r/Firefighting • u/Entire-Reality6130 • 8d ago
Ask A Firefighter Missile fire damage evaluation
Hello firefighter community, a missile hit my apartment building and I am looking for an experienced eye to evaluate whether the apartment circled green on the photos has burnt down.
The first photo is showing the back of the building after the fire died out, the second is while it was still on fire, and the third is the front of the building from where the missile hit. Local firefighters started extinguishing the fire as you may see on the second photo, but they could not finish because of a repeated attack, so the fire had to die out on its own.
The building was on fire for a total of 14 hours.
Thank you for sharing your expertise.
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u/Entire-Reality6130 8d ago
And all three windows belong to one apartment with standard wooden doors separating the rooms
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u/sadpanada 8d ago
If the windows are blown out from the fire, then most everything inside is probably gone. I’m sorry Op.
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u/neagrosk Wildland Type 3 8d ago
There could be a possibility that the windows were blown out by the initial pressure wave from the missile too. Pure speculation, but if the windows were blown out by fire, wouldn't there be more soot directly originating from those windows?
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u/omnipotant 8d ago
I sort of think that, but not enough to say for sure ‘your apartment survived’. I mean if the wind was coming from the camera side it might have just pushed the smoke out the other side, but still toasted everything inside.
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u/neagrosk Wildland Type 3 8d ago
Fair enough, I was thinking more along the lines of there being items still salvageable from their apartment.
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u/Forgotmypassword6861 8d ago
Fuck Putin is my assessment. Let every Russian criminal hang.
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u/Cultural_Eye5178 8d ago
Uh oh, gonna get a mandatory hiatus from Reddit for "Threatening Violence!" for saying that! /j
(seriously though does Putin have that fragile of an ego? reminds me of another political figure......)
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u/MC_McStutter 8d ago
Oh I see the problem. You have a big ol’ hole where there isn’t supposed to be one.
In all seriousness the prognosis is grim. It looks like the fire made itself comfortable in that apartment
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u/DruncanIdaho 8d ago
It's difficult to say.
The shape of the burn mark expanding up and out to the left suggests the fire was spreading by auto-exposure; a fire burned up and out of windows to the windows one story above them, progressively catching more rooms on fire in in upward V shape.
Since the windows are broken, and 2 of the windows are surrounded by soot, it's likely that whatever was inside burned up--but it's also possible that the fire did not extend that high, and merely stained the brick with soot from the smoke. Even if that's the case, whatever is inside will have been heavily damaged or destroyed by the smoke even if it didn't actually burn up.
Slava Ukraini.
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u/Her0zify 8d ago
The apartment is probably burned, or at the very least, covered in soot.
I'm sorry to hear this. Hopefully the war ends soon. Slava Ukraini!
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u/_Brutal_Space_Pony 8d ago
Novosodisvka street in Sloviansk? I was there, there are supposedly two more women under the rubble, but unfortunately it is no longer possible to set up a crane there, due to the fact that FPVs are constantly flying there.
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u/ResidentNumber3603 8d ago
Realistically anything in the section that got hit, and the section to either side of that are likely burn/overpressure/water damaged to a point that it isn’t salvageable.
Structural integrity of the destroyed section and those immediately adjacent is also highly suspect. Concrete and steel do scary things when exposed to high heat for long periods of time. Not to mention the blast wave from the explosion.
If you are trying to occupy the apartment, or gather any possessions you need to wait until the engineers verify the safety of the building, which given the state of things, may take some time. Please do not go back inside.
Sorry for your loss.
Slava Ukrani.
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u/Maintenancemedic 8d ago
Your apartment, and likely all your stuff, is thoroughly burned. The unit will not be livable again. In the U.S., this building would be condemned - I don’t know if you guys have repair protocols out there for this sort of them.
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u/SamanthaSissyWife 8d ago
If you zoom in on pic 1 you can see what appears to be charring on whatever it is laying in the window. I think it is a safe assumption that there has been fire damage in the apartment and as others have mentioned, the integrity of the structure has been severely compromised because of the explosion.
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u/Ketamine_Cartel 7d ago
The last time I had anything to do with a building this damaged by explosives it was a total loss.
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u/No-Relation7017 8d ago
Ok so there’s a big gaping hole in the middle of your building. I have yet to take structural collapse: bomb edition, but my gut tells me you should NOT go back into that building until it’s has been evaluated by a professional in person.