AS WE PULLED OUT OF THE firehouse at 0700 hours, the dispatcher informed us that numerous phone calls were coming in for a fire in a store. We tried to picture the street in our minds: There were many older "taxpayers" (a one- or two-story building housing anywhere from one to many stores; the second floor could be office, retail, or apartments, and normally the building has a large, undivided common cockloft/attic space) at the location. A quick verbal reminder to the crew in the back to open up all the roll-down gates on our arrival was answered with "Got it!" Remember, when you pull up to a storefront with all of its roll-down gates pulled down and secured, you may have difficulty locating the fire because of the smoke issuing from many of its occupancies (this also goes for a taxpayer fire with no gates). It may also be difficult to locate the store's main entrance door and perform horizontal ventilation, and it will take a few saws to speed up the forcible entry process.
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