Chamber of Hoarders Online Blog

Great footage from Statter911.com of a three alarm fire in PG county Maryland that was complicated by Hoarding Conditions.  This is a great reminder that Heavy Content conditions can be found in any occupancy.  It is common to find these conditions in multi-family dwellings.  The case study from 200 Wellesly Ave in Toronto is a HUGE reminder of Hoarding in a High Rise occupancy.

News from WKTLA.com Eight firefighters were injured while battling a blaze at a Venice storage facility, which took over 14 hours to knockdown, fire department officials said Sunday. Over 200 firefighters had worked to extinguish a fire at the Extra Space Storage facility located in the 600 block of Venice Boulevard (map), which broke out around 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Of seven firefighters injured, five were treated for heat exhaustion, one sustained small burns and another had a back injury. Three were hospitalized and were “doing well,” Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Joseph Castro said.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014 05:39PM

The news explains the initial call for service as being a respiratory distress call that evolved into a HazMat situation, due to the suspected Meth Lab inside.  

This is a great example of the exposure potential to all first responder agencies. Let’s take a look as some learning points from this news clip:

EMS: Many EMS agencies do not carry the needed equipment needed to protect their responders from the airborne dangers of hoarding, managing the collapse risk, and facilitate a safe removal.  the need for additional resources should be made immediately. 

Police:Our brothers and sisters in blue often do not receive the awareness training when faced with hoarding conditions.  When education is taking place adding them into the classes should be mandatory. Often they will respond for a well being check and, without understanding the danger, enter a environment that is hazardous. 

 

Fire:  In the news clip the firefighters take the appropriate actions by wearing their SCBA and turnout gear while investigating the apartment.  While this may not be required on all hoarding calls it should be considered if faced with multiple animals and homes filled with fecal matter or urine.  

 

Take away 

 

The most important take away from this short news clip is the need to start identifying these conditions in our areas. Starting a unified approach to hoarding is the “best practice” to ensure all cases are identified and shared with every agency. 

 

Using building inspectors, building managers, and utility workers is a great way to gain access to building that first responders usually do not have access to. Reach out to these agencies and explain the dangers of hoarding and being the mutual working agreement to help combat this problem.

 

 

 

Hoarder Fire from Dolton IL

Dolton,Illinois Still & Box House Fire 14641 Lincoln Avenue

 

Hoarder Fire Bob Donaldson / Post-Gazette


By Molly Born / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Firefighters crawled over piles of books, newspapers and other items Tuesday morning while trying to put out heavy flames in a vacant house in Homestead.

Allegheny County assessment records show the house belonged to Margaret Mary Vojtko, the former Duquesne University adjunct professor of French whose death in September sparked a debate about the workloads and pay of adjuncts at U.S. universities.

A West Homestead firefighter was injured helping battle the blaze at 1110 Sylvan Ave. Homestead Deputy Fire Chief Ron Kalupson said the firefighter, whose name was not released, was taken to UPMC Mercy for observation after he received an electric shock while extending a hose.

The house, while unoccupied, still had electrical power, the deputy chief said.

Firefighters had to crawl over a lot of “debris” to extinguish flames coming from the second floor of the two-story brick home, the deputy chief said.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/local/south/2014/03/25/Firefighter-hurt-in-West-Homestead-blaze/stories/201403250176#ixzz2x55PoQ7L

 

News Video Coverage Found Here

Endicott, NY (WBNG Binghamton) Several fire departments responded to a second alarm house fire Tuesday morning.
The call came around 8:40 a.m. of reports of a house fire at 113 Roosevelt Ave.

Endicott woman hospitalized after fire http://www.pressconnects.com/story/news/2017/05/16/endicott-woman-hospitalized-after-fire/324571001/ via @pressconnects

Guest Podcast Recorded with the folks from Firefighter Toolbox.  Listen in as David J Soler interviews Ryan Pennington on tips for fighting Hoarder Fires:

Show Notes:

Firefighter Toolbox.com


Hoarding has been becoming a growing concern in our communities.  How does this affect us  firefighters?  What does it matter?

Well, on this episode, I talk with Ryan Pennington, who has done a ton of research on the subject, and he tells us all about hoarding and how it affects us as firefighters and what we really need to know.  So many issues arise from hoarder fires and our tactics need to be adjusted because of the different dangers.  Get educated on them so you or your crews don’t get hurt.  This is something that can happen in any district.

This and  more.

Listen in Here

This article originally appeared in the January 2014 edition of Fire Magazine. To subscribe to the magazine visit http://www.pavpub.com/p-262-fire-magazine.aspx.

The hidden problem of hoarding

US Correspondent Catherine Levin reports on the growing problem of hoarding fires and what is being done to tackle the issue on both sides of the pond:

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="124"] Photo from http://www.fire-magazine.com/


There is a small park on the corner of 128th Street and 5th Avenue in Harlem, New York. It is on a fairly quiet residential street but not far from the hustle and bustle of 125th St, a major transport hub in northern Manhattan. The park marks the footprint of the house that until 1947 was the home to the Collyer brothers and bears their name. The park is dark, dank and unloved; and often under threat of being renamed. This is not a surprise considering what happened to Langley and Homer Collyer, who were found dead in their home amongst 130 tonnes of junk including, famously, 14 grand pianos and a model T Ford car.

Fast forward 66 years to the present day and you will still find firefighters in the US and in the UK entering homes stacked to the rafters and inhabited by those suffering from hoarding disorder. Back in 1947 it would not have been categorised as such and indeed it was only earlier this year that hoarding was defined as a mental health disorder by the American Psychiatric Association.

It is possible that the only reason anyone is interested in hoarding right now is because of the power of television. In the UK and in the US, reality TV shows about hoarders are popular and have given a wide audience to this hitherto hidden phenomenon. London Fire Brigade has worked with the TV presenter Jasmine Harman. It was her programme, ‘My Hoarder Mum and Me’, which brought the problems of hoarding to a wider audience on the BBC back in 2011. As a result London Fire Brigade has developed its own training and awareness package for operational staff.

Continue reading this article Here 

 

 

Here is a behind the scenes look at the ChamberofHoarders.com Learning Center.  Four hours of education of Hoarding and how we need to Identify, Adjust, and attack the overloaded buldings caused by Compulsive Hoarding Disorder.

 

Since the days of the Collier Brothers in Manhattan first responders have been

   


dealing with the affects of compulsive hoarding disorder.  The ChamberofHoarders.com is a website dedicated to teaching educating first responders on the needed changes to tactics and challenges they will face when entering the hoarding environment.  From bio-hazards during a medical response to a working structural fire hoarding offers dangers that can affect responders for years.

The mission of this website is to deliver actionable content that you can put to action immediately.  Starting with this post we would like to walk you through the causes, challenges, and solutions when dealing with the conditions caused by compulsive hoarding.  Over the next 52 weeks we will be posting fresh content that offers insight into the disorder and how to change  our operations to bring everyone home safe.

History of Compulsive Hoarding: Week 1

Compulsive Hoarding Disorder is defined as  the accumulation of and failure to discard a large amount of belongings that have no apparent value, the accumulation makes living spaces unusable, and causes significant distress on the occupant (Frost and Hartl 1996) This clinical definition describes the inability to discard belongings that eventually accumulate from floor level until, eventually, ceiling height.  Compulsive Hoarders receive positive feelings from the acquiring belongings and are unable to part with them because of the negative feelings they receive when parting with them.
This collection often is comprised of things that you and I would consider to have little value. Common items collected include:

•  Newspapers

 

• Magazines

 

• Books

 

• DVD’S

 

• CD’S

These items can differ in each case of hoarding, depending on the afflicted’s compulsion.

It’s believed that Compulsive Hoarding Disorder affects between 700,000 - 1 million people.  (Hoarding Handbook… Bratiotis,C, Steketee (2011) Many think that this number is lower than the actual number.  Many cases of hoarding go unreported as the affected person often feels ashamed or embarrassed by their disorder. They don’t want “discovered” or “exposed” and often stay hidden inside their homes without allowing anyone to enter, including family members. Not allowing visitors inside will often keep the conditions hidden until an emergency happens and we, the first responders, find the conditions as we make entry to solve the problem.

Dealing with surprise can be one of the biggest challenges to first responders. Imagine responding to a seemingly normal looking home, just to open the door and find a labyrinth of belongings that reach to the ceiling.  Most often the hoarding is discovered during a routine emergency medical call or fall assist. If you discover these conditions during one of these types of responses you need to start the pre-fire process in motion to establish a “Heavy Content” environment. Getting the information should be processed through your departments normal pre -fire planning process for constancy. Adding the plan to the normal collection of multi-family and high hazards buildings will make the plan available to the street level responders.

 

Having an understanding of the complexities associated with Compulsive Hoarding Disorder is required by the responders left to deal with the mess.  It is a complex disorder that is NOT A CHOICE.  We can not cast judgement or compare their living conditions with ours.  Remember in their eyes belongings are valuable and not just trash laying around.  Using a layer of compassion and understanding when dealing with the occupants will lead to a more successful outcome.  This care should be taken in non life threatening conditions to understand, explain, and support them.  Treating them like a beloved family member is a great method of supporting their emotional needs.

If you are mean spirited and use terms such as “trash house” or “hoarder” they can have severe reactions to yourself and crew, sometimes violent reactions. One example of this type of reaction occurred in Long Beach California as a code enforcement official showed up to a home to serve notice.  The occupant shot the code enforcement officer in the head.

“Code enforcement officers arrived at the home about 8 a.m. Thursday to serve an inspection warrant in response to hoarding complaints. When they arrived he fired at them, police said, hitting one of the code officers in the head.” source  La Times 

This illustration should help us all understand how strong the compulsion to protect their belongings is. How threatened do you think a person would have to be in order to shoot a code enforcement officer? We all should keep this illustration in mind as we respond to hoarding conditions to ensure we all come home safe.

 

Thanks for stopping by chamberofhoarders.com as we begin the year long journey of discovery…..

 

As always you can learn more about Hoarding in our online Learning Center… Click Here! 

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE)  A firefighter battling a Monday morning blaze at home in a

]

Picture from Wayne.com


northern Allen County subdivision fell through a floor, but was able to quickly return to his duties.

Firefighters were called to 10722 Windsor Woods Boulevard in the Windsor Woods subdivision located off Dupont Road just east of Lima Road at around 9:15 am after a neighbor called 911 after seeing smoke coming from the eaves.

Crews with the Fort Wayne Fire Department arrived a short time later and immediately went inside to look for occupants.  They found fire coming from the basement as well as the first and second floors.  However no one was inside the home.

According to Public Information Officer Stacey Fleming, firefighters efforts were hampered by the large amount of personal belongings and storage boxes inside the home.  Because of that, they moved outside to take a defensive stand.

 

Watch Video of Fire Here 

Case study Interview coming soon here on Chamber of Hoarders.com

Are the number of Hoarder Fires rising? As we research this question the evidence seems to point towards: Yes they are. Until we establish a definite way of recording data on the number of Hoarding Fires that are occuring, we rely on news stories from around the world to update us on the number of hoarder fires. They usually grab news attention due to the amount of firefighters required and the length of time it takes to manage these situations.

This post is to share some of the latest news stories from around the world about Hoarder Fires:

1. Elderly couple die in each others arms from Hoarder Fire. UK

 

1. Officials say Hoarding Fueled Glendale Arizona Mobile Home Fire

 

1. Portland Firefighters had to deal with large amounts of Clutter.

 

1. Faulty Lamp cause Fatal Hoarder Fire in St. Saviour, Jersey

 

1. Conditions made the fire hard to fight in Fatal Mass Fire

 

1. Body of Mich Hoarder found inside Mobile Home

 

1. College Park Hoarder Fire turns Fatal

These are some of the most recent news stories from around the world on Hoarder Fires.  A new feature here on the Chamber of Hoarders  will be a monthly update on the news stories reporting emergencies inside the hoarding envriornments.

 

Stay safe and always remember..... Hoarder Fires: Identify, Adjust, and ATTACK!!!

Hoarder Fire North Huntsville, Ala. (WHNT)– Firefighters are investigating a house fire on Kennan Road. At two o’clock Sunday afternoon the call came in that both smoke and flames were visible from the home. It took firefighters nearly an hour to get inside. The front entrance and the inside of the home were full of items, which blocked the entrance. Firefighters had to cut a hole in the outside wall of the home to get inside.

Read More Here

Listen in to our First Audio Blog:

Hoarder fires, often, do not become raging inferno's that threaten entire cities. Staying smaller longer is a trait often seen inside the hoarding environment.  Listen in as Ryan Pennington gives a quick thought to Hoarder Fires.

 

 

 
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One type of call that Fire, EMS, and Law Enforcement often respond to is the

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="229"] Ems response to Hoarding


“check the well being” of a occupant that has not made contact with family in a certain amount of time.  Being called to check the well being of a person inside hoarding conditions can turn into a major incident it the responders enter ill prepared.  Let’s take a look inside the hoarding environment to offer some insight for first responders tasked with going inside them looking for people that have not been communicating with their friends, family, or others.

Ensuring Occupancy

Before we go inside the hoarding environment, exposing ourselves to different dangers, we should take steps to determine if the person is still living there.  Often, in hoarding conditions an occupant can fill their home until it is no longer inhabitable and just move out, that simple.  If the home has become so full the occupant will often disconnect the utilities, whether their choice or the building inspectors choice, and move to a different location.

If the call comes in to check on an occupant and you arrive to find a potential Heavy Content Environment we should take some steps to find out if the home is still occupied.

• Have dispatch forward contact information to on scene responders for questioning


• Question neighbors


• Inspect utility meters


• Perform a 380 degree size up


• Look for access points (often NOT the front or back door)

Locating the Victim

Once the determination has been made that a person could be inside the hoarding it’s time

[caption id="attachment_883" align="alignright" width="200"] Hoarding


to go looking for them.   Understanding that hoarding can take over a home and prohibit occupants from sleeping in bedrooms or sitting in living room can help lead you to their locations.  If you understand this complication we may start searching for occupants in different locations.

Example: Searching for an occupant after dark, we may start our search in the living room instead of the bedroom.

The best way of making access to trapped occupants will be to find their primary entrance points.  If the home has filled the space around “normal” access points, such as doorways, they will often enter through windows or other means.  Finding these entrances will be the best place to start looking for a missing person.

Using the only access points will lead you to the “goat paths” throughout the home.   These pathways can lead directly to the occupant.  Warning: using these pathways EMS providers should start a search pattern when looking for occupants and try to keep the belongings in place.  Keeping the debris from falling can be a difficult task as the pathways can be so narrow.

One way of making your travel through the pathways less destructive is to leave your bags outside the environment until the patient has been discovered.  Without our bags across our shoulders it will reduce or profile and keep from knocking the stacks over.  First responders should carry a small bag or the basic CPR mask just in case of impending need of CPR or rescue breathing.  Keeping the bags outside the building will also reduce the need for decontaminating them as well.

EMS providers should use a coordinated search pattern to find the victims, much like firefighters would.  Collapsed belongings could easily hide patients. Utilizing a primary and secondary search can help offer the occupant a larger chance of survival

Primary: Traveling the pathways looking for occupants quickly and efficiently.  The primary search should be a quick and organized search. 

Secondary: Secondary searches should be a slower search where individual piles of collapsed belongings that seem out of place or different should be inspected for occupants.

Review

Hoarding can present many challenges to first responders in all three divisions.  Before entering a hoarded environment you should ensure the potential for occupancy and use an accurate size up to locate the victim.  Finding people that are missing inside the massive amounts of belongings can turn a “routine” check the well being call into a technical rescue inside a Haz-Mat situation.

Start preparing for the call you will receive, not might receive.  Hoarding is found in everyone’s district and it is an area that we need to review.  Use this quick article for some thought stirring discussion and review your department’s policies on entering private residence on check the well being calls.

Here is a sample of the Live Hoarder Fire evolution from Frontier Fire Company.....

 

From News10.net



SACRAMENTO, CA - A hoarder's home offered plenty of fuel when it went up in flames Wednesday night.

Neighbors said the woman who lives at the home on the 2000 block of 66th Avenue, off Florin Road, had made threats to set her house on fire previously. Police detained her in front of her burned out house, but it is still unclear what will happen to her.

The woman's pet dog didn't survive the fire.

When Sarah Urbina saw her neighbor's home on fire, she grabbed her garden hose and tried to help put out the flames. When she saw the woman who lives at the home outside, she asked her what happened.

"She was telling me that she was lighting a candle inside the garage 'cause she was cleaning it out," Urbina said

Chamber of Hoarders Learning points:

• Dealing with the occupant can be dangerous


• Hoarder Fire pose serious problems for the advancing Hose Teams


• Be aware of the need for Police intervention


• Protect the on scene personnel from dangers of interacting with occupants

 

Dealing with the challenges presented by compulsive hoarding disorder is assessing how bad the conditions are.  When families reach out for help with a family member the mental health professionals start the treatment process with an assessment of how severe the hoarding conditions are.  There are different hoarding assessment scales available to use when assessing the severity.  As first responders we need an common scale to use when hoarding conditions are discovered.  Using common terminology to describe the severity and danger will allow the dangers communicated effectively, accurately, and evenly.

Keep the assessment simple and straight forward is key during this process.  For that reason we recommend using the Institute for Challenging Disorganizations scale that rates all conditions on a 1-5 level.  Using this scale will allow the discovering agency to give a slight problem a one and the most severe a level 5.

As first responders this scale can be adjusted for the dangers we face.  This rating scale should be used by all first responders, utility workers, and anyone tasked with entering the environment to answer an emergency or service call.

Fire Service Hoarding Scale

Level 1: The start

•             Most of the homes that we see fires in seem to be at least a level 1 home.

•             With Level 1 you will not encounter large amounts of materials but may find normal clutter with some apparent signs of insects or rodents.

•             At a level 1 all doors, windows, and hallways will be accessible.

Level 2: Build Phase

•             In a Level 2 hoarder home the amount of overall clutter has begun to appear.

•             This is the point where you would consider the amount of belongings to be over and above a “Normal Level”.

•             Trash cans over flowing, one or more exits may be blocked, and housekeeping is at a minimal level.

•             At level 2 the piles of belongings may be at or above waste level.

•             Windows are starting to be unusable as the piles continue to get larger.

 

Level 3: Big Problems Begin

•             The amount of belongings has taken control of the house and making the rooms unusable for the occupants.

•             At Level 3, the amount of clutter becomes a serious hazard for firefighters.

•             The “Goat Paths” become the only access to the small areas of usable space.

•             At Level 3, the clutter may be visible from the exterior.

•             Noticing the windows and the level of belongings being above the lower sill, if not covered completely will be a prime cue or clue that a hoarder condition is present.

•             In a Level 3, the stairwells are mostly blocked with belongings.

•             Most Level 3 homes pathways are open to all rooms they are just narrowed down to a path.

Level 4: Beginning of the end

•             The beginning of the end of the useable areas of the hoarder home starts in level 4.

•             With most of the rooms at an “unusable” hoarded level the living space is reduced to small pockets of living area among 1 or 2 rooms.

•             The piles of belongings will be at ceiling level and all but most entrances will be inaccessible.

•             All windows will be covered, while the hoarder begins to find more ways of storing more belongings in these small spaces.

•             Attic spaces will be full; all cabinets will be full, even under the floor spaces may be used to amass the huge amounts of belongings a level 4 will collect.

 

Level 5: Uninhabitable

•             Unable to enter!

•             There is obvious structural damage to the home, broken walls, no utility service.

•             All rooms including the kitchen and bathrooms are unusable; the occupant is unable to stay in the residence.

 

This scale should be used in a pre-planning phase of operations.  It allows a common terminology and assessment scale to be shared between first responders.  Stay tuned for more assessment processes to share the discovery of Heavy Contents with all first responders.

When firefighters enter a burning building many different factors come into play.  One huge factor that can affect the outcome of the operation is the presence of increased amounts of belongings, caused by a person afflicted with compulsive hoarding disorder.  As their collection of stuff accumulates the danger in hoarding firefighting increases.

[caption id="attachment_882" align="alignright" width="180"] Firefighter Enter Hoarding


Over the past two years of reaching out to fire departments from around the world some common challenges kept coming up.  Inability to hit the seat of the fire, shielding from the heat , and difficulties in escape were top of the list.  This past weekend the chamber of hoarders had a unique opportunity to enter a “live fire” environment to experience these variables.

With the assistance of the Frontier Fire Company in Wheatfield New York a hoarding environment was set up and multiple scenarios were run.  The results were a confirmation of all the research collected. Each variable was looked at individually and together with great success.  It truly served as a reminder that hoarding changes our operations and if we are unwilling to adjust our operation it may not be successful.

Shielding from the Heat

With many safety measures in place the fire rotations started with a firefighter between the stacks of belongings with a thermal imager.  What we learned was a confirmation and an amazing result. While the other instructors took a beating from the heat in front of and behind the stacks of stuff the inside firefighters documented floor temperatures of 125 degrees with thermal imagining, shielded from the heat.

Documenting these temperatures was an unofficial, non- scientific example of the true dangers of the hoarding environment.  No monitors, measuring equipment, or recording devices were in place, just a group of firefighters with thermal imaging cameras watching something amazing.  The hoard shielded the firefighter from the heat.  It restricted the heat and pushed it past and around.  These results proved a multiple amount of points.

• Hoarding can give interior firefighters a false sense of environment


• Shielding can allow firefighters to push further inside without experiencing the normal heat levels


• Stacks of stuff can trap firefighters


• Victims can have more survivable thermal temperatures when insulated with hoarding.

With the recent research on flow paths coming to light the need to adjust them for hoarding  firefighting was revealed inside the burn room in New York this past weekend. It reconfirmed the dangers of the insulation provided by the interior conditions.  This insulation can hide the hidden heat and dangers until it’s too late.  Most firefighters advance into burning buildings using their senses to determine how far and deep they are to go.  In hoarding conditions they may keep pushing unaware of the hidden dangers waiting for them. Dangers that could present themselves in the form of rollover, flashover, or backdraft, trapping the firefighters because they don’t have secondary means of egress.

[caption id="attachment_883" align="alignright" width="120"] Hoarding Firefighting


 Conclusion

Confirmation that the shielding is real was not a surprising result.  This weekend just reconfirmed what we have been learning from survival stories from around the world.  Hoarding conditions can act as an insulator keeping high temperatures away from the victim or firefighter in the middle.  We need to educate firefighters to be aware that this shielding can lead to poor judgment to just how far we should push.

Identify, adjust, and attack when Hoarding is discovered!!!!!!!

 FDIC Flow Path Video.