Behind These Walls May Lurk Unexpected Danger with Jack Murphy

Here’s some easy math for you. What percentage of your time is spent on the rig and available? Now what percent do you spend looking at the exterior of buildings in your first-due area, planning for future responses? Now—and this is the tricky one—how much time do you spend stopping by these buildings to look inside? Today’s guest says that’s critical when you’re looking at a tilt-up concrete structure. That’s because this style of construction can be deceptive. The outside doesn’t necessarily give away what the inside look like. Jack Murphy spends a lot of time thinking about this. He’s chairman of the High-Rise Fire/Life Safety Directors Association in New York City. He is a retired fire marshal, a former deputy chief, and a former Bergen County, New Jersey deputy fire coordinator. He is the author of numerous fire service articles and wrote a field handbook on the Rapid Incident Command System, as well as authored the “Pre-Incident Planning” chapter of Fire Engineering’s Handbook for Firefighter I and II.