good health!

Enough people have said but yeah, absolutely ZERO reason to have those men on that roof in those conditions. They're not going to improve venting much and it will vent itself through the roof soon enough. MAYBE, maybe they felt venting may improve conditions for the search of the girl but I highly doubt that at this point given conditions. Here in MA we have lost a handful of firefighters and had many close calls for overly aggressive tactics when they weren't warranted. Yes, you take big risk for big gains, but what's to be gained potentially losing guys to save a building that is already destroyed? It's not a game. I worked with too many guys who had to show you they could go through more air bottles than anyone else, didn't listen to orders to rehab after working on oppressively hot or freezing days, not leaving rooms or buildings when ordered to. We have seen so many examples over many decades and yet "tragedies" still happen with firefighters being too aggressive for no reason, not wearing equipment properly or at all, staying in too long, overextending themselves, not following orders of superiors to rehab, evacuate or stop what they're doing. I was at a fire in a large auto shop, Parts of the building were already falling off. A young deputy chief in command ordered everyone out of the building. A group of guys near where I was working were bitching that usual macho shit, "we woulda had it if X didn't pull us out, the pussy." Five or so minutes later the second floor full of motors, transmissions, oils, chemicals, etc collapsed. "Gettin' in there and sluggin' it out" is bullshit, especially today. Buildings are insured. Nobody cares if you manage to save the shell and kill someone in the process. Fires burn hotter and lightweight construction, unknown alterations, furnishings and finishes make buildings fail sooner. The roof construction of this brick building? I'm surprised it held up as long as it did under that amount of fire. Yeah, it makes for great pics and video and satisfies the egos of certain types of firefighters with their dirty gear and charred helmets but it's fucking foolish. What's worse, some officer acting like this is going to get someone under them killed.

OK, 13 seconds into this video and already I see brainless zombie training at play. I will NOT call this work. You hit the window with the deck gun or a 2.5 and the fire is out is 5 seconds per room. What did they do at the end after they tired of playing? They put water through the windows on what was burning.

if those guys had hoses instead it would be out in no time

3:55 Roof venting accomplished absolutely Nothing! Look at the smoke belching out of the roof while the flames are still blasting out the windows! 4:50 This is what they should have done right from the beginning with NO ONE on the roof! Roof venting Never works as intended for two reasons. 1. A building is Not a chimney and won't work like one. Between the hole and the first floor you have many dampers such as ceilings, floors and doors. 2. The main reason is this. The burning material in the attic will continuously generate energy Especially after you have cut a hole and introduced fresh air into it. As the flames go out the hole they are not causing a draft throughout the structure. The burning material is replacing everything that is escaping. Solution? Patiently find what is burning and put water on it. If it gets hot along the way, cool the ceiling with a spray of water. K.I.S.S.

Nice comment armchair quarterback... The bros were working the roof before the situation on the floor below got that bad, and when it did get bad a "strategic retreat" was called and they got off. It's this little thing known as "doing our damn job"...

After more than 30 yrs of firefighting, these type of actions are criminal to say the least! these guys should have been pulled from the roof LONG AGO!!! The 'Hero' mentality has taken over! THINK.....what are you going to really save? Scene/Evidence preservation is important....but is it worth 6-8 more lives??!! Venting that roof was going to accomplish absolutley NOTHING! Look at the heavy involment below! Not using your SCBA?? This is NOT what REAL Firemen do!! WSIB must be grinning right now

No, watch your own video. They were actively working over a fully involved vented compartment. Fall thru and they're all toast...for nothing. Not dissing on you or your crew. Everyone can learn from close calls, if they look at the root cause. I have a feeling that's something you don't do.

This what real firemen do.....amazing stuff...

Because, I was there on that roof. And we had to preserve the fire scene for the investigators, because within the blaze on floors below which we had men inside. Everything helps, there was a victim inside. And if you think you are braver then my men here, good for you, chair surfer. If you had a family member in that house, just think for a minute, before you add your ignorant comments, what You would do. You a brother or not? Cheers to my brothers and MY crew on that day in -25C weather.

Si ft un

No "armchair QB" here... looking for training examples. And this is a perfect one - and not in a good way (sorry). And the "damn job" does NOT include unnecessarily exposing yourself to HCN, CO, C6H6, COCI2 and everything else in that smoke. Your "damn job" means going home to your family and LIVING to enjoy your retirement. Not dying of cancer for a pile of bricks. Even the UNION wants you to work safely! Take some IAFF courses like IAFF "HazMat FRO" or go to firesmoke. org Be safe out there!