When the building has no standpipe, the stairwell becomes the water main

WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON — Fire departments working high-density residential fires in older buildings are increasingly relying on temporary standpipe arrangements to move water to upper floors, because the buildings they are entering were built before modern internal piping requirements and do not have a usable standpipe system to connect to.

The consequence is visible on the fireground. Crews lay large-diameter supply lines from street-level hydrants, run them over exterior balconies and up structural stairwells, and then extend hand lines from connection points at the upper corridors.

That is not improvisation. It is a taught, practiced evolution. It is also a sequence that consumes the most valuable asset in the building, which is the stairwell.

What a standpipe is supposed to do

A standpipe is a fixed vertical pipe inside a building with connections at each floor. An engine connects at the street, charges the system, and a crew on the fire floor attaches a hose to a valve a few metres from the fire. Water arrives without anyone carrying it up.

In buildings without one, the water has to be carried up, or pumped up. Both take longer than connecting to a valve, and both require more people to do it at the same time as everything else.

The stairwell is the price

A stairwell is a protected means of egress. It is where residents leave and where firefighters ascend, and those two uses are in direct competition under load.

Lay a charged four-inch supply line up a stairwell and you have narrowed it. Add a hand line, and you have narrowed it further. Put smoke in it, which happens whenever a stair door is propped or a self-closer has failed, and the stair that residents are being told to use becomes a place where hose and civilians meet in poor visibility.

Departments manage this, and they do it well. But the management is an extra problem created by the building, and it competes for the same personnel who would otherwise be searching the floor above the fire.

What the building owner controls

The most useful distinction is between a standpipe that exists and a standpipe that works.

A system with a closed or broken isolation valve, a missing connection cap, a riser drained for a repair, or a pressure-reducing device that was never maintained is functionally a building without a standpipe. It simply fails at a less convenient moment.

Three practical items follow. Confirm the system is inspected and tested on its required cycle, with records on site. When any part of it is out of service for repair, treat the building as unprotected for the duration and put a fire watch in place, which is the impairment procedure most jurisdictions expect. And keep the fire department connection clear, visible and undamaged, because a crew's first two minutes depend on finding it.

That impairment obligation is where USPA's fire watch work sits: a documented patrol of every floor and exit for the length of the outage, with a log the authority having jurisdiction can read.

What this means for residents

If your building is older, ask the manager two questions in writing. Does this building have a standpipe system, and when was it last tested? If the answer is a date, the building is in better shape than many. If the answer is uncertain, know your second exit and keep the stairwell clear, because when the hose arrives it will be sharing that space with you.

Related coverage

• In Flagami, the fire took the elevators before it reached the fourth floor
• A car fire under an apartment floor reached the second story in minutes
• The e-bike beside the front door turns the only exit into a wall of fire

Fire watch during a standpipe or sprinkler impairment: (800) 214-1448 or request emergency fire watch.