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Houston Fire Incident Report

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The Incident
On the afternoon of May 31, 2013, units from the Houston Fire Department responded to a commercial structure fire located at the restaurant attached to the Southwest Inn at 6855 South West Freeway. While en-route to the location, HF E51 notified the alarm center that a large column of smoke was visible. The responding district chief requested a higher alarm at this point based on E51’s pre-arrival report. E51 arrived on the scene approximately 3 ½ minutes and reported that they had a single story restaurant with heavy smoke showing from the attic to the OEC (Office of Emergency Communications). E51 proceeded with an offensive attack, including the use of a 2 ½ inch hand line on the Alpha side/division of the structure.
Approximately …show more content…

This committee and its members were tasked with several different components to research the events leading up to and that occurred during the fire suppression efforts leading up to the collapse and eventual loss of 4 of Houston’s Bravest.
The following report is based in part off of the final report of the Southwest Inn Recovery committee, which utilized a multi-agency response with regards to carrying out the investigation.
The following agencies took part in this investigation:
• Houston Police Department
• Texas State Fire Marshalls Office
• Texas Commission of Fire Protection
• ATF
• NIOSH
• Outside structural engineers contracted by HFD to study the integrity of the …show more content…

Currently, The HFD now operates as a Class 1 Department as recognized by the ISO and operates out of 92 strategically located fire stations that provide a mixture of suppression and EMS service to its over 2.1 million residents, and 1 million that work in the metropolitan area of Houston daily (information provided by the 2010 US census).
As of the date of the LODD, The HFD had a roster of 3,789 suppression personnel and 118 civilian employees. The department runs off of a 24-hour shift schedule that requires a minimum of 832 members on duty daily to fully staff all of the department's first response vehicles. The OEC employs a minimum of 16 communications officer’s daily, who are responsible for dispatching an annual call load of 299,107 incidents (257,107 EMS and 42,064 Fire) based on 2013 annual statistics from Jan 1 to December 31, 2013.
The Department has the following resources available to the citizens of Houston on a daily basis:
• 87 Fire engines
• 37 Ladder/Tower Trucks
• 1 Automatic aid department
• 2 Shift commanders
• 21 District

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